Want to use Gmail? Agree to get your mails scanned

Google has updated its terms of service, informing users that their incoming and outgoing emails are automatically analyzed by software to create targeted ads.

Google Inc updated its terms of service on Monday, informing users that their incoming and outgoing emails are automatically analyzed by software to create targeted ads. 

The revisions more explicitly spell out the manner in which Google software scans users' emails, both when messages are stored on Google's servers and when they are in transit, a controversial practice that has been at the heart of litigation. 

Last month, a US judge decided not to combine several lawsuits that accused Google of violating the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of email users into a single class action. 

Users of Google's Gmail email service have accused the company of violating federal and state privacy and wiretapping laws by scanning their messages so it could compile secret profiles and target advertising. Google has argued that users implicitly consented to its activity, recognizing it as part of the email delivery process. 

Google spokesman Matt Kallman said in a statement that the changes "will give people even greater clarity and are based on feedback we've received over the last few months." 

Google's updated terms of service added a paragraph stating that "our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored."

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Asus Fonepad Dual Sim launched at Rs 12,999

Asus has launched its new dual-sim, voice calling enabled tablet, Fonepad 7 Dual Sim in the Indian market at a price of Rs 12,999.

NEW DELHI: Asus has launched its new dual-sim, voice calling enabled tablet, Fonepad 7 Dual Sim in the Indian market at a price of Rs 12,999. The tablet was first unveiled during the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, earlier this year. 

The tablet sports a 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280x800pixels. Fonepad 7 Dual Sim is powered by a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 dual-core processor(Clover Trail Plus) and 1GB RAM. The tablet comes with 8GB internal storage expandable up to 64GB via microSD card. It runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. 

Fonepad 7 Dual Sim sports a 5MP rear camera and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. The tablet supports voice calling and 3G connectivity. It has a 3910mAh battery promising a battery life of 10 hours. 

In terms of connectivity options, the tablet supports GPS, Wi-Fi, Miracast and Bluetooth. It weighs 340gram and measures 199.5x120.8x11.35mm. 

Asus also offers the single-sim Fonepad 7 tablet, which was launched in October 2013 at Rs 17,499. The tablet is powered by a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor alongside 1GB of RAM and sports the same 7-inch 1280x800p display. 

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Microsoft's Cortana vs Google Now vs Apple's Siri

Thanks for asking, Cortana.And thanks for making the Windows phone software better, Microsoft.

NEW YORK : "Yay, it's Nick! How can I help?"

Thanks for asking, Cortana. And thanks for making the Windows phone software better, Microsoft.

With the new Cortana virtual assistant, Windows catches up with Apple's iOS and Google's Android in a major way. Microsoft takes some of the best parts of Apple's and Google's virtual assistants and adds a few useful tools of its own. The result is Cortana, named after an artificial-intelligence character in Microsoft's "Halo" video games.

The new Windows system, Windows Phone 8.1, has several other new features, which I'll review separately Tuesday.

The update, including Cortana, will come with new phones starting next month, while existing phones will be able to download it for free in the coming months. On Monday, Microsoft is making a preview version available to software developers. I was able to test that version over the past week.

Apple's Siri virtual assistant on iPhones and iPads has a feisty personality. She has good comebacks for such questions as, "What is the meaning of life?" She's also helpful with directions, restaurant recommendations and appointment reminders. Google Now on Android phones is boring by comparison, but it's better at anticipating your needs and giving you information before you even ask.

Cortana combines Siri's personality with Google Now's knack for anticipation.

Cortana also incorporates a feature for blocking calls, texts and notifications during times of your choosing, while letting you set exceptions for specific people or emergencies (defined as someone trying to call again within three minutes). That feature is separate on iPhones and Samsung's Android phones. Cortana will also identify the name of songs heard in a retail store or bar, while you need separate apps such as SoundHound or Shazam on other phones.

Other differences include:

- Cortana asks rather than assumes.

When you first use Cortana, she guides you through a brief questionnaire to gauge your interests. You can tap an icon on the top right to pull down a notebook and change your preferences.

Cortana also offers to scan your email for flights and other events to remind you about. Unlike Google Now, Cortana asks whether you'd like that flight tracked. Google Now does that automatically and erroneously picks up itineraries that your travel companions send you. Also, Google Now works only with Gmail, while Cortana works with all major services except Yahoo, which Microsoft says it couldn't track because of Yahoo's terms of service.

Although Cortana avoids mistakes by asking, she requires slightly more work on your part. After asking Cortana about the latest Mets game, I had to tap a link to get future updates automatically. I didn't have to do anything with Google Now. But Google Now also assumes that just because I search for a company once, I want its stock quote every day.

- Cortana lets you ask follow-up questions.

After asking Cortana for Mexican restaurants, I asked for ones that are open and got my list narrowed. I then asked for the ones that are good. Cortana responded with the Mexican restaurants that are both open and have at least four stars on Yelp.

Siri and Google Now tend to treat each request as new, though both will let you make reservations through OpenTable. Cortana tells you only that a place takes reservations.

- Cortana offers more ways to set reminders.

Like Siri and Google Now, Cortana lets you set reminders based on the time. Like Google Now, Cortana also lets you set reminders based on location. When you arrive at work, for instance, she can remind you to mail a package.

Unlike the others, Cortana also lets you set people-based reminders. Let's say your friend Mary just had a baby. You can ask Cortana to remind you to mention that the next time you call, text or email Mary.

Some of the interactions got frustrating until I manually added my work and home addresses to Cortana's notebook.

Me: "Remind me to turn off the stove when I get home."

Cortana: "All right, where should I remind you?"

Me: "Home."

Cortana: "OK, what should I remind you about?"

Me: "Turn off the stove."

Cortana: "When would you like to be reminded?"

Me: "When I get home."

Cortana: "Sure, remind you when you get to home. Is this the one you want?"

The suggestion wasn't for my home but "Home Restaurant."

Microsoft says Cortana will figure out where you work and live over time.

Cortana is still in a "beta" test mode, so these kinks are to be expected.

Cortana is fine for basic queries, though sometimes you have to ask a few times. In requesting directions, I sometimes get a simple Web search for my destination address. But repeating the address then gets me actual step-by-step directions.

I asked all three virtual assistants on Friday whether I needed an umbrella. Siri and Google Now both told me I didn't, based on the fact that it wasn't raining. Cortana answered, "I'm not entirely certain." All three then presented a forecast.

By Sunday, Cortana seemed to have figured out I didn't need an umbrella. But I asked the same question 10 minutes later and got Web results for "Do I need an umbrella?"

Both Siri and Google gave me movie times when I asked, "When is 'Frozen' showing?" Clicking on a time took me to a ticketing service. Cortana simply conducted a Web search.

Cortana warns me of conflicts when adding a calendar event, but the warning comes after the fact as a "by the way." Siri warns me ahead of time, while Google Now offers no warning at all.

Ask Cortana to "tell me a joke," and she tries to text "a joke" to my cellphone, or "Me" in the address book. Cortana also won't compose email. Siri and Google Now do both email and texts.

These are all small points that I'm sure Microsoft will address over time. The company plans to keep Cortana in beta and limited to the U.S. until the second half of the year, when the assistant will also debut in the UK and China.

Perhaps by then, Microsoft will offer a male voice, the way Apple now does with Siri.

In the meantime, enjoy interacting with Cortana. You can ask her to sing a song.

Cortana's improvements over Siri and Google Now aren't enough to compel a switch from an iPhone or Android phone, but Cortana does address an omission in Windows Phone for those already thinking of getting one
.

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Samsung says branding, not theft, pushed sales

Apple has argued that Samsung became a world leader in the mobile handset business by copying features on its iPhones and iPads. 

Becoming the world leader in the mobile handset market was no easy task. Or at least that was the point Samsung tried to make Monday in its patent trial against Apple. 

In the trial, being heard in a San Jose, California, courtroom, Apple has argued that Samsung became a world leader in the mobile handset business by copying features on its iPhones and iPads, violating patents along the way. On Monday, Samsung called one of the company's top marketing executives to the stand to argue that strong marketing was the major driver of sales. 

Todd Pendleton, the chief marketing officer for Samsung's US division, testified that when he joined Samsung in 2011, he was not even aware the company made smartphones. And that, he said, demonstrated that the company had a branding problem. 

"I think people knew Samsung for televisions," Pendleton said. "But in terms of smartphones, there was no recognition for what our product was or what it stood for." 

Samsung already had a better phone than Apple, Pendleton argued, but people just didn't know about it. At the time, Samsung was No. 4 in the market, behind Apple, HTC and BlackBerry. Pendleton said he had to build a marketing plan from scratch. He said he decided to build a brand around the idea that Samsung would stand for "relentless innovation" by shipping the best hardware on the market before anyone else. 

Eventually Samsung began a marketing campaign called the Next Big Thing, which aggressively mocked the iPhone while promoting Samsung devices as the best on the market. 

Samsung's phone sales grew quickly. In 2012, sales of Samsung's Galaxy S III surpassed those of the iPhone for a short period, making it the world's best-selling smartphone. 

When asked whether Samsung plotted to surpass Apple, Pendleton said: "Our goals at Samsung are always to be No. 1 at everything we do. To beat everyone." 

Earlier in the trial, which started two weeks ago, Apple presented evidence that suggested Apple in particular was in Samsung's cross hairs. Apple's lawyers presented a memo written by Dale Sohn, a former Samsung executive in charge of its phone business, that said: "Beating Apple is no longer merely an objective. It is our survival strategy." 

When Apple's lawyers questioned Pendleton, they showed an email written by Sohn in 2012 about the company's attack plan against the iPhone 5. 

"There will be a Tsunami when iPhone 5 is coming," the email read, and Samsung needed to find a way to counter. 

Pendleton acknowledged that Samsung had a specific plan during the release of the iPhone 5. Typically when iPhones are released, he said, sales of Samsung's phones dip, and the company was trying to prevent that dip. 

In the lawsuit, Apple is seeking about $2 billion in damages from Samsung for what it considers patent violations. Samsung, meanwhile, contends Apple has violated two of its patents. 

This is the second big patent trial between the companies. But unlike the earlier one, which Samsung lost, both sides have relied more on storytelling, rather than the actual details of the patents, to sway the jury. 

Several main witnesses in this trial, including Pendleton, Sohn and Philip W Schiller, Apple's marketing chief, have all acknowledged that they know very little, if anything, about the patents being disputed. Rather, the companies have been leaning on these executives to paint the broad strokes: Apple wants to show how hard the iPhone was to develop before Samsung copied it, while Samsung wants the jury to recognize that catching up to Apple was hard work and that it had to innovate a lot on its own. 

Throughout the trial, Apple's lawyers have insisted that the fight is about getting money from Samsung, which is based in South Korea, to discourage it from copying. But Samsung's lawyers have said Apple's real goal was more broad: to eliminate competition for the iPhone by attacking Google's Android system, which runs on more than 1 billion devices on the market. 

While Google is not a defendant in this case, Samsung's phones include Android, and some of the Apple patents in this trial involve features that Google put in Android. 

So Samsung has used Google as a shield, calling several Google employees as witnesses throughout this trial. For instance, on Monday, it called Paul Westbrook, a Google software engineer, as a witness to explain how Google's data syncing for email worked — to defend itself against Apple's accusation that Samsung infringed a patent on data syncing. 

But Apple's lawyers are not humoring any arguments from Google. They have repeatedly stressed to the jury that Google is not a defendant in this case and that Samsung is the one that gets to decide what software it loads on its phones before selling them. 

"This case is about smartphones and tablets that Samsung makes and sells in the United States, right?" Rachel Krevans, a lawyer representing Apple, said while questioning Westbrook. "Samsung made the choice what code to put on them, right?" 

Westbrook replied, "Um, sure," and Krevans soon after wrapped up her questioning
.

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Amazon to unveil 3D smartphone in June: WSJ

According to WSJ, this smartphone will have four front-facing cameras that will track the user’s retina to “make some images appear in 3D, similar to a hologram.”

NEW DELHI: Amazon is reportedly working on a smartphone that will render 3D images on the screen without the need of any special glasses. According to sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal, this smartphone will have four front-facing cameras that will track the user's retina to "make some images appear in 3D, similar to a hologram." 

The eye-tracking technology will monitor whether the user has moved closer to the screen and automatically zoom into images. It may also "manipulate text and images as a person moves the phone," the report says. 

According to people who have used the smartphone, this technology "would be ideal for gaming." The smartphone's software would also be customized to support "very visual games" and designed to render a sense of depth on the flat screen. 

The report says, "Amazon has been inviting select app and software developers to hotels to demonstrate the handset in suites protected by security guards, two people familiar with the matter said." 

It is not clear which operating system Amazon will use to power its first smartphone. The company uses Google's free Android OS in its Kindle Fire range of tablets as well as the newly-unveiled Fire TV set-top box. However, these devices feature a highly customized version of the operating system, with no access to Google's Play Store for apps. Instead, Amazon has its own app marketplace, which has 200,000 apps at present. The same model may be applied with the smartphone as well. 

Amazon is said to be in talks with two display makers, include Apple supplier Japan Display, to produce the screen of the smartphone. The handset is also expected to go into mass production later in April, with an initial order of 600,000 units. 

The smartphone will be unveiled in June this year and hit the market in September, in time for the holiday shopping season in the US. Apple is also expected to announce the next-generation iPhone, which is likely to feature a much bigger screen than current models, in September. 

The pricing and design of the first Amazon smartphone remain unclear and the report says that the company may change launch plans over "performance and other concerns." 

Amazon sells its hardware at cost, making no profit from the sale of the device itself. Instead, it earns by selling content, such as games, videos and apps, to buyers from its app marketplace. 

Considering smartphones are carried everywhere by users, Amazon stands to gain a lot of personal data if its smartphone is a hit. This data, including location as well as download trends, can be harnessed to customize sale opportunities for content the company sells via its devices. It may also help Amazon foray into the field of mobile payments, which is still in nascent stages and not yet kicked off anywhere in the world. 

However, smartphone makers face an uphill task in saturated markets like the US or Europe, which are dominated by Apple's iPhones and Samsung's Galaxy range of smartphones
.

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InMobi, KPMG, Godrej & others are redesigning appraisals

Traditional processes are in a makeover mode as organisations such as InMobi, Godrej Industries, KPMG and the RPG Group revamp and redesign their existing performance appraisal systems to make them more transparent, more inclusive and more agile.

Over the past year, these companies, among others, have been overhauling their appraisal processes, looking to drive better performance and engagement among employees.

Mobile network firm InMobi opted for changes when it started feeling that the quarterly reviews just weren’t doing enough. “What are individuals passionate about? What will give them that 10x multiplier? Those conversations just weren’t happening,” said Monisha Tambay, vice president, HR, at InMobi.

So, appraisal templates were done away with and meaningful conversations were encouraged instead, with an annual meeting to streamline them all. For every employee in a nonsales function, InMobi converted the variable pay to fixed pay to do away with the carrot-and-stick approach.

Employees discussed their aspirations and ‘big opportunity’ goals with their managers, and were encouraged to become the drivers of their own growth and development. At the end of the year, each manager had to deliver a one-page report on the employee that encompassed everything from their contribution to areas that didn’t work well and the manager’s growth plan for the individual.

“Excitement levels have gone up, employees know the organisation is genuinely invested in their development. People are energised, they are driving the development agenda themselves,” says Tambay. “It’s driving a behavioural change, a culture change.”

A Gallup analysis of more than 50,000 Indian employees working in 10 major industry sectors in 22 global companies shows more than half of the employees (54%) feel that their company’s performance management system (PMS) is not effective. According to them, an effective performance management system starts with a thorough goal-setting process, followed by regular feedback and reviews/appraisals. It also identifies employees’ developmental needs, includes robust reward and recognition practices and encourages collaboration, teamwork and communication.

“Given that negative perception about performance appraisal process can breed demotivation, feelings of anguish and frustration that can ultimately impact performance, companies are trying to change the way performance appraisals are done. While the process itself is important in the PMS, the human element is the most important component in whether the employees perceive the system as effective or not,” says Paresh Rajgarhia, senior consultant, Gallup India.

Employee expectations have changed and today’s performance management needs to be more developmental, coaching-based and agile. In line with that, organisations now expect managers to provide guidance, balanced constructive feedback at regular intervals and outline a vision plan for the employee.

Not surprisingly, organisations are spending time training both managers and employees on having these performance-related conversations. KPMG, for instance, has come up with a training module called ‘having difficult conversations’ for its performance managers.

“Vague phrases like ‘your performance is not up-to-themark’ don’t work. You need to give granular feedback, define the benchmark,” says Shalini Pillay, head (people), performance and culture, KPMG in India. The company, which follows a 5-point ratings system, with 1 being the highest, has introduced a performance improvement plan for those getting a 4 rating.

Another change at KPMG has been in the performance tool itself. Called MyPD, it has been launched globally and provides for a lot more qualitative feedback. For a particular business or team, it links goals and priorities to targets and cascades them to different levels. “The new system also allows spontaneous feedback throughout the year as opposed to HR-driven checkpoints from both performance and engagement managers as well as colleagues on particular projects,” says Pillay, who is in the process of relaunching a 360-degree feedback in the coming year.

In some organisations, the most critical changes are happening at the senior leadership level. Last year, Godrej Industries introduced the People Asset Scorecard, applicable to all Godrej Leadership Forum ( GLF) members, who are vice-presidents and above across businesses.

It is designed to measure how well each leader is managing people processes applicable to his or her team.

“We use a 5-point scale. Ensuring base levels are met on people processes counts as a 3. You become eligible to be rated a 4 or a 5 if you play a larger and more active role in building the talent pipeline or as a brand ambassador for Godrej,” explains Sumit Mitra, head – group HR and corporate services, Godrej Industries and Associate Companies.

“When people down the order see senior leaders take a lot more interest in the overall process, it has a trickle-down effect in terms of overall engagement. We plan to cascade it down one level in the coming year,” says Mitra.

The RPG Group last year introduced a system when the company goals become the goals of the MD/CEO and his means to achieve the goals become the goals of his next level.

The system advises employees to have a minimum of five and a maximum of seven goals with the weightage of each at a minimum of 10 and maximum of 40 out of 100. One goal must be on people development. The idea is to have clear focussed goals and adequate weightage in each goal.

HCL, on its part, has substantially differentiated in the distribution of the reward by staggering the quantum and the timing of reward. This aims at bringing about greater ownership among employees to know their goals, define performance standards and strive higher. Based on periodic feedback, HCL works with individuals rated lower in performance in shaping a development and improvement plan over the next performance period.

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Zomato serves it hot with fresh new hiring methods

Online food and restaurants listings start-up Zomato is moving beyond traditional hiring techniques as it looks to double its employee strength in the coming year and expand its global footprint across the Americas, Europe, South-East Asia and Australia.

From tapping social media to launching trial weeks and leadership programmes, Zomato is trying it all to zero in on the right talent.

Zomato currently employs over 650 people across geographies. “Over a period of time, we came to realise that sometimes, to find the right talent, you need to use some slightly non-traditional means of hiring,” says Pankaj Chaddah, co-founder and COO, Zomato.

Hiring for its engineering team used to be one of the toughest tasks, says Chaddah. Finding that an interview wasn’t the best way to gauge a person’s tech skills and abilities, the start-up launched Trial Week in December 2013.

From the 700-plus applications they received, a handful of candidates — including the likes of home-schooler Vajresh Balaji from Tamil Nadu, the name behind non-profit organisation Project DigiKnowledge — were shortlisted to spend an all-expenses-paid week with the Delhi engineering team, working on live projects. At the end of it, full-time positions were offered to the brightest performers who fit in the best.

Faced with the challenge of finding people to take up leadership positions as they scale up operations, Zomato has also launched the leadership program to identify people who have run their own entrepreneurial venture and have the skillsets to lead a business from scratch. Some of the people identified through this are now in key roles at Zomato.

Other hiring routes include referrals, building an effective network on social media channels, and word of mouth. “We use social media a lot to spread the word that we’re hiring. Job portals often work well when hiring large teams. LinkedIn and Facebook have been great for us in terms of connecting with the right people, and engaging in dialogue that inspires them to make bold careers moves,” says Chaddah.

Chaddah says that while Zomato offers competitive packages, it has also been able to offer exceptional growth, learning and a great environment to work in. “We value talent a lot and currently over 15% of our team has ESOPs, which is very high considering we doubled the team strength over the past 12 months. We give ESOPs to new hires at senior levels and to people who have performed exceptionally over time as we want them to stay in the family for the lifetime,” he says.

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SMI Advertisement

By,

Maruthupandian B.E.,MBA

SMI B-school.

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Crowdsourcing your way to talent management

Over 85% of the organisations confirmed using crowdsourcing for various operations, including recruitment and engagement. 

By Savneet Shergill

The Internet today has digitized humanity and how! People the world over now engage with their colleagues, friends and loved ones through the magic world of Social Media. While Facebook gives them the power to be engaged in ‘real time’, LinkedIn brings together like-minded individuals via common connections thereby leveraging both personal and professional relationships.

Furthermore, Twitter has emerged as a platform for netizens, to question thought leaders across the globe with a simple tweet. This social buzz has caused a paradigm shift in the way brands communicate and has taken organizations a step closer to their valuable customers by personalizing conversations. Today, millennials have accepted the internet as a means of day-to-day communication. Finding the right kind of people that fit perfectly with the culture of an organization can be a challenging task but here is where the World Wide Web steps in and opens up a whole new avenue of opportunity.

Say hello to crowdsourcing! Crowdsourcing can help organizations build, engage and foster communities that can be utilized effectively for branding and recruiting. Crowdsourcing can be described as the process by which a company outsources a task once performed by employees, to a network of people in the form of an open invitation. A good analogy will be the internet and how vast its user network is. With millions of people operating out of different time zones, cultures, platforms and devices, could there be a way to marshal these resources of collective intelligence in a systematic way to accomplish specific business goals? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’.

With crowdsourcing one gets access to a pool of global resources that can help generate solutions overnight, literally. A simple example of crowdsourcing is Employee Referral Programs, a process carried out effectively by most organizations. Very often organizations have a few positions to close and send out information to employees asking them to help in the recruiting process. When an appropriate candidate gets selected, the employees are rewarded. Thereby it’s a win-win situation for both the companies who’ve found talent as well as the employees who enjoy the rewards.

Now, imagine opening up this particular concept to the external world. Think about the kind of possibilities that it could create, the impact of collective networking of employees and the kind of reach it gives organizations. However, one must be careful in terms of strategizing the kind of tasks, systems or processes to be outsourced. Meticulous planning and crafting of attainable objectives while carefully defining deliverables are imperative. One should also remember that crowdsourcing is not a replacement but a useful and additional resource to traditional methods. Building, aligning and infusing attractive incentives into the crowd sourcing strategy will ensure a win: win situation.

While crowdsourcing any task or process, one must make sure that clear and concise instructions are provided upfront. The following principles could be kept in mind; firstly, one needs to make sure that the brief is concise enough for the crowd so that the reader’s time is not wasted. Secondly, one must be prepared at all times to provide feedback at regular intervals.

Also, when trying out ideas, one must make sure that the approach being used is right. Just because a particular campaign was crowdsourced successfully there is no guarantee that the same will work for other campaigns. When it comes to data and tracking, one should focus on numbers that matter in the given context and not get caught up with unnecessary metrics. Lastly, one needs to make sure that the reward being offered is inspiring enough for people to participate. Remember, in their motivation lies your success!

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Want to excel in cloud computing? Get these skills

Large number of companies are deploying cloud-based services and promise to recruit relevant talent

Cloud computing is an important business tool in most IT services companies. A lot of organisations are either using their internal talent to deploy cloud-based activities or outsourcing the same to a third party – but either way these companies have started to realise the real need of implementing cloud-based services for different functions.

As a result of implementing cloud-based services, organisations are also going to face a sea change in the overall business performance. In fact, a large number of companies have been witnessing a change in their way of working over the past couple of years, after implement this tool.

Keeping this in mind, organisations are now concerned about hiring people with relevant skill sets to man their cloud computing services. They want specialists and not generalists to handle these services. While they are ready to hire people with a general know-how of cloud-based technologies, they expect these employees to come up to speed with advanced cloud-based technologies as soon as possible.

Besides the core technical skill sets required to service cloud computing, there are few other complementary skills that the companies are giving equal attention to – such as a thorough understanding of the business processes, ability to analyse business needs, project management skills, negotiation skills, application development skills, etc. According to industry experts organisations will continue to seek fresh talent with cloud computing skills over the next 5-10 years.

According to leading international tech website, the top 10 skills that companies are eyeing currently for cloud specialists are – Linux OS, SaaS Programming, Python, Perl, DevOps, and Ruby among others. These skills can be acquired in several ways. Existing set of employees can gain appropriate knowledge while working and also get cloud certifications from globally recognised institutes.

Having proper validation of cloud computing knowledge is critical for everyone who is involved in the cloud-based services. The reason why companies lay focus on cloud certification is because it allows them to measure an individual’s knowledge and skills against industry benchmarks.

Based on the validation, some of the roles which are most in demand are IT specialist, security specialist, process specialist, computer operators, etc. According to one of the experts featured in a Techgig.com webinar, since cloud adoption is still in a early phase, there are a lot of vacant positions in IT services companies and that it’s a good sign for all the job seekers. JobBuzz.com data indicates that Data Analyst is one of the highest paid profiles in the IT industry.

According to Techgig.com some of the current job openings across all experience levels are application developer, senior engineer– cloud services, cloud project manager, cloud and infrastructure architect, lead architect, cloud systems consultant, etc.

Studies done by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) suggest that the overall employment generation by the IT sector would increase from about 1.4 million in 2012 to about 4.1 million in 2022.

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RBI panel seeks new tool to fix rates

NEW DELHI: A Reserve Bank of India appointed panel has backed sweeping changes in the way bank fix interest rates and end the discrimination of old customers, moves that will come as a big relief to millions of borrowers groaning under the weight of rising EMIs.

In its draft report, the committee headed by former deputy governor Anand Sinha has acknowledged that central bank's moves to usher in transparency and fairness in interest rate settings have not worked well. "These mainly relate to the downward stickiness of the interest rates, discriminatory treatment of old borrowers vis-a-vis new borrowers, and arbitrary changes in spreads, etc," the central bank said in a statement, while seeking public comments on the report.

The panel has suggested that a new tool for floating rate loans — Indian Banks Base Rate — should be fixed by the Indian Banks' Association, which can first be used for home loans. Further, it wants penalties on banks that hold back borrowers from transferring their loans and mortgages to other lenders.
Given the concerns, the panel has recommended that banks with a higher proportion of short-term deposits should link the base rate or the benchmark rate to the marginal cost of funds. This measures incremental cost incurred in raising additional funds which would typically be the prevailing interest rates.

For most Indian banks, a bulk of the deposits mature in one-two years and the change, if accepted by RBI, will have to be used by all banks unless their boards come up with an alternative formula that ensures that old borrowers are not discriminated against.

Banks have a base rate or a benchmark rate, which depends on the cost at which it raises funds, including deposits, and then adds other costs to arrive at the lending rate. The lending rate also includes a premium for risk, which means loans where the possibility of a default is higher, say in case of credit cards or personal loans, come at a higher rate. Similarly, borrowers who are seen to have a poorer risk profile are asked to pay higher rates.

With loan demand remaining weak, banks have reduced the spread over the base rate for new borrowers to offer them lower rates. As a result the older borrowers have been complaining of discrimination, saying often the benefits of RBI's rate reduction are not passed on to all borrowers.

Now, the RBI panel has recognized that and said that the banks can't change the spread for existing borrowers, unless they is seen to be riskier.

Similarly, it wants a fairer treatment for customers and has said that any pre-payment of EMI should be factored in on the day the payment is received instead of waiting for the next EMI cycle to begin.

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