Dec 27

Social networking and productivity

Posted in business, internet

Interesting report on social networking and productivity, loss of productivity by 12.5%

http://www.assocham.org/prels/shownews.php?id=2265

In the many non IT sectors like engineering, employees do not need internet access at work except for email, so it would have been better if the report had specified the industries covered.

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Dec 18

India’s biggest companies

Posted in business, government

India’s largest companies by turnover for Financial Year ending March 2009
(Amount in Rs crore)

Top 6
Indian Oil   – Rs 290,946 crore  – Oil and Gas
Reliance Industries  – Rs 153,128 crore  – Oil and Gas
Tata Steel   – Rs 147,595 crore  – Steel
BPCL   – Rs 137,993 crore  – Oil and Gas
HPCL   – Rs 129,979 crore  – Oil and Gas
State Bank of India   – Rs 113093 crore  – Banking

Others of interest
11 NTPC – Rs 47,647 crore  – Power generation
13 Larsen & Toubro – Rs 41,055 crore  – Capital goods
Tata Consultancy Services – Rs 27,386 crore  – Infotech
Infosys – Rs 22,166 crore  – Infotech
Bharti Airtel – Rs 37,504 crore  – Telecom
Hindustan Unilever – Rs 16,848 crore  – FMCG

Approximate figures (from Outlook issue referenced in an earlier post)
Bennett Coleman & Company (Times of India group) – nearly Rs 5000 crore
Dainik Bhaskar Group (Publisher of Dainik Bhaskar, the largest circulated daily and DNA) – Rs 1400 crore

Having worked in Larsen & Toubro  as a project engineer for 5+ years (mainly for the experience as I do not want to do a job ever again in my life) and with many of these big companies as customers while working as a project engineer, some general observations:

  • Have very good systems in place
  • Except the software and banking companies, they do not have too many employees, but have investments of thousands of crores in machinery and infrastructure
  • Difficult to displace these companies in terms of turnover due to the investment made.

For employees,
Plus points
you work with experienced people and learn from them, so you make fewer mistakes
Very professional work environment, with little blatant discrimination on the basis of gender
Handle high value projects valued in crores, monitor profits closely, manage risk
You get very good exposure to people from different social and economic backgrounds, treat them fairly, do not discriminate because they are not your “friends”
Secure job, all payments, including dues made on time
Learn to deal with customers and vendors , both good and bad.
Decisions are made on the basis of facts and numbers, not gossip and false rumors.
Transparency – you could ask customers and vendors anything and get an answer and vice versa.

Negatives
salary is average
growth is slow (one promotion every three years)
little flexibility

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Dec 16

ISP selling Internet surfing history

Posted in business, cyberlaw, internet, media

Interesting information on how ISPs selling the surfing history of their consumers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040304052.html

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2007/03/your-isp-may-be-selling-your-web-clicks.ars

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/03/does_your_isp_s/

In USA, an ISP makes $5 per month per user.  Recently  I have received emails and other information related to the websites I surf.  I wonder what the going rate every month is for my surfing habits.  Some alternatives to get rid of this problem is to use encryption or get your own ISP.

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Dec 16

Journalism for sale

Posted in business, media

From http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263241

Indian media doesn’t do introspection. We recommend it to others—MPs, political parties, militants, judges, scientists…. They are all advised to look deep inside their own trade and clean up the rot. Meanwhile, the rot creeping into the fourth estate is studiously ignored or airbrushed, usually by organising a “studio discussion” in which the citizen is asked: Does the media need to be accountable? Discussion over. Issue over. Fortunately, even that stratagem is wearing thin. The chicanery is conspicuous.

After some time, it is easy to recognize a genuine story and some thing that has been paid for. The rate varies from Rs 50000 to Rs 2.5 Lakhs or more.

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Dec 12

Dangers of mobile banking

Posted in crime, cyberlaw, internet, law, mobile, phone

Many internet “experts” talk about  mobile internet and banking, but the security of these systems is suspect.

Rs 86000 stolen from ICICI bank account through mobile banking.
From:http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleImage.aspx?article=12_12_2009_001_029&mode=1

Mobile phones are not secure, I have received strange SMSes from JustDial and DNA ,  better to be low tech and safe.

Related : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/LATEST-NEWS/Rs-500cr-land-row-Builder-hacks-into-partners-email/articleshow/5260031.cms

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Dec 11

Female staff attrition

Posted in business, technical

This article on women in the IT sector

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/TCS-Wipro-Infosys-go-all-out-to-check-high-female-staff-attrition/articleshow/5324809.cms

has some interesting numbers.

At the entry level,  the  male / female ratio is almost 50: 50 , but at the senior level at Infosys, women constitute less than 2 % ( and many of them will be HR and similar departments)

As mentioned,  with a female boss ” Often male employees, are not too cooperative in the team”.  So even if  you are extremely good at your work, if  you are woman employed  in any organization (however progressive it may claim to be ) , you will rarely get a fair deal.

In other sectors like engineering (infrastructure) it is worse,  engineers are expected  to spend time outdoors in the sun,  girls are told at some campus interviews ” Girls are like flowers to be kept in a vase,  if they go outside they will wilt, so please don’t sit for campus interviews”

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Dec 8

Personal information for sale

Posted in cyberlaw, government, internet, law

From http://cryptome.org/isp-spy/yahoo-spy.pdf

Federal law (See 18 U.S.C. § 2706) requires law enforcement to reimburse providers like Yahoo! for costs incurred responding to subpoena requests, court orders, or search warrants.

• Basic subscriber records: approx. $20 for the first ID, $10 per ID thereafter
• Basic Group Information (including information about moderators): approx. $20 for a group with a single moderator
• Contents of subscriber accounts, including email: approx. $30-$40 per user
• Contents of Groups: approx. $40 – $80 per group

Yahoo is not the only company indulging in these activities.  This is the reason having a personal profile on any kind of networking website like Facebook, Orkut or Linkedin is risky,  you never know how it will be used or misused.  Better to spend a little money and get  your own website.

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