• Rs 5L stipend for IIM interns
• India to stay in talent top club till 2012

• Global literacy meet begins in Delhi
• Renu Khator to head Houston University

In support of global literacy, India is hosting a two-day global literacy meet here starting today. The conference is a follow-up to the White House conference on global literacy held in September 2006. Congress president Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate it and writer Mahasweta Devi will deliver the key-note address. The conference has been organised by India's Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) and Unesco. The meet will have education and finance ministers of 14 countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. "The Delhi conference is important for the Indian subcontinent because three highly populated nations, namely, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, continue to face major literacy challenges, including the sheer number of illiterates," a Unesco official said. "In addition to a serious gender gap, there is high urban-rural disparity. As a key instrument for lifelong learning, indispensable for effective participation in social and economic life and essential for peace, literacy is a crucial issue in the region," official added. Titled 'Addressing Literacy Challenge in South, South-West and Central Asia: Building Partnerships and Promoting Innovative Approaches', the conference will be the fourth in the series of six regional conferences - covering the Arab states, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean - being organised to promote literacy. The First Ladies of 10 countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - have also been invited to the conference. However, only the First Lady of Sri Lanka has confirmed her participation in the meet.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com, November 29, 2007

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First year students of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) couldn't be happier. Students, most in their mid-20s, would be drawing stipends ranging from Rs3 lakh to Rs5 lakh for an eight-week stint, with increasing number of overseas companies scouting the premier institution's six campuses spread across the country for summer interns. IIM-(Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata) have witnessed a surge of more than 20 per cent increase in the number of students landing international internships. IIM-Lucknow (IIM-L) saw a four-fold increase in the number of foreign placements from six last year to 28 this year. "Usually foreign companies flock to the top IIMs, but this year companies like Barclays came to us for the first time. We were also proactive this year, inviting companies from south east Asia, Europe and West Asia," said Pankaj Kumar of IIM-L. At IIM-A, 123 of its 263 students were given internships abroad. "Top Indian firms too offered positions abroad. As IIMs become more well-known globally, companies are also increasingly looking our way," explained Pravin Christian of IIM-A. The summer placement this year also saw a hike in the average stipend offered. For IIM- B, the stipend offered for domestic locations ranged between Rs6,000 to Rs75,000 per month, overseas offers were pegged about $7000 per month. Aahaskar Pandey has been offered the post of assistant manager at Alshaya Corporation, a Kuwait-based company. This 24-year-old said over the telephone from Lucknow, "Since I am specialising in agri business management, this stint with a retail franchise would be invaluable." IIM-C, with its largest batch of 300-odd students, finished their placements in record 4.5 days. "We received 137 international offers, which remain the highest ever. More than 58 per cent of the offers were made by international investment banks and 37 per cent by international consulting firms on the first day of scouting itself," said an IIM-C official.

Courtesy: www.dnaindia.com, November 29, 2007

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At a time when Indian-Americans are going on board the space shuttle, getting elected to Congress and governorships, and heading financial institutions, a desi being selected as vice-chancellor and president of an American university may not be top drawer stuff. But American academia has been a sweet spot for Indian immigrants, and so stirring is saga of Renu Khator's improbable journey, that it has both the community and university circles in raptures. On Monday, as the Board of Regents of the University of Houston (UH) officially confirmed Renu Khator, 52, as their next chief executive, her Farukkhabad (U.P) to Florida (U.S), Kanpur-to-Houston journey was being milked by the media. The story goes that when Khator first came to the United States in 1974 as a young bride following an arranged marriage, her English was so dodgy that her new husband, Suresh Khator, an engineering student at Purdue University, translated for her while she was interviewed by the dean for school admission. She made the cut, earned high grades while learning the language from re-runs of I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show , and never looked back. The couple moved to Florida in 1983 when Suresh received a teaching offer from the University of Southern Florida. Renu Khator took up a temporary position, but in two decades worked her way to become provost at the University, where her success in attracting funds and top notch faculty drew UH's attention. On Monday, the Houston Chronicle observed that "Khator spoke without using notes, and her easy eloquence seemed to impress all who met the university's 13th president." Her husband happily boasted that he was now the junior partner and happy to follow her. Khator has a tough job ahead of her. The University of Houston system, with a faculty of more than 3000 and a student enrollment of 50,000-plus, is one of the nation's biggest. But it has lived for long in the shadow of two other Texas flagships -- the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. Khator is being tasked with making UH the state's third flagship. In her new job, she is expected to woo major donors and land top faculty, both of which should come readily to an Indian-American at a time when the community is hitting the high spots. It was during Khator's time as provost at USF that the university got a record $ 18.5 million donation from Dr Kiran Patel and his wife Pallavi. Texas, by all accounts, has as many, if not more Indian-American moneybags as Florida. And they have reached a stage where giving to education has become a matter of pride and prestige.

Courtesy: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, November 06, 2007

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TUS will continue to top. UK will occupy the second slot. And China and India may occupy the 6th and 10th ranks, respectively. That's how the top 10 hottest talent destinations will look like in 2012, according to a first-ever Global Talent Index released by Heidrick & Struggles and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The Global Talent Index ranked 30 countries based on talent drivers like demographics, education, openness of labour market, FDI and the like for 2007 and makes projections for 2012. "The next generation is more demanding, fickle and sophisticated than any other. Sophisticated talent demands sophisticated talent management," says L Kevin Kelly, CEO, Heidrick & Struggles. China and India are emerging as significant players in the world talent market and they cannot be ignored, the report said. For 2012 ranking, India gets the 2nd rank on its demographics; 9th on its labour mobility and relative openness of the labour market; 13th on its proclivity to attract talent; 13th on its environment to nurture talent, but a poor 25th on education and 26th on FDI inflow. "Talent is the new oil and just like oil, demand far outstrips supply," the report stated. While the ranking, on one hand, shows the relative attractiveness of key geographies for talent, it also reveals broader trends that will define talent movement in future.

Money talks
Talent follows money. Not surprisingly then, talent is most likely to be found in developed countries like the US, the UK, Canada who top the rankings. The inclusion of Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia in the top 10 rankings reiterates the point that developed countries despite their weaker demographic trends will remain magnets for top talent. "It is not just the size of the potential talent pool that matters, but how it is nurtured," the report stressed.

BRIC is IC
BRIC is more of an IC - India-China - story. India and China are expected to be among the top 10 countries by 2012, according to the index, whereas Russia remains stagnant at 18th and Brazil slips from 23rd to 25th place in the next five years. The stable ranking of Russia over the next five years masks a relative and gradual decline in its education system.

Political structure important
The ranking does throw open the question if there is a linkage between open society and talent development. The results of 30-country rankings are ambiguous as countries figuring in the bottom half like Greece, Iran, Brazil, Saudi Arabia are of a wide variety. But what clearly emerges is that several of the least promising performers do not currently boast of full-functioning democracies.

FDI as talent catalyst
FDI is accompanied by import of technological and managerial best practice. Furthermore, as foreign firms settle down, they often replace expatriates with local staff, creating new jobs. Malaysia exemplifies the power of FDI and achieves 12th position - in both 2007 and 2012 - largely because of the FDI flowing into the country.

Courtesy: www.economictimes.indiatimes.com, November 01, 2007

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