A domain of mathematics, believed to have emerged around 600 years ago, in settlements, perhaps temples along Kerala’s main river, Bharatapuzha, continues to surprise maths historians around the world. This branch of mathematics, similar to modern-day calculus, took birth, advanced over a span of some 300 years, and faded away by the 17th century before Isaac Newton and German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz independently invented calculus — a bedrock of mathematics with myriad applications in physics to economics to biology.

While the roots of calculus in Kerala have been traced for decades, modern-day mathematicians say there is still burgeoning interest in the achievements of 14th and 15th century Kerala mathematicians. Researchers are gaining insights into the depth of their ideas, seeking to link the rise and fall of calculus in medieval Kerala to social and cultural factors, and looking for evidence of a Kerala-Europe connection.

The current evidence points to two parallel movements separated in time and place, said Kim Plofker, a maths historian at Union College, Schenectady, New York, and an invited delegate at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2010 in Hyderabad.

…

An analysis of medieval writings suggest that a 14th century mathematician in Kerala named Madhava and his disciples developed a key component of calculus called infinite series: the representation of numbers as a sum of an endless number of terms.

“Their results in infinite series, calculation of infinitesimal quantities, and their proofs of earlier results in geometry were in many cases undreamed-of elsewhere in the world until the development of calculus and subsequent explosion of mathematics in early modern Europe,” Plofker said in a special paper on ancient Indian mathematics published in a journal Hyderabad Intelligencer circulated at the ICM.

Some scholars have suggested transmission of ideas from Kerala to Europe. Three years ago, a University of Manchester researcher George Gheverghese Joseph analysed the contributions of Madhava and others in Kerala from 1350 to 1540 and Jesuit documents scattered in archives in southern Europe to suggest that Jesuit scholars may have helped carry ideas from Kerala to Europe.

But most researchers believe there is no hard evidence yet for such transmission. “We have such a complete historical record of what Leibniz did. There is no indication he had encountered ideas from India,” said David Mumford, an emeritus professor of maths at Brown University, US, who has been studying medieval Kerala contributions for five years.

“Many of us are still trying to analyse the differences and similarities [between the Kerala and European schools of calculus],” said Mumford. “The world should know about this deep mathematical work from India — it shifts our perspective about the history of the subject.”

Scholars who have translated medieval mathematical texts from Kerala have found ideas embedded in verse. One set of verses attributed to Madhava, for instance, describes the relation between the circumference and diameter of a circle, said K. Ramasubramanian, a researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, who has helped interpret a 16th century text called Yuktibhasa, dubbed the world’s first textbook of calculus.

In the Hyderabad Intelligencer, Ramasubramanian describes a section of the Yuktibhasa that outlines the derivation of a method to represent the number pi divided by four as the sum of an endless series of fractions: 1 – 1/3 + 1/5 – 1/7 ….

“The number pi has no fixed value — we truncate it with a decimal point,” said Anantoth Koyitti Vijayarajan, a researcher at the Kerala School of Mathematics, Kozhikode, a new institution set up jointly by the Kerala government and India’s Department of Atomic Energy. “Madhava and his successors discovered how to represent it through an infinite series that converges on pi.”

The origins and demise of calculus in medieval Kerala have remained a mystery, but physicist P.P. Divakaran has spent several years trying to understand the contributions as well as the social and cultural factors that might have shaped this movement.

“All I’ve done is try to juxtapose some events,” Divakaran said. His analysis — just published in a special issue of the Indian Academy of Sciences’ Current Science — suggests that some ideas of geometry and trigonometry that could be traced back to the [5th century] Aryabhata and arithmetical ideas might have influenced the Kerala School.

The migration into Kerala of vedic brahmins from northern India — beginning in the 11th century and continuing for up to 300 years — led to a flourishing of literature, arts and studies, including astronomy and architecture. Divakaran calls it “a radical transformation of the cultural matrix”. It’s in this milieu that calculus emerged.

But in the 16th century, soon after the arrival of the Portuguese, the tradition declined. “As European mathematics was hitting its stride, mathematics and its teaching in Kerala had already wasted away, never to be revived until modern times,” Divakaran wrote in his paper.

Divakaran points out that the demise of the tradition of learning wasn’t confined to astronomy and mathematics. One factor that may have contributed to this decline may be that access to learning and even basic education was restricted to a narrow, socially superior section of people. “As the relative number of brahmins began to fall due to their own short-sighted and socially regressive marital customs, the catchment area began to shrink to the point of vanishing,” said Divakaran.

“A history of mathematics is also a history of human intellectual development. We can try and understand how the developments in mathematics are related to culture,” Plofker said.

Source : The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

Related articles by Zemanta

• ‘Promote maths to spread scientific temper’ (thehindu.com)
• Pratibha: promote study of mathematics to spread scientific temper (thehindu.com)
• The Big Idea: Jennifer Ouellette (whatever.scalzi.com)
• About My Job: The Mathmetician (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Cocktail Party Physics: change and motion (twistedphysics.typepad.com)
• First Vietnamese elected to International Mathematical Union (lookatvietnam.com)
• ‘Teach math teachers to make teaching interesting’ (thehindu.com)
• “Anand, prove you’re Indian” and related posts (susanpolgar.blogspot.com)
• Hebrew U prof garners top math prize (jta.org)

Three minutes and 18 “nigiri” later, time is up, and his instructor comes to sort the well-shaped ones from the ill-shaped, as Aoki wistfully looks on. Only 12 have made the grade.

Aoki, a student at the Tokyo Sushi Academy, said, “Speed is as crucial as quality because efficiency is what they will seek in the real world.”

Aoki, 30, thinks that having a real-world sense of things will help him and his classmates gain the skills they need to plunge into the competitive market for sushi chefs in places like Germany, the United States and Australia.

Students at the privately owned academy hope to join the growing ranks of professional Japanese chefs eager to serve a growing appetite overseas for sushi. Their plan to seek jobs abroad comes as revenue is declining within the Japanese sushi sector amid a cutthroat price war. In contrast, the sushi restaurant market overseas is a rich source of entrepreneurial opportunity, said Hiromi Sugiyama, a director of the academy, which also has a website, www.sushijob.com, for chefs seeking jobs in other countries.

The academy enrols about 100 students each year in either intensive, two-month programmes or yearlong diploma courses.

A more fragile job market in Japan may also be a factor. The 1.5 trillion yen ($17.4 billion) sushi restaurant industry in Japan is changing, says Akihiro Nisugi, a restaurant consultant at Funai Consulting in Tokyo.

Revenue at traditional sushi restaurants in Japan declined to 1.049 trillion yen in 2009 from 1.08 trillion yen in 2006, according to Funai. Sales at fast food sushi places amounted to 428 billion yen in 2009.

Decades ago, an aspiring chef would have joined a traditional sushi restaurant as an apprentice, dreaming of becoming a “taisho”, or a sushi restaurant owner, in places like the chic Ginza district of Tokyo, where restaurants are known for providing the highest quality sushi. But with that sort of job security crumbling, along with the concept of loyalty to one employer, chefs are directing their attention abroad.

The speed with which he was able to open a business contrasts with the centuries-old traditions of the Japanese sushi apprenticeship. Young people are shunning the profession at home partly because the industry requires years of mopping floors and washing dishes before an apprentice is even allowed to touch rice.

“People say it takes three years before you can master the ‘nigiri’, and five years before you perfect ‘maki sushi’, the roll, and you need 10 years before you become a full-fledged sushi master,” said Ken Kawasumi, chief instructor at the Sushi Academy and a former sushi chef. “That’s not a valid approach anymore.”

Koji Ohno, 30, another student at the Tokyo Sushi Academy, has worked as an information technology engineer and wants to re-invent himself. The traditional apprentice route is not part of his plan.

But traditionalists say that years of training are integral to achieving the right mental attitude as a professional who works directly, almost intimately, with consumers. “In sushi,” said Issei Kurimoto, a head chef at a sushi restaurant in the Yurakucho area of Tokyo, “you work in an open kitchen counter, facing your customers and serving them directly. You need to develop direct hospitality skills.”

Kurimoto, who has hired sushi school graduates over his 40-year career, says students need more than a diploma. The true skills of a sushi chef are learned at a tension-filled counter, repeating the routines over and over “until your body knows it”, he said.

On-the-job experience also adds to subtle knowledge of the product — the seasonality of the fish, for example. Some fish are available only during a particular season, he said, while an item like squid, which is available year-round, “is different in condition between summer and winter, and requires a different slicing technique.”

Some restaurants, however, acknowledge that they need to revise the system to attract the sushi chefs of the future.

“Young people want visibility in terms of a career, and it’s difficult to get that if you have to wait three years before you are allowed to touch the knife,” said Hiroshi Umehara, a spokesman at Kiyomura, which operates 30 sushi shops in Tokyo.

The company opened its own sushi school four years ago, making sure “you touch rice the first day,” Umehara said.

The school enrols 20 students for a three-month programme, repeated twice a year, he said, and students increasingly seek career opportunities overseas. Even with the training, the skills needed overseas can vary from those required in Japan. “There are certain skills that are not useful overseas,” said Suehiko Shimizu, 70, another instructor at the Sushi Academy. Some Japanese favourites, like conger eel, are not available in most overseas markets, he said, while many consumers in European markets turn up their noses at raw shellfish like clams, or salmon roe, which are standard fare in Japan.

Source :New York Times News Service
Published in the Telegraph ( Kolkata, India)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Enrolments boom at Sushi Academy (bbc.co.uk)
• Students at Japanese Sushi Schools Aim for a Job Overseas (nytimes.com)
• Today’s eating events: The Story of Sushi and Summer Sausage (timeoutny.com)
• Japanese Food in Japan. How to Order It and How to Eat It. (japan-travel.suite101.com)
• 12 things you probably didn’t know about Sushi (groupon.co.uk)
• Monster sushi out of whack in North York (thestar.com)
• BizSpot: 5 Ethic Eateries in Wrigleyville (chicagonow.com)
• What’s the Best Wine to Drink With Sushi? (vinessetoday.com)

With offers of employment made in August 2008 and the full force of the recession hitting in October, many big law firms — like Latham & Watkins, where Richardson was a summer associate — had to re-evaluate the job offers made to members of the class of 2009. As a way to keep their costs down while holding on to promising associates, many offered the graduates the chance to take up to a year off before starting as associates, complete with a stipend of $60,000 to $75,000. They could travel, do research, or choose — as many did — to work in the public sector.

With the deferral year ending, some of these newly minted lawyers are surprised to find themselves reconsidering their career goals and thinking about staying with public interest law. When Latham & Watkins asked Richardson to defer his start date until at least October 2010, he took his interest in environmental issues to Resources for the Future, a non-profit policy group based in Washington, where he did legal research on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and climate change.

Now, despite heavy student-loan debt and a family to support, he has decided to say no to Latham and stay with public interest law, even though it pays far less.

Richardson claims that everyone he knows has at least considered staying in public interest — and law school faculty members confirm that they are seeing a growing interest in that field. Other deferred associates like Avi Singh see public interest law as a “sustaining motivation” that keeps him coming to work every day. Singh is a 2009 Harvard Law School graduate who decided to stay on with the Santa Clara County public defender’s office in San Jose, California, instead of returning to the firm Quinn Emmanuel after a four-month deferral.

“Here, I’m helping clients on a very basic level,” he said.

“What’s interesting about the deferral process is that, even though I thought it wasn’t right, it got me to pursue what I wanted to do in the first place,” Singh said.

Educators say more students are holding on to their attraction to public interest law throughout law school.

“For the first time, there is now a public interest lawyer in the Oval Office,” said Diane T. Chin, the director of the John and Terry Levin Center for Public Service and Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School, as one explanation for why more young lawyers are considering service careers.

In 2009, 25 students entering their third year at Stanford Law indicated a commitment to public service. In 2010, that number was 36, according to Chin. The average class size is 180.

Alexa Shabecoff, the assistant dean for public service at Harvard Law School, said: “There is an uptick in global interest in public service that has trickled down to the high school level, and students go on to college and law school with a public service ethos.”

For some, an interest in public service is why they go to law school, but a load of debt and a traditional pipeline move them toward the private sector.

David Stern, executive director of Equal Justice Works, an organisation devoted to getting new legal talent in the non-profit and public sectors, notes that the pay gap between public interest and private firm work is steep.

“The gap is multiples of the public interest salary, with a public interest attorney starting at, on average, $35,000 to $39,000 a year,” he said. “In a big law firm, these attorneys are starting at $1,40,000 to $1,50,000.”

Someone who took a stipend from a law firm and then opted for public service law could also find themselves negotiating a payback plan for the stipend; policies differ from firm to firm on whether or how much of a stipend must be repaid.

Jennifer Romig, another 2009 University of Chicago graduate, decided to return to the Washington office of Ropes & Gray after her deferral year, but said her experience at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services in New Orleans would colour the rest of her career.

“Like most law students, I had intentions of doing pro bono work,” Romig said. “Now, after having spent an entire year seeing what a difference you can make, the theoretical has become real. And I cannot imagine forgetting that.”

Source :New York Times News Service

published in The Telegraph (Kol;kata, India)

Related articles by Zemanta

• You: Paid by Big Firms, Young Lawyers Turn to Public Service (nytimes.com)
• Should Deferral Programs Become a Permanent Feature of Biglaw? (abovethelaw.com)
• Stanford Law’s Larry Kramer on the Law School Revolution (bigthink.com)
• Former Latham & Watkins Lawyers Hang Out a Shingle, Err… Timeshare (abovethelaw.com)
• Equal Justice Works Awarded 2.9 Million in Grants (prweb.com)
• AmREIT Announces Redevelopment of the Woodlake Square Shopping Center, Houston, Texas (eon.businesswire.com)
• Musical Chairs: Milbank Poaches Latham’s Global Banking Co-Chair and Four Others (abovethelaw.com)
• Stanford Law School Launches Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse (kauffman.org)
• A Hot New Trend: Leaving Biglaw to Start Your Own Firm (abovethelaw.com)

Actually, the fishermen in question are commercial ones who go out in boats in rough seas. And the pilots are those who fly small non-commercial aircraft. Their fatality rates are much higher.

At the other end of the spectrum are the education, training and library occupations — the safest jobs. So shouldn’t everybody head for bookish trades? The answer, however, is no. Many people prefer excitement and adventure; a little danger makes it all the more attractive.

“The question you should really be asking is: who are the happiest in their jobs,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. “When people tell me how satisfied teachers are, I remember D.H. Lawrence: ‘What does it matter to me, if they can write / A description of a dog, or if they can’t? / What is the point? To us both, it is all my aunt!’”

It is difficult to rate happy jobs. First, the obvious turns out to be not so. Clowns who are supposed to make you laugh are among the unhappiest people. Who wouldn’t be, if you had to lose your trousers every time you entered the ring?

On the other hand, social workers who deal with unhappiness all the time are a much happier lot; they have to be cheerful or they wouldn’t be able to do their job.

Second, very few people are actually happy at their jobs. “Discontent is the norm,” says Singh. “In India, where most of us need to earn a living, people are forced into jobs; they have very little choice. In the West, you have more opportunity to do what you like; you earn enough to manage. Even low-profile jobs pay adequate salaries.”

There are several reasons why people dislike their jobs (see box). Part of it is people-related; part infrastructure-related. You may dislike your boss or the guy in the cubicle across the aisle. Or you may hate the cubicle world itself and the difficult commute that takes you there. “And some people would rather not work at all,” says Singh.

A curious sidelight comes from a recent survey by YouGov of the UK. Apparently most people hate office parties; they would rather go to the dentist. Tell that to the HR people who push these jamborees in the hope that they will build team spirit and corporate culture. Does it really help to be on your best behaviour with the boss’s wife?

How do you tackle the boss, the boss’s wife and other things you hate? AskMen.com, the site that gives you advice on anything from the world’s best cities for men to the Top 10 tips for throwing a beach party with piranhas, has several answers. Its list:

• Rant, rave and holler (just don’t do it at the office)

• Try posting your gripes on a site like Jobvent.com

• Remind yourself that this isn’t permanent

• Make time for yourself

• Add something fun to the mix at work

• Keep your sense of humour

• Focus on life outside the office

• Be a better worker

• Don’t jeopardise your job

• Organise an activity at work

• Set job-hunting goals for yourself

• Seek professional help.

• Will it work? It may, if you can get the world to understand your predicament.

Perhaps another excursion into poetry is warranted, this time W.H. Auden’s The Unknown Citizen: “Except for the War till the day he retired / He worked in a factory and never got fired, / But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc… Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: / Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.”

THE HATE LIST:-

The top 10 things people dislike about their jobs

1. The 9-to-5 routine

2. The office bully

3. The boss

4. Computers with minds of their own

5. Nursing a hangover and a workload

6. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines

7. Work colleagues

8. The office seating plan

9. Customer complaints

10. Meetings

Source: www.irishjobs.ie
published in The Telegraph (Kol;kata, India)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Help me stay sane and employed during a difficult work situation (ask.metafilter.com)
• The Success of Failure (jobsearchingblog.com)
• Can You Have a 4-Hour Workweek? (lifescript.com)
• Indian Drug Magnate Sets Sights on Health-Care Sector (nytimes.com)
• How To Be Happy At A Rotten Job (forbes.com)
• Show Me the Money: How to Ask for a Raise (lifescript.com)
• Flight Attendant’s Grand Exit Is a Dream for Some (abcnews.go.com)

Launched in October 2009, PTE Academic is recognised by more than 1,500 universities and schools worldwide.

It is a computer-based English language test that measures the reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of students whose mother tongue is not English and who want to study in institutions where English is the principal language of instruction.

“PTE Academic is now available in over 150 test centres worldwide and 15 centres across India,” says John Philip, country manager, Pearson Language Tests. Philip stresses that the test is held four to eight times every month. “It is a ‘choose and book test’ that gives students the freedom to choose their test dates as per convenience.”

PTE Academic seems to have made a decent start despite the giants in the field. Nearly one million students around the world take Toefl, said to be the most widely accepted English-language proficiency assessment. Gena Netten, Toefl brand manager, stresses that it is conducted more than 40 times a year. “We advise students to register as soon as possible as the seats at the test centres fill up fast.”

First held in 1964, Toefl is accepted by more than 7,500 institutes in more than 130 countries. India accounts for the fifth largest country of test takers. The other big player, IELTS, is recognised by more than 6,000 institutions in over 135 countries. It has over 1.4 million candidates each year. It costs about Rs 7,200, while the PTE Academic and Toefl cost Rs 7,500.

But PTE Academic too seems to be drawing patrons. “It is an excellent assessment of international English for non-English speaking students,” remarks David A. Wilson, president and chief executive officer of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), administrators of GMAT. PTE Academic is endorsed by GMAC.

Wilson points out some advantages PTE Academic enjoys over Toefl and IELTS. “PTE Academic is available on demand, six days a week; IELTS and Toefl are available only two days a month. PTE returns scores within five days or less (currently two days); Toefl does it in two weeks and IELTS in three weeks. PTE includes a speech sample as part of the score report. Toefl has added a speech sample that is not part of the score report, and IELTS does not provide a speech sample at all.”

There is more. PTE, he adds, offers “much higher levels” of test security, reducing significantly the use of proxy candidates. The PTE tests also deal with aspects of the language that are not taken into account by the other tests, he says. For instance, it tests a student’s grammar, oral fluency, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary.

Seema Malhotra, official representative of 45 UK universities, says that 20 of these 45 institutes accept PTE Academic scores. This year, about 50 Indian students have used IELTS to gain admission to these universities, she says. “But I have already come across at least 15 who have used PTE as a test of their English skills,” she adds.

Dr Sumit Gupta, set to take the Pearson test this year, has his own reasons for opting for it. “I already have an IELTS score but it seems PTE Academic greatly reduces the chances of making mistakes in the listening section.” An Indian student may find a heavy American or a British accent difficult to understand. The PTE test eliminates that apprehension.

Garima Dubey, who registered for PTE Academic for August this year, says, “I like the fact that it delivers results within a few days. This gives us ample time for a future course of action.” The mock tests were also helpful, she adds, referring to practice tests that are available online.

Education experts like Renuka Raja Rao, country co-ordinator, Educational Advising Services, United States-India Educational Foundation (Usief), Delhi, feel the new test holds promise. “US universities are readily accepting the PTE. Given the flexibility of the US system, it is very likely that those universities that have not yet taken a decision would be willing to consider PTE scores, should students request it,” she says. Others believe that it has been formulated keeping in mind the lacunae that the Toefl and IELTS suffer from.

Of course, all this doesn’t mean PTE Academic is set to replace Toefl or IELTS. As an official at Usief, Calcutta, says, “Students are beginning to opt for PTE Academic, but we cannot say universities give it preference over the others.”

Arindam Roy, executive director, EdXcare International, a foreign education consultancy firm that has been training students for Toefl and IELTS for years, feels it will be difficult for any new test to challenge them. “They are like institutions,” he says. “Besides, they keep upgrading themselves.”

So, take your pick, but be sure to test them all first. When it comes to English tests, one size doesn’t fit all.

Others in the business :-

1 Test of English for International Communication (www.ets.org/toeic): Measures the everyday English skills of people working in an international environment

2Test of Spoken English (www.ets.org/tse): Measures the ability of non-native speakers of English to communicate effectively

3 International Test of English Proficiency (www.itepexam.com): A general-purpose English assessment tool

4 University of Bath English Language Test (www.bath.ac.uk/ubelt): English language testing for medical professionals and students, and border and immigration purposes

5 University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (www.cambridgeesol.org): Range of certificates for learners and teachers of English

6 Trinity College London ESOL (www.trinitycollege.co.uk/esol): Offers English language testing in five categories

7 STEP Eiken (www.stepeiken.org): Conducted by a Japanese non-profit organisation and backed by the Japanese ministry of education, culture, sports, science and technology (MEXT).

Source : The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Pearson Test of English Academic Recognized by Wake Forest University MBA Programs (prweb.com)
• IELTS: The test that sets the standard? (languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu)
• Helen Doron Educational Group Partners With Pearson to Expand Access to Premier English Language Assessments (prweb.com)
• Best ielts classes in amritsar (slideshare.net)
• IELTS Academic or General – which is easier? (teachstreet.com)
• UK tightens English language test rules for foreign students (guardian.co.uk)
• Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Score on the TOEFL (brighthub.com)

….
DAAD scholars at Freie University, Berlin.

Last year, when he saw a notice at his university announcing internships for undergraduate students in Germany, he immediately logged on to the website of the German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD.

“I discovered that I could apply to DLR for a full paid working internship of three months,” says Banerjee, who returned from Germany in July after successfully completing the prestigious Working Internship for Science and Engineering (Wise) students.

Apart from short-term internships, DAAD offers several scholarships for international students — at the bachelors, masters, doctoral and postdoctoral levels.

Says Apoorv Mahendru, head of operations, DAAD Regional Office (South Asia), “DAAD stands for Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst — an organisation of German institutions of higher education and student bodies. Our aim is to promote academic co-operation worldwide, especially through exchange of students, scholars, academics and scientists.”

Each year nearly 60,000 people are supported by DAAD “to gain valuable experience and expertise at home and abroad”. What’s more, every year it enables over 1,000 students and academicians from South Asia to visit Germany.

According to Mahendru, studying in Germany is a scholarship in itself. “Unlike in other European countries, studying here is not expensive because most universities are highly subsidised by the government. In several institutions, you don’t have to pay anything for tuition,” he explains.

Indian students at Muenster palace, a popular tourist attraction
However, living costs can be quite high (500 to 1,000 Euros a month). A DAAD fellowship covers living expenses, health insurance, travel expenses and so on. There are more than 10,000 programmes for international students.

About a thousand are conducted in English, which means you can apply to these even if you don’t know German. “My fellowship didn’t require expertise in the language as everybody at DLR knows English,” says Banerjee.

However, to make the best of your stay, you must be proficient in German. Namrata Chakraborty, a fourth-year student of JU’s printing engineering who did an internship at the Technical University of Chemnitz, knows this only too well because she isn’t comfortable in the language.

“I didn’t face any difficulty on campus, but the moment I stepped out, I had no option but use sign language,” she says. Chakraborty has now decided to brush up on her German before she goes back to the same university for masters next year.

DAAD has tie-ups with many Indian institutes. For instance, nine German technical universities have an understanding with the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) that enables MTech and MSc students from the latter to do their final-year research project in Germany under the DAAD-IIT Masters Sandwich programme.

Wise is available to students from 62 Indian institutes, including the IITs, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, National Institutes of Technology and JU.

The industry-academia link is something to write home about. “Students who apply for fellowships must understand that in Germany, research is almost always application oriented,” says Amitava Gupta, professor of power engineering, JU, and research ambassador, DAAD (Eastern India).

“They merge theory with practice. In other words, the link between industry and academia is very strong,” adds Gupta, who has visited Germany many times through different fellowships, including DAAD. Little wonder then that teaching and research provide the impulse for groundbreaking inventions such as the printing press, computer and MP3 player.

“Since basic research is one of the key elements of most German universities, the opportunity for those with PhDs is huge,” says Gupta. However, in recent years, the scope for graduates and master degree holders too has considerably expanded.

Although Germany has traditionally been considered the Mecca of science and engineering, many international students nowadays choose it as a destination for higher studies in law, economics, social sciences and transcultural studies.

“The University of Heidelberg has a cluster of excellence for transcultural studies on Asia and Europe,” says Doris Hillger, a university representative. “The objective of the cluster is to examine the processes of cultural exchange, with a strong focus on interdisciplinary research.”

The country also has some of the best courses in public policy and conflict studies.

Last but not the least, the fun quotient for international students is high. Museums, libraries and tourist spots in the country offer huge discounts for students. Even trains and buses accept student cards.

“I loved travelling the countryside by train on weekends,” says Chakraborty.

Click to see : German -Jordanian University News

Apply now:-

DAAD is offering scholarships for Indian students for a wide range of subjects, from international relations to public management, and technology to literature

Awards: For PhD, sandwich, short-term and post doc programmes

Objective: To do a PhD in a German university or research institute. Or, registered PhD students at an Indian university may carry out their research in India as well as Germany under the joint supervision of an Indian and a German professor. Or, to undertake a research project at a German university or research institution

Target group: Highly qualified postgraduates from any discipline or scholars registered for PhD (any discipline) at universities or research institutes in India (sandwich and short-term), or teachers and scientists at Indian universities and research institutes

Application: Submission process is online. Visit www.daaddelhi.org for details. Deadline for submission is October 1.

Aid and advice:-

Funding and research agencies that support international students in Germany

German Academic Exchange Service (www.daaddelhi.org)

German Research Foundation (www.dfg.de)

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (www.avh.de)

Max Planck Society (www.mpg.de) Fraunhofer Society (www.fraunhofer.de)

Source : The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

Set a thief to catch a thief, says the old adage. In the world of computers, it’s not quite the same. On the one hand you have the hacker — who wreaks havoc — and on the other, the ethical hacker — who seeks to prevent such incidents.

“It’s like a cat and mouse game,” says Neelu Tripathy. She should know, for Tripathy herself is an ethical hacker, always finding new ways to block a hacker’s attempts at peeking into others’ computer networks and stealing their data.

It’s not easy, for a hacker in the cyberworld can be from anywhere — operating from a plush apartment in the US, a back alley in Lahore or a government establishment in Central Asia. “What hackers look for is some valuable information that they can use or sell. And there are a lot of computer systems with tons of valuable information which are unprotected. We try and make them safe,” says Tripathy, a security analyst at Tata Consultancy Services, Gurgaon.

Computer hacking is almost as old as the Internet itself, but the problem has increased to such levels in recent times that government departments and private firms are getting more and more concerned about protecting their networked computer systems. One way of doing so is by employing ethical hackers, whose task is to counter the hackers.

“It’s an expanding field. Hackers are getting smarter, and the challenge for the ethical hacker is to stay a step ahead of them, and always be on the lookout for new skills,” says Kanwal K. Mookhey, principal consultant and founder of the Mumbai-based Network Intelligence India (NII), a company that provides ethical hacking services. Mookhey is also the founder of Mumbai’s Institute of Information Security (IIS) that trains aspiring ethical hackers.

These professionals are taught about coding, cyber forensics, network security and other aspects. Training institutes offer both basic and advanced courses, with the latter being taken up by people who want to seriously pursue ethical hacking as a career. While these courses are open to students from all backgrounds, those with strong software skills tend to do well. “Graduates of computer science tend to do really well. Also, these are the people who are likely to take up ethical hacking as a career,” says Mookhey. Both Tripathy and Maskara are computer science graduates.

The job of ethical hackers is to get into the minds of computer criminals, think like them and come up with innovative methods to protect computer systems and corporate networks, says Abir Atarthy, the brain behind NetSoft Technologies, Kharagpur. The institute offers a range of courses and receives around 400 applications a year. “Many think it is an easy job, but only about 25-30 applicants are finally chosen,” says Atarthy. “We look for a strong background in C++ and Java (programming languages), database programming and some knowledge of networking.” The three-month full-time advanced course costs around Rs 15,500.

There is ample scope also for people who do not have a computer science background. “It certainly doesn’t mean that others who are interested do not do well, but a good grounding in the basics really helps,” says Oberoi. Since both forms of hackers learn the same basics, training institutes in India have the extra onus of teaching ethical hackers about the risks of going rogue. “Besides teaching them the nuances of hacking and other techniques, we offer them separate papers on cyber laws in India, so that they know the risks of violating the laws,” says Oberoi, who has trained personnel of many private and government institutions.

“The curriculum also deals with the ethical aspect of the issue,” adds Atarthy. When students are selected, they are made to sign a bond saying they will not misuse the knowledge.

Since ethical hacking courses are yet to be either regularised by an association of the industry or recognised by the government, there is no uniform syllabus as such. But some of the institutes offer a Certified Information Security Expert certification and other such certificates.

While the basic courses last three to four months, the advanced courses could be of nine to 12 months’ duration. Course fees vary from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000, depending on the specialisation. Some institutes even offer distance learning courses. Well-known ethical hacker Ankit Fadia also offers a distance learning course (Ankit Fadia Certified Ethical Hacker) through Reliance World outlets across the country.

The professionals, however, have one grouse. Ethical hackers dislike being called so. “Hacking has negative connotations. Hence most ethical hackers prefer to be known as information security professionals,” says Tripathy.

So if you’d want to be an information security professional, it’s time to log on.

Where to Learn :-

NetSoft Technologies, Kharagpur

Phone: 9434243285

Atarthy@yahoo.com

Institute of Information Security, Mumbai

Phone: (022) 40052628

www.iisecurity.in

Innobuzz Knowledge Solutions, New Delhi

Phone: (011) 65905003

www.innobuzz.in

Appin Technologies, New Delhi

Phone: (011) 43228888, 43227777

www.appinonline.com

Ankit Fadia Certified Ethical Hacker

www.ankitfadia.in

Kyrion Digital Securities, New Delhi

Phone: (011) 47085343

www.kyrion.in

Appx. Earnings:-
Starting salary: Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000

Middle level: Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000

Senior level: Rs 50,000 and above

Source : The Telegraph ( Kolkata, India)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Hackers see the cloud as ripe territory (news.cnet.com)
• Apple’s Store Might Have Emptied Your Bank Account [Hackers] (gawker.com)
• How Do Hackers Think? (brighthub.com)
• DEF CON Survey Reveals Vast Scale of Cloud Hacking – And the Need to Bolster Security to Counter the Problem (prnewswire.com)
• How to Hack an ATM – With Video! [Hacking] (io9.com)
• USA Pentagon trains workers to hack Defense computers March 15, 2010 (trackpads.com)
• CEH Certified Ethical Hacker Study Guide (lockergnome.com)

……….

Sooner or later, you’re going to get a call from a recruiter. You’re an Oracle pro. A Java genius. More than likely, you’re already inundated with calls. All that attention can be daunting. Do you even want to work with a recruiter? What should you expect when working with one? Before you decide whether you want a recruiter on your side, check out these answers to common questions about working with them.

One or more

In general, it’s best to work with several recruiters as it will provide you access to the widest range of options. Be sure to keep a tab on where your résumé is being submitted. If your résumé reaches a company from two different recruiters, that may disqualify you straightaway.

The reason? The company isn’t going to get into a battle with the recruiters over who represents you, says Karoline Hough, assistant branch manager at the St Louis office of information technology staffing firm Bradford and Galt.

Exclusive choice

If you’re a candidate with skills in serious demand, a recruiter may ask for an “exclusive”. That means the recruiter would represent you for a period of time — a week, let’s say — with the understanding that you wouldn’t be working with other recruiters during that period.

“If you want to be a recruiter’s top priority, give them an exclusive,” says Hough. “In this market, where the demand far outweighs the supply, a two-week exclusive is probably enough.”

Take your pick

Look to a recruiter for advice on your career but remember it’s your career, not the recruiter’s, and the ultimate decision about what jobs you seek is yours. Recruiters can help you determine whether your skills are appropriate for the market or you need additional training. They have their pulse on the market and on what’s hot and what’s not. But remember, recruiters earn their money by placing you; so don’t rush to take a position just because a recruiter says you’d be the right fit for the job.

Experience counts

IT recruiters typically work with people with several years of experience, but that varies depending on an individual’s expertise and education, the field and the recruiter’s own areas of specialisation. As you would expect, the more experience you’ve got — and the greater demand for it — the better off you’ll be finding a recruiter. If you’re just getting into the industry, you may face a tough time getting a recruiter to talk to you; companies don’t want to pay a recruiter to fill an entry-level job when they’ve got stacks of résumés available to them.

Watch out

Just because you have got a call from a recruiter, don’t assume he or she is the one for you. “There are shady dealers out there,” says Jason Berkowitz, chief operating officer at Hunter Recruitment Advisors, a recruitment outsourcing company. “It’s important that you find someone who’s on your side and who isn’t just going to fax your résumé all over town.” How should you guard against those shady dealers? Ask for references from two or three people the recruiter has placed and then quiz them on their experience with the recruiter.

Come true

“Look for a recruiter who’s honest,” says Hough. Meet with the recruiter, she advises. You want someone who’s a good listener and will respond to your phone calls or emails. Consider whether they know your particular industry segment, too. “Be open,” Berkowitz says. “And be honest about what you want.”

Source : The Telegraph (Kolkata, India) :

Related articles by Zemanta

• Should You Use a Headhunter? (brighthub.com)
• Back To Work (forbes.com)
• What not to put on your résumé: Pay attention to what you say! (chicagonow.com)
• Thoughts On Recruiting Automation (wildcog.com)
• Recruiters Note Marked Improvement in the Job Market (prweb.com)
• Your Dream Job is Just a Call Away (jobsearchingblog.com)
• How To Decode A Job Posting (forbes.com)
• Train-maker Bombardier holds recruitment fair (bbc.co.uk)
• Secrets To Finding A Job Online (forbes.com)
• 10 hiring manager deal breakers (cnn.com)
• Recruiters Using Social Media For Hiring (webguild.org)
• 92% of IT Job Seekers Will Work with a Recruiter to Get Their Next Job, Finds TEKsystems (eon.businesswire.com)

Overall, the country lost 1,31,000 jobs last month, but those losses came as 1,43,000 Census Bureau workers left their temporary posts, the Labor Department said. June’s number was revised dramatically downward to a total loss of 2,21,000 jobs. The agency originally reported that the nation lost 1,25,000 jobs in June.

Figures released recently confirmed that the US economy slowed in the spring, and the Department of Labor’s monthly statistical snapshot of hiring pointed toward a stall in hiring this summer, as employers failed to add jobs at the rate they were earlier this year.

With some economists predicting a “double dip” back into recession and the political stakes for the Obama administration rising as the weeks tick closer to the midterm elections, the recent unemployment report renewed pressure on lawmakers to consider the next steps they might take to bolster the economy. Recent indicators focusing on consumer confidence, retail sales and housing appear to put the economy in a holding pattern.

A crucial index of manufacturing a few days ago showed that activity had slipped slightly in July, chain stores reported anaemic increases in sales and unemployment claims rose above the level usual for this stage of a recovery. On the more positive side, auto sales increased 5.1 per cent in July compared with a year earlier, although from a very low base.

For now, companies appear nervous about expanding their payrolls. “Businesses just don’t want to hire,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics. “Workers are too costly and it’s very easy to substitute technology for labour.”

He added that with corporate earnings rising partly on the back of cost-cutting, employers are reluctant to give up profits. “So while corporate earnings were spectacular,” Sinai said, “the job market just stinks.”

State government employment fell by 10,000 in July, and local governments lost 38,000 jobs as agencies came under budget pressures.

Manufacturing, which had recently been a bright spot in hiring, added 36,000 jobs during July.

The overall unemployment rate, incorporating people who want jobs but did not look during the month, remained unchanged at 16.5 per cent.

“Our own view is that this is going to be a really protracted, drawn-out recovery here,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief US economist at MFR Inc. “You sometimes have to take a magnifying glass to see it. There are others who are more optimistic and they just keep saying just wait, just wait and they’ve been saying just wait for quite some time.”

For the 14.6 million people currently looking for work, the reluctance to hire outstrips the modest signs of economic growth.

“This economy is absolutely appaling,” said Mary Moore, 39, who has been applying for jobs as an administrative assistant in Norfolk, Virginia, since the publishing company she worked for closed in May of last year. Moore, who can collect unemployment benefits for a few more months, is struggling to pay her $525-a-month rent and health care premiums that recently nearly tripled to $379 a month.

“As an American I did not believe we would see times such as this,” she said.

Source : New York Times News Service

Related articles by Zemanta

• “Private Sector Hiring Stall Reinforces Weak “Recovery†in the US” and related posts (sanhati.com)
• U.S. Lost 131,000 Jobs in July, but Private Sector Grew (nytimes.com)
• U.S. Recovery Pace Pits Maki Employment View Against Sinai (businessweek.com)
• Something horrible may happen again (newstatesman.com)
• Crunch. Another lousy job report slams the nation (dailykos.com)
• Beyond.com Reports More Than 48 Percent of Industries Experienced a Quarterly Gain in Jobs in Second Quarter 2010 (eon.businesswire.com)
• New claims for unemployment aid reach 484K (abclocal.go.com)
• US jobless claims jump to six-month high (alternet.org)
• Denmark Tightens Generous Jobless Benefits (nytimes.com)
• July Jobs Report Paints a Picture of Nervous Employers (money.usnews.com)

The flavour of the month in the jobs arena in India, and many other countries, has been information technology (IT). Over the past few years, IT has been the attraction for all hues of Indians, from arts graduates to IIT engineers.

With Western countries insisting Indian IT majors pay their Indian employees working there what they would have shelled out for local workers, it’s been a good deal for Indian IT employees sent on onsite projects. (Earlier, the employees used to be paid in Indian rupees at home, at Indian rates. Abroad, they were given a living allowance and saved money on that too by skipping meals and borrowing warm clothes. This was frugal engineering in action even before Carlos Ghosn, CEO and chairman of Renault and Nissan, made the expression popular.)

The other advantage IT in India had was that the benchmarks were set by fairly enlightened firms like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro. There was a time when Infosys and Google were well-known for the lavish perks they doled out. Of course, much of this disappeared when the recession started taking its toll. Google wouldn’t take care of your kids in the workplace; Infosys wouldn’t take your dog for a walk.

IT has been through a bad patch, but it is recovering. In the US, after falling from over 4 million at the end of 2008 to around 3.8 million in end-2009, the IT employment index has risen to 3.86 million in June 2010. The index, compiled by the TechServe Alliance, is the number of IT jobs passed through a filter to add some bells and whistles.

There is inadequate data on the Indian market. But things are changing. In May 2010, jobs portal Monster launched an Indian employment index. (This takes online data from October 2009.) “The IT sector is experiencing bullish hiring and is now up by 21 per cent,” says Monster (see box).

The Naukri Job Speak Index started in February 2010. In June, it reported “growing market optimism” and “a vibrant employment scenario”. The IT enabled Services (ITES) sector has been particularly bullish on hiring; the sector registered a growth of 25 per cent in June 10 over the May 10 index, says Naukri. IT (software) on the other hand, has actually fallen 0.8 per cent though IT (hardware) is up 22 per cent.

You can look at an IT (software) job as being of two distinct types. The first is programming or coding. This is the boring or dead-end part with limited scope for mobility except to other IT firms. Then there are the marketing jobs. That’s much more exciting and you can hop over to any marketing company if you get tired of what you are doing. Obviously, there are many more programmers than marketing men.

In the West, IT is no longer the best place to aim for. A Royal Society study in the UK has found that schoolchildren are increasingly being turned off by it. A recent report says the number of students studying computing is falling sharply across the UK. There has been a 57 per cent fall in A Level Computing between 2001 to 2009.

In India the anecdotal evidence from campuses is that IT is losing its charm at the IITs and the IIMs. Finance has made a comeback. When times are hard, IT can be dispensed with. But you can never do without money.Illustration: Uday Deb

The Monster View

Industry       Index on        Index on        % increase

April 10        March 10

Healthcare, biotechnology &        130       01       28 life sciences, pharmaceuticals

Real estate       123       101       22

IT – hardware, software       130       107       21

Agro-based industries       114       95       19

Banking / financial services,       106       89       19 insurance

Source: Monster Employment Index

The Naukri Index

Industries       Growth (%)*

ITES / BPO 25

Telecom       14

Oil and gas       11

Banking       4

IT (hardware)       22

IT (Software)       0.8

* June 10, 2010 over May 10, 2010

Source: Naukri.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• U.S. Visa Fees Hurt India’s Infosys, Wipro (blogs.wsj.com)
• India Plans to Lobby for Drop in U.S. Visa Fees (nytimes.com)
• Europe woes could hit Indian IT”s recovery (ciol.com)
• India Protests ‘Discriminatory’ Visa Bill (businessweek.com)
• India Plans to Lobby for Drop in U.S. Visa Fees (pcworld.com)
• Indian IT Industry Beats other Sectors in Salary Hike (taragana.com)
• Who Should Replace Narayan Murthy in Infy Board (globalthoughtz.com)
• Infosys adds 38 new clients, raises outlook (ciol.com)