THE YOUNG INDIA

Youth power is said to be taking over. As we approach the forthcoming Parliamentary Elections, the widespread disenchantment among India's youth, is an issue, which we can no longer afford to brush under the carpet

It's a young country, bubbling with youth. It's a young country all set to stand at par with its big daddy. And it's also a young country that carries a huge ugly belly with poverty and unemployment as its babies. Wondering about the name? No prizes for guessing, it's the world's largest democracy with about 51 % of its population of 1.15 billion younger than 25.

Welcome to India. Better call it the `Young India'.

And with the fact that tens of millions of these Indians are expected to vote for the first time this spring, in India's parliamentary elections, not much is required to explain the role of youth punch in this election.

The last Parliamentary elections saw some promising youngsters making it to the parliament and taking the house by storm a couple of times (read Rahul Gandhi's speech in parliament, Omar Abdullah's five-minute flow of strong words and a few more of them), but the bigger question is, did all of that affect how the country functions?

Categorically the answer is both yes and no.

`No' because few young guns who are often treated as the guys with `hot heads and less experience' cannot always influence the senior party leaders and govern the policymaking. So that way nothing sweeping happened even though the ruling party had a good number of promising young leaders. However having said that, the young leaders did manage to shape and change a couple of things. The modernisation of post offices across the country is a simple example of that thanks to Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Jyotiraditya Scindia. And very few would disagree on the growing clout of Rahul Gandhi among the urban and rural masses. And mind you, it's not happening just in vacuum.

According to a recent media report, with 65 % of India's voters being under the age of 35 (including one hundred million first-time voters), the young make up a sizeable chunk of the electorate and the Indian electorate of 2009 will be the youngest since 1952.

So that way thoughts of young Indians having an inclination towards the young leaders is quite obvious. A clear cut indication of the fact is the projection of young Rahul Gandhi as the face of the Congress against the 81-year-old veteran, L K Advani. So does that mean that the youth has arrived in Indian politics and the country is set to witness a drastic change?

Ask the voters, and not many agree to that. They believe that Indian politics is undergoing a phase of transformation exactly the way Indian cricket has been undergoing for a couple of years now, where old and the young have played together and took the team to heights.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish' is athe story of 25 such IIM Ahmedabad graduates who chose the rough road of entrepreneurship. they are diverse in age, in outlook and the industries they made a mark in. But they have one thing in common: they believed in the power of their dreams. This book seeks to inspire young graduates to look beyond placements and salaries. To believe in their dreams.
I was curious about this book when I came across this somewhat unconvetional title "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish". So I decided to pick up a copy and flip through its pages. After going through the first few pages, I knew that this is the book I am going to keep with me for life. It's not because of any sentimental value but beacuse it is so insipiring to read about the young men who took risk in career and got ahead of others.

The book talks about 25 IIM-A graduates who, at different point of their life, decided to take a plunge into the challenging world of entreprenuership. They risked their career and turned down high paying job offers to start something of their own. The ups and downs faced by them in their endevours to do something different makes one think how big dreams are achieved. The book is well written in short, simple and crisp English. It doesn't require one to be a Management guru to understand the context. There are a few jargons here and there. But overall, the book is quite interesting and inspiring to read. Highly recommended, especially to all those who are starting out on their career path.

List of Ministers to be sworn in by the Governor this evening

1. YS Rajsekhar Reddy

2. Dharmana Prasad Rao

3. Shatrucharla Vijaya Rama Raju

4. Botsa Satyanarayana

5. P Balaraju

6. Pilli Subash Chandra Bose

7. Vishwarup

8. Vatti Vasant Kumar

9. Pitani Satyanarayana

10. Pardhasaradhi

11. Kanna Lakshminarayana

12. Gade Venkat Reddy

13. Mopidevi Venkatramana

14. Manikya Varaprasad

15. K Rosaiah

16. B Srinivas Reddy

17. Shilpa Mohan Reddy

18. Galla Aruna Kumari

19. Ramachandra Reddy

20. Anam Ramnarayana Reddy

21. Ahmedulla

22. Raghuveera Reddy

23. Sudharshan Reddy

24. Sabita Indra Reddy

25. Danam Nagender

26. Mukhesh Goud

27. Geeta Reddy

28. Sunita Lakshma Reddy

29. Domadar Raja Narsimha

30. D K Aruna

31. Joopally Krishna Rao

32. Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy

33. Ram Reddy Venkat Reddy

34. Sridhar Babu

35. Ponnala Lakshmaiah

36. Konda Surekha

37. N Kiran Kumar Reddy ( Speaker)

38. Nadendla Mahonar ( Deputy Speaker)

Dropped Ministers

1. Kasu Krishna Reddy

2. J C Diwakar Reddy

3. K Jana Reddy

4. R Damodar Reddy

   
   

Why Infosys cuts H1-B visas

Even as the strong anti-outsourcing lobby in the US is forcing US lawmakers to take a relook at their H1-B visa strategy amid huge job losses, Infosys Technologies - which holds the largest number of H1-B visas among all the Indian IT services companies - has started reducing the number as a part of the company's policy to reduce its 'overseas bench' strength.

The number of H1-B visa holders in the company, which was 8,700 as of December 31, 2008, came down to 8,200 as of March 31, 2009, according to information available with Business Standard.

This number is expected to come down further by another 500 at the end of the first quarter of FY10, as the company is further rationalising its workforce in the US by inducting more locals (Americans) in its rolls, a source close to the development said.

However, even as the company is reducing its 'overseas bench', it has simultaneously committed to add another 1,000 American citizens to its rolls in the next 12-18 months, which will take the total number of US citizens on its rolls to 1,800.

However, Infosys [Get Quote] member of the Board and Head of HR, T V Mohandas Pai, insisted that the current reduction in the number of H1-B visa holders had nothing to do with the 'reduction in the overseas bench'.

"The number of people (H1-B visa holders) go up and down based on business requirements. When the business is down due to the recession, we don't need so many people (in the US)," he said.

He said the company had been hiring in the US for the past three years and it's part of the company's strategic plan to hire more locally.

"It has nothing to do with Obama's announcement and the US government's proposals to lower the H1-B visa limit," he added.

According to the latest update from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, as against an available upper cap of 65,000 as mandated by the US Congress, only about 45,000 H1-B visa applications were received till May 19 this year.

Other than the global recession, experts say the fact that each H1-B visa costs about $3,000-5,000 per applicant is reason enough for companies not to invest so much on obtaining such visas.

Of late, most India companies have increased their uptake of local talent in the US. Wipro [Get Quote] has already announced its intention to hire over 750 US workers for its newly opened centre in Atlanta.

IT major TCS [Get Quote] is also focussing on more US citizens in its workforce, according the company's COO N Chandrasekharan.

"It's important to create critical mass and have a local delivery capability to service onsite clients. If we do this from India, it will be quite costly," he said.

Grand finish to IPL 2

A glittering closing ceremony, with dash of glitz and glamour, drew curtains on the second edition of the Indian Premier League razzmatazz in Johannesburg, on Sunday night.

Soon after the Adam Gilchrist-led Deccan Chargers pipped Anil Kumble's Royal Challengers Bangalore in the see-saw final, cricket paved way to entertainment at the Wanderers Stadium.

South Africa President Jacob Zuma thanked the organisers for choosing the country as venue of the Twenty20 league which was shifted out of India after it coincided with the Lok Sabha election.

"I thank the organisers for showing trust in South Africa's ability to host the event in such a short notice. We had to prepare eight stadiums in three weeks' time, besides arranging extra hotel rooms and air tickets," Zuma said.

"I also thank the Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty for coming here," he added.