Work from home is the new mantra for employees of IBM, HP, Cisco, MS

Work from home is the new mantra for employees of IBM, HP, Cisco, MSRising realty costs, travel time, apart from other complexities of maintaining office space is making a business case for MNC tech firms.

The last time Kumar, a sales executive working with IBM India, visited his company's registered office in Bangalore was some six months ago to get his broken attendance card replaced. Kumar, 35, is among nearly 50,000 IBM India employees who are working from anywhere, but the office.

"I do not have to show my face to my boss anymore, well at least for a few weeks or months at a stretch," says Kumar, who requested that his first name not be revealed. "I used to miss catching up with other colleagues at office, but now there are hundreds of us on the road for the company," he adds.

For nearly 50,000 employees at IBM India and some 15,000 tech workers at HP's India operations, work-fromhome is no more an HR incentive meant for women going for early maternity leave, or a privilege for few - it's now an integral part of their work life.

While over 40% of IBM staff does not have any space in office, a quarter of HP India employees across the functions of sales, marketing and customer support do not have to mark their attendance or swipe employment cards.

Rising real estate costs and travel time, apart from other complexities of maintaining office space for a growing base of staff, are making a real business case for multinational tech firms like IBM, HP, Cisco and Microsoft.

What was once an option taken by those with personal problems or medical predicaments has now become a norm in some companies with the option of working from home finding more takers than ever before. Employees at IBM even receive Rs 15,000 more a month for this. This is because they save the company walloping infrastructure costs, one of the perils of rapid expansion.

This way the company can also drive home the point that it truly promotes work-life balance. The company says it also increases the productivity of employees. "We know that if we can successfully address the challenges of work-life balance, IBM will certainly gain a competitive edge in the war for talent," a company spokesperson said.

The company, however, denied paying these employees extra. At HP, the number is anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000, and the company, which did not confirm the figure as it does not share its India headcount, says it leads to better employee engagement.
 
Source: Tech News - Work from home is the new mantra for employees of IBM, HP, Cisco, MS

Techgig

India ranked 4th as world's most dangerous countries for women

Increasing human trafficking and continuous presence of female foeticide, infanticide has placed India as the world's fourth most dangerous place for women, as per a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters' Trustlaw Women, a hub of legal information and legal support for women's rights . Trust Law contacted 213 gender experts from five continents to rank countries by analyzing six risks. The risks were health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources and trafficking.

In India, a whole gamut of human trafficking is run whereby women and girls are trafficked within and into India since they are most vulnerable into the sex trade. The enormous bulk of trafficked women and girls are poor, some belong to landless families, and most come from dalit, adivasi or other low caste communities.

In 2009, India's then-Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta estimated that 100 million people, mostly women and girls, were involved in trafficking in India that year.

In 2009 it was estimated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation that about 90 percent of trafficking took place within the country and that there were some 3 million prostitutes, of which about 40 percent were children.

The purposes for human trafficking in India are numerous such as forced prostitution, marriage, domestic labour, bonded labour, agricultural labour, industrial labour, entertainment, begging, adoption, drug smuggling and peddling and organ transplants.

The 2007 U.S. Trafficking in Persons report identified that the lack of co-ordinated national action undermines attempts to combat human trafficking. It recommends the urgent necessity to establish an effective national-level body to enforce the law strictly as these problems are made worse by the reported complicity of law enforcement officials in trafficking and related criminal activity.

As far as female infanticide and foeticide in India is concerned up to 50 million girls are thought to be "missing" over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide according to the U.N. Population Fund. According to the report this problem is creating gender imbalances and other serious problems that experts say will have far reaching consequences for years to come.

Experts in India who have analyzed the National Family Health Survey 2 (NFHS2) estimate that about 300,000 girls go "missing" in India each year. Other studies have put the number between 150,000 and 500,000.

In India, where the child sex ratio is calculated as the number of girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 years age group, the problem is severe. The 2001 Census shows there are only 927 girls per 1,000 boys, representing a sharp decline from 1961 when that number was 976. In certain parts of the country there are now fewer than 800 girls for every 1,000 boys.


Apart from India, Afghanistan has been placed as the world's most dangerous country for women and Congo has been placed second due to the horrific levels of rape dominant there. Pakistan grabbed the third place for its increasing domestic abuse and economic discrimination and Somalia ranked fifth respectively due to its genital mutilation and acid attacks.

But if India wants to make its country worth living for women it will need to cover lot of aspects as far as security is concern. According to police records, over 400 rape cases have been reported in the capital in the year 2010 alone. According to the data, 18,359 rape cases were registered in India in the first three quarters of this 2010; hence, we need to provide an environment of safety and security to our women with strict implementation of the female centric laws that's in theory in our books. 
Source: SiliconIndia, Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 12:31 IST 

Engineering students develop 110 km/liter diesel bike

Have you ever imaged of a two-wheeler that runs on a diesel engine?

Four engineering students from Bangalore have developed a diesel bike that gives a mileage of 110km/liter - a challenging task accomplished by the innovative brains.

A magnificent idea that can be of a great help to the common man who struggles with the never-ending fuel price hikes, the young brains from the at the M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology took the challenge of developing a two wheeler diesel engine with automatic gear and automatic clutch and have successfully carried out the project.

Guided by their project guide Dr. S V Prakash, four mechanical engineering students namely Naveen V V, Tony Paul, Nadeem Anwar and Sanjay Bhushan decided develop a diesel-run two-wheeler as our final year project. Fitting a Bullet engine to Kinetic Blaze, they had to do a lot of alterations. While spending four months on the project with various workshops in Bangalore and Coimbatore, they reduced 325cc engine to 200cc, flywheel weight reduced to 7kg and power reduced to 3.5 hp from 6.5 hp apart from many other alteration works.

"We have spent almost 72 thousand on the production of this prototype and with mass production, the cost would be around 55 to 60 thousand," said Nadeem Anwar, a member of the team.

The highlight of the innovative work is that it gives a mileage of 110km/liter and it reduces travel expense to a great degree as diesel engine runs at 40 paise per km and petrol engine runs at 1.70 per km. The vehicle offers a smooth ride with automatic gear and clutches and is less polluting compared with other diesel-engine vehicles. In addition, the life of a diesel engine is generally about twice as long as that of a petrol engine.

Dr. S V Prakash, the project guide who has been a great help to the young students to materialize their dream project, said India's largest engineering and construction conglomerate 'Kirloskar Group' has shown interest in the technology and has offered to further assistance to the project.

Source of News: SiliconIndia, Monday, 06 June 2011
Authour: Binu Paul