vol. V no. 4 quarterly journal october-december-2009 - Punjab ...

e-trackEditorPratima Trivedie-trackEditorial TeamAmbrish MishraPramod DikshitDharmendra TewariSanjay SrivastavaNidhi GoyalPrinted bySwastik Printing Press27, Mai Gi Ki Bagiya,Kapoorthala Crossing,Mahanagar, LucknowMobile : 9415419300punjab national bank instituteof information technologyVibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar,Lucknow--226 010 (U.P.)T : +91 522 2721442, 2721174F : +91 522 2721201, 2721441E-mail : bankingtech@pnbiit.co.inURL : www.pnbiit.comReader's CommentsI thankfully acknowledge the receipt of yourquarterly journal “e track” VOL V no 3.I would circulate this to all the teachers,research scholars and concern students fortheir up gradation and feedback also.Wishing you the very best.Dr Anurika Vaish, Division HeadMBA – IT & MSCLIS, IIIT – AllahabadThought for the quarterHappiness is when what youthink, what you say and what youdo are in harmony!Mahatma GandhiFrom the editorDear Readers,In modern times search engines have becomeubiquitous tools of our everyday lives, individuals andbusinesses crave to see their web pages showing upfrequently on the top of query results lists. Theeconomic advantage of high ranking search engine ledto the emergence of the dark art of web spamming, someauthors create web content with the main purpose ofmisleading search engines and obtaining higher-thandeservedranking in search results. Successfulspamming induces a bias in search results and decreasequality, as truly popular pages are replaced by artificially boosted spamdocuments. Highlighting various issues on it article “Spam and Anti-SpamMeasures: A potential threat to web based commerce” has been added in thisissue of “e- track.”In this global competitive environment, Organizations are fast realizing thatthey can't be all things to all people. Hence companies now, be it a softwarecompany, a service provider or a manufacturing firm, decide to concentrate onwhat they are good at and outsource everything else, i.e., focus on their corecompetency, and let someone else do the rest in a more efficient and cost-effectivemanner. Due to this digitization of knowledge Human Resource Outsourcingremains to be a gold mine waiting to be unearthed. Article “Human ResourceOutsourcing: A Bird's Eye view” covers the various intricacies in the topic.The gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the primary indicators used tomeasure the condition of a country's economy. It represents the total value of allgoods and services produced over a specific time period. Usually, GDP isexpressed as a comparison to the previous quarter or year. The article“Economic Growth of India” covers trends of Indian GDP growth in India invarious sectors, along with how it is affected by recession.Globally, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) have been the inimitablesolution for the banking sector, which has revolutionized the way transactionsare carried out. Similarly, in India too, in the last few years ATMs have changedthe face of banking services. Article “Expansion of ATM Network” covers statusof ATMs in our country along with RBI guidelines relating to them.Hope you find this serving of e-track interesting and informative.A very happy and prosperous New Year 2010Happy Reading…………..Pratima Trivedie-mail : pratima@pnbiit.co.inContentsFrom Director's Desk 3Spam and Anti-Spam Measures : A potential threat................. Dr. ( Mrs.) Ela Kumar 4Human Resource Outsourcing : A Bird's Eye view Anchal Singh 9Economic Growth Of India Pratima Trivedi 15Expansion of ATM Network Bipin K Deokar 22Financial and Technical News 26October- December-20092

e-trackSpam and Anti-Spam Measures: A potential threatto web based commerce- Dr. ( Mrs.) Ela KumarIn modern times search engines has become means of finding information, andubiquitous tools of our everyday lives, individuals spammers have successfullyand businesses crave to see their web pages showing managed to exploit this trust. Fromup frequently on the top of query results lists. The their side, the search engines haveeconomic advantage of high search engine ranking put considerable effort inled to the emergence of the dark art of web delivering spam-free query resultsspamming, some authors create web content with the and have developed sophisticated ranking strategies.main purpose of misleading search engines and In this paper we focus on impacts of spammingobtaining higher-than-deserved ranking in search on business communication. This does not mean thatresults. Successful spamming induce a bias in search spamming does not impact other areas. There areresults and decrease quality, as truly popular pages findings suggesting that impacts on consumerare replaced by artificially boosted spam documents. communication may be even stronger as consumersCounterbalancing the negative effects of an may prefer services free of charge over services theyincreasing volume of web spam represents a major have to pay for. Due to their specific business modelschallenge for today's web search engines."free" services may tend to pay less attention toResearch in Information Retrieval has ensuring reliable mail delivery than servicesproduced a large body of work that, theoretically, targeting business customers. From a businessproduces high quality search results. Yet, search perspective spam sent to employees was regarded asengines admit that IR theory is but one of their something annoying but spam was rarely consideredconsiderations. One of the major issues that a serious problem that businesses need to address ininfluence the quality of ranking is the effect that web a systematic way. A lack of investigations of thespam has on their results. Web spamming is defined economical impacts of spam might have contributedas the practice of manipulating web pages in order to to the underestimation of the looming spaminfluence search engines rankings in ways beneficial problem.to the spammers. Spammers aim at search engines, Background: What is Spam?but target the end users. Their motive is usuallyIn what follows we briefly discuss definitionscommercial, but can also be political or religious.of spam, the difference between "solicited" andOne of the reasons behind the users' difficulty "unsolicited", products typically advertised byto distinguish trustworthy from untrustworthy spamming, and a summary of why spamming couldinformation comes from the success that both search become a serious problem.engines and spammers have enjoyed in the lastdecade. Users have come to trust search engines as aOctober- December-20094

e-trackSpammers attack search engines through textand link manipulations:Text spam: This includes repeating text excessivelyand/or adding irrelevant text on the page that willcause incorrect calculation of page relevance;adding misleading meta-keywords or irrelevant“anchor text” that will cause incorrect application ofrank heuristics.Link spam: This technique aims to change theperceived structure of the web graph in order tocause incorrect calculation of page reputation. Suchexamples are the so-called “link-farms,” page“awards,” 1 domain flooding (plethora of domainsthat re-direct to a target site), etc.Both kinds of spam aim to boost the ranking ofspammed web pages. So as not to get caught,spammers conceal their actions through cloacking,content hiding and redirection. Cloaking, forexample, aims to serve different pages to searchengine robots and to web browsers (users). For acomprehensive treatment of the spammingtechniques, the interested reader is referred to(Gy¨ongyi and Garcia-Molina, 2005).Why Spamming Could Become a Serious ProblemThese are some most important aspects as towhy “Spam" could become such a serious problem:1. "Cost-Shifting"Sending spam is extremely cheap (for thesender). The costs of spamming are paid by others:network maintainers, recipients, etc.2. "Fraud"Often, spams pretend to be replies or follow-ups to previous inquiries to get people into openingmessages.Definitions of SpamIn the context of computer networks the term"spam" originally referred to a specific kind ofUsenet (NetNews) postings (Baseley 1998). In themeantime using the term for email has becomecommon practice. Mueller (2003) provides a spamdefinition that covers both Usenet postings andemail:Spam is flooding the Internet with manycopies of the same message, in an attempt to forcethe message on people who would not otherwisechoose to receive it. Most spam is commercialadvertising, often for dubious products, get-richquickschemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam coststhe sender very little to send -- most of the costs arepaid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than bythe sender.Web SpamThe web has changed the way we inform andget informed. Every organization has a web site andpeople are increasingly comfortable accessing it forinformation on any question they may have. Theexploding size of the web necessitated thedevelopment of search engines and web directories.Most people with online access use a search engineto get informed and make decisions that may havemedical, financial, cultural, political, security orother important implications in their lives (Corey,2001; Vedder, 2000; Hindman et al., 2003; Lynch,2001). Moreover, 85% of the time, people do notlook past the first ten results returned by the searchengine (Silverstein et al., 1999). Given this, it is notsurprising that anyone with a web presence strugglesfor a place in the top ten positions of relevant websearch results.5October- December-2009

e-track3. "Disguise origin"Spammers can easily disguise (at least to someextent) the origin of their spam messages. OtherwiseVarious spamming techniques have beendetected. Most of them can be placed into threemajor categories:it would be just too easy to filter spam and spamming * Content based spamwould be rendered useless. * Link based spamOften spam is "relayed" by third party servers * Page-hiding based spamwhich means that the spam seems to originate from aInitially search engine used traditional"neutral" mail server rather than a mail server knowninformation retrieval algorithms, such as TFIDF, toto be operated by a spammer.rank web pages for a given query. During this period,Anti-Spam Measurescontent based spam appeared. For example,In this section we briefly discuss the two mainapproaches to fighting spam which are filtering andblocking. Commercial products typically usecombinations of different filtering and learningtechniques (see Metz, 2003 for a product overview)and may also include blocking techniques.Approaches can be implemented either on the user'sdesktop or on the respective mail server. There is aof votes on the target web pages. More or betterbusinesstrend to redirect corporate mail to remoteservers operated by anti-spam companies. In thiscase the anti-spam company operates the server andmaintains the anti-spam measures applied. From atechnical point of view both filtering and blockinghave their specific advantages and disadvantageswhich will be discussed in the next section.Search engine spam is the use of unethicalmethods to manipulate search engines' rankingresults and bring pages to a higher ranking positionthan they should be. Some experts have listed searchengine spam as one of the biggest challenges for websearch engines. Researchers have published papersmentioning spam or addressing some kind of spam.Surveys introducing different types of spam havebeen published.spammers repeated keywords many times within apage or inserted unrelated keywords for the page tomatch more queries.To improve search quality, people proposedlink based ranking algorithms, such as Page Rankand HITS. The basic philosophy of these link basedranking algorithms is that links on the web are a kindquality votes are good signals showing the targetpages are of high authority. The link based rankingalgorithms were good at combating content basedspam. But soon the link based spam evolved.Spammers began to create link farms or artificiallink structures to boost certain pages' link popularity.More and more comments with useless links alsoappear on reader-editing systems, such as blogs andwiki system.The page-hiding based spam is not necessaryfor the functioning of content based spam or linkbased spam, but it is still a difficult problem forsearch engines. For example, cloaking is a kind ofpage-hiding based spam and several popular searchengines consider cloaking as spam.October- December-20096

e-trackMainly the anti spam techniques can bedivided into three broad categoriesi. Anti content spamii. Anti link spamiii. Anti page hiding spamThe anti content spam techniques can befurther divided into NLP method, link basedmethods, statistical methods. The anti link spam iscategorized into link based methods, statisticalmethods, machine learning methods, graph theory ormathematical method, trust or badness basedmethods. The anti page hiding spam can be ofmachine learning method and toolbar baed method.Impacts of Anti-Spam MeasuresIn the previous sections we have outlined thatspam causes significant costs. Anti-spam measurescan be used to significantly reduce the amount ofspam pages. Still companies investing in anti-spamtechnology need to consider that deploying antispamtechnology is not a "free ride". By this we meanthat implementing such measures always involvescoping with specific advantages and disadvantages.The security risks from spam are very real –they are no longer just a nuisance. The growingvariety of keystroke loggers, password-stealingTrojans and other threats means that corporate data isincreasingly at risk. Data theft can include sensitivecontent like usernames and passwords, but alsofinancial data, customer data, trade secrets and othertypes of confidential information. The increasingend goals of stealing information (personal andcorporate), hijacking systems for a wide range ofpurposes and launching additional malicious attacksall have serious business implications, in addition tothe more traditional (but still real) impacts tobandwidth, infrastructure and other costs.For every one of those hundreds of millions ofqueries performed on Google each day, the searchengine returns a results page with websites rankedaccording to relevance to the search term. Such is theuser's implicit trust of search engines' algorithmsthat more than 90% do not go past the first threeresults pages looking for answers (iProspect.com,Inc, 2006, p. 4). Just as traditional consumers ofpaper-based media trusted editorial content morethan advertisements, Internet surfers are more likelyto visit sites prioritised on the results pagesgenerated from their queries than click on 'relevant'advertised sites. The exponential growth of theInternet (Ntoulas, et al., 2004, p. 2) has meant thatmerely having a website is insufficient: the issue of'findability' is fast becoming a concern of paramountimportance with direct impact on the traffic andrevenue of a net domain. Traffic throughputgenerated from search engines also generally resultin greater 'conversion rates' for commercial websites– that is, conversion from traffic to economicalbenefits due to visitors to the site making purchasesor interacting in other ways with the site (Thurow,2003, p. 231). Conceivably, from a websiteoperator's perspective, the higher the site's rankingson the results page, the better.Spam is having a negative impact on the digitaleconomy, and results in important economic andsocial costs for countries. Given the potential forfurther problems as a result of the convergence ofcommunication technologies and the emergence ofubiquitous communication and mobile Internet,countries are faced with the necessity of findingeffective ways to combat spam. In order to meet this7October- December-2009

e-trackchallenge, the Committee for Information,Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP) at its At the end of 2004 the total number of Internetmeeting on 3-4 March 2003 supported work on this users in the world reached 380 million. About 42%important topic, requesting that it be placed on a fast of them have broadband connections with “alwaystrack, and noting that this was a global issue. on” capabilities. Broadband subscribers increasedSpam is a cross-cutting issue impacting onnetwork utilization, congestion issues, and Internetissues; privacy and network security issues; andconsumer protection issues. In order to better co-ordinate work on spam and assist in obtaining a morerapid consensus on a policy framework to tackle spamissues set up a horizontal “Task Force on Spam.”The primary objective of the Task Force was tobring together designated anti-spam policy cocoordinators and allow for the most effectivepreparation of urgently needed policy tools tocombat spam.Based on estimates, spammers can generatemore than 20 million dollars from their spammingactivities. To protect your company and yourwireless network, what you need is a unified WiFisecurity and antispam appliance that you can deployimmediately.Conclusionfrom 118 million at the end of 2004 to 137 million bymid-2005. As ICT networks develop, however,besides the creation of an increasing range ofopportunities, a host of new challenges arise.The discussion in this paper indicates thatalthough anti-spam measures may provideenormous benefit they also create specific problems.This means that deploying anti-spam measures incorporate environments demands careful reviewingof the pros and cons of anti-spam measures.Increasing interest in online communities and thetrend towards e-government suggest there are quite afew areas in which impacts of anti-spam measuresneed to be clarified.Dr. (Mrs.) Ela Kumar is Associate Professor,School of Computer and Information Sciences,Gautma Buddha University, Greater Noida, UPA person can make you feel high,A person can make you feel low.But only you can decide,Which way you want to go.A person can hurt you mentally;A person can hurt you physically.But only you can place,A limit on your abilities.A person can cause drama,A person can cause a situation.Only YouBut only you can create,Your own reputation.A person can make you laugh,A person can make you cry.But only you can make,Decisions for your life.I guess what I'm trying to say,That when you're living day to day.Don't live by what people do,But live by what you know is trueOctober- December-20098

Human Resource Outsourcing: A Bird's Eye viewe-track- Anchal SinghAbstractthe staff, the budgets or theIn this global competitive environment ,inclination, to deal with the nittyrapidly changing market dynamics have createdgritty of HR management, so theysubstantial pressure on organizations to investgo in for outsourcing.more time focusing on their core business to grow Within the context ofdramatically through new breakthrough product business process outsourcinglines and new business models or on achieving (BPO), human resource outsourcing is the fastestdifferentiation through higher performing core growing segment .In recent years it has gainedprocess such as distribution, customer relationship increasing acceptance because by outsourcingmanagement, logistics and branding -all of which routine administrative functions. HR professionalsleads to innovation.are now able to take on a strategic role and focusOrganizations are fast realizing that they can'ton other business priorities.be all things to all people. Hence companies now, be The Concept of HRMit a software company, a service provider or aThe concept of Human Resource Managementmanufacturing firm, decide to concentrate on what(HRM) arose in the year 1900 while it exists fromthey are good at and outsource everything else, i.e.,the periods of early civilization .It was in the periodfocus on their core competency, and let someone elseof early 20th century ,that psychologists anddo the rest in a more efficient and cost-effectiveemployment experts in the United States being themanner. Due to this digitization of knowledgehuman relations movement, which reviewedHuman Resource Outsourcing remains to be a goldemployees in conditions of their psychology andmine waiting to be unearthed.their relational needs with companies ,which meantIn the present paper an endeavor has been placing an employee than just unessential hardwaremade to throw light growth of HRO, the reasons parts .behind outsourcing, types, issues and its scope in ourThe faction developed throughout the middlecountry.of century, putting its supports strongly forKey Words: Human Resource Outsourcing, Human leadership, unity and reliability which playedResource Management, BPO.important role in organization success. With anIntroductionostensible amount of capital investment, a HumanResource Outsourcing contract can solve lots ofOutsourcing is widely regarded as a strategicreasons and help a company focus on more strategictool for accomplishing organizational objectivesissues.which literally means transfer or delegation of theoperation and day to day management of a businessHR Outsourcing activity can be subdividedprocess to an external service provider that is longinto PEOs, BPOs, ASPs or e –services based on theterm in nature and results oriented. The Humantype of service it offers.Resource department is critical for employeesatisfaction in any firm .Some business don't haveProfessional Employer Organization (PEO)A PEO assumes full responsibility of the9October- December-2009

e-trackcompany's (client's) human resource administration.It becomes a co employer of the company's workersby taking full legal responsibility of its employees,including having the final say in hiring and theamount of money employees make.Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)It is a broad term encompassing outsourcing inall fields of businesses. BPO differentiates itself byeither inducting novel technology or by applyingpresent technology in a different way for improvinga process. Specifically in HR, a BPO would makesure a company's HR is supported by the latesttechnologies, such as self access and HR datawarehousing.Application Service Provider (ASP)ASP provides host software on the Web andrent it to users some ASPs host HR software. Whilesome are well known packaged applicationswhereas others are customized HR softwaredeveloped by the vendor.E-ServicesE –services are those HR services that are webbased .Both BPO and ASP's can be referred as e-service companies. The employee benefitsoutsourcing are adopted by the TVS –Lucas Ltd.,Ambattur and Madras Fertilizers Ltd (MFL),Manali, Triuvallur District.HR Outsourcing in IndiaIn our country the commonly outsourcedprocess are related with training, payroll processing,surveys, benchmark studies and statutory compliance.Every organization whether big or small wants toachieve productivity by enhancing return oninvestment (ROI) and to gain economies of scale.Salary and benefits processing, benefitsadministration and compensation, benchmarkingadministration and compensation, benchmarkingand job design are the commonly outsourced HRactivities in India. The global financial crisis whichstarted with sub prime mortgages in the U.S. during2007 had engulfed almost entire financial servicesindustry not only where it emerged but also to otherparts of the countries during the subsequent year,leading to severe liquidity crunch.In India, the gross domestic product (GDP)growth slipped from 9 percent to 7 percent during2008-09 and it is estimated that in the coming yeari.e.2009-10 it will be hovering around 5 to 6.5percent. Its impact is expected to be seen on IT / ITes(IT –enabled services) which relies substantially onthe U.S. market automobile and real estate.However, most IT companies have opted to tightentheir belts and get going with their projects. In thecoming six months the industry will have to face achallenging role as new customers will be moreconcentrated cost minimization and existing oneswill be keen to renegotiate .The factors that areprevalent in the present scenario are cancellation ofdiscretionary projects and minimizing existingcontracts These two issues will exert great influenceon Indian software outsourcing service providers.In such a scenario IT companies isincreasingly resorting to global sourcing torationalize costs by maintenance, IT infrastructureservices (IT IS) and business process outsourcing(BPO).Meanwhile due to liquidity crunch most of thecompanies are going in for sporadic changewarranting extensive deployment of technology.In view of the prevailing economic scenariothe companies are exerting much pressure to adjustwith the changing environment and adopt costsaving initiatives which will benefit globaloutsourcing .During adverse business situationclients are more likely to increase their offshorespending in order to get more with the same or fewerOctober- December-200910

e-trackbudget dollars .Yet cost is not the only motivation for outsourcing, the other key driver is the “value” (HR)that outsourcing delivers. This scenario can be inferred by Table No.1 which shows outsourcers revealingthe predominance of the relatively HCLs of the industrialized countries.Table No: 1 Outsourcers, 2002Rank Country Business Services (BP) US$ MillionRank Country Computer and InfoServices US $ Million1 USA 40,929 1 Germany 6,1242 Germany 39,1113 2 U.K. 26023 Japan 24,714 3 Japan 21484 Holland 21,038 4 Holland 15865 Italy 20370 5 Spain 15726 France 19,111 6 USA 15477 U.K. 16,184 7 France 11508 India 11,817 8 China P.R. 11339 China P.R. 7,957 9 Russia 59210 Russia 4,583Source: IMF Balance of Payments yearbook, cited in AMITI &WEL, 2004Fear of service outsourcing is it justified? NBER.Table No: 2 Recent trends in Human Resource Management PracticesTrends in the Business EnvironmentEFFECTSONHRMACTIVITIESCompensationLabour Technology GlobalizationIncreased Complexity HRISs have increased HR must coordinate activitiesof pay systems control of benefits across countries to ensure(options, individual ,streamlined compliance consistency with present as wellandgroup and enabled employee as local values and practices.incentives,etc)self serviceCompensation of exOrganizationandDevelopmentEmployees have higherexpectations due tomobility and tightlabour marketEmployees self serviceand distance Educationonline job searchIncreased diversity in localworkforce presents challengeWorkforcePlanningScarcity of talentencourages successionplanningIncreasing demand byemployee for more userfriendly deliveryHR must carefully select ,trainand evaluate experiencesWorkforceServicesOnline Job posting ,resume matching,candidate trackingincrease efficiencyNew opportunities foroutsourcing as emergingeconomies participate in marketsfor IT enabled services.EmployeeDataManagementAutomated collection ofregulatory complianceinformationSource: Adler, 2002.11October- December-2009

e-trackHuman Resource Outsourcing: Some IssuesPresently, we live in the age of outsourcing whereby firms seem to be subcontracting a wide range ofset of activities, ranging from product design to assembly, from research and development to marketing,distribution and after sales service. When a firm senses a need of a specialists who can more effectivelyprovide service or component that was previously handled in –house then in that case both firm and itssupplier can reap the benefits by concentrating on what they can do best leading to improved performance.It is believed that in the days to come 90 percent of the HR function will be fully automated –which willgenerate substantial savings for both the firm that is outsourcing and the firm providing the outsourcedservices by offloading the things that are not core to any business and concentrating on what it does best.Now a days corporate business world is a network of alliances , partners ,distributors, suppliers andcustomers. Current human resource offerings a re becoming standardized and more effective and arecharacterized by a transparent process that facilitates human resource system managers and employee–users o gather required information usually e –enabled.Table No: 2 Some Human Resource Outsourcing DealsDate Partners Terms Of DealOctober 2000 Exult ,Bank of America Companies still negotiating a $1 billion, 10 year deal .Bank ofAmerica will acquire 5 million shares of Exult stock and anoption to purchase another 5 million shares. About 800 to 900of the 1,000 people working in the bank’April 2000November1999November1999Nortel Networks,Pricewaterhouse CoopersGeneral Motors ,ArthurAndersonBP Amoco,Pricewaterhouse CoopersPricewaterhouse Coopers manages payroll, human resources,accounts payable, employee training and other operations in afive year deal for an undisclosed amount. About 1,000 NortelNetworks employees were transferred to PricewaterhouseCoopers’BPO.Arthur Andersen was awarded a $250 million deal to manageadministrative accounting duties and help GM upgrade itslegacy payroll systems to People Soft Human Resources.Four hundred GM employees were given the option ofworking at an Arthur Andersen service centre.BP and Pricewaterhouse Coopers signed a $1.1 billion ,10year deal to outsource accounting and SAP financials ;theconsulting firm also acquired BP’s application system group.About 1,200 BP employees joined Pricewaterhouse Coopers.Source: Adler 2002.October- December-200912

e-trackIncreased productivityThrough employing skilled manpower atlower costs companies can really increase theirproductivity leading thereby to better customersatisfaction and increased profitability.Beat CompetitionIn today's fierce competition a companyneeds to provide high-quality services to itscustomers in order to retain them, as well as providethe services for cheap prices. In this caseOutsourcing can help the company maintain lowerrates with better service solutions, thereby givingthem a better market position or even a competitiveadvantage.Tax benefitsBy selecting the right BPO destinationcompanies can save up on taxes in turn saving oncosts.However some potential pitfalls may beHanding over unnecessarily complex orbadly understood systems to an externalprovider may create a situation of "pickingup spaghetti". which will limits potentialbenefitsIf there is already effective IT systems in-house, then cost savings may not be achievedfrom an external provider.Cordial relation is an essential perquisite andthe key relationship between staff and theirline managers remains in-house, leavingplenty of work on manager / staffrelationships that still has to be handleddespite the outsourcing relationshipLocal knowledge and ownership of humanresource processes could be lost.Scope of HR OutsourcingIn the recent times one of the important trendis the growth of human resources outsourcing whichdoes the necessary administrative tasks such aspayroll, benefits education /training, recruiting,Reasons for HR OutsourcingIt is perceived from the literatures on HRoutsourcing, that companies deploy this practice forreaping the benefits of both operational and strategicreasons to enhance the HR value chain as well assupport the development of human resources in theorganization. The five competitive forces whichadvocates the deployment of Human resourceoutsourcing are downsizing, rapid growth (ordecline), globalization, increased competition andrestructuring.The Outsourcing market is estimated to growtremendously in the coming few with an increasingnumber of companies planning to outsource bothlow end and high end jobs to offshore destinations.Also the number of companies providingoutsourcing services is on the rise, thus resulting inlarger varietyThere are several marked advantages ofoutsourcingConcentration on core business areasThrough outsourcing back office operationswhich warrants for high maintenance andspecialized attention businesses can concentrate ontheir core competencies while it can be managedsmoothly by a specialized third party company.World-class technology at lower ratesIt is quite difficult to keep abreast with latesttechnological innovations and solutions. Thusoutsourcing to companies that have the resources,expertise and desire to continuously update theirtechnological solutions, availsthe trueadvantage ofoutsourcing. Skilled manpower at affordable pricesOutsourcing gives a company the ability to getaccess to skilled and trained man power at extremelylow rates. Leading to increase in productivity as wellas cost savings. Moreover, by outsourcing acompany saves on recruitment, training and otherhuman resource costs it would otherwise have tomaintain internally.13October- December-2009

e-trackpersonnel, administration so as to have economies ofscale and achieve standardization of services. Due tofast paced global changes it is becomingincreasingly prevalent hence the number ofoutsourcing companies is continuously increasingand it can happen in any in HR functions like payrolladministration (producing checks handling taxes,dealing with sick time vacations), employee benefits(Health ,medical ,Life Insurance, Cafeteria etc).Presently India is skimming the surface ofthe HR outsourcing market potential Indian lifeHewitt, FIDELITY, EXULT and MAFOI are someof the prominent HR outsourcing service providersin India and the clients encompassing giants ofmanufacturing ,software and service industries likeGE Capital ,Ford Motors, Hyundai Motors, SatyamGroup, Infosys Enron, Haldia Petrochemicals andHSBC.Conclusionhttp://www.cyfuture.com/hr-outsourcing-company.htm.The prospects of HR outsourcing businessopportunity is large and India is likely to garner alarger piece of this pie in the future as it hasinherent advantages such as low cost and readypool of English speaking manpower .Companiesare going in for outsourcing the complete range ofHR delivery and designing products related withpolicies ,compensation structure and recruitment.Indian companies are not only providing services forthe client's abroad but are also catering to the localmarket.ReferencesKumar Veera P and Chandarmohan R,“Human Resource Outsourcing: A Bird'sEye view”, Southern Economist,Vol.48No:1May 1st 2009.Saha, Malayendu, “Human ResourceOutsourcing: A Strategy for GainingCompetitive Advantage”, The CharteredAccountant, Dec-2005.http://www.indiachild.comhttp://www.bpotrends.comhttp://beakware.com/resources /whyoutsourceHR.phph t t p : / / w w w . c h i l l i b r e e z e . c o m /articles_various/ human-resources.as.http://www.go4bpo.com/human-resourceoutsourcing.htm.Ms Anchal Singh is Research Scholar,Faculty of Commerce, B.H.U. Varanasi-05Anger is your greatest enemy,You yourself are its only remedy.It makes you weak from beneath,It controls you from head to feet.Anger gives birth to sorrow,“ANGER”It makes the joys narrow.Anger can create an ocean of fear,It can not wipe a drop of tear.Anger lives by giving you ache,So kill it for your own sake.October- December-200914

e-trackEconomic Growth of India-Pratima TrivediThe gross domestic product (GDP)is one the primary indicators used tomeasure the condition of a country'seconomy. It represents the total valueof all goods and services producedover a specific time period. Usually, GDP isexpressed as a comparison to the previous quarter oryear.Measuring GDP is complicated, but at itsmost basic, the calculation can be done in one of twoways: either by adding up what everyone earned in ayear (income approach), or by adding up whateveryone spent (expenditure method). Logically,both measures should arrive at roughly the sametotal.The income approach, which is sometimesreferred to as GDP(I), is calculated by adding uptotal compensation to employees, gross profits forincorporated and non incorporated firms, and taxesless any subsidies. The expenditure method is themore common approach and is calculated by addingtotal consumption, investment, governmentspending and net exports.As one can imagine, economic productionand growth, what GDP represents, has a large impacton nearly everyone within that economy. Forexample, when the economy is healthy, you willtypically see low unemployment and wage increasesas businesses demand labor to meet the growingeconomy. A significant change in GDP, whether upor down, usually has a significant effect on the stockmarket. It's not hard to understand why: a badeconomy usually means lower profits forcompanies, which in turn means lower stock prices.Investors really worry about negative GDP growth,which is one of the factors economists use todetermine whether an economy is in a recession.GDP of major countries of the world ( 2008)NAME OF THE COUNTRYIndia and its GDPThe economy of India is the twelfth largesteconomy in the world by market exchange rates andthe fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).In the 1990s, following economic reform from thesocialist-inspired economy of post-independenceIndia, the country began to experience rapideconomic growth, as markets opened forinternational competition and investment. In the21st century, India is an emerging economic powerwith vast human and natural resources, and a hugeknowledge base. Economists predict that by 2020,India will be among the leading economies of theworld.GDP( millions of USD)1 United States 132018192 Japan 43401333 Germany 29066814 China 26680715 United Kingdom 23450156 France 22307217 Italy 18447498 Canada 12514639 Spain 122398810 Brazil 1067962India was under social democratic-basedpolicies from 1947 to 1991. The economy wascharacterized by extensive regulation,protectionism, and public ownership, leading topervasive corruption and slow growth. Since 1991,continuing economic liberalisation has moved the15October- December-2009

e-trackeconomy towards a market-based system. A revival of economic reforms and better economic policy in2000s accelerated India's economic growth rate. By 2008, India had established itself as the world's secondfastestgrowing major economy. However, the year 2009 saw a significant slowdown in India's official GDPgrowth rate to 6.1% as well as the return of a large projected fiscal deficit of 10.3% of GDP which would beamong the highest in the world.It has not percolated to sectors where labor is intensive (agriculture) and in states were poverty isacute (Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh).Trend of India's GDP GrowthThe following has been the trend in India's GDP growth over the past few decades1960-1980 : 3.5%1980-1990 : 5.4%1990-2000 : 4.4%2000-2009 : 6.4%India has shown a consistent growth in GDP over the past few years. From $424 billion in the year2002-03 it has consistently increased to $534 billion in 2004-05 and $631 billion in 2006-07.India 's GDPgrowth rate over the years is as shown in chartOctober- December-200916

Sectorwise Economic growthGDP is measured by growth in 3 sectors-e-trackSECTOR WISEGDPAGRICULTURE SERVICES INDUSTRIESContribution of different sectors in GDP over the years is as below17October- December-2009

e-trackIn 1990-91, the contribution of agriculturetowards Gross Domestic Product (GDP) output wasat 32%, which was very high, and has decreased toby problems such as improper storage and transportand corrupt distribution policy. This all problemshave proved to be real problems.20% by 2005-06. If trends continue, the output The kharif crops coverage up to July 10, 2006would be expected to decrease further. This makes increased by around 11.9 per cent over a year ago.us think about the fact that The Indian economy isFor all crops taken together, around 27 permainly dependant on agriculture, but in the future itcent of the normal area has been sown so far.would contribute to only 10-15% of the GDP. WeTotal foodgrains production during 2005-06need to look in to the reasons for this worrying trend.was placed at around 208 million tonne, an increaseOrganic farming is one good example, which isof 5 per cent over the previous year, mainly on thepicking up as a feasible business alternative. India isback of higher output of rice.importing wheat and sugar apart from major cashcrops such as cotton. The crux of the problem is that The increase in the production of non-India depends mainly on a central agency such as foodgrains crops was led mainly by sugarcane andFood Corporation of India (FCI) for the collection, cotton Agriculture is a very significant sector of thestorage and distribution through Public Distribution economy . More than providing bread and butter toSchemes (PDS). In cases such as monsoon failure, more than half the population, this sector hasthe FCI faces a distinct lack of supply, compounded important supply-side relationships with industry asit provides the raw material for important agro-October- December-200918

e-trackprocessing industries like cotton textiles, tobacco, goods, both durable and non-durable segments, onsugar, wood products, among many others.the other hand, recorded some deceleration, partlyIndustryon account of base effect.Industrial production continued to grow at9.8 per cent during Q1 in 2006-07 TheInfrastructureThe infrastructure sector recorded growth ofmanufacturing sector with double digit growth (10.9 5.9 per cent in Q1 of 2006-07 against 7.1 per cent inper cent) continued to be the key driver of industrial comparable period in fiscal 2005-06 on account ofactivity, contributing almost 92.5 per cent of the deceleration in all industries except petroleumgrowth in industry. Electricity and mining sectors, refinery products Double-digit growth in thehowever, continued to exhibit subdued growth. petroleum refinery products and moderation inT h e r o b u s t p e r f o r m a n c e o f t h e growth of the cement and steel sectors could bemanufacturing sector was largely led by 'chemical attributed largely to base effect. The decline in crudeand chemical products', 'machinery and oil production resulted from fall in production inequipments', 'basic metal and alloy industries', plants of ONGC at Mumbai High.'transport equipment and parts', and 'non-metallicmineral products'. The manufacturing sector growthServices ( Tertiary Sector)Services sector with double-digit growthat 10.9 per cent during Q1 of 2006-07 was the during the past two fiscal (2004-05 & 2005-06) hashighest for this period in the last ten years.further strengthened its place as the leading sector ofAccording to the use-based classification, the Indian economy. Services sector now accountsthe capital goods sector had an impressive growth of for more than 60 per cent of overall GDP. Lead21.1 per cent during Q1 of fiscal 2006-07 even on a indicators of services sector performance for Aprilhighbase, reflecting strong investment demand. May 2006 suggest continued buoyancy. RevenueThis is the highest growth for April-May period earning freight of the railways continued to recordunder the new base (1993-94=100). Higher strong growth. Substantial activity was witnessed inproduction of laboratory and scientific instruments, cargo handled by civil aviation and passengersbroad gauge passenger carriage, boilers, complete handled at domestic and international airports.tractors, industrial machinery and textile machinery There was a sharp rise in new cell phoneboosted capital goods production. Basic goods connections. Healthy growth in bank deposits andsector was buoyed up by growth in cement sector, non-food credit, and, increased business processcarbon steel and other minerals. Intermediate goods outsourcing-information technology enabledsector, after recording subdued growth during most services exports are expected to buoy up the subof2005-06, witnessed moderate improvement, sector 'financing, insurance, real estate and businessfacilitated by higher production of viscose staple services'.fibre, filament yarn, cotton yarn, paints, enamelsand varnishes, and PVC pipes and tubes. ConsumerRecession (2008) and India's GrowthIndian companies have major outsourcing19October- December-2009

e-trackdeals from the US. India's exports to the US havealso grown substantially over the years. The Indiasections of commodities could face sharp impactdue to the volatile nature of these sectors.economy is likely to lose between 1 to 2 percentage The IT sector will be the worst hit as 75 perpoints in GDP growth in the next fiscal year. Indian cent of its revenues come from the US. Low demandcompanies with big tickets deals in the US would for services may force most Indian Fortune 500see their profit margins shrinking.companies to slash their IT budgets. ZinnovThe worries for exporters will grow as rupeestrengthens further against the dollar. But expertsnote that the long-term prospects for India arestable. A weak dollar could bring more foreignmoney to Indian markets. Oil may get cheaperbrining down inflation. A recession could bringdown oil prices to $70.The whole of Asia would be hit by a recessionas it depends on the US economy. Even thoughdomestic demand and diversification of trade in theAsian region will partly counter any drop in the USdemand, one simply can't escape a downturn in theworld's largest economy. The US economy accountsfor 30 per cent of the world's GDP.In the globalised world, completedecoupling is impossible. But India may remainrelatively less affected by adverse global events." Infact, many small and medium companies havealready started developing trade ties with China andEuropean countries to ward off big losses. if the USeconomy contracts much more than anticipated, thewhole world's GDP growth-which is estimated at3.7 per cent by the IMF-will contract, and Indiawould be no exception.The only silver lining is that the recessionwill happen slowly, probably in six months or so. Asof now, IT and IT-enabled services, textiles,jewellery, handicrafts and leather segments willsuffer losses because of their trade link. CertainConsulting, a research and offshore advisory, saysthat besides companies from ITeS and BPO,automotive components will be affected.During a full recession, US companies inhealth care, financial services and all consumerdemand driven firms are likely to cut down on theirspending. Among other sectors, manufacturing andfinancial institutions are moderately vulnerable. Ifthe service sector takes a serious hit, India may have torevise its GDP to about 8 to 8.5 per cent or even less.US recession is likely to have a dual impacton the outsourcing industry. Appreciating rupeealong with poor performance of US companies (lawfirms, investment banks and media houses) willaffect the bottom line of the oursourcing industry.Small BPOs, which are operating at a net margin of7-8 per cent, will find it difficult to survive.Worst affected because of US recession willbe the service industry of India. Under serviceindustries come BPO, KPO, IT, ITeS etc. Serviceindustry contributes about 52% to India's GDPgrowth. Now if that is going to get hurt then it willalso hurt India's overall growth but very slightly.India is not going to face a major impact due to USrecession. People may say that there is going to be ahuge job loss due to recession. and will cite theexample of TCS firing about 500 employees butthese were employees who didnt perform and forcost cutting one have to reduce Non performingasset and that exactly what has been done. There isOctober- December-200920

e-trackno threat to the skilled people. According toNASSCOM India will have a shortage of about 5million skilled people in IT/ITeS. So there are lots ofopportunitiesFor India, it could mean a furtherappreciation in the rupee vis--vis the US dollar and adarkening of business outlook for sectors dependenton US companies. The overall impact of a USslowdown on India would, however, be minimal asthe factors driving growth here are more local innature. Unlike the rest of Asia, India is a strongdomestic demand story, so any slowing in the US islikely to have a more muted impact on India. Stronggrowth in domestic consumption and significantspending on infrastructure are the two pillars ofIndias growth story. No sector has a dominantinfluence on earnings growth and risks to ourestimate are limited. Corporate India is also learningto master the art of efficient capital management,reduction in costs and delivery of value-addedservices to sustain profit margins. Further, interestrates are expected to be stable primarily due tocontrol over inflation and proactive measuresundertaken by the RBI.Predictions for GDP Growth Ratesfor some Developing CountriesGDP Growth Rate (%)86420Projected GDP Growth Rates for Select Upcoming Economies2005-10 2010-15 2015-20 2020-25 2025-30 2030-35 2035-40 2040-45 2045-50Source: Investopedia.comBrazil China India RussiaAmong countries like Brazil, China, Russiaand India , India is expected to have the highestgrowth rates of around 6% over the coming years.Itis followed by China which gets taken over by Brazilin 2040 followed by Russia.Recommendations for IndiaFor starters, the Eleventh Five Year Plantargets should be recalibrated immediately if thatexercise is to remain credible.We should prepare the people for slowdownin employment generation and plan for countercyclical measures urgently.This should imply an immediate reduction ininterest rates to bring down the cost of capital .Rather than throw more money at theproblem, it is important to identify infrastructureprojects like the highway program where someadditional resources but a lot of attention toimplementation and execution can generateadditional capacities and help raise growth.Perhaps one to be considered seriously is acut in the central excise duties as this will lowerprices and bring forth new demand.Policy makers have to deploy all tools at theircommand to boost business sentiments andconsumer confidence which are both badly shaken.It is an extraordinary situation seeking extraordinarymeasures.Referenceshttp://www.investopedia.com.http://wikipedia.comhttp://business.mapsofindia.comhttp://www.financialexpress.comhttp://www.indiaonestop.comHttp://www.ammas.comMrs. Pratima Trivedi is SeniorFaculty at PNBIIT, Lucknow21October- December-2009

e-trackExpansion of ATM Network- Bipin K DeokarGlobally, Automated Teller Subsequently, even public sector banksMachines (ATMs) have been the (PSBs) followed the suit installing increasinginimitable solution for the banking number of ATMs. In the last couple of years, theresector, which has revolutionised the has been an immense competition among banks —way transactions are carried out. PSBs, private banks, foreign banks and co-operativeSimilarly, in India too, in the last couple of years banks, to set up ATMs across the country. WhileATMs have changed the face of banking services. ATMs facilitate a variety of banking transactions forATMs in India.customers, their maximum usage involves cashIn 1987, HSBC installed the first ATM in withdrawal and balance enquiry.India. In the subsequent years, Indian Bank and Citi After a relatively slow start in the late 1990s,Bank introduced ATMs at various locations. there was a spurt in ATMs installations across theHowever, during the 1990s the Indian ATM industry country — increasing by almost 100% in two yearswitnessed a slow growth on account of high from 1,521 in March 1999 to around 3,000 at the endinstallation costs and dissent from the labour unions of March 2001. The trend continued in theof the bank employees. In fact, the introduction of subsequent two years and the aggregate number ofATMs in India was not warmly welcomed by the ATMs increased to around 12,000 at the end ofvarious labour unions of the banks. As a result the March 2004.next twelve years saw the addition of only about Since 2005, the Indian ATM industry has seen1,500 machines. an explosive growth, as banks have committed toSustained Growthsubstantial capital outlays on ATM deployment asTen years ago, an ATM was a novelty in Indian the usages of ATMs have significantly increased inbanking industry. But with the entry of private sector India and it is not uncommon to see huge queues ofbanks, ATMs flourished in the urban landscape. people at ATMs. At the end of March 2005, aroundPrivate sector banks like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank 17,642 ATM machines were installed in the country(formerly UTI Bank) and HDFC Bank deployed that rose to 27,008 at the end of March 2007 –ATMs aggressively and saw their customer base registering a growth of 53%. According to RBI, theexpanding. number of ATMs in the country as on May 31, 2009,stood at 44,857 – an addition of about 10,000 ATMsin 14 months.Ratio of ATMs to Total Bank BranchesInitially the ratio of ATMs to total bankbranches grew slowly from 4.6% in March 2000 to15.4% in March 2003, but thereafter galloped to alevel of 32.8% in March 2005. As indicated in ChartOctober- December-200922

e-track1 during the financial year 2007-08 the ratio of At end-March 2008, 29 foreign banks wereATMs to total bank branches registered the highestgrowth crossing the 50% mark, the ratio reached anew milestone, which touched to 56.9% at the end ofMarch 2008.Bank Group-wise Spread of ATMsBanks have been installing ATMs to increasetheir reach. Private sector banks primarily drove thegrowth in the installed base of ATMs in the initialfour years, between 2000 and 2003, while in the lastfive years, between 2004 and 2008 it has beenpredominantly triggered by rapid expansion byoperating in India with 277 branches. Of which, onlyeight major foreign banks have installed ATMs inIndia. The aggregate number of ATMs of these majorforeign banks has far exceeded the number of theirbranches; for instance, Citibank with 40 branches inIndia operated 465 ATMs, more than ten times thenumber of their branches.There are basically two types of ATMinstallations: on-site ATM and off-site ATM. On-siteATMs are installed inside the premises of the bank orpublic sector banks. adjacent to the bank branch. While off-site ATMs (aAs indicated in Table 1, nationalised bankswith 13,355 ATMs accounted for the largest share ofinstalled ATMs followed by the new private sectorbanks (9,867), SBI group (8,433), old private sectorbanks (2,100) and foreign banks with 1,034 ATMs.The total number of ATMs installed by foreignbanks and new private sector banks were more thanthree times of their branches, while the ATM tobranch ratio was much lower for public sector bankssite away from the branch) are installed at variouslocations such as railway stations, airports, petrolpumps, shopping centres, malls, restaurants,colleges, commercial areas or at places where thebank does not have a service branch near by.Of all the ATMs installed in the country, atend-March 2008, new private sector banks had thelargest share in off-site ATMs, while nationalisedbanks had it in on-site ATMs (Table 2). Off-site(41.2%) and old private sector banks (47.2%). ATMs as percentage to total ATMs were the highestHowever, ATMs in the case of one public sectorbank, namely, IDBI Bank was more than its totalnumber of branches. At individual bank level, thenumber of ATMs exceeded branches in respect of allnew private sector banks except Centurion Bank ofPunjab.Table 1: Bank Group-wise Number of Bank Branches and ATMs(As at end-March 2008)Bank GroupTotalBranchesTotalATMsATMs as percentage ofTotal BranchesSBI Group 15,105 8,433 55.8Nationalised Banks 37,775 13,355 35.4Public Sector Banks 52,880 21,788 41.2Old Private Sector Banks 4,450 2,100 47.2New Private Sector Banks 3,525 9,867 279.9Private Sector Banks 7,975 11,967 150.1Foreign Banks 277 1,034 377.4All Scheduled Commercial 61,132 34,789 56.9BanksSource: RBI, Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2007 -08.23On-site and Off-site ATMsin case of foreign banks, followed by new privatesector banks, SBI group and nationalised banks.Table 2: Bank Group-wise Number of On-site and Off-site ATMs(As at end-March 2008)Bank GroupOn-siteATMsOff-siteATMsTotalATMsOff-site ATMs aspercentage ofTotal ATMsSBI Group 4,582 3,851 8,433 45.7Nationalised Banks 8,320 5,035 13,355 37.7Public Sector Banks 12,902 8,886 21,788 40.8Old Private Sector Banks 1,436 664 2,100 31.6New Private Sector Banks 3,879 5,988 9,867 60.7Private Sector Banks 5,315 6,652 11,967 55.6Foreign Banks 269 765 1034 74.0All Scheduled18,486 16,303 34,789 46.9Commercial BanksSource: As in Table 1.In recent years, some banks have introduced'Mobile ATMs' in order to reach remote areas thatmay not have a large enough population for the bankOctober- December-2009

e-trackto invest in an ATM centre. Banks such as SBI, StateBank of Patiala, Citibank, Bank of India, ICICI Bankand Jammu & Kashmir Bank have deployed mobileATMs.RBI for Free ATM Use Across BanksIn February 2008, RBI announced theframework on ATM usage charges after analysingthe public comments received on its approach paper.Despite hesitation by the banks, the RBI announcedthe policy by which a customer of one bank beallowed free use of ATMs of other banks, includingcash withdrawal, from April 1, 2009 after taking intoaccount the falling costs and various internationalpractices on ATM use. According to RBI, use oftechnology should, among others, lead to reductionin transaction costs to banks. Besides, enhanced andcost effective access to ATMs play an important rolecustomer uses third-party ATM to withdraw money.This increases the cost of operation for bankssubstantially. So, banks were petitioning the RBI toput a cap on the number of third-party withdrawalsand had also asked for a minimum withdrawalamount of Rs 1,000 for third-party transaction. Inthis regard, the RBI has sent a communication toIBA and has agreed to put a cap on third-party ATMwithdrawal at Rs 10,000 per transaction and alsolimit the number of such transactions to five amonth, beyond which a fee would be charged fromcustomers. However, there will be no such limitwhen a cardholder is using his/her own ATMs. Thenew norms will be implemented from October 1,2009.ReferencesRBI (2007): Report on Trend and Progress ofBanking in India 2007-08, and earlier issues.in technology based financial inclusion. Deokar B K (2009): 'ATMs in India: Evolution,IssuesGrowth and Inter Country Comparison', KBSCMR'sSince April 2009 the RBI has allowed the Journal of Management Research, Vol. 1, No.1,customers free use of ATM of other banks, including April.cash withdrawal. This has led to increase in theDeokar B K (2008): 'Role of ATMs in Banknumber of transactions taking place at third-partyTransactions: Emerging Issues', IIPM, The IndiaATMs. After witnessing a surge in number ofEconomy Review, September.transactions but a fall in the ticket value of eachtransaction, banks have sought modifications in theDe Rajneesh and Shrikant R P, 'ATM growthfree ATM rule. For instance, a number of customersset to explode in India', www.expresscomputerare withdrawing small amounts, frequently, in someonline.comcases Rs 100. In fact, the banks pay interchange feeMr. Bipin K. Deokar is Research Officer,of Rs 18–20 per transaction to the other bank when aEPW Research Foundation, MumbaiAppeal: As a part of our drive to make the contents of Journal more pertinent andgermane to the readers we welcome articles on latest topics of Banking / InformationTechnology. Articles may be of about 1000 words. Published articles are suitablyremunerated.October- December-200924

For everyone in this world no matter wherethe person what matters the most is that all his wishesare fulfilled and all his prayers are answered. Everyhuman being on this earth lives to make his dreamscome true. One takes various approaches in life toachieve them; the author Rhonda Byrne makes anattempt to convince the readers that what they wishfor can actually happen. Fragments of a Great Secrethave been found in the oral traditions, in literature, inreligions and philosophies throughout the centuries.For the first time, the author of this book RhondaByrne assembled together all the pieces of TheSecret in an incredible revelation that will be lifetransformingfor all who experience it. This bookteaches us to learn how to use The Secret in everyaspect of your life -- money, health, relationships,happiness, and in every interaction you have in theworld. She presents to us the laws of attraction,simply put what we get in life is what we haveattracted from the universe. Most of the time weattract unconsciously but we can change our destinyby channelizing our thoughts “There isn't a singlething that you cannot do with this knowledge. Itdoesn't matter who you are or where you are, TheSecret can give you whatever you want.”The lawsfor the success are organized in the followingchapters:The Secret RevealedThe Secret Made SimpleHow to Use The SecretPowerful ProcessesThe Secret to MoneyThe Secret to RelationshipsThe Secret to HealthThe Secret to the WorldThe Secret to YouWith a list of “Secret Summaries” at the endof each chapter which sum up the information in thatBook ReviewThe Secret- Author: Rhonda ByrnePublisher: Atria Books, ISBN: 1-58270-170-9e-trackparticular chapter. The writer uses small examplesfrom our day to day lives to prove how we can makeanything happen by just focusing on it and sendingout signals to the universe with all our might to makeit happen for us. According to the author a person'sthoughts (whether conscious or unconscious) andfeelings bring about corresponding positive ornegative manifestations. Positive thoughts bringabout positive manifestations while negativethoughts bring about negative manifestations. Thetheory is very simple. Because it is an absolute law,the law of attraction will always respond to yourthoughts no matter what they are. Thus yourthoughts become things. You are the most powerfulpower in the universe simply because whatever youthink about will come to be. You shape the world thatexists around you. You shape your own life anddestiny through the power of your mind. The Secretcontains wisdom from modern-day teachers -- menand women who have used it to achieve health,wealth, and happiness. By applying the knowledgeof The Secret, they bring to light compelling storiesof eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth,overcoming obstacles, and achieving what manywould regard as impossible. This book contains somany quotes from so many sources and so manycontributors, including scientists, doctors, life andbusiness coaches, authors, ministers, andmetaphysicians from both the past and the present.The author has skillfully assembled a number of selfhelp gurus and motivational speakers together andgot them to talk about the law of attraction andpositive thinking.This book is highly recommended to anyonewho is finally ready to make lasting changes in theirlife. The Secret helps us to create a new way ofthinking, to attract happiness and the life we'vealways dreamed of.Reviewed by Sanjay Srivastava(Librarian) PNBIIT, Lucknow25October- December-2009

e-trackIE weakened by Open Source browsersMicrosoft's Internet Explorer (IE) marketshare has dropped more than five percent to 64percent since January of 2009. Its share was roughly70 percent at the start of the year, and it was at 75percent in mid 2008. Microsoft's has been losing itsshare mostly to the open source browsers, MozillaFirefox and Google Chrome, according to NetApplications' statistics.Google's Chrome has increased to fourpercent market share from 1.5 percent at the start of2009. It is expected that Chrome's market share willincrease further after the full fledged launch ofGoogle's own operating system next year. Also,market share of the leading open source browser,Mozilla Firefox, climbed to roughly 25 percent overthe past year, also up three percentage points to 24.72percent in November. Its share was 22 percent at thebeginning of this year, reports ZDNet. Meanwhile,Opera (not Open Source) stayed roughly the samewith two percent market share, according to NetApplications.Source : siliconindia news bureauPortable CD/DVD writer from TranscendTranscend has launched 8X slim portableCD/DVD writer in black color. As notebookcomputers become increasingly smaller and lighter,built-in CD or DVD drives and writers are often notincluded. This portable CD/DVD writer was createdspecifically for use with compact notebooks, andfeatures an ultra-thin andsleek design, making itstylish, compact and easy tocarry around. No externalpower adapter is needed, asthe CD/DVD writer isentirely USB powered,drawing its electric powerdirectly from the computer'sUSB ports.Financial and Technical NewsUsers can burn music, data, video and evenbootable discs in a variety of CD and DVD formats,including CD-R/RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RDL, and DVD-RAM. Users can also compile,arrange, and produce media files with a simple andstraightforward software interface. It also supportsdual layer recordable DVD media formats.This portable writer is compatible with Windows 7and provides 8X DVD and 24X CD write speeds.The writer is available at cost of Rs. 5000 and comeswith two years warranty.Source : siliconindia news bureauApple introduces world's first multi-touch mouseA p p l e h a sunveiled a mouse whichwill use Multi-Touchtechnology allowingcustomers to navigateusing intuitive fingergestures. This wirelessmouse is called as MagicMouse, and instead ofmechanical buttons, scroll wheels or scroll balls, theentire top of the Magic Mouse is a seamless Multi-Touch surface.Magic Mouse features a seamless touchsensitiveenclosure that allows it to be a single ormulti-button mouse with advanced gesture support.Using intuitive gestures, users can easily scrollthrough long documents, pan across large images orswipe to move forward or backward through acollection of web pages or photos. Magic Mouseworks for left or right handed users and multi-buttonor gesture commands can be easily configured fromwithin system preferences. Magic Mouse comesstandard with the new iMac and is available at theend of October through the Apple Store at $69.Magic Mouse requires Mac OS X Leopard version10.5.8 or later.Source : siliconindia news bureauOctober- December-200926

e-trackTranscend launches antivirus USB flash driveTranscend and Trend Micro has entered intoan agreement to preinstallTrend Micro's USB securitysoftware on JetFlash V85USB flash drive. "USBflash drives have gainedimmense acceptance inIndia however, there is verylittle awareness amidst theusers regarding protectionagainst threats like auto runmalware being spreadthrough malicious websites.Our new JetFlash V85 USB flash drive preloadedwith advanced Trend Micro USB security softwarewill prove to be a boon to our customers," saidAustin Huang, Regional Head - Sales, SAARC andAPAC, Transcend.Trend Micro USB security is a uniquesoftware program specially developed to protectagainst malicious content in files transferred to USBflash drives. Upon finding threats, the softwarealerts the user and moves all dangerous files to ahidden quarantine folder. When the JetFlash V85 isplugged into a computer with internet access, TrendMicro USB security will automatically downloadand install the latest security updates directly ontothe drive. The JetFlash V85 will have preloaded 90-day trial version of Trend Micro USB security.Transcend JetFlash V85 USB flash drive withTrend Micro USB security software comes with threeyears of warranty. It is available at a price of Rs. 1000(2GB), Rs. 1200 (4GB) and Rs. 1900 (8GB).Source : siliconindia news bureauSatellites facing parking problems in spaceHaving 12,000 satellites in the space, ofwhich only 20 percent are working, the space facesparking problems due to space debris and otherunwanted materials.Source : siliconindia news bureauWhy Google may want YelpDecember 2009Reports that Google is considering anacquisition of Yelp fit right in with an increasedfocus on local search.Online reviews powerhouse Yelp might justbe what Google needs to help rid the world of 40-pound tomes with yellow pages.Throughout the second half of 2009, Googlehas had its eyes squarely on one of the last remainingonline advertising markets it does not dominate:local. With a series of moves, Google has shown aclear interest in combining Google Maps, searchresults, and its small-business-oriented advertisingtechnology into its next big source of revenuegrowth as offline local businesses come online.At around $500 million, Yelp would be oneof Google's largest acquisitions to date and itssecond major deal since CEO Eric Schmidtannounced the company was once again in shoppingmode. Even if the deal falls through, it's a clear signof the company's interest in expanding its onlineadvertising empire to the local market.But it's perhaps also a sign that Googlerealized it needed a little help in getting there. Afterall, every decision about expanding a businesscomes down to build versus buy. Sometimes it's justeasier to write a check.Source : Cnetnews.com27October- December-2009

e-trackPLACEMENT RECORDstndADBT Batch-1 (total students 36) ADBT Batch-2 (Total students 16)Nurture TechnologyDena BankPunjab National BankHP/AlchemistOtherCourse CurriculumBanking -Banking Overview- The concept of banking, functions and controls services, alternate delivery channels .of RBI, Monetary policy, role of technology in banking industry, Corporate and International Operations - Assessment oflegal aspects of bankingworking capital requirement, methods of financial analysis,Financial System- Details of Indian Financial System, Book corporate / business Credit and exposure to Forex and InternationalKeeping, accounting and financial analysis.Business etc.Retail Banking- Different types customers and accounts of the Application Software in Banking Operations- The concept,bank, various modes of remittances, collection and clearing technology and operations in Core Banking .IT -Advanced Database Management System using Oracle 10gDatabase Components & ArchitectureCore Banking Application Software Architecture Concepts,Structure, InstallationAdvanced Concept of Operating System Using Linux/UnixBasic and advanced Unix/Linux CommandsLinux / Unix File System, Client/Server/User ManagementShell Scripting, Workflow Scripting, Groups and PermissionNetwork Management, Package Management, KernelWeb Concepts and Commercial NetworkingWeb fundamentalsWeb Interface to Core Banking Application SoftwareCommercial NetworkingNetwork ConfigurationImplementation & TroubleshootingWi-Fi Networks554152Punjab National BankNelito 2Onward 4Online Services Architecture and Customization, SQL/PLSQLBackup and RecoveryOracle Forms 10g, Oracle Reports 10g, Oracle NetworkingServices, System ServicesAdvanced Topics in Users, Groups and PermissionsEssential System Administration ToolsInstallation and TroubleshootingSystem Performance and SecurityIntroduction to Switches and RoutersIntroduction to TCP/IPVarious Network Severs ConfigurationIntroduction to Switches and RoutersIntroduction to TCP/IPVarious Network Severs ConfigurationSoft skills -The participants are taught methods of goal setting, time management, stress management, improving communication, skills,body language, Social Etiquettes and memory improvement.The Third batch of ADBT has been launched in 14th December 2009 and the students will pass out in June 2010.Thecourse is offered to students with MCA/ BE / B Tech in Computer Science, Electronic and Communication or IT withminimum 55% marks. Campus recruitment is scheduled during May 16-31, 2010. To pick the required best, prospectiverecruiters in Banking, Finance and IT sectors, may please contactShri Pramod Dixit, Programme DirectorPunjab National Bank Institute of Information Technology Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow-226 010 (U.P.)T : +91 522 2721442, 2721174, M.: 9335925126, F : +91 522 2721201, 2721441, E-mail : bankingtech@pnbiit.co.in9October- December-200928