GOOGLE

You know the Google Doodle right? We are talking about the artistic, funny graffiti you see on the Google Logo on its homepage on special occasions, dates or even birthdays of famous personalities. Ever wondered what goes behind the scenes and who designs those in the first place? Well, that's not what we're here for to discuss right now. Nevertheless, if we just pressed your curiosity button, you can read more on that here.
What we were here was to report a recent Google announcement regarding its Google Doodle contest for Indian school children. So, if you are currently a student in any school in India (between standards 1st and 10th), you are eligible to have your work of art displayed on the Google Homepage on Children's Day. (You know when that occurs, we believe!). All you need to do is to win this contest!

The theme of this competition is 'My India' and for your work to feature on the Google Homepage, all you need to do is to create a Google Doodle, with an India-specific theme in mind and impress the judges. As the theme says, you should create a doodle that represents India. You have many ideas to work on, ranging from India's culture to its advances in terms of science and technology.

Your friends over at Google are interested in seeing these representations of what India means to you and how you represent it using images. Since this happens to be a contest, there will be one winner whose work, apart from being featured on the Google Homepage, will also receive a brand new laptop and a help your school avail a technology grant of Rs. 1 lakh!

To apply, students can register online at www.google.co.in/doodle4google

Infy to use internships to attract more global talent

Infosys Technologies, India's second largest software exporter, plans to use the success of its global internship programme, InStep to attract more global talent to the company. From the launch of the programme in 1999, the company has so far trained 664 people from 41 nationalities.

"The programme, launched almost 10 years ago to create a platform for the brightest engineers from the US to understand India and our (Infosys ) business better, has now metamorphosed to cover most other countries globally. Our belief is that sooner or latter InStep will become a good conduit to recruit more and more global talents," N R Narayana Murthy , chairman and chief mentor of the Nasdaq-listed company told in Chennai on Monday.

In 2008, about 175 trainees from 27 countries joined the internship programme. This year, as of now, over 100 students have joined the programme. The company says, while at least 15-20 people from every internship batch were joining the company earlier, this number is expected to go up as it is planning to recruit more overseas talent going forward.

According to the company, once they return to their respective countries, the interns work as brand ambassadors for Infosys which helps the company promote itself as a global recruitment brand.

"Today if you go to 85 universities worldwide considered the best in those countries, you will see us present there and you will see our ex-interns. It has done wonders to us in terms of building a global brand amongst the global academia," said Sanjay Purohit, vice president and head of corporate planning.

The duration of Infosys' global internship programme targeted at young engineers and MBAs is in the range of 8-24 weeks. During the internships, the trainees are being provided monthly stipends