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

INDIA ANNOUNCES THE $10 LAPTOP......FOR $20

NOT the computer, just an example

With great fanfare, the Indian government announced their $10 laptop, now known as the “Sakshat” and stated that the laptop would sell for twice the planned cost … $20. Still, not to bad. And although there’s no picture of this price breaking design at the moment, here’s an overview of what’s under the hood:

The Sakshat will have about 2GB of storage, presumably flash/solid state, with WiFi, Ethernet and use only about 2 watts of power. That’s really the only information so far. No specs on what size screen (although we’re guessing it’ll be on par with an average netbook, so say about 8-10 inches), or how much on board RAM it will have, and we don’t know about it’s processor either. What we do know is that the Sakshat is expected to ship in six months. The laptop will also include free e-books of all textbooks used in the Indian School system and the government promises to pay about 25% of any broadband fees to students in college.

So, really, all we learned from this epic announcement is pretty much the name of the computer and that it’s going to cost twice as much.

KINDLE 2 IS NOW OFFICIAL

Amazon.com’s CEO Jeff Bezos finally unveiled the Kindle 2 today. Like the famous upgrade of the iPhone, the Kindle is slimmer as it is 0.36 inches thick (half as thick as the old one).

Another upgrade of the Kindle 2 is the battery life. It is approximately 25 percent larger than before, and good for two weeks without charging. The memory has also been increased at 2GB instead of the 256MB from the old Kindle.

One of the most outstanding features is the text-to-speech feature that literally allows the Kindle to read to you. Yes, the voice sounds very artificial, so you might not want it to tell you your favorite story for very long.

If that new feature doesn’t turn you on, then you might be interested in Whispersync, which allows for automatic synchronization with other Kindles. Now you can share content to both old and new versions of the Kindle, and the company plans to have Whispersync compatible with other wireless reading devices.

If you want to get the Kindle 2, you should be able to get it on February 24th. It might take a little while to ship to you, but the cost will be the same as the original: $359.

MICROSOFT STORES COMING TO YOU

It appears that Microsoft has found yet another way to dominate the market as they are starting their own line of retail stores.

Some of you are probably looking at the picture here and can’t help but compare it with Apple stores. I mean, look at the minimalist décor, and the company logo emblazed in the glass. Should we have any problem with Microsoft stealing a page from Apple’s playbook? It wouldn’t be the first time.

Ooooo, that was below the belt with that cheap pot shot at Microsoft. I suppose that I could take a lot more, because a company like Microsoft is too big not to hit. So let’s get all the Microsoft cracks out of our system.

Perhaps I should start out by making comparisons with the iPod and the Zune? That’s always good for some tech blog laughs. Or you want me to talk about how the Wii and PS3 will always be reigning the video game frontier in comparison to the Xbox 360, which is able to play outdated HD format movies?

No, it is time to stop the hating of Microsoft by ending the ridicule. Yes, Microsoft has more money than you, deal with it. It is capitalism at work! They have a product that everyone wants, and they have made money from it. If you are sick of Microsoft jokes, and want to get them out of your system, leave a comment.

As for me, I admire Microsoft’s new endeavor with my full support. By full support, I mean that I will visit them if they open up a retail outlet that is close by. I hope that each store will have the Microsoft Surface, as you can’t help but love that technology.