Every year, August 15 is the day every Indian is proud of. Today, its India’s 64th Independence day. Wishing one and all a very Happy Independence Day. The 2010 is India’s 64th Independence day and on this great day, everyone conveys best wishes and greetings to their family and friends.

The main event takes place in New Delhi, where the Prime Minister hoisted the national flag at the Red Fort  and delivered a nationally televised speech from its ramparts. In his speech, he highlighted the achievements during the past year, raises important issues and gave a call for further development. The Prime Minister also payed tribute to leaders of the freedom struggle.

Patriotic fervour gripped Indians across the world on Sunday as they enthusiastically celebrated the country’s 64th Independence Day by unfurling the tricolour and organising a series of cultural events and festivities. In Beijing, Indian Ambassador S Jaishankar hoisted the tricolour at
the Indian embassy premises in the presence of a large number of community members, including businessmen and professionals. He also read out President Pratibha Patil’s address to the nation.

A similar function was held at the Indian Consulate in Shanghai, where Consul General Riva Ganguly Das unfurled the national flag. About 400 members of Indian community attended the event, including Indian medical students from Suzhou, Nantong and Nanjing universities in Jiangsu province. In Abu Dhabi, the function commenced with the hoisting of the flag by M K Lokesh, Indian Ambassador to the UAE, who also read out the President’s message, while Consul General Sanjay Verma unfurled the tricolour in Dubai.

In Kuwait City, Indian Ambassador Ajai Malhotra hoisted the tricolour at a ceremony held at the embassy and similar events were organised in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and India’s consulate in the port city of Jeddah. On the eve of the Independence Day, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz had sent a congratulatory message to President Pratibha Patil and wished her permanent good health and happiness and India’s people steady progress and prosperity.

In Singapore, more than 3,000 Indians took part in a function to mark the Independence Day, where High Commissioner T C A Raghavan hoisted the tricolour. Students from Indian schools sang the national anthem and patriotic numbers at the ceremony.

With such and other countless celebrations across the globe, this special day lives upto its expectations. We at ZaaBiz wish all Indians across the globe a very happy independence day.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the world’s ninth-largest software services company in terms of revenues, its chairman, Ratan Tata, told shareholders at the company’s fifth annual general meeting on Friday.The big daddies in the global IT industry include IBM with revenues of $96 billion, Microsoft ($58 billion) and Accenture ($22 billion).

For the $6.3 billion-TCS, the focus now would be to climb the value chain in a bid to differentiate its services from competition.

Several shareholders wanted to know how long Tata, who stood for re-appointment as director on the board of TCS, would continue as chairman. They suggested that like several other industrialists in India Inc, he should continue on the board as long as possible.

TCS was started as a division of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, in 1968 to service the in-house electronic data processing needs. The company today is the largest software services firm in the country.

In a bid to be part of the top league, the company has been bagging clients across geographies, building domain expertise, besides adding on a large number of employees.

As the world gathered in front of television sets to catch the Fifa World Cup inaugural programme, the mood at Mahindra Satyam’s Hyderabad campus was one of celebration. Techies left their cubicles and came down to the sports field. The company had organised a penalty shoot-out competition among employees, while Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’ was beamed live across two big screens and scores of TV sets installed across the office. And when the first match kicked off between South Africa and Mexico, the party started with an unlimited flow of snacks and beverages.

Mahindra Satyam has decided to organise such screenings during all the big matches. And such celebrations will continue across its delivery centres. Mahindra Satyam may have a special reason, with the company being the official IT service provider of the Fifa World Cup. But soccer fever has hit India Inc equally hard. Several companies are setting up special screening zones, decorating workstations with jerseys and posters, organising soccer tournaments, offering free tickets and even flexible working hours for the next one month.

Quick service restaurant chain McDonald’s , for instance, has the option of flexi-timing for its football-crazy employees. US-based KPO, Acclaris has decorated its delivery centres in Kolkata and Vizag with flags and jerseys, set up big screens in the cafeteria and is even allowing its night-shift employees to wear their favourite jerseys. Employees are eligible to take small breaks between work to view the matches.

Many India Inc top notches believe that there is no point in suppressing employees from indulging in fun since it might be counter-productive. They are free to get completely caught up in the World Cup fever, provided they are able to give their deliverables on time, even if they are required to work extra hours.

The silver lining this time around is that in India, most of the matches are scheduled in the late evening hours, when most employees wrap up work. But in sectors like IT, BPOs and banking, where employees keep long hours or work round-the-clock , the fun quotient is limited.

The Fun part is that employees at ZaaBiz are being given flexi-timing options in order to enjoy football finale. ZaaBiz has also organized ‘Football Forecasting’ contest wherein contestants forecast probable winners for matches every day. Prizes are distributed on daily basis and the employee who wins maximum during the 30 day tournament will get a grand prize. Isen’t this exiting? So if you are enticed by this idea or such similar ideas ask your company to join the football fever bandwagon as its a once in 4 year opportunity.

An Indian green energy entrepreneur is among the six ‘Champions of Earth’ announced by the United Nations that include heads of state of Maldives and Guyana as well Chinese actress Zhou Xun. The Champions of the Earth is an international environment award given out every year by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for commitment and vision towards environmental leadership.

Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and green energy entrepreneur, was named as one of “Champions of the Earth” for his efforts to encourage people to live a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.  Entrepreneur Vinod Khosla has made it a personal mission to realize a low-carbon path by establishing investments in clean and renewable energy start-ups.

A venture capitalist, Khosla is dubbed as Silicon Valley’s ‘Mr Green’. In September 2009, his firm, Khosla Ventures, raised USD 1.1 billion in a “green fund” that would be used to spur development of renewable energy and other clean technologies. Khosla has initiated several start-ups to try to reduce the world’s dependence on petroleum as he is of the opinion that burgeoning revolution in oil alternatives will be far bigger than the internet revolution.

Other winners included Afghanistan’s Director General of the National Environmental Protection Agency Prince Mostapha Zaher and Japanese earth scientist and pioneer of research into how the oceans cycle carbon, Dr Taro Takahashi.

While the six winners represent some of the key pillars upon which society can build Green Growth and a development path, I appeal all the members of ZaaBiz to contribute to green growth by taking small initiatives.

A.R.Rahman has done it again. After bagging two Oscars for his stupendous musical score in Slumdog Millionaire earlier this year, Rahman is has brought home the Grammy. Rahman’s chartbuster ‘Jai Ho’ from Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for ‘Best Song written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media’ while the second nomination for the music maestro is under the category ‘Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.’

Rahman beat Steve Jordan for “Cadillac Records,” Quentin Tarantino for “Inglourious Basterds”, the producers of “Twilight” and “True Blood” to bag the award in the best compilation soundtrack for a motion picture category. In the best song category Rahman’’s rivals included Bruce Springsteen for his song “The Wrestler,” from the Oscar-nominated movie of the same name.

Rahman’’s Grammy win was similar to his triumph at the Oscars last year where he picked up the best original score statuette before winning the Oscar for ”Jai Ho”, which has become an international anthem. It is Rahman’’s first Grammy.

The other Indians who have won the award, known as the Oscars in music, include Pandit Ravi Shankar and Zakir Hussain

Republic Day is India’s great national festival. It is celebrated every year on January 26, in New Delhi with great pomp and pageant and in capitals of the States, as well as at other headquarters and important places with patriotic fervour. Although the Independence from the British rule was achieved on August 15, 1947, on 26 January, 1950, the Constitution of India framed by the Constituent Assembly of India came into force and thus it is celebrated as the Republic day of India.

The most spectacular celebrations include the march past of the three armed Forces, massive parades, folk dances by tribal folk from the different states in picturesque costumes marking the cultural unity of India. Further, the streak of jet planes of Indian Air Force, leaving a trial of coloured smoke, marks the end of the festival.

The President of India at New Delhi, on this most colourful day, takes salute of the contingents of Armed Forces. In the States, the Governors take the salute, and in Taluqas and administrative headquarters on same procedure is adopted.

The Republic Day celebrations have rightly become world famous as one of the greatest shows on earth drawing thousands of eager sight-seers from all over the country and many parts of the world. No other country can draw on such a wealth of tribal traditions and cultures, so many regional forms of dances and dress. And, no other country in the world can parade so many ethnically different people in splendid uniforms as India’s Armed Forces. But they are all united in their proven loyalty to the Government elected by the people and in their proud traditions and legendary gallantry.

ZaaBiz India wishes all Indian members a very happy republic day.

It is interesting to note that young India B-school brigade is more focused on choosing the right career path with a miniscule emphasis on monetary benefits. According to a recent study, most of the B-school goers are interested to work in India with 68% opting to stay back in India. Amongst these candidates atleast 30% students are eager to be entrepreneurs.

The survey conducted by MBAUniverse.com had 500 second year respondents from famous B-schools’ like IIMs, IIFT, Xavier institute of management, Jamnalal institute of management studies and prominent IIT institutes.

Management and consulting is the most preferred job profile amongst these respondents with McKinsey & co. stands as the dream company to work. Ratan Tata stood as the most famous business icon, followed by Infosys co-founder Mr. Narayan Murthy.
As far as the remuneration is concerned 60% expect the salary to be above 11-15 Lac per annum while some dream to crack the figure of 20 Lac per annum.

Wish all our blog readers a happy and prosperous new year. Year 2010 could not have started on a better note for Blog ZaaBiz than to receive the good news that Indian employee confidence level is among the highest.

The Indian employees, along with their peers in Brazil and China, portray highest levels of confidence in the future of their companies. As per global HR solutions provider Kenexa, the global employee confidence index score saw a slight improvement to 98 in the fourth quarter ended December 2009 from 97.9 in the third quarter.

Brazil (107.5), China (105.6) and India (101.3) reported the highest levels of employee confidence in the fourth quarter of last year. On the other hand, France (94.9), Japan (94.0) and Spain (92.4) reported the lowest confidence levels. The US employee confidence declined 0.6 per cent to 97.1 in Q4 compared to the previous quarter.

In the September quarter of 2009, Indian employee confidence index was 100.2 points, China’s 102.8 and Brazil’s 105.3.  Employee confidence fluctuated throughout 2009, with the majority of countries reporting both increases and decreases. India and China were the only two that had an increase in scores, quarter over quarter.

A high level of employee confidence is achieved when they perceive their firms are being effectively managed and competitively positioned, and believe that they have a promising future in the organisation, job security and skills that are attractive compared to other employers. The Kenexa Employee Confidence Index is measured quarterly taking opinions from employees in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, Britain and the US.

Celebrations of Christmas are marked by carols, cakes, candles and decoration of Christmas Tree. In several parts of India, especially in metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, Christmas Festival has assumed secular overtones and is joyfully celebrated by people of all religions and communities. Christmas Day called ‘Bada Din’ (Big Day) in Hindi is a national holiday in India and people from all religions join their Christian friends to make the most of the joyous celebrations.

Euphoria for Christmas in India is largely based on the American media depiction. Days before the festival markets take a colorful look as they are decorated with traditional Christmas trees, stars, images of Santa, balloons and festoons. Gift marketers too create hype for Christmas by launching a rigorous advertising campaign through newspapers, radio and television.

We at ZaaBiz are grateful to all our members for their ongoing support throughout 2009. The journey of so far has been excellent and we wish to achieve greater heights in the coming year  with your continuous support.

Merry Christmas to you all our members. May this festive season bring joy and prosperity you and your family.

Highlighting the influence of managers on the performance of an organization’s staff, Indian employees have reported the highest levels of manager effectiveness as compared to their peers globally. According to a study by the research arm of global HR solutions provider Kenexa, an immediate manager has more influence on the employees beyond their role as delegator, evaluator and motivator.

Employees in India report the highest levels of manager effectiveness. The study results revealed that as much as 68% of subordinate employees in India rate their managers as effective as compared to the global rating of 60%.Employees in Brazil with 61%report the second highest ratings of managerial effectiveness, followed by those in the United States 60%, Russia 57%, Canada 56% and China 53%.

Meanwhile, workers in France (41%) reported the lowest ratings for manager effectiveness, the study said.

Employees’ evaluation of their managers are driven by the extent to which the manager displays the fundamentals of managerial competence: doing a good job at managing the team’s work and the team itself, and being perceived as a leader. For employees in India, an effective manager provides useful feedback, evaluates employees’ performance fairly, provides a sense of a promising future and practices open, two-way communication.