Better talent supply will moderate IT salary hikes'

Salary hikes in the Indian IT/ITeS sector could moderate from next year because of improved supply of talent, according to Nasscom chairman Lakshmi Narayanan.

Addressing media persons, Narayanan said the supply position in terms of human capital had shown considerable improvement.

He noted that the number of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu, for instance, had gone up and there were 10,000 seats which went vacant showing that supply had increased.

The industry has also been taking initiatives to enlarge the supply pool by setting up training schools and partnering with academic institutes.

The Indian IT industry has been witnessing salary hikes in the range of 10-15 per cent annually for the past several years. These hikes have also come under threat from the appreciating rupee.

Earlier, addressing the Nasscom Quality Summit 2007, Narayanan said that despite the strides made by the Indian IT industry, there was still a long way to go in terms of quality.

He said end users in the West were still not convinced of the services provided by Indian IT companies. The industry, he said, had to move from quality deliverables to the quality of outcomes.

Things you didn’t know about CD

Compact disc turned 25 years this month. The first CD was produced in a factory in Germany after years of development by Philips and Sony. The invention of the CD ushered in a technological revolution in the music industry as CDs -- with their superior sound quality marked the beginning of the shift from analog to digital music technology. As the music labels experiment with extras to revive the now-aging format, it's hard to imagine that there was ever a day without CDs. Here's tracing the history of Compact Disc, the forefather of today's wide array of optical discs.

World's first CD was manufactured at Philip's factory near Hanover, Germany, on August 17, 1982. The factory belonged to Polygram -- the recording company owned by Philips during that time.

The compact disc project was launched following Philips' failure with its video disc technology in 1978.

In 1979, Philips and Sony set up a joint task force to design the new digital audio disc.

Philips developed the bulk of the disc and laser technology, while Sony contributed to the digital encoding that allowed for smooth, error-free playback.

In 1980, researchers published what became known as the Red Book containing the original CD standards, as well as specifying which patents were held by Philips and which by Sony.


The first commercially available CD player was Sony's CDP-101, which was launched in October 1982 at a price point of $900. Both CDs and CD players were first introduced in Japan, followed by US and European launch.

The first commercial CDs pressed were `The Visitors by Abba' and a recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss. By the time CDs hit the market in November 1982, a catalog of around 150 titles -- mainly classical music -- was produced.

The proposed semiconductor chips needed for CD players were to be the most advanced ever used in a consumer product. However, the lasers were still on the drawing board when the two companies Philips and Sony teamed up in 1979.

The video disc was one of the first commercial products to take advantage of laser technology that could read information from a disc without any physical contact.

US record labels were initially very sceptical about the CD. In 1985, one of the most famous bands of that time, Dire Straits, adopted the CD. Under a joint collaboration, Philips and Dire Straits promoted the sound quality of the CD to consumers.

“Brothers in Arms” became the first album to sell more than one million copies in the new format, marking the success of the CD as the emerging format of choice for music quality.


If you could stretch out into a straight line all the data stored on a single compact disc it would reach for over six kilometres in length.

Over 2000 billion CDs have been sold in last 25 years. In 2000, global sales of CD albums peaked to 2.455 billion.

The SMS which shocked Ram Gopal Varma

Ram Gopal Varma has received innumerable text messages, all ridiculing and berating him for attempting to re-visit Sholay.

"The messages have been pretty vocal and direct about their dislike for what I've done. I've been called names and treated to the nastiest comments. But I've enjoyed the backlash, far more than people enjoyed Aag," laughs Ramu.

Here's the text that Ramu says changed his opinion on his right to remake his favourite film.
(Parts of the message have been revised for coherence)

"Hi Sir. To call Aag a piece of junk would be demeaning junk. What happened to the colours of Rangeela and the grit of Satya? No clear story, meaningless script, obsession with dark lighting, weak screenplay, and songs that are too high-pitched and outdated. You were in a hurry while shooting. Fast editing, nonsensical expressions, no romance, horrifying background music and choreography, cinematography is horrid, bad clothes, bad hoardings, bad amateurish dialogues, bad characterizations with no emotional graph for the characters,leaving the actors free to ham,outdated action, emotionless scenes, no comedy, no colour. You should sit and watch your film alone. No freshness, carelessness in creativity.You've become over-confident and you are losing touch with reality. You're handing over creative work to the wrong people. You're impulsively doing ten films at a time and not focusing on one project. You've enjoyed the shooting without caring about what the outcome would be. You're busy giving stupid interviews. What have you done in the past seven years except a couple of notable films?"

Says Ramu, "The above message shook me completely. It made me realize it's time for me to do some serious re-thinking about my career."

iPod Shuffle Raksha Bandhan Offer

iPod Shuffle Raksha Bandhan Offer:

Those confused over what gift to buy for their sisters on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan can consider buying an iPod Shuffle... As a promotional offer, on purchase of an iPod Shuffle between August 10 and September 10, buyers will also get a travel charger which is worth Rs 560 for free. iPod Shuffle is half a cubic inch in volume, weighs half an ounce, and features an Aluminum design with a built-in clip. It comes with 1GB of flash memory, and can hold up to 240 songs. Meanwhile, the shuffle also features seamless integration with iTunes 7 and the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) to enable users choose from a selection of over 4-million songs. In addition, iPod Shuffle includes pioneering features such as integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, and seamless integration with iPod. Priced at Rs 5,600, the iPod Shuffle is available in five vibrant colours -- silver, pink, green, blue, and orange. The offer is on at Apple's 'Imagine' chain of stores, and also through authorized Apple resellers. For details please go to:IPOD SHUFFLE SPECIFICATIONS

Epson Printer Helps Cut Ink Costs

Epson Printer Helps Cut Ink Costs

Epson has launched an all-in-one printer, the Stylus CX5500. With an innovative ink cartridge bay that accepts ink cartridges of varying capacities, the printer offers users the freedom to choose between standard- and low-cost Epson ink cartridges. Besides, the Epson INKdividual system enables users replace only that color which has run out instead of having to replace the full set of inks at one time. Like other Epson printers, the Stylus CX5500 uses DURABrite inks. Epson claims these inks are developed specially for resistance against fading, smudging, and accidental water spillage. With a proprietary Micro-Piezo print head system, and Variable Sized Droplet Technology (VSDT), along with print resolutions of up to 5,760 dpi, Epson says, users will be able to get sharp and clear printouts. The printer offers print speeds of 25 pages per minute (ppm) for black text, and 13ppm for color text. The one touch copy feature, Epson claims, is able to copy in only 4 seconds; while the scanner feature, according to the company, is capable of resolutions of up to 600dpi besides allowing photo enlargements up to A4 sizes. The printer bundles software, including Epson PhotoEnhance for correction of common flaws in images, and Epson Creativity Suite for managing images