Hiring dips in May, 2009

The Naukri.com Job Index for May, 2009 states that hiring in May has declined by 1.9 per cent as against April, 2009.

Overall highlights of the report:

• 1.9% drop in hiring activity: The overall Job Index declined by 1.9% from 677 in Apr '09 to 664 in May '09
• Telecom and Pharma down: 12% and 14% drop in hiring activity in telecom & pharma sectors respectively, in May '09 as compared to Apr '09
• FMCG, Foods and Beverage move up: Job Index for this industry moved up by 9% in May '09 as compared to Apr '09, inching closer to July levels
• City-wise hiring scenario: Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh witness a fall, Kolkata saw an increase in hiring activity by 14%
  

Putarekulu & Problems

PV Krishna Rao in Indian Express: Atreyapuram- famous for `Putarekulu (paper sweet) and mango jelly is an example for development and women empowerment. But the DWCRA groups engaged in the preparation of Putarekulu and mango jelly lack sufficient support from the government, despite the latter boasting of extending loans to these groups at 25 paise interest.

Majority of landless poor, including DWCRA groups in the village are busy in preparing Putarekulu, mango jelly and pickles. They prepare and market their product without depending on either the government or middlemen.

Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu visited the village and praised the role of women self-help groups in achieving economic upliftment through these cottage industries.

But there is no organised marketing for the products, though they supply Putarekulu - to people of far off regions, including United States and Kuwait. A self-help group member S Satyavani of Jeevan Jyothi said that more than 150 self-help groups were working in the village and she had bagged a memento for best mango jelly at the Mango Show organised at Public Gardens in Hyderabad recently. She said that though the officials were claiming of distributing loans at 25 paise interest in reality it was working up to 50 paise. She urged the Government to extend more loans for DWCRA groups and provide better marketing facilities.

Danturi Chittibabu, who is into mango jelly preparation since his childhood, said that they prepare mango jelly and market the product on their own. He said that he was marketing his product in both the Godavari districts and some times he received orders from Chennai, Mumbai and Gujarat. While over 600 families eke out their livelihood by preparing Putarekulu, hundred families are engaged in preparation of mango jelly. Some women self-help groups were engaged in preparation and marketing of pickles. An old woman, Mantena Pallamma, said that she prepares 250 Putarekulu every day adding that she was paying Rs 250 every month for the Rs Rs 5,000 loan she has borrowed. Another villager M Suryanarayana Raju, who prepares mango jelly along with his family members said that as the banks provided him only Rs 25,000 loan at Rs 1 interest, he was forced to borrow Rs 70,000 from money lenders to set up the mango jelly unit.

He said that the banks should sanction required loans for the DWCRA groups. He is confident of clearing his loans when the mango season comes to an end. District Rural Development Agency officials said that the self-help groups should pay an interest of Rs 1 initially after six months prompt payment the excess payment would be reimbursed and 25 paise interest would be collected.

First Published : 05 Jun 2009.

Placements Pulse?

Elaborating on the changes in the type of employers, Patra said: “We have witnessed an increase in the number of consultancy, manufacturing and FMCG companies.” Similarly, IIT-Kanpur has seen an increase in profiles offered in marketing and consultancy, especially enterprise resource planning (ERP) and domain consultancy. “In fact, the profiles offered in these fields are better compared to last year,” said the placement committee member.

Further, Kanwar said that GIM students have even been offered jobs in investment banking as well. Kanwar added: “Looking at the current scenario for I-banking, this is very good news.” Placements at NMIMS, too, witnessed an increase in FMCG and marketing profiles. “The best thing about placements this year is probably the fact that some of these companies are offering much better profiles than those offered by I-banks.

Read more here.

'Poor' Kid

Forget it. Thimmappa can speak in 5 languages and works for about 15 hours, 7 * 365 days selling chana and palli on the vast streets of your city. He can come up with more than 15 variants of them using salt, pepper, mirchi, lemon, onion and so on.

How many does he sell per day? On a bad day 25-100. On a good day, like a weekend, 200! That makes him earn Rs. 1200/- on an investment of Rs. 200/-. Lets convert this to CTC. A minimum of Rs. 1,00,000/-.

So does he go to school? Would he if someone paid for him. "No!" comes the reply, "who gets a job going to small schools and all this recession! Everyone is searching for a job these days but no one gets one." He plans to start a 'Chaat mandi' in 2 years which would guarantee him some 30,000 per year! "How much do you earn anna?"

I would like to skip this question Tims...

Choice?

That blog you've built, the one with a lot of traffic... perhaps it can't be monetized.

The pitfalls:
1. In order to monetize your work, you'll probably corrupt it, taking out the magic in search of dollars
and
2. Attention doesn't always equal significant cash flow.

I think it makes sense to make your art your art, to give yourself over to it without regard for commerce.

Doing what you love is as important as ever, but if you're going to make a living at it, it helps to find a niche where money flows as a regular consequence of the success of your idea. Loving what you do is almost as important as doing what you love, especially if you need to make a living at it. Go find a job you can commit to, a career or a business you can fall in love with.

Read full story.

Paan

Meet the camera shy Hello panwalah! While I couldn't convince him to pose for me he was more than willing to strike conversation.

This is a pic taken from a paan shop at Empire, Koramangala. 150 paans at a time are prepared in a span of 20 mts flat. 10 such sets per day are sold during lunch. That is about 1500 paans * Rs. 10/- which make it to about Rs. 15,000 per day. This guy has a turnover of Rs. 36,00,000/- per year! Non-taxable, no office, no timing, no tension. Compare this to my earlier post about MBA salary and self-employment.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish is the story of 25 IIM Ahmedabad graduates who chose the rough road of entrepreneurship. They are diverse in age, in outlook and the industries they made a mark in. But they have one thing in common: they believed in the power of their dreams. This book seeks to inspire young B-school graduates to look beyond placements and salaries. To believe in their dreams. Sanjeev Bikhchandani (naukri.com), R Subramanian (Subhiksha), Rashesh Shah (Edelweiss Capital), Jerry Rao (Mphasis), Deep Kalra (Makemytrip.com), Ashank Desai (Mastek) and Nirmal Jain (India Infoline) are just some of the entrepreneurs who have shared their success stories in the book.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish also looks at alternate models such as social entrepreneurship and those who believe they can be entrepreneurs without necessarily being 'owners'. The book is authored by Rashmi Bansal, who is an entrepreneur and IIMA alumna herself. Rashmi is co-founder of JAM (Just Another Magazine) and writes extensively on youth, careers and entrepreneurship.

MBA vs Self employment

You must have seen many people self employed like this. This is just to prove a point. This water melon vendor is operating for the last 20 years and is well known in Hyderabad. The mint road melon as it is called is a tela on which he sells them. The old man and his two sons work from 10 in the morning till about 6 in the evening. They sell about 500 melons every day in summer. In other seasons they sell other seasonal fruits.

Let’s take the melon sale for calculation. Each melon will be cut in to 20 – 30 pieces depending on the size of the melon. Each piece costs Rs. 6/-. So that is 500 melons * 20 pieces * Rs. 6 = Rs. 60000/- per day. Now the season lasts for about 6 months but the sales do vary. Lets say the serious season is for 4 months i.e. 120 days. So the earning is 120 * 60K = Rs. 72 lakh at the minimum. I am not even counting other seasons and the earnings.

Whats more this is not taxable, at his own choice, no boss, and office and so on.

Compare that to my MBA salary :(