The recession is beginning to affect final placements at premier B-schools and IITs. Recruiters are maintaining last year&rsquo;s salary levels.

No increase in salaries this year

Business Standard

The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has made its placement procedure more favourable for firms.

IIM-A looks at new sectors for lateral placements

The University of Cambridge has announced a new scholarship programme for Indian students in honour of Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister.

Cambridge offers scholarship to honour PM

Many domestic and foreign companies in banking and financial services, consulting and consumer goods are believed to have written to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), requesting them to waive participation and recruitment fees.

Firms request IIMs to waive placement fees

In Iraq, a leading oral care product of Unilever is available, which mentions that it is manufactured in France. There is nothing strange about it unless you know that Unilever does not do business in Iraq. Moreover, the company has not been manufacturing in France for the last 10 years.

Counterfeit products dog FMCG companies too

The group has made a third entry into mobile telephony.

Reliance rings thrice

    Recently, Tesco introduced a new food item in its UK supermarkets which is strictly not sold to children.

Answers to last week&#39;s quiz (#081)

After the financial crisis and the Satyam fiasco closer home, the sanctity of leadership has been eroded. Leaders managing companies around the world are now left with the task of weathering the global downturn as well as steering their teams to avoid major setbacks. They could find some answers in business advisor Ram Charan&rsquo;s new book, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times. This 69-year-old business guru, with unhindered access to boardrooms around the world, such as at GE, P&amp;G, Verizon, Dupont, Honeywell, KLM and Emaar, having mentored their powerful CEOs, has been venerated for his insights on issues relating to strategy, succession and corporate governance for decades.

Innovation is not negotiable: Ram Charan

&ldquo;Do you need to get back to rigorous studies?&rdquo; asked Patricia.&rdquo;I am getting rusty, and this programme is for people with 20 years of experience,&rdquo; I replied, hoping she would donate some savings to finance my re-education. She did not.

Harvard&#39;s hard lessons

What companies need to do to get the best out of their people.

Managing Performance in a downturn

    The words sparking, incredible, a different light, uniquely and amazing appear in the advertisements for a certain category in APAC countries. Name the category.

The Strategist Quiz (#082)

BUSINESS OBJECTS XI THE COMPLETE REFERENCE
Author: Cindi Howson
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Price: Rs 3,996
ISBN: 0072262656.
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CONCEPT OF THE CORPORATION
Author: Peter F Drucker
Publisher: Transaction Pub
Price: Rs 1,397
ISBN: 1560006250.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
GUERRILLA MARKETING FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Author: Jay Conrad Levinson
Publisher: Lightning Source
Price: Rs 746.08
ISBN: 1933596074.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
GROWING GREAT EMPLOYEES
Author: Erika Anderson
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 796
ISBN: 1591841909.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
HOW TOYOTA BECAME #1
Author: David Magee
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9781591842293.
&nbsp;
THE PARTNERSHIP: A HISTORY OF GOLDMAN SACHS
Author: Charles D Ellis
Publisher: Allen Lane
Price: Rs 995
ISBN: 9781846141027.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
BUYOLOGY
Author: Martin Lindstorm
Publisher: Random House
Price: Rs 459
ISBN: 9781847940124.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
BUSINESS STRIPPED BARE
Author: Richard Branson
Publisher: Virgin

The top 10 business bestsellers

Apparel occupies the largest chunk of the Indian consumer&rsquo;s share of wallet at 16 per cent.

KIT: Share of wallet

Lateral placements (placements for those with work experience of around 2 years) have begun in B-schools across the country. However, information technology (IT) firms seem to be keeping away from campuses.

IT companies keep away

The recession is beginning to affect final placements at premier B-schools and IITs. Recruiters are maintaining last year&rsquo;s salary levels. Students have also toned down their salary expectations during the final placement season this year. Most expect similar salaries as last year, instead of the 30 per cent annual increase that has been the norm.

B-schools reel under recession

Bajaj Auto, the country&rsquo;s second largest two-wheeler manufacturer, is planning to strengthen its presence in the ungeared (automatic) scooter market by next year.

Bajaj to focus on scooter market again

The government should first remove restrictions and grant greater operational and financial autonomy to Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) before allowing entry to foreign B-schools, IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) director Samir Barua has said.

Remove curbs before allowing foreign B-schools entry: IIM-A

Press Trust of India

At virtually every forum we speak at or interact with clients, there is a lot of interest and concerns around salaries and rewards in the current scenario. The challenge most companies face stems from increasing pressures to manage costs with very little corresponding alleviation of the need to engage and retain people because top talent can always find a place to go, downturn or not. Companies also realise that their &ldquo;solid citizens&rdquo;, too, feel insecure and anxious and that they have to be engaged to give their best during these times, rather than being overwhelmed by despair and pessimism.

Does your reward system measure up?

Directors will be expected to provide greater scrutiny to assertions made by executives.

What&#39;s a director to do?

Being at the forefront of a raging debate in India is no mean feat. Top it with the responsibility of being the conscience keeper of an industry or fraternity and one realises why Indian gods must possess multiple arms and heads.

&#39;We need to have board nomination committees&#39;

Strategic tools for the practising manager.

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