Human Resources

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 nov 2015

India's agriculture and farming products contribute to 15% of its exports (US$ 40 billion), 17% to its GDP, and employs nearly half of its total workforce. R. Gopalakrishnan, business leader and currently non-executive director at TATA Sons Ltd., suggests that policy makers should not ignore India's agriculture sector and bring it into the main policy agenda. The sector is in a great need for a business model innovation. Government programs like 'Digital India' can connect farmers through smart phones, 'Make in India' can work to enhance exports and 'National Skills Development Mission' can upgrade skills of the 260 million farming and agricultural workforce. Experts suggest that India has the potential to double its agricultural exports and increase its farm output by lesser but better trained workers. Senior scientist and director of the Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Narendra Pratap Singh, while explaining India's pulses crisis says, 'It is not lack of research as much as policy support that is currently missing in pulses.' Mr. Gopalakrishnan recommends innovative and intelligent approach to agriculture. Collaborative programs between the center and the states can bring the next green revolution. A research paper that Mr. Gopalakrishnan co-authored with Y.S.P. Thorat (former chairman and MD of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), titled 'Sarthak Krishi Yojana', suggests a coherent framework to transform agriculture and is inspired by the national industrialisation experiences through five pillars - technology, risk, institutionalisation, policy and skills. Read on...

Business Standard: Intelligent farming - Farming and agriculture in India are crying out for a business model innovation
Author: R. Gopalakrishnan

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 oct 2015

Indian PM Narendra Modi's recent visit to Silicon Valley and meetings with the top executives of US technology giants, have possibilities and opportunities to build partnerships and collaborations for 'Digital India' concept. Moreover access to the attractive 1.25 billion people's market that India offers would be too hard to refuse for Silicon Valley companies. But what these companies also expect is the faster pace of economic reforms, ease of doing business and less bureaucratic hurdles and regulations. The recent exit of global commodities trader and hedge fund manager Jim Rogers from the Indian market gives a negative signal to the global investor community. India's digital upgrade holds a promise for educational and social modernization leading to advanced and skilled workforce, that are preconditions for a thriving economy along with sufficient consumption. Although India's literacy rate continues to rise since independence but it is still well short of projected world literacy of about 90% this year. A lot is still desired in educational infrastructure particularly in rural areas. Internet and latest educational technologies and platforms can help in this regard. India's internet penetration is only 20% of the population and the government's digital thrust can boost this number. Expertise from tech giants can be utilized to improve internet access. Moreover the digital strategy will also spur consumption through ecommerce. According to World Bank, at present consumption accounts for 60% of India's GDP, while Wall Street Journal mentioned that only 1% of India's population shops online. Also 80% of India's population lacks means to pay electronically for goods, says Morgan Stanley research report. The report also mentioned that India's internet market could rise to US$ 137 billion by 2020. All these statistics points towards a better scope and opportunities for businesses in a 'Digital India'. Read on...

Fortune: How Silicon Valley can turn India's economy around
Author: S. Kumar

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 sep 2015

Indian IT firms, in order to attract high-end digital contracts that are design and creative skills intensive, are building dedicated design practices, acquiring design firms, modifying their hiring practices to accomodate design and creative talent, and mandating internal marketing design teams to work with clients. Hiring artists and designers seems to be the new trend in the IT industry. According to Paul Nanneti of Capgemini Group, 'More digital work could move to India, but there is a gap in the design capabilities. That is still being done mostly onshore. So we are building out a design and user capability practice in India.' Tata Consultancy Services has been developing its design practice for last 5 years. Satya Ramaswamy of TCS Digital Enterprise says, 'There are some very good artists and designers who don't have bachelor's degrees. So we have to create exceptions in our hiring policies to be able to bring them on board. Even managing artistic and design people is different.' Wipro recently acquired a Danish design firm Designit. According to Rajan Kohli of Wipro Digital, 'While we had been trying to hire senior designers in the market, it became clear to us that we needed a proven design platform, a heritage and brand in design, to be able to attract the best people to Wipro.' Read on...

The Economic Times: Lack of design and creative skills could shut out Indian IT from lucrative digital contracts
Author: Jochelle Mendonca

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 13 sep 2015

India's startup ecosystem is bubbling with energy and enthusiasm with large venture capital investments pumped into it. This gives startups opportunity to attract the best talent with attractive compensation packages. The phenomenon is giving rise to heightened competition for talent with MNCs that have also started to offer joining bonus and stock options. The beneficiaries of this are the freshly minted campus recruits of the Tier-1 engineering colleges. According to the latest study by Zinnov, 'On campus compensation by MNCs include bonus and stock options varying between Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The average CTC (cost-to-company) offered by MNCs in Tier-1 colleges was around Rs 14.3 lakh, while startups offered Rs 16.5 lakh. The CTC includes base salaries, variable pay, joining bonus and stocks.' Sandeep Moorthy of Zinnov says, 'MNCs were paying Rs 8 to 9 lakh in 2011 as basic pay, but now the figure has gone to almost Rs 12 lakh. The fixed in-hand pay is comparable for MNCs and startups. The difference is in the value of stocks offered by startups.' According to Sumit Jain, co-founder and CEO of Commonfloor.com, 'We hired 50 from Tier-1 colleges like IITs and IIMs for these roles with compensation packages ranging between Rs 10-25 lakh, that includes ESOPs, retention bonus, equity and cash.' Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Capillary Technologies, says 'About 10% of entry-level salary consists of stock.' Read on...

The Times of India: MNCs compete with startups for talent, match salary, offer esops
Authors: Shalina Pillai, Shilpa Phadnis

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 sep 2015

Shortage of specialized care is one of the critical challenges that India's healthcare system is currently grappling with. As affluence and awareness of Indian population increases, the demand for better specialist-monitored healthcare is expected to rise. India's specialist availability data for selected fields per 1 lakh population is - Cardiologist (5000), Dermatologist (7000), Radiologist (10000), Ophthalmologist (11000). Although US too has shortages in terms of specialists, but the number of specialists available is far better when compared to India - Cardiologist (31500), Dermatologist (10000), Radiologist (25000), Ophthalmologist (19000). So how is India going to tackle the challenge of specialist shortages? Dave Richards of Unitus Seed Fund, is optimistic about the transformative changes that mobile technologies will bring to India's healthcare landscape. He explains five main factors that need to be addressed through technological interventions - (1) Services of specialists must not only accessible, but also affordable to both urban and rural India. (2) Services must be from a trustworthy source. (3) Convenience is a major factor for consumers. (4) Providing consultation needs to be convenient for specialists. (5) Specialists need to earn money. According to him, combination of ubiquitous smartphones and high-speed data networks can create a large-scale affordable platform for delivering healthcare services. Diagnostic services is one area that can be substantially transformed through technological advancements and innovatons - Cardiac Care: Transmitting an ECG image through a smart device to on-demand cardiologist; Dermatology: 85% of skin issues can be fully diagnosed by a dermatologist with a photo taken by a smartphone; Radiology: CT scans, X-rays, ultrasounds etc can be captured by technician and then transmitted to remote radiologists; Ophthalmology: Eye screaning for diseases and refraction issues can now be done by technicians using low-cost devices, routed to ophthalmologists via mobile networks. Read on...

Forbes: The smart way of providing affordable health care
Author: Dave Richards

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 aug 2015

As technology continues to pervade every aspect of human life, businesses that provide technology products and solutions will grow and expand. Moreover as the pace of technological innovation increases alongwith competitive race for quality and price, the industry will require workforce that has newer skills and competencies, giving rise to career options that were not available earlier. Siddarth Bharwani, Director of Brand and Marketing at Jetking Infotrain Ltd, provides 10 career paths that would be in demand in the technology and IT space in future in India - (1) Wearable Experts (2) Tech Experts for Artificial Intelligence/Robotics (3) Digital Artisans (4) App Developers (5) Information Security Analysts (6) Computer Systems Analysts (7) IT Project Managers (8) Computer Forensics Experts (9) Big Data Analysts (10) 3D Printing Designers. Read on...

Huffington Post: 10 Promising Tech Careers For The Future
Author: Siddarth Bharwani

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 aug 2015

India's agriculture sector becomes important to the economy due to the workforce employed, nearly half of the total, and contribution of 17% to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The sector has gone through many transformations - 'Green Revolution' of 1960s, improvement in the yield of wheat with introduction of high yielding varieties and establishment of research facilities and use of better fertilizers and irrigation in the early 1970s, and subsequent transformation in the output of rice due to large-scale use of tube wells, and post-1980s saw the shift in focus towards increasing yields and production of oilseed, fruits and vegetables. During 1960s and 1970s the growth of agriculture was 3-4% while during 1980s it became 5-6%. In 1990s it reached 6-7% but during later part of 1990s and post-2000 it declined to 1-2%. Amit Kapoor and Sankalp Sharma of Institute of Competitiveness in India, explain the various aspects of Indian agriculture and provide recommendations to improve and grow the agricultural economy. According to them government should focus on areas like rural infrastructure, better access to credit and enabling value addition by farmers. They highlight four aspects of Indian agriculture - (1) Overdependence on monsoon for irrigation: There is need for better irrigation policy, utilization of rivers, rural tourism and infrastructure development. (2) Inhibition to technology adoption: Research community has to play a better role in guiding farmers and learning about their challenges and advocate technological solutions. Agricultural policy should make farmers as the focus of every policy action. Farming in India has to move beyond 'subsistence' level. (3) Lack of availability of formal agricultural credit to farmers: Requires better insurance schemes, behavioral interventions to make farmers aware of their decisions, promotion of financial planning, and making farmers feel financially secure and independent. Venture finance can be considered for agricultural producers who want to do value addition for their agricultural produce. (4) Inefficient market conditions: Although government procurement at MSP (Minimum Support Price) is beneficial to farmers but they cannot command the price that they could in a free market. Moreover inefficient storage leads to wastage of produce. Farmers should have the flexibility to sell directly to interested foreign buyers. Read on...

Business Insider: Here's why we need to focus on agriculture in India!
Authors: Amit Kapoor, Sankalp Sharma

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 jul 2015

According to the recent report by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India's healthcare sector is expected to grow to Rs. 9.64 lakh crore by 2017 while the incremental workforce requirement is estimated to reach 74 lakh in 2022. In 2013 healthcare human resources requirement figure was 35.9 lakh. There are 11 lakh allied healthcare professionals in diverse fields and 6.21 lakh allopathic doctors and the sector is still quite short of the current demand. The report further states that there are only 356 registered medical institutions with the total admission capacity of 45000 at undergraduate level and about 24000 at post-graduate level. Dilip Chenoy, MD and CEO of NSDC, says 'There is a need for both qualitative and quantitative skill development initiatives in the healthcare sector. We also need to focus heavily on upgrading technical skills of the workforce for advanced healthcare services.' Read on...

The Economic Times: India's healthcare sector to require 74 lakh employees by 2022: NSDC
Author: NA

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 may 2015

Entrepreneurship is a critical component of economic growth and contributes to development, industrialization and employment generation. For entrepreneurship to thrive requires a facilitating ecosystem with government's proactive business policies, participation of private sector, accessible markets, availability of venture capital, readily available skilled human resources, and environment of risk taking. In 2015 GEI (Global Entrepreneurship Index) India is ranked 104th and trails all BRICS economies. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study in 2013 pointed out that entrepreneurial attitude is relatively low in India when compared to other BRICS countries. Only 61% of the adults (age 18-64) surveyed looked at entrepreneurship as a desirable career option. Moreover the enterprise surveys from World Bank reveals that the new firm density, described as number of new corporations created per 1,000 working age (16-64 years) individuals, is found to be dismally low in India. Although recently constituted Ministry of Entrepreneurship (with Skill Development) by the Government of India is a step in right direction to boost entrepreneurship focused policy and decision making but concrete visible actions are to be taken soon considering the highly competitive and fast paced world of entrepreneurial ventures. Amit Kapoor, President & CEO of India Council on Competitiveness and Chairman of the Institute for Competitiveness, points out the issue of entrepreneurship clusters and why India has faltered in a coherent cluster approach that enables enterprise creation. According to him, 'The fact that exports from the country have not been able to keep pace with the imports points to rising domestic demand. In addition, it also points to a failure on the part of India to 'make' and equally importantly 'market' our goods and services well in the global economy.' He further adds, 'The thrust on Make in India is thus understandable. Augmentation of large corporations with the development of MSME clusters, especially with newer enterprises and entrepreneurs, will go a long way in bettering prospects for the future.' He suggests the following key elements to nurture an entrepreneurial ecosystem in India - Education that promotes independent thinking and risk taking; Expand the funding opportunities; Technology development by talented and expert individuals; Improved access to infrastructure like electricity, internet, land etc; Social and cultural support by accepting failure as an inherent part of learning; Better regulatory environment; Stringent IP (Intellectual Property) protection regime; Collaborative environment with trust and teamwork between institutions, networks and people. He finally adds, 'In our view, specialization, innovation and marketing (SIM) should be the basis of entrepreneurship that would drive more value creation in the Indian context. Newer business models that focus on society, scale and simplicity would better the outcomes for India in the future.' Read on...

moneylife: Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in India
Author: Amit Kapoor

---

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 apr 2015

For organizations to continuously innovate and provide better products and services, it is imperative that innovation and creativity becomes part of the workplace culture. Dave Ranson, MD of Moog India Technology Center (MITC), says 'A workplace culture wiped clean of fear of failure has the best climate for innovation.' He suggests the following to encourage innovation - (1) What It Takes To Innovate: Right people; Right processes; Right resources; Discipline in strategy, planning and execution of innovation programs; Leadership support. (2) What Leaders Must Do To Foster Innovation: Drive away fear of failure from workplace; Knowing when pursuing innovation and give it the best; Continually reinforcing courage to take risks; Encourage the practice of learning from failure, adjust and move on; Recognize and reward innovative behavior; Judge innovation projects with two questions (Is it producing valued and tangible outcomes and is it creating valuable new knowledge). Read on...

The Economic Times: What business leaders do for workplace innovation
Author: Amrita Premrajan

Latest             ⊲ Newer Posts             Human Resources             Older Posts ⊳             Last

---

the3h | glomc00 | ilmeps | mawdesigns | anasmark | ilmeds | read | contact