Ahmedabad, March 22
Even as the batch of 2003-05 from the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) received highest-ever job offers this time, at least 10 candidates spurned lucrative overseas placement in favour of domestic placements.

There were three other students from the batch of 250 this year, who opted out of placement to start their own enterprise in India, which they consider as a “land of more opportunities.”

Briefing newspersons about the final placement position, IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia said there were 477 job offers for 247 students who participated in the placement this year. There were 167 students last year. The number of companies whose offers were accepted also increased by 40 per cent to 76 from 54 last year.

The average domestic salary rose by 12 per cent to Rs 7.90 lakh per annum from Rs 7.08 lakh last year. The maximum domestic salary offered by any company this time stood at Rs 14.50 lakh for the post of Assistant Vice-President.

The average international salary for overseas placement this year was $ 80,000. The maximum offer was $ 1,52,000 by HSBC for London posting. About a third of the batch was placed overseas.

Dr Dholakia said: “What is more significant is that there were as many as 22 students who accepted foreign placements for over $ 1 lakh each. And, there were 92 other students who accepted domestic jobs of over Rs 10 lakh.”

“International recruiters always make offers only at the entry level. This year, IIM-A achieved a breakthrough as several global firms offered lateral placements,” Mr Dholakia said.

He added that it was the result of focussed efforts. “We are beginning a one-year executive MBA programme from April 2006 and we must offer lateral, not entry level, positions to its graduates. This year’s achievement comes as a morale booster.” “Recruitments 2005 have once again underscored IIM-A’s ranking among the top business schools in the world. The industry has responded extremely well, salaries have gone up, vast variety of companies representing all sectors made offers. We have also expanded in terms of location as firms from the Middle-East participated in the process,” he added.

Major investment banks including Deutsche bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley as well as global consulting majors like AT Kearny, BCG and McKinsey continued their association with the institute by participating in the on-campus recruitment.

This year saw 22 new recruiters participate, including the Indian arm of Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Singapore Airlines, General Motors Shanghai, Development Bank of Singapore and Al Ghanim, a Kuwait-based business conglomerate.

While the finance sector accounted for 40 per cent of the offers, consulting, IT, marketing and general management were the other prominent sectors.

The students attracted 71 offers for overseas positions, including 18 offers from the US and 15 from Britain. About a third of the batch was placed overseas.

The top recruiters this year were Lehman brothers (14 acceptances), Al Ghanim (12), IBM (12), Congnizant Technology Solutions (10), Procter and Gamble (10) and Price Waterhouse Coopers (eight). — UNI, IANS

New Delhi, March 22
The government today informed the Parliament that it is contemplating to increase in petrol and diesel prices on account of the unprecedented, sharp increase in international crude oil prices.

Oil marketing companies have called upon the government to allow increase in petrol and diesel prices, after oil prices crossing $ 55 per barrel in the international market.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said, “since international crude oil prices have increased, it is necessary for the government to consider the issue and the government is considering it.”

“The issues are before the Government.... We will see what we have to do,” he said referring to the demand for price hike made by oil companies.

Mr Aiyar said since November last year the prices of petrol and diesel had not been raised, while the price of LPG had not been increased since August 2004. Kerosene prices had not been hiked since 2002, he added. The minister said 2004-05 witnessed the highest rise in oil prices in international markets in recent times.

He said as compared to the average Indian basket crude price of $ 27.98 per barrel during 2003-04, the average price during 2004-05 (April-January) has been $ 37.87 per barrel and in the first fortnight of March, it has been as high as $ 48.98 a barrel.

Mr Aiyar said total under-recoveries to oil marketing companies due to non-revision of prices of petrol and diesel from April 2004 to March 15, 2005 are estimated at Rs.1,526 crore.

He hoped when international prices stabilise the price band mechanism might be restored, thus moderating the burden of under-recoveries on oil companies.

He disclosed that government was also considering a Bill to set up a Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board to ensure uninterrupted and adequate supply of petroleum products and natural gas to all parts of the country, including remote areas at fair prices. He said the proposal was under consideration of a Group of Ministers.

San Francisco, March 22
Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp yesterday said it would buy web search provider AskJeeves Inc. for $1.85 billion in stock in an effort to capitalise on explosive growth in the Internet advertising and search markets.

The purchase will pit IAC against well capitalised web search giants Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. as well as new sector entrant Microsoft Corp. at a time when Internet media companies are again selling for big price tags. “Global search is the gateway to everything,’’ said media mogul Barry Diller, chief executive of IAC. “It’s an aggressive move by IAC,’’ said Susquehanna analyst Marianne Wolk. “We think they’ll face many challenges.’’

IAC will integrate the Ask Jeeves search box and its web search results on all of its IAC-owned sites, which include the Home Shopping Network, event ticket site Ticketmaster, online dating site Match.com, online mortgage provider LendingTree, and local business information provider CitySearch, Diller told a conference call. Based on IAC’s closing stock price on Friday, the deal values AskJeeves at $28.24 a share, a premium of 17 per cent to its Friday closing price. AskJeeves would be one in a stream of acquisitions for IAC, which earlier this month said it would buy catalogue and online retailer Cornerstone Brands for $720 million to expand across multiple retail outlets. — Reuters

New Delhi, March 22
Auction site Baazee.com today re-branded itself as eBay.in following the completion of integration with US-based online marketplace eBay, which bought out the Indian site in a $ 50 million deal in August 2004.

The rebranding as eBay India will scale Baazee.com to a global platform. “The two technology platforms will be integrated in the next few days, giving Indian buyers and sellers access to auctioneers in eBay’s 32 country sites,” Baazee.com Country Manager Avnish Bajaj said at a press conference here.

Indian users can use their eBay India ID to trade globally. “They can sell their products to international buyers by listing them on any of the eBay market sites. In addition, they now have more robust platform and tools that allows them to trade higher volumes without investing in IT infrastructure,” he added.

Bullish on the Indian market, Mr Bajaj said: “Today, one-third of the total eBay India business is exports. I expect it to increase from one-third to half over the next fiscal.” He said the company was committed to increasing investment in the country. “India is a good long term market. We raised about $ 21 million and spent 60 to 70 per cent of that in the first three or four years of operations. Over the next four years, we would spend more than we have done in the last four years,” he added. — UNI

New Delhi, March 22
A 25-year-old Chandigarh youth is among the finalists of the first of its kind reality programme, Business Baazigar, launched by Zee television network to discover some of India’s most potential businessmen of the future.

Talking to The Tribune, Mr Abhijit Saxena, Business Head of Zee TV, said 25-year-old Puneet Anand, a resident of Chandigarh, had been selected to be part of the finalists who would be filmed in real life trying to achieve what they have set out for. The finalists, 50 of them from all over the country, were chosen by a panel of judges, including the Zee Telefilms Chairman Subash Chandra, on the basis of their unique business propositions.

Mr Saxena said the most unique business idea, when selected would have no dearth of funding and would help the people set up their own business. The idea floated by Mr Chandra himself, keeping in mind his own success story, would eventually help bring out more entrepreneurs in the country, who although may have an idea but do not have the funding to go ahead with it.

According to Mr Saxena, it is not just that the business proposition would be selected on the basis of its uniqueness but the ability and the capability of the person, whose idea it is, to implement the same with proper business acumen would also be taken into account. He said that there are a number of MBAs who have ideas and also the knowledge of getting the funding, but there are millions others who have ideas but not the knowledge of where to get the funding from. This programme will provide them the same.

Zee TV received a total of over 3900 entries from Punjab itself out of which Puneet Anand’s was chosen to be the most unique one for the first season. The channel in all received lakhs of entries from across the country but finally selected just 50 of them for the first season of the programme.

There will be 39 cameras in all to capture every moment of this reality show which will show participants performing various challenging tasks in teams based on which eliminations would be done. After every task, a jury will decide the fate of contestants. Tasks will test all aspects of entrepreneurship with limited time and money, which will also put the contestant under pressure. Business Baazigar will have three seasons and in each season one Business Baazigar would be selected from the 50 contestants. Thus at the end of the show there will be three business ideas that shall receive a ‘no limit’ funding. In the process there will be many other small business ideas that will also get adequate funding.

Chandigarh, March 22
Refuting the allegation of the sanctioning of a 2000-MW project to a dubious Russian firm, the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has clarified that the organisation — Technopromexport, owned by the Federal Government of Russia — has a wide range of experience in setting up power projects at home and abroad.

In a communication to The Tribune, NTPC General Manager (Corporate Communication) P.D. Hindwan added that Russian firm Technopromexport was in the business of setting up power plants since 1955. Mr Hindwan was reacting to a news item, ‘NTPC sanctions 2000 MW project to a dubious Russian firm’, published in these columns on February 25.

Giving details, the General Manager said the firm had secured orders for seven thermal power projects all over the world with a total capacity of over 2700 MW in the past three years. As such, it was wrong to suggest that the firm was lacking in project management capabilities.

The General Manager claimed that there was “no irregularity in the finalisation of contract to the firm.” Its “capacity and capability assessment,” along with details pertaining to experience, were verified by a team that visited the firm’s manufacturing works in Russia and reference plant in China.

Moreover, the proposal to award work to the firm was cleared by the Board of Directors after going through “details of evaluation”. There was no pressure on the NTPC Chairman to select the firm on the basis of distorted facts.

The contention that NTPC was likely to suffer financial losses and that the firm might not succeed in supplying machinery was based on imagination, the General Manager said.

He also described as “downright derogatory” and “baseless” the contention that orders were granted to private players due to “underhand dealings”.

Chandigarh, March 22
Xerox Modicorp today announced Godrej as its sales partner in India.

The MoU was signed by Mr Rajiv J, Vice-President, Godrej’s Prima Division and Mr. Andrew Horne, Managing Director, Xerox. As part of the MoU, Godrej’s Prima Division will buy products from Xerox appointed distributors and sell them directly to key customers across the country.

Xerox also announced that Godrej will become its authorised service partner for the Xerox product line and will initially provide service support in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Jaipur.