Having changed the way people communicate with products like e-mail and instant messaging, Internet is now playing a key role in the shopping pattern by bringing world's top brands under the click of the mouse.

While a number of companies seeking to sell their products on the world wide web are establishing their online stores, they are also warming up to another route being offered by firms like eBay, which presents itself to the buyers and sellers as ‘the world's biggest shopping mall’.

Promising access to over 20 lakh registered users across 670 cities and 25 lakh unique visitors a month in India alone, eBay is attracting brands like Microsoft, Canon and Sangini as well as small entrepreneurs to set up shops on its website.

The California-based online trading platform and auction giant, which has a market capitalisation of over 43 billion dollars and annual turnover of about six billion dollars, is providing similar platforms across all the major countries such as the US, UK and European nations. Indian portals like Indiatimes.Com and Rediff.Com also offer similar platform.

While the cost of setting up and running a store in a physical shopping mall could easily run into lakhs of rupees, an online shop comes at a fraction of this price and holds huge promise due to Internet's growing penetration.

"The cost for owning a retail store on eBay India is as low as Rs 200 per month, besides a fee equivalent to 5-10 per cent of the selling price for each product sold," the company's Country Manager Rajan Mehra said.

It could be a time-consuming and sometimes quite costly for setting up an online shop on its own for a retailer, while there are also variable costs associated with running the venture and attracting buyers, Mehra said.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com

Skyrocketing salaries paid to the corporate CEOs might have ignited a debate in the country but the picture is not that rosy for engineering graduates, with just 2.5 per cent getting paid over seven lakh per year.

A 'Compensation Survey and Student Perception' study by Career Net Consulting revealed that out of the four lakh engineering graduates produced by the country every year, only 2.5 per cent draw upwards of Rs 7,00,000 per annum.


The study, which surveyed over 1,500 students from 110 engineering colleges including the IITs across the country, found that 63 per cent of the students were hired at an annual package of Rs 2-4 lakh.

"The number of high end companies looking for quality people is very less, so is the availability of quality personnel, which is the reason why a huge majority of

engineering graduates have to remain content with lesser pay," Career Net Consulting Co Founder Rishi Das said.

He said IT product companies like Cisco, Free scale and Motorola pay in the range of Rs 4-6 lakh, while high-end firms like Adobe, Microsoft, Yahoo and Citirx offer between Rs 7-10 lakh depending on the quality of professionals.

The study showed IT product companies remain the first choice of students who graduate into engineers as they pay well but since these companies do not hire in bulk and also are very particular about quality, most of the engineers have to opt for IT services companies like Wipro, TCS and Satyam.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com

The Gujarat Government has drawn up a plan to fight dengue and chikunguniya using satellite technology. The plan, made after consulting experts from India and abroad, involves combining satellite imagery with weather data such as rainfall, temperature and humidity — to identify places that provide ideal conditions for outbreak of these diseases, and then take preventive action accordingly.

The state has suggested to the Centre that the project could be adopted for implementation at the national level. And, if this was not possible, Gujarat may be given financial assistance and the necessary clearance for implementing it within the state.

If this happens, the state administration and health department will no longer break into a panic at the onset of monsoon, fearing malaria, chikungunya, and dengue.

Talking to the Express Newsline, Gujarat Health Minister Health Ashok Bhatt pointed out that the department was mooting the idea of setting up a vector-borne disease forecasting centre, which would carry out mapping of water-bodies in the state through satellite images, and identify the potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

“We are roping in Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) for the satellite images work and plan to with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in this regard,” Bhatt said. He further added, “As the longevity of mosquitoes depends on factors such as humidity, rainfall and temperature, the project envisages mapping all these factors through satellite imagery and then, analysing the results.”

Bhatt said he is sending a concept note in this regard to the Union Government within a fortnight.

“The idea evolved following a month-old workshop conducted by Dr M J Bouma, consultant at University of Michigan, USA, Prof Andrew P Dobson, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, USA and Mercedes M Pascal, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Michigan University along with the state officers from the department of Malaria Control,” Bhatt said.

He further pointed out that apart from synthetic pesticides to kill vectors, efficacy of neem oil is also being explored in this direction. “We are also exploring the possibilities of evolving preventive measures for such diseases in Ayurvedic Universities,” he added. In fact, the idea took birth after Dr Bouma’s first visit to the state in 2000.

Meanwhile, official sources in the State Commissionerate of Health and National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme told Newsline that already a feasibility study of mapping the waterbodies in the state has been undertaken by the department. “The study will initially be conducted for two years, and based on two years’ observations, we shall be able to precisely forecast the vector-borne disease in the third year,” the source said.

“While measures can be directly implemented by the state government for the open water bodies, most of which serve as breeding grounds for Anopheles mosquitoes, community participation is needed for fighting the menace of Aedes mosquito, which breed in clear water within houses,” Bhatt said. To combat this threat, the department is preparing a Container Index (CI), House Index (HI) and Bratou Index (BI) to identify areas needing intervention.

“For preparing such indices, our workers are carrying out door to door surveys and checking out containers in houses,” said a seniorhealth official.

Courtesy : Expressindia.com