Friday, February 6, 2009

IIM Shillong’s Maiden Batch Gets 100% Winter Internship

S hillong, Feb 6 : IIM Shillong’s 64-strong maiden batch has witnessed 100% placements for its winter internships, with some 35 companies across sectors making a total of 79 offers to students. Top contenders to pick up students from IIM Shillong included Deloitte, E&Y, KPMG, and PwC. A number of students also opted for media and advertising firms which included the likes of Ogilvy & Mather, Viacom, Warner Brothers and Euro RSCG, among others. On the marketing front, recruiters included AC Nielsen, Cadbury and ITC. The students will be undergoing a two-month internship in January-February. IIM Shillong however, declined to comment on the stipends offered.While students showed a reluctance to join traditional i-banking biggies, core banking and asset management companies including Citigroup, HDFC, Standard Chartered, Axis Bank, Tata AIG, SBI Cap, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SREI-BNP Paribas were among those who turned up for the process. Other leading companies at the institute included Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HUL, TATA Capital, Eicher Motors, and GE India. Technology consulting drew keen interest as well, with Siemens, Bosch, and Headstrong participating. Manufacturing and supply chain companies like Ford, Honda, Lafarge, Hero Group, Cargo Partners made their presence felt on campus as well. PSUs included ONGC, NTPC, and Power Finance Corporation. Economic Times

Myanmar Not to Allow Its Soil to be Used by NE Insurgents

New Delhi, Feb 6 : Myanmar on Thursday (February 5) pledged that it would not allow its territory to be used by northeastern insurgents to target India as the neighbouring countries signed two pacts in industry and education sectors injecting a substantive economic content to their relations. India raised the security issue stemming from the insurgents taking shelter in Myanmar which shares border with northeastern states of Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland as visiting Vice President Hamid Ansari held talks with Gen Maung Aye, the number two in this country’s ruling military junta, sources said. At the delegation-level talks between the two sides, which followed a brief one-to-one meeting between Ansari and Gen Aye, the Myanmarese side acknowledged India’s security concerns but conveyed that the insurgents would not be permitted to use its territory to target India, they said. Myanmar’s assurance assumed significance as India, which had kept the military junta at arms length for a long time after the 1988 crackdown on pro-democracy protests, changed track when it found its security interests in northeastern states were in jeopardy. Since India began engaging the Myanmarese military junta, there has been cooperation between security forces of the two countries in flushing out the northeastern insurgents. Security issue apart, the two countries inked a Memorandum of Understanding under which India will provide technical and financial assistance to set up an industrial training centre at Pakkoku in Myanmar to churn out skilled labour force, including electronic technicians, electricians, mechanists, welders and sheet metal workers. The MoU was signed by the Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju and Myanmar Industry Minister Sowe Thein. The two countries signed a separate MoU under which India will set up an English Language Training Centre in Myanmar to equip civil servants, students, professionals and businessmen with communication skills.