Ask Nishant Chordia, who decided to "quit studies" after class XII simply because nothing interested him. Four years and two animation courses later, Nishant is developing animated websites for major corporate clients and earning more than his counterparts. "And I'm loving every minute of my job. I have the freedom to use my creativity to the hilt, to work whenever I feel like, to work from my home. Unlike my friends, I have nothing to crib about!" an excited Nishant says. "Everyone who thought I had lost it when I quit mainstream studies is now eating their words," he adds, barely able to hide the glee in his voice.

Nishant is but one example of animation being accepted as a mainstream career by the industry, academia and society alike. Ashok Kolaskar, former vice-chancellor of the University of Pune and director of DSK Global Educational Research which runs a 5-year animation course in the city, declares, "Pune is going to become a major hub for the animation industry in the future. Look at how we have moved the animation industry from Bangalore and other cities to Pune! The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) has taken an initiative to see that the animation industry continues to grow. It is currently growing at about 30 percent compound rate every year," Kolaskar said.

Talking to TOI, Rishi Acharya, academic head of Arena Multimedia that has been teaching animation for more than 10 years now, said that the institute has trained more than 10 lakh students who are now working with premier organisations like Toons India. "The special effects of `Superman Returns', the Narnia series and other Hollywood films was done in India. Even software companies are getting into animation. Reliance has started an animation studio in the city while Infosys has also jumped into the fray," Acharya said.

Speaking of the opportunities for animation students, Acharya said the "sky is the limit" for talented youngsters. He added that while the domestic animation industry stood at $76 mn in 1996, it has now skyrocketed to touch $560 mn in just over 10 years.

Alumni of Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC), which has 1,200 students in the city alone, have been placed in top studios like Rhythm and Hues. Gautam Bishnoi, director of MAAC, said that the institute has tied up with Cambridge University to certify their animation course. "Movies like `Hanuman' and `Roadside Romeo' have made it easier to convince parents about animation as an industry.

Though this does not affect elite institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Management, the smaller colleges, courses and less-traditional options are now being looked at with measured scepticism. And rightfully so, say experts and management academics, who feel that management education cannot be delivered at the click of a mouse or through a virtual classroom. However, for scores of students and even young working professionals, distance education MBAs provide an opportunity to enhance their skills and even climb up the corporate ladder.

Several universities in India offer distance education MBAs. While several private players have stepped in, enticing students with career growth and even placements, there is hardly any regulation. Experts say that the best way to go about choosing a course would be to check if it has the approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Distance Education Council (DEC) or the University Grants Commission (in the case of a university). Several leading Business Schools, such as IIM-Bangalore and Symbiosis College, offer such courses. Though they ride piggyback on the reputation of their mainstream courses, the brand name lends some credibility, says Ajay Arora of the Triumphant Institute of Management Education (T.I.M.E.).

Experts also recommend the distance education course offered by the Indira Gandhi National Open University because it is structured and has a strong system -- country-wide network of contact classes and study material -- in place. Universities such as the Annamalai University, Madurai Kamraj University and ICFAI (private) have some programmes. Specialised MBAs such as Hospital Management, Health Science in physiotherapy, applied nutrition, education, finance and banking are also gaining ground.
Comparison

Basu Sankarshan, associate professor in finance and control area at IIM-B, says that the institute has at least four distance education cycles running every year for candidates with different experience levels. The Post-Graduate Software Enterprise Management programme is the only one that gives a diploma. Other certificate programmes include both live and remote learning. So, do these distance courses match up to the real thing i.e. a full-time classroom-based course? "Obviously not. A regular MBA is rated much higher. We try to incorporate three to five days of pure campus visit to try and give them that classroom experience," Prof. Basu says.

Several foreign universities also offer online MBA courses. These include online lectures (sometimes not even interactive), CDs and study material. These courses are very expensive and there is no regulatory body to help students make a decision. Mr. Arora feels that though this may seem like a more comfortable option, one cannot expect too much premium from it. "Not too many employers will give these certificates a great amount of credit. It could be an additional qualification, and those who are already working may get some additional mileage within their companies, but the buck stops there," he explains.

The current market -- with its downturn and trimmed down avatar -- will prove to be a leveller, experts say. J. Philip, former director of IIM-B and President of the Xavier Institute of Management Education, says that in the absence of any regulatory authority, the industry (or market) will act as one. "Employers are very, very discerning and do not value token certificates. In the case of an Indian Distance Education programme you at least get some contact classes and interaction. The foreign (online) courses are rather bleak. A lot of students are being lured by them and they are also very expensive," Prof. Philip explains.
Warning

He dismisses the distance mode because he feels that management education is far beyond reading books and making notes. "Skills, attitudes and habits can only be taught in a full-time course. You will get a certificate, but remember management education is not like an M.A. in History or Sociology," Prof. Philip warns. It involves team work, face-to-face interaction and a strong course; all of which is only possible in a full-time course. The one-year Executive MBA programme, which is gaining popularity, is a better option, Prof. Philip says. "This, probably, will give students, who cannot afford a long break from work, a better option to get trained in management."

The full-time MBA courses offered overseas have not lost their sheen. However, with the depreciating rupee and the global financial crisis, students are finding it too expensive. "Recently, Citibank pulled out on loan tie-ups with U.S. Business Schools and if this trend continues, then going abroad will not be a viable option," says Nishant Agarwal, an employee in a software company.

"This financial crisis has made the Indian student cautious about looking westward for an MBA degree in terms of jobs and placements," says Mr. Arora. But students must graduate to thinking of what skills and perspective they can get from a management degree rather than just worry about the profile of companies where they will be placed, he adds. "That will help them decide on what course, be it distance education, online or full-time, is of real value."

In an IT firm, technical writers are needed to communicate what the software does. This could be in terms of user documentation, user manuals or any other documentation that is required to support a technical endeavour.

Understanding of complex technology and complex applications which can be translated for the user is a must for any technical writer, says Lalitha Subramanian, who heads the technical writing department at Tata Consultancy Services. So, technical writing means writing to a specification for a specific audience, she says. It does not stop here. "Excellent communication skills, ability to understand technical concepts, business, domain and applications is needed," starts off Ms. Subramanian ticking off a long list of qualities of a tech writer. The writing has to be simple, easy to understand. It cannot be jargon-free but you have to use jargon effectively and accurately, she says. Good language skills are a must. The tools of the trade come later, she says. Most of the skills are learned on the job. "Larger organisations act as effective training grounds for freshers to get into the groove," she says. And, a good technical writer also has to be good at training others, because it is a part of the job profile.

"You need to make others write well too. Constantly you need to educate yourself. Work on smarter and more innovative ways," says Ms. Subramanian.

"The salaries are equal to that of IT professionals," says Ms. Subramanian. And the career path is similar to that of an IT professional.

All these programmes involve private study. Postal and oral coaching classes are available. One can simultaneously study the foundation and intermediate courses while doing regular degree programmes in colleges.

The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) is a statutory regulatory body that imparts cost and works accountancy education and conducts examinations. There are three stages prior to qualifying for the ICWAI membership: foundation, intermediate and final examinations.
Foundation

Those who are above 17 years of age and have passed or appeared for 10+2 or equivalent examinations are eligible to enrol for the foundation course. Foundation examinations are held twice a year -- in June and December. For the June examination, one should register with ICWAI before December 17 of the previous year, and for the December examination, before June 25. Prospectus and application form can be either obtained from the ICWAI chapters or from the Regional Council Offices. Address: Southern India Regional Council, Egmore, Chennai-600 008, Ph: 044-28554443, 28554326, website. www.sircoficwai.com. Students belonging to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep should register with the Southern India Regional Council.
Coaching

Oral and postal coaching will be arranged by the ICWAI for the students. Fee for oral coaching for the foundation course is Rs. 3,750 (Rs. 3,500 for postal coaching).

Subjects for the foundation course are as follows: organisation and management fundamentals; accounting; economics business fundamentals; business mathematics and statistics. Students must get a minimum of 40 per cent of the total marks in each paper and an aggregate of 50 per cent of the total marks to qualify the foundation course.
Intermediate

The next stage is to register for the intermediate course. Besides those who are qualified in the foundation course, graduates in any discipline including commerce are also eligible to go for the intermediate course.

Registration fee should be remitted along with the duly filled-in applications.
Deadline

A registered student has to pass the intermediate and final examinations of the institute within seven years from the date of registration, failing which the registration shall be cancelled.

With the scores of options now available for artists because of the compounded increase in the media that they can work with, an art course is not just restricted to Bachelor's in Fine Arts. For example, the Srishti School of Fine Arts offers a two-year foundation course, after which students can choose a specific course in Visual Communication Design, Digital Video Production or Experimental Media Arts. Each of these specialisations has an array of career choices after the course is completed.

From design on furniture to graphic design to advertising, there are a number of fields to choose from. Ms. Suleman says, "Now there is so much one can do. When I was applying to colleges after school, the thought that this was not a viable option did not even enter my mind."
KCP offer

Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat (CKP), which offers five specialisations under its Bachelor's in Fine Arts course, has faculty members who are working artists. Babu Jathkar, a senior faculty member in the Applied Arts Department in CKP, says, "As far as Applied Arts course goes, there is enough and more to do. It encompasses a wide range of things." Specifically in the field of sketching and cartooning, which Mr. Jathkar is proficient in, the options have increased, considering the fact that people can now foray into animation and related fields. The five courses offered by CKP at the bachelor's level are in painting, sculpture, graphic design, applied arts and art history.

"More academic fields such as art history give students the option to become lecturers," says Mr. Jathkar. Closely linked to art history is art appreciation, a course offered by many colleges as an add-on or optional subject.

"After doing a course in sculpting, many students have gone on to work with animation companies and make models for their products," adds Mr. Jathkar.

CKP is also a hotspot for many art and crafts exhibitions. From photography to textile exhibitions, CKP hosts one or the other exhibition every alternate week, providing students exposure and giving them a platform to meet others artists.

Six or seven years back, many students were reluctant to take up civil engineering because the general feeling was that it offered `dim prospects' in career terms.

Also, before liberalisation, the government sector--be it government departments or government engineering colleges--were the only options for the majority of B.Tech. civil engineers. But after liberalisation and with the construction boom, the scenario has changed.

Kuncheria P. Isaac, principal, Wayanad Engineering College, and former professor in civil engineering, College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram, says the better prospects for civil engineering students began three to four years ago. "The salaries of civil engineering students have also increased over the years. I think in five years, civil engineers and engineers in IT field will be drawing almost similar salaries," he says.

The B.Tech. civil students are much sought after by construction companies during placements. A look at the placement details of the National Institute of Technology Calicut (NIT-C) during the last three years itself points to the rise in demand for civil engineers. While 89 per cent of B.Tech. civil engineering students was placed in 2005-06, the corresponding figure was 100 per cent in 2006-07 and 2007-08. The average salary was Rs.4.35 lakh per annum in 2007-08 with 25 out of the 48 eligible civil engineering students getting offers for more than one job. A total of 48 students got 73 job offers, nearly 1.5 jobs per student. All the students were placed in core jobs--in construction and similar companies. Out of the 102 companies that visited the campus for recruitment, 20 were civil engineering companies.

At the M.Tech. level, there are four programmes, M.Tech in structural engineering; traffic and transportation planning; offshore structures; and environmental geo-technology. For the first three programmes, placements in 2006-07 and 2007-08, have been cent per cent or more than 90 per cent. M.Tech. environmental geo-technology was started in 2006 and nearly 50 per cent of the first batch of students who became eligible for placement in 2007-08 got job offers.

P.N.H. Kumar, who studied M.Tech. offshore structures, got an offer of Rs.11.4 lakh per annum from J.Ray McDermott Middle East International during the placements for 2007-08. He is to be based in Dubai. This was the highest offer for any student of NIT-C that placement season.

The industry faces a shortage of over 200,000 trained persons annually. The existing institutes currently churn out 12,000 trained manpower.

Now, with this approval, government colleges, polytechnic, universities and vocational schools will be able to impart education in these sectors, a statement issued here said.

The approval would entail a plan outlay of Rs.4.95 billion (Rs.495 crores), which is over three times the actual expenditure of Rs.1.47 billion (Rs.147.2 crores) during the 10th Five-Year Plan, it said.

"Foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) have increased considerably in the recent years from about 3.46 million in 2004 to 5.08 million in 2007. During January and July 2008, the FTA was around 3.14 million as compared to 2.38 million during the corresponding period of previous year," Prabhakar Dubey, director in the ministry, said at a conference.

Along with FTAs, the number of domestic tourists have also risen from 366 million in 2004 to 526 million last year.

"Tourism has become an important segment of the economy. around 950 million jobs are expected to be created by 2010 in the sector," Dubey said.

The ministry, he said, has launched rural tourism schemes through community participation and about 130 rural project sites have been identified in 27 states to promote traditional rural arts, crafts and culture to attract visitors and provide them with authentic and traditional experience.

Of these, 36 sites are ready to receive visitors, he added.

Meghalaya Tourism Minister Conrad Sangma said the rich tourism potential of the northeastern states were in need of proper marketing and publicity to attract the tourists.

Stressing on development of infrastructure like air connectivity and roads, he said tourism has to focus on the rural areas by involving the grassroots people and reflecting the diverse culture of the region.

Sangma also rued the negative image of the region projected outside it even though insurgency was limited to only certain pockets.

While bail-out packages have not brought even a semblance of order into the system that has gone haywire, the MBA student in India may be forced to diversify into tertiary sectors such as manufacturing.

With summer placements starting in mid-November at the IIMs, and other B-schools advancing their placement season, all eyes will be on the campus recruitment scene this year.

Even as news trickles in of markets across Asia and Europe following their U.S. counterparts on the downhill path, B-schools and the IIMs gear up for both their admission and placement season.
The mood differs

Going by an increase of 50,000 in the number of applicants for the Common Aptitude Test-2008 (for entry into the IIMs and other top-notch B-schools), the mood of the MBA aspirant is still optimistic, if not upbeat. However, B-school graduates of the 2007-2009 batch looking at passing out of their courses this year, are not as optimistic about their prospects.

Star employers such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch showed early signs when they reduced their intake of management graduates last year for summer placements. In IIM-A, the financial sector saw internships drop from last year's 57 per cent to 35.9 per cent while consulting and marketing sectors saw a rise in intake from 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively to over 22 per cent this year.

With the summer placement looming ahead in November, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers will be deeply missed. Investment banks are slot zero companies which lap up the cream of every college and both these companies had made pre-placement offers to students who did summer internships with them. These students will now participate in the placement process now. Also, 13 job offers had been made in the last placement season.

Sourav Mukherjee, chairperson-placement at IIM-Bangalore, said students should not concentrate on finance alone. The much-coveted finance portfolio will be looked at with renewed caution. "This season will definitely be bad compared to the last few years."

Prof. Mukherjee says that there may be two eventualities: either the slump will be confined to the financial sector or there will be an overall dip in the sentiment itself.

In the former case, he says that IIM-B will look at allowing more companies to come in or even diversify into various international job profiles such as the Middle East. Every year, 200 companies write to IIM-B to participate in placements, and nearly 70 are invited to the campus. This year, we may invite all 200 to come, Prof. Mukherjee says. However, in the second scenario, things will be a lot worse. "General optimism is that there is still international interest in India. We are at the edge, since finance provides the most attractive job profiles," he adds.

The mood among students is that of uncertainty and all eyes are on the placements in November. "Students will be playing it safe. There is time till March for the main placements but the internship offers will be seen as an indicator. Consulting firms have not been affected so far, so we hope that will go strong," says Anuj Pradhan, final year student at IIM-B.

In today's scenario, everything depends on IT. From letters to tax collections, booking the cheapest airline tickets, banking online to trading shares online, the modern world works through the `net' even at the price of risking your privacy and probably your bank balance!

The recent bomb blasts in cities like Mumbai, Varanasi, Jaipur and Delhi are fresh examples of the use of IT and the Internet in carrying out heinous crimes. The terrorists had hacked into Internet connections and computers of unwary citizens to set off the blasts.

The computer has emerged as the largest storehouse of information and telecommunication technologies have become essential information system components. Information Systems is the written, electronic or graphical method of communicating information.

The basis of an information system is the sharing and processing of information and ideas. But much as the computer rules our lives, computer-related gadgets have become soft targets for virus attacks.

Hacking has become a household word with hackers today having evolved from a small group of highly specialised people writing malicious virus codes to widespread professional thieves stealing identities and assets, destroying individual lives and ruining businesses.