Today, India is the third largest producer of fish in the world with an annual production of 6.90 mt and ranks second in inland production (3.70 mt).

The contribution of aquaculture sector to inland fish production is about 80 per cent with annual growth rate of over 8 per cent. India accounts for 2.4 per cent share in global fish market with annual export earnings of over Rs 8,000 crore. The fisheries sector is contributing 1.4 per cent to national GDP in general and 4.6 per cent to agricultural GDP in particular. Rich aquatic resources of the country already provide livelihood to about 14.5 million persons in this sector, directly or indirectly.

Although fish production has increased at a higher rate as compared to foodgrain, milk and egg production but consumption of fish (with 56 per cent fish-eating population) in India still remains below 10 kg per capita per annum, which is much lower than countries like China (25.8 kg) and the rest of Asia (14.3 kg). The domestic requirement of fish in the country is estimated to be 12 mt by 2020 as against the present production of 6.90 mt. Out of the total area available for aquaculture, only 30 per cent of freshwater and 10 per cent of brackish water area is being utilised at present. Hence, there is still tremendous scope for utilising these resources to achieve the target and generate more employment opportunities in the fisheries sector in the coming years.

Growth in Punjab
Punjab has recorded tremendous growth in the fisheries sector in the last three decades. Fish production has increased from 2,800 tonnes in 1980-81 to 86,697 tonnes in 2006-07. Being a landlocked state, around 70 per cent of total fish production comes from aquaculture (60,567 tonnes) and 30 per cent from capture sector (26,130 tonnes). At present, nearly 10,023-hectare area is under fish culture (6,695 ha village ponds and 3,328 ha private ponds) and aquaculture productivity of the state is 6.04 t/ha/yr, which is more than double the national productivity of 2.60 t/ha/yr. Punjab has a vast network of natural water resources, including 17,453 km of rivers, canals and drains, 23,000 ha of reservoirs/ lakes/wetlands and 7,046 ha of village ponds. These water resources have immense potential for fishery development in the state.

Source: The Tribune Fishing for success: Fisheries Sector Emerged As An Industry, With Rapid Commercial Growth

• Scope

• Eligibility

• The Road Ahead

2009 was a defining year for several professionals and the job market witnessed a return of sanity after the three year bull phase. Senior professionals chastened by the past experience of excessively focusing on compensation and thereby making short term career calls are now looking to focus on the long term. Across the board, compensation levels were either static or witnessed modest single digit increases during the year and will continue to remain so as companies may not go overboard this time around. However, we are seeing big spikes in variable compensation even across traditional sectors as companies prefer to pay more for performance and keep fixed costs under check. Stock options which had temporarily lost its sheen are seen to be back in vogue.

The financial services sector bore the brunt of the slowdown. The retail financial services and broking businesses witnessed job losses as most banks and NBFCs wound up unprofitable lines. However, the wholesale and investment banking businesses have continued to hire selectively especially in the area of debt capital markets and related areas. We expect the situation to turn around across the sector gradually by the third quarter of the year. Compensation and bonuses in the sector have come under intense scrutiny from the regulators and are unlikely to see major upheavals in the near term, though in relative terms, executives in the sector continue to be the highest paid.

Looking forward, we expect the power and heavy infrastructure sectors to continue its robust growth spurring demand for professionals in the areas of project management, especially mega projects and CFOs with big ticket fund raising expertise apart from project specific niche areas. Further, we have seen increased demand for expatriate executives and returning Indians as local expertise is lacking or non existent in new growth sectors like power, airport infrastructure and allied areas which have been opened up to the private sector. However, the commercial and residential real estate sector which witnessed steep erosion in capital values seems to be limping back to action, but the outlook still seems hazy.

By K Sudarshan,
Managing Partner-India,
EMA Partners International.

Source: Economic Times 'No scarcity of job opportunities in 2010'

"Students who already have many years of experience have got PPO packages of Rs 30-40 lakh per annum. We expect people with more work experience to get Rs 50 lakh per annum during the final placements," said one of the IIM officials. IIM students, who spoke with ET on conditions of anonymity, said the number of PPOs for the 2008-2010 batch have already reached 50-60 in most IIMs except IIM-Shillong, which has 63 students. But IIMs expect PPOs to double at the time of the final placement in March 2010.

"This year, investment banks seem to be keen on final placements too. We are clearly seeing an uptick in the market, but at the same time this is just cautious optimism," said an IIM-Ahmedabad official. "We are not taking it easy and are reaching out to more MNCs than before," he said.

Global consulting firms McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte and AT Kearney, apart from technology companies such as Huawei, Intel, Dell, Pfizer, HP and Google, have also shown interest in participating during the final placements next year.

India's premier business schools now expect a good part of their campus placements from companies such as P&G, Diageo, HUL, City Bank, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, Barclay's, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America - Merrill Lynch, HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and public sector banks. Sources said such companies have already started pouring in lucrative PPOs or are in talks with the IIMs to hire.

Source: Economic Times IIM grads' pre-placement offers double as cos seek fresh talent

While Tower Research Capital, a financial services company from New York, has confirmed participation at IIT-Kanpur with the highest offer of Rs 44.5 lakh per annum so far, IBM has made an offer of Rs 14 lakh, highest so far at IIT- Roorkee.

The institutes say they see a 30 per cent salary hike over last year, when the average offers saw a 30 per cent drop to around Rs 6 lakh, due to the global recession.

"Placements this year look better than last year. We have invited around 1,200 companies on the campus against 800 last year," said a placement committee member from IIT-Roorkee, which will place around 1,200 students this year.

At IIT-Kharaghpur, the highest salary offered to the batch of 2009 remained the same as last year, at Rs 22 lakh per annum, while the average salary for students dipped to Rs 6 lakh per annum from Rs 7.44 lakh per annum last year.

IIT-Madras has sent out 800 invitations to companies, of which 100 have confirmed participation. The total number of students at IIT-Madras this year is around 1,000.

Last year, the IITs were able to achieve only around 75-80 per cent placements.

Around 120 summer placement offers were made on the first day and about 90 accepted.

Bain, McKinsey, AT Kearney, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland were among the companies that made offers on Day Zero of the summer placements. “ Bain has made five offers and McKinsey and AT Kearney have made around three offers each,” said a source who did not wish to be named.

Banks including Morgan Stanley and the Royal Bank of Scotland have made five to six offers each, he added.

After the fall of big banks last year in the wake of the global financial crisis, this year Bschools are witnessing a return of investment banks to the campuses. “ The revival is quite apparent as banks have indicated that they will be making five to six offers at each of the campuses this year,” said a student at IIM Calcutta.

Source: Mail Today Big firms knock at IIM- A doors again

However, experts say it is too early to say the situation has returned to ‘normalcy’.

“We see the movement across the sectors and it looks like the worst is over. The current scenario cannot be considered normal, but it is better than bad,” executive search firm GlobalHunt India professional leader Sunil Goel said.

If everything goes fine, then it will take a year to reach a normal situation, he added. In the last two quarters (January–March and April–June), hiring was almost 0–5 per cent across industries but in current quarter, average hiring has increased 5–15 per cent.

Sectors like telecom, infrastructure, life sciences and energy have witnessed a 25–30 per cent rise in hiring in the second quarter against the first quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, IT, retail, banking, consulting and FMCG have seen a 8-10 per cent rise in hiring in the September quarter, over the previous quarter. “With the economy showing signs of recovery, there is cautious optimism in the job market and going forward, the coming quarters are expected to be better,” an industry expert said.

Source: Business-standard Jobs are back as slump eases

The information technology revolution barely two decades ago opened up several hundred thousand new jobs in software, hardware and IT-enabled services. Now, a new green jobs sector promises millions of new employment opportunities, as consciousness about the environment and climate change grow. But in order to avail of these opportunities, appropriate policy changes in education and other fields need to be made now.

Whether it is an architect helping design energy-efficient buildings, a rural woman practicing sustainable farming or a plumber installing water-recycling systems, they are part of the change required to green the economy. Green jobs relate not only to renewable energy, biodiversity preservation, waste management, water conservation and treatment, and carbon management, but also to the change in employment patterns in favour of greener, cleaner and more sustainable employment. A green job is one that helps bring about and maintain a transition to environmentally sustainable forms of production and consumption. Green jobs can be work in any field that contributes substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality.

Experts say that the vast majority of green jobs in India will come from managing natural resources such as water and land, not just from deploying renewable energy like wind and solar power. The investment going into restructuring our economy to be more sustainable will completely dwarf our IT revolution.  Large IT firms together employ less than a million people.

Source: The Tribune Towards a green future!  : AXGreen Jobs Are Opening Up Opportunities In Current Economic Downturn

When a global asset management company decided to hire a new country head for India in May, the timing seemed ideal: not many financial service companies were recruiting and the market was flush with talent. But after four months of constant negotiations, the company is yet to complete the process as the selected candidate is demanding more money than it could offer.

Similarly, when a technology company that employs 10,000-odd people in India decided to hire a new CEO a couple of months ago, it took a few thousand dollars more and an extra month than the company had in mind to get the candidate on board.

Suddenly, candidates for top jobs are bargaining hard and long in a job market that’s tilting back in favour of the employee, with a clutch of companies across sectors returning to fill up the vacancies after almost a year.

“We are witnessing a situation where the outstanding leadership talent is being pursued by multiple opportunities, thereby vesting significant negotiation power with these executives,” said Atul Vohra, managing partner of executive search firm Transearch International.

Source: Economic TimesWanted: Reasonable candidates for top jobs

The solution? Many are turning to programs that let them earn a degree in half the time, often at a fraction of the cost.

Consider Marco André. He knew if he wanted to achieve his dream of managing companies and working in different countries, he'd need to get an M.B.A.

But taking two years away from his career for a traditional program was too big a sacrifice. So, Mr. André, a product-management director for a technology company in Portugal, opted for ESADE's one-year program in Barcelona. His M.B.A. brought him the change he wanted: After graduating last April, he landed a job as a market-planning manager for Procter & Gamble Co.

in Madrid. "At a certain point, the extra length just doesn't add value," says Mr. André. "You can learn everything perfectly well in a shorter time span. Nowadays, the opportunity cost of two years is just too high."

Accelerated M.B.A. programs, which take between 10 and 15 months to complete, have been around for decades and are the norm in Europe. Although these programs are much less common in the U.S., they're growing increasingly attractive especially among older students, who are becoming less willing to spend two years out of the work force.

These programs have rarely been evaluated by outsiders, in part because they're still less ubiquitous than their two-year counterparts. About 90 accredited schools world-wide offer the accelerated M.B.A., and many of them only recently added the option. But the degree's growing popularity and reach led The Wall Street Journal to take its first close look at accelerated M.B.A.

Source: Live Mint Top M.B.A. programs if you are in a hurry

• European edge

• Spanning the globe

• What's not to like?

• Economic buffer

But despite the writing on the wall in the US, the message for skilled Indians looking at opportunities overseas may not be really all that bleak. Even though the opportunities in some geographies may have shrunk in the short-term, the outlook in the long haul may not be so bad. In fact, concerns over the impact of global slowdown on jobs of Indians working overseas has catalysed the ministry of overseas Indian affairs into carrying out a study on the global scenario. "What we have found is that while immigrants in some geographies may be facing job losses, there are others where new opportunities are emerging. The other fear that there would be a sharp drop in remittances, too, has been largely unfounded. Remittances grew to a whopping $45 billion in 2008. And in 2009 too there has been no slowdown in remittances," says Mr G. Gurucharan, joint secretary, MOIA.

Source: Economic TimesCross-border DREAMS