As Life Goes Digital

Indian IT firms are heavily dependent on services provided to US financial services. The financial crisis of billions and billions of dollars write down by US investment banks and customary deposit banks like Washington Mutual will create a big hole in TCS and Infosys in quarter 3 and 4 of 2008 is what Forrester CEO writes in his blog. TCS is effected more with its 43% of revenues coming from its financial services where as Infosys gets 34% of revenues. This is just a start in financial melt down that is predicted to have a spiraling effect on other sectors like technology being #1.

Forrester CEO George Colony in the blog writes :

Some IT vendors focus on financial services, and could find their business mildly tightened. Tata Consultancy (TCS) gets 43% of its revenues from financial services; Infosys 34%; IBM 29% (but only 6% from US financial firms). So, these vendors –- plus software vendors that sell risk management software or trading systems -- could experience some delayed or canceled contracts.

Labels: IBM, India, Infosys, TCS, US

Channel insider collected all job seekers comments and posted the details of the current job market crisis. Employers are paying low salaries for IT jobs is the central point of all the comments it received.

Outsourcing is a hit or miss - One comment about H1-B is quite interesting and It is true to some extent I feel "The worse thing that ever happened to U.S. businesses is the advent of the H1B visas and international outsourcing." Employers want all technologies in a person but pays 30 to 40% lower than market rates , 12 to 17$ per hour , make existing employee work overtime with out additional pay, $30k to $50K for a experienced web developer.

If this is the case then we can imagine the productivity of the work done by low rate charged employees. Historically US productivity is superior and only future will tell us how this model of employers going for cheap low pay rates will work out or not.

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Labels: Employment, H-1B visa, Immigration, Labour economics, Overtime, Salary, United States, US, Wage

To reduce nursing shortage in US, HR 5924 bill would provide 20,000 EB(employment-based) visas per year for three years for nurses. HR 5924 is introduced on April 29, 2008 and the key points that are part of the legislation -- Lifting retrogression for Schedule A workers, 20,000 visa quota, Review Schedule A I-140 cases within 30 days of receipt, A fee of $1500 from Schedule A workers will be used in US school to develop local talent and short the supply. The full bill text is available at this lcoation. Great discussions and updates on this Nurse relief visa legislation at Hammond's Law.

Other bills pending for approvals -- H.R. 5882 (Reduces Green Card Waitimes by acquiring unused past visa numbers), H.R. 6020 (Immigration benefits for immigrant soldiers and their families), HR 5950 (Medical care for immigration detainees).

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Labels: Immigration, Immigration to the United States, Nurse, Nursing shortage, Permanent residence, United States, US, Visa

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) on its website announced that it completed initial investigation of GMAT test takers using Scoretop.com. Good news for many GMAT test takers who are the members of Scoretop is that only 84 test takers scores are canceled. Out of which 12 test takers will not be able to retake GMAT for 3 years as they posted GMAT live test questions on Scoretop. 72 test takers scores had been canceled because they said they saw live questions appear on Scoretop.com.

GMAC in its FAQ web page clarified many questions that was bothering GMAT test takers.
1) More than GMAT test compromise, GMAC stressed that ethical behavior of the canceled scorers is taken seriously in the whole process.
2) GMAC went to extent of comparing the questions posted by canceled scorers on Scoretop.com and the GMAT questions they answered when taking the test.
3) It is not just US test takers all geographic areas are affected.
4) GMAC has completed and suspended its initial investigation. The users who are in doubt of their possible score cancellations can relax.
5) For further questions contact Ashok Sarathy, director of the GMAT Program, at asarathy@gmac.com.
6) GMAC has sent letters on Friday, September 5, 2008. to all the affected test takers informing them the cancellation decision.

Related articles from kalyansuman.com

-> GMAC sues GMAT forums/Users over "live" questions

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Labels: cancel, Cancellation, Controversy, GMAC, GMAT, Graduate Management Admission Council, Graduate Management Admission Test, MBA, scoretop.com, Test, US

Current Green card approvals are taking anywhere between 6 to 10 years causing trouble to immigrants and employers to retain the immigrant talent in US.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) authored bill to reduce wait times for green cards which is due this week. The proposal is to re-use previously allotted unused green cards.

This legislation helps US to retain the talent and remove bureaucratic obstacles.

Cesar Conda writes citing the reports from National Venture Capital Association that

in 2006, 73% of new electrical engineering Ph.D.s in the U.S. were granted to international students, according to the National Science Foundation, while in 2005, foreign nationals received 55 percent of electrical engineering master’s degrees and 42 percent of computer science master’s degrees.

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Labels: Doctor of Philosophy, Electrical engineering, GreenCard, Immigration, Jim Sensenbrenner, National Science Foundation, National Venture Capital Association, United States, US, Zoe Lofgren

Image by Getty Images via Daylife As elections approach, Illinois Senator Barack Obama who is US, Democratic presidential nominee in a campaign event in Pennsylvania talked about streamlining specialized skills related jobs and their visas -- H2-B.

H2-B visas are required for highly specialized skills where local US business is not able to recruit the local talent citing "nuclear physicist" example from India.

Obama was unhappy that (H1-B) visas system is misused by the companies by wrongfully hiring software engineers for low wages and effecting the US labor markets and wages.

With US unemployment rate reaching 6.1% , the jobs have become a talking point in US 2008 elections and naturally the focus is shifted of how the jobs should not be wrongfully moved to overseas. The immigration is deciding factor in elections as how well both McCain Republicans and Obama Democrats talk about their immigration policies in coming weeks.

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Labels: Barack Obama, Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008, H1-B, H2-B, Immigration, Pennsylvania, Politics, Presidential nominee, Society and Culture, United States, US

You are eligible to participate in the class-cation suit and get benefits If you had a credit card, a loan account, or a line of credit in the US any time from January 1, 1987 to May 28, 2008. The lawsuit is filed on Trans Union with charges that it sold lists containing consumer information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Settlement benefits include 1)Six months/nine months of free credit monitoring and 2) Cash payout. Make sure you register by September 24, 2008 to get this benefits. Details available at: Listclassaction

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Labels: Credit, Credit card, Credit history, Credit score, Deals, Equifax, TransUnion, United States, US

A U.S. district court judge, Faith Hochberg in New Jersey rules in favor of new US grads extension of student visas. With limited 85,000 H1-B visas out of which only 20,000 H1-B's are allocated for students which forces other new grads go out of status and eventually forces them to leave the US. H1-B's have become a lottery where odds are very less these days to get an H1-B visas in the lottery.

Homeland Security extended 12 months to 29 months for students visas to convert to H1-B as they can stay in US and work during that period and until they get H1-B visa.

The Programmers Guild, a strong advocate against the H1-B visa program filed this suit. The wage depression argument is over ruled by the judge indicating lack of proper evidence. Programmers Guild from time to time filed many discrimination complaints against H-1B employers.

This is good news for all student graduates with F1 visas now that they can get more breathing time until they convert their F1 visas to H1-B.

Labels: F1, H-1B visa, Immigration, New Jersey, Programmers Guild, United States, US

Bank Of America is giving away free admissions for its card holders to many museums all over US. This year there are many states included in the promotion like Illinois (Chicago museums) and Michigan. The difference in this promotion is that only on first weekend and just card holders are admitted free. Earlier promotions allowed one free guest with the card holder. As per promotion looks like the cards can be anything credit cards or debit cards.

The savings are around $20 per person. It is better than searching for coupons to get such deals.

Free first weekend BOA museum admissions with dates :



Free Chicago museum admissions :

1) Art Institute of Chicago
2) Chicago history museum
3) Museum of contemporary art

Labels: Bank of America, Credit card, Debit card, free, KPMG, Museum, United States, US, Visa

Live streaming sites:

Here are few options for those who want to watch summer Olympics 2008 on their PCs. NBAOlympics has a video section on their site for all US visitors to watch the games live or on demand. YouTube "Olympics" channel is available to more than 60 countries including India.



List of all streaming options:

US:

NBC
itsgametime.tv
Watch Olympics
TVTonic
http://www.cctvolympics.com/
COX

77 territories, including South Korea, India and Nigeria
YOUTUBE


UK:

BBC

Australia:
Yahoo

Canada:
CBC

P2P streaming info :

SopCast

Sopcast download Download this sopcast , Install and log in as anonymous and you will find atleast one channel streaming the game on game day.Have patience the buffering takes a while.

If you are using Mozilla FireFox (sopcast doesn't work in Firefox), use Internet Explorer browser to view the match

If you can't see sopcast player in the site, then you need to download and install sopcast.
AFTER STARTING SOPCAST PLAYER, WAIT TILL THE BUFFERING IS DONE.

TVU Player

Click me for TVU player download

After downloading and installing TVU player browse through the channels and you will sure find one channel that has 'Olympics'.

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Labels: 2008 Summer Olympics, events, Internet Explorer, live, Mozilla FireFox, Olympic Games, Olympics, sopcast, Sports, streaming, US, watch online

This article in Gazette highlights the problems that Maryland employers facing as a result of 85000 H1-B visa cap. Getting H1-B in US is a lottery system now with so many applicants fiercely competing for meager 65,000 H1-B visas.

Students in US are some what better off in the sense that they can work on F1 visa for 29 months and apply for 20,000 H1-B visas available.

Chamber of commerce's lobbying was not working to increase the cap back to 195,000 quota of 2003.

Is H1-B effecting the salaries and jobs taken away from US workers ?

Globalization and the American IT Worker(pdf).

A number of studies have found that the H-1Bs are paid on average 15% to 33% less than comparable U.S. IT workers.Given the similarity in salary savings between offshoring and labor importation, and the fact that having the work done on-site is far more productive, it is much more cost-effective from a CEO’s point of view to hire H-1Bs than to offshore the work

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Labels: H-1B visa, Immigration, Recreation, Society and Culture, Travel, United States, US, Visa

DOL recently announced that they would audit each and every PERM application filed by largest US Immigration firms attorneys at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP. The act brought all firms together and DOL issued a statement to clarify the role of attorneys in recruiting requirements for labor certifications.

DOL releases clarification on June 13. 2008 in its guidance bulletin - PERM Program Guidance Bulletin on the Clarification of Scope of Consideration Rule in 20 CFR 656.10(b)(2)

DOL justifies its stand by making clear that "The employer, and not the attorney or agent, must determine whether a U.S. applicant's credentials meet the minimum qualifications for the position ..." -- Do all th employers have luxury or skills to evaluate each and every application ? A practical "NO" is the answer. This makes us believe that DOL wants every employer in US to be immigration skillful. Why would any employer invest its time and resources on such not value-added task ? This is the same reason that employers hires attorneys to represent their cases.

The fight continues -- DOL stance is to avoid fraud done by some of firms in filing unlawful PERM applications thereby denying the job prospect for citizens. Clearly DOL cannot audit all the Fragomen' applications given its resource strengths and continuing back logs at the DOL centers. Sure political pressures like large employers lobbying may change the situation in future on this particular DOL vs Fragomen issue. It remains at large to see how influential US employers react to this situation staged by DOL on immigration firms.

Check this DOL site for latest updates

Labels: Immigration, Lawyers and Law Firms, PERM. GreenCard, United States, US

Image via WikipediaThe MasterCard ranked the cities that drive global commerce. The 2008 report is out and good news is that three Indian cities are part of the rankings -- Mumbai #48, New Delhi #61 and Bangalore #66. London tops the rankings with Newyork taking second place and Chicago #5.

Asian cities dominated this years ratings showing the strength of emerging markets on global map. Eight cities out of top 25 are from Asian continent. Shanghai is now in top 25 list for its favorable commerce atmosphere. Singapore surpassed rival Hong Kong in 2008 ratings. The US west-coast cities -- Los Angeles and San Francisco slided down in their rankings.

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Labels: Asia, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Newyork, San Francisco, US