Intel latest to admit January hacking attack

March 9th, 2010

Intel has become the latest company to admit being targeted for a system intrusion earlier this year.

The company said on Tuesday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it was the target of an attack early last month around the same time that Google and Adobe were subject to their high-profile attacks.

“We regularly face attempts by others to gain unauthorised access through the internet to our IT systems by, for example, masquerading as authorised users or the surreptitious introduction of software,” the company said.

“These attempts, which might be the result of industrial or other espionage, or actions by hackers seeking to harm the company, its products, or end users, are sometimes successful.”

Intel said later that, other than the timing, there was nothing to suggest that the incident was related to the attempts to compromise systems at Google and other vendors.

Google revealed the incident in mid-January when it threatened to pull its business in China. The company alleged that groups within China had attempted to compromise systems at its facilities and those of at least 20 other companies.

Adobe then admitted that it too had been targeted by attackers and that the culprits were believed to be connected to the Google attack.

China has since denied the allegations.

Source : http://uk.news.yahoo.com

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Protected: SAS Programmer at MNC in Noida

March 9th, 2010

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March 9th, 2010

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March 9th, 2010

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March 9th, 2010

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THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY

March 9th, 2010

If you know the kind of boss you have, things are easier to handle. Here are some of the common types

Sound ’’ fury

The screamer boss seems to think that he will get his way if he raises his voice to an unconscionable level. How does a screamer end up as a boss? Some clueless hiring managers equate screaming with managerial skills. All in all, screamers just want to know that they’re being heard, and they want recognition. If you can get along with your screamer boss, and gain his respect and trust, perhaps you can help guide him to lower tones.

Fear factor

People do what a “fearsome” boss says because they’re afraid of him, which actually encourages further intimidation. He always threatens, and he constantly follows through with that threat in order to keep his employees acquiescent. This boss has a high turnover rate as he fires employees to keep up the fear factor, and good employees leave him, refusing to work for such an ogre. A fearsome boss cannot last. Eventually, he will burn out every employee, and an organisation’s bottom line cannot sustain the costs involved.

The manipulator

Also known as the Machiavellian boss, this type is extremely intelligent and one of the most dangerous. The manipulator boss is highly focussed, very motivated, and always has a secret plan. He looks at people as a means to an end. The world is a giant pyramid and the apex is his. People he touches or runs over on the way to the top are casualties he writes off. If you work for a manipulator, watch your back. Your best bet is to be open and honest with him. Volunteer information. Your boss, who has long forgotten what truth is, will be left impressed by it.

Busy bee

He is someone who impulsively demands control over situations and then cuts off your answer in two minutes because he doesn’t have the time to discuss it. He frequently asks you to write reports on your progress, but will rarely remember that he’s asked. The two-minute boss constantly gives the impression that he is way too busy to bother with details. His head is always somewhere else — somewhere more important. Working for this boss is an exercise in the art of speaking concisely. Try to fit everything you have to say in a two-minute time frame, and see what happens.

Power crazy

He is a true megalomaniac. You’ll notice the engraved gold plate on his office door, desk, and chair proclaiming his rank. He might take outrageous liberties like having an employee clean his car. When you question him, he’ll just point to the gold plates. Rest assured that his cloak of power hides great incompetence. How to get along with a god boss? Humour him. Follow his rules, and create the illusion you’re doing things his way. Remember, he’ll never control your mind.

Mr Bumble

The bumbling boss is the dunce of the bosses. The best way to deal with a bumbling boss is to help him get promoted. When they get promoted, they are notorious for promoting people underneath them. Besides, sooner than later, executives will see your boss for the dunce that he is, and he’ll be shipped off somewhere else.

Source : http://www.telegraphindia.com

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Budget 2010: key proposals, implications

March 9th, 2010

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India will increase market borrowing by 1.3 percent in the next fiscal year to a record level, as it counts on a surging economy and a partial rollback of stimulus measures to cut its fiscal deficit.

Following are the key budget proposals and their possible implications:

* ON FISCAL DEFICIT:

The government revised its fiscal deficit forecast for 2009/10 to 6.9 percent of GDP from 6.8 percent, and said this would be cut to 5.5 percent of GDP in 2010/11.

The government will borrow a record gross 4.57 trillion rupees ($98.8 billion) from the market in 2010/11, higher than the current year’s 4.51 trillion and in line with a median estimate of 4.61 trillion rupees in a Reuters poll.

Analysts said managing borrowing in 2010/11 will be more challenging than in the current year, as the government’s cash levels were low and the central bank has limited tools to help with the ramped up borrowing in 2010/11.

Further, analysts said the government seemed to be relying on economic growth to help lower the debt-to-GDP ratio, and had offered little detail on how it will meet its longer-term targets. With 2010/11 borrowing to kick off early in April, there is not much breathing room for the bond market.

* ON ECONOMY, REFORMS

The finance minister said there was a need to accelerate the pace of policy reforms, including in the financial sector, to make the economy more competitive.

Analysts said the government was counting on a strong economy, which the ministry forecasts will grow by 8.5 percent in the next fiscal year, and higher revenues from stake sales and 3G mobile licences to forestall the need for spending cuts.

The government plans to raise 400 billion rupees in 2010/11 from stake sales, up from 250 billion estimated for 2009/10.

* ON CORPORATE SECTOR

The budget proposed investment of 1.7 trillion rupees on infrastructure in the financial year beginning April. Investment on new infrastructure projects had been hit by the economic slowdown, which had crimped the earnings of the firms.

Spending for road transport has been raised by 13 percent to 198 billion rupees and doubled for the power sector to 51.30 billion rupees.
Higher investment on construction of roads, ports, bridges and airports should benefit engineering companies such as Larsen & Toubro, GMR Infrastructure, Jaiprakash Associates and Gammon Infra.

The budget proposed providing 165 billion rupees for the recapitalisation of some state-run banks to help maintain their financial health.

* ON TAXATION

The budget proposed raising the minimum alternate tax for companies to 18 percent from 15 percent, while partially rolling back earlier excise duty cuts on cement, cement products and large cars.
Maruti Suzuki, India’s top car maker, said it would raise prices between 3,000 rupees ($65) to 13,000 rupees across various models, with immediate effect, soon after the budget proposal on excise duty.

Source : http://in.reuters.com

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IBM SPSS Predictive Analytics Aggressively Targeting Telecom Sector

March 9th, 2010

BARCELONA, Spain, /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS –

IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced that Digital +, UPC Broadband and Tesco Mobile are significantly improving their customers’ experience by using IBM® SPSS® predictive analytics software to gain deeper insights into subscriber behaviors and preferences which will improve customer retention, call center interactions and marketing campaigns.

As mobile broadband expands in developed markets, devices like the smartphones and tablets are proliferating rapidly – challenging the traditional Communication Service Provider’s (CSPs) core business capabilities. In order to succeed, CSPs need to aggressively respond to competitive pressures, reduce customer churn, optimize product portfolios and become more relevant and personalized.

“IBM’s business analytic solutions for CSPs can use all available data – including unstructured data – to predict business outcomes, spot trends as they emerge, improve customer service, drive customer value and reduce churn by building a better understanding of the customer,” said Scott Stainken, general manager for IBM’s telecommunication industry. “By leveraging real-time information from every point of contact, CSPs can proactively manage their customers based on their preferences and behavior, which will improve customer satisfaction and revenue growth, while reducing marketing costs and lost business.”

Digital + Transforms Contact Center to Reduce Customer Churn
Digital +, part of Sogecable in Spain, is using IBM SPSS predictive analytics to optimize its call center by predicting individual customer behaviors and proactively directing call center agents to provide real-time recommendations while engaged with customers.

To leverage every customer interaction and create targeted sales opportunities, IBM SPSS predictive analytics enhances the decision process of Digital +’s 1.7 million inbound calls a year by modeling and scoring sales opportunities, such as a product upgrade or new service, for a particular customer through a “pop-up” card.

“Digital + improved its customer satisfaction with customized offers, reduced churn by 20 percent and increased cross-sell campaigns by 5 to 10 percent over outbound campaigns,” said Omar Rois, customer analysis manager at Digital +. “IBM SPSS predictive analytics is paramount to improving our customer satisfaction and loyalty, and contributed to a significant increase of customer retention within only two months after deploying the software.”

UPC Broadband Develops More Focused Marketing Campaigns

UPC Broadband, headquartered in the Netherlands, provides digital and analogue television, broadband internet and digital telephony services to consumers and business customers. In the highly competitive telecom industry, UPC faces the challenge of retaining customers and increasing sales ratios every day.

To reduce customer churn and boost earnings, UPC aimed to gain a thorough insight into customer behavior by analyzing its customer data. UPC selected IBM SPSS predictive analytics for its ability to easily analyze customer behavior, socio-demographic data and product purchases, and leverage this insight to undertake more targeted marketing campaigns.

“Using IBM SPSS predictive analytics, we can now build predictive models for each specific segmentation group and the response is up to four times higher compared to previous campaigns,” said Jim Jenkins, director of database marketing at UPC. “In addition, thanks to the ability to identify customer churn early and proactively take targeted actions in this area, UPC is reducing its customer turnover substantially, saving considerable revenues per annum.”

Tesco Mobile Targets Most Profitable Customers

Tesco Mobile, one of the UK’s fastest growing mobile networks with a reputation of outstanding customer satisfaction, sought to maintain its position and competitive edge in the telecommunications industry. The organization selected IBM SPSS predictive analytics to improve customer loyalty by better understanding motivation, opinions and preferences.

Tesco Mobile is now able to deliver revenue generating offers and incentives to its customers who are at risk of churning. With IBM SPSS predictive analytics, they are able to turn their data into new intelligence for the design of subsequent campaigns and the results are used to better target those customers who can generate more revenue for the company.

Source: www.yourindustrynews.com

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Actuarial careers in general insurance

March 9th, 2010

The role of actuaries is crucial in the general insurance industry.

An actuary acts as the guiding light and influences important financial decisions in an insurance company. He uses his analytical skills to dissect the past and accordingly model the future after assessing the risks involved.

An important part of an actuary’s role is to clearly communicate the financial implications of the results. His mathematical expertise, statistical knowledge, economic and financial analyses and problem solving skills are indispensable to insurers to help evaluate the long-term financial implications of their decisions which could impact individuals as well as a wider community.

Historically, in India, actuarial involvement in general insurance was limited because most of the products’ benefits and premiums were prescribed by an industry-wide tariff. But following the de-tariffication in 2007, actuaries were able to help insurers design new products, determine the appropriate premiums and implement the necessary portfolio management controls.

One such area is health insurance. Currently, very few people have health insurance and the potential target market is vast. The provision and funding for healthcare is complex (think: patient – General physician – specialist – hospital – third party administrator – insurance company – policyholder).

Historically, the few healthcare products available were mostly unprofitable for general insurers. Actuaries are well placed to assist companies to develop sustainable health insurance products that address the needs of the policyholder at affordable prices.

Actuarial expertise is used across a spectrum of roles such as designing and pricing of a product, financial reporting, financial management and corporate planning. Currently, most actuaries in Indian general insurance companies are involved in activities prescribed by regulations relating to the development and pricing of new products, and the provisions for claims on the balance sheet and the investments of assets. Actuaries use the past claims payment and settlements statistics to project how much money the company needs to put aside to meet claims that could be reported and settled in the future.

Future prospects

Looking towards the future, actuaries will be able to assist in other areas of the company like setting reinsurance strategies, determining risk based economic capital required and assist in the management of the company’s capital base.

In addition to his role as an actuary, he may also have a role as a manager or management consultant to advise an insurer’s board and management, to help them meet their obligations to shareholders and potential shareholders and to define and quantify their their corporate financial objectives and to control the company’s financial operations to meet these objectives. This counsel can also be provided to auditors, legal representatives, supervisory authorities and others who may have an interest in the insurer’s operations.

Many may not be aware but there is a code of professional conduct that identifies the professional and ethical standards required of actuaries. This code of conduct demands the highest standards of personal integrity from its members.

Akin to the Hippocratic oath taken by the medical profession to pledge to work towards to ethical practice of medicine, the actuarial professional code of conduct seeks to balance the role of the actuaries in business management with responsibility for protecting the financial interests of the public promised by insurance companies. Hence it is not a surprise that the strapline of the Institute of Actuaries of India is “serving the cause of public interest”.

It is not easy to become a qualified actuary. This is a long hard journey. Those choosing to pursue a career in this profession need to pass 15 examinations – usually only after completing their degree and while working. The level of knowledge required is set very high hence success in the examinations is not guaranteed, even for the sharpest mathetimatical minds!

Who can become an actuary?

To become an actuary one must be a Fellow of a recognised professional examining body like the Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI) or the Institute of Actuaries, London. Any person with a minimum 18 years of age and having a high degree of aptitude for mathematics and statistics can take up this course and become an Actuary. Generally, first class graduates or postgraduates in Mathematics, Statistics or Econometrics will be in a better position than others to qualify as actuaries.

Those choosing to pursue a career in this profession need to pass 16 examinations – usually only after completing their degree and while working. In addition, he has to comply with other criteria such as experience requirement and attendance at a professionalism course prescribed for the purpose.

Career Opportunities

Actuaries work in a wide range of areas which include Life, general & health insurance; reinsurance companies, pension funds, risk management etc.

The following universities offer courses with actuarial science as a subject at the degree & post graduate level

• Goa University- B.Sc. with actuarial science as a subject
• University of Mumbai- B.Sc. with actuarial science as a subject
• Kurukshetra University, Haryana – BA actuarial science
• University of Delhi – BA with insurance as a subject and BA (vocational) with insurance economics and commerce as subjects
• The Dept of Statistics, University of Madras – M.Sc. actuarial science
• Bishop Herber College (Autonomous), Tiruchirapalli – M.Sc. and postgraduate diploma courses in actuarial science
• The Amity School of Insurance and Actuarial Science, New Delhi- M.Sc. actuarial science
• Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS University) – a one-year fulltime postgraduate diploma course in actuarial science (PGDAS)
• Madras School of Economics, Chennai offers Post-Graduate Diploma in Actuarial Economics.

The career opportunities for actuaries in India are steadily growing. Today, all the insurance companies employ at least two to three actuaries. In other fields, there is still a limited awareness in India about the importance of the role of actuaries.

This phenomena is slowly undergoing a change and there is a great potential for growth for actuaries in India.

The work of an actuary involves a lot of number crunching and the nature of work is quite tedious, nevertheless, it offers rewards in terms of intellectual challenge, status, job satisfaction and earnings. The journey to become a qualified actuary is a long and hard one, but one cannot underestimate the crucial role they play in the general insurance industry. In a nutshell, actuaries make financial sense of the future, thereby enabling the industry to make better informed decisions about the future with more confidence

Source : http://www.business-standard.com

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List of Data Analytics Companies in India

March 3rd, 2010

India is becoming an Analytics super power, especially in the field of Advanced Analytics and Predictive Modeling.

Below is the list of 60-70 companies currently involved in analytics related work in India. This list may not be a comprehensive list as more and more start-ups are also joining in. Most of these companies are using SAS/SPSS and are based out of Bangalore, Gurgaon, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.

Advanced Analytics and Business Analytics companies in India (Using SAS/SPSS)

Branded Analytics providers :

1. Fractal Analytics, Gurgaon, Kolkata
2. Inductis, Gurgaon
3. Mu-Sigma, Bangalore
4. Marketics or WPP, Bangalore
5. Meritus – Mindtree, Bangalore
6. Absolutdata, New Delhi
7. Denuosource, Hyderabad
8. CrossTab, Mumbai, Bangalore
9. Decision Craft, Ahmadabad
10. Modelytics, Bangalore
11. Latent view analytics, Chennai
12. Dexterity, Chennai
13. Pharmarc, Bangalore
14. Manthan systems, Bangalore
15. AOL online, Bangalore

Large analytics providers:

16. Genpact, Bangalore, Kolkata
17. Symphony Marketing solutions, Bangalore

IT companies with a strong analytics practice:
18. Infosys, Bangalore
19. HCL – Chennai, Bangalore
20. Cognizant (Market Rx) – Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon
21. TCS, Chennai and Mumbai
22. Wipro – Kolkata, Bangalore

MNC’s Units:

23. ZS Associates, Pune
24. Netapps, Bangalore
25. Cisco, Bangalore
26. Google, Hyderabad
27. Chainalytics, Bangalore
28. Amazon, Bangalore
29. eBay -Chennai
30. Citibank, Chennai
31. Dell Analytics, Bangalore
32. Fidelity, Bangalore
33. HP Analytics, Bangalore
34. HSBC Analytics, Bangalore, Kolkata
35. JP MORGAN, Mumbai
36. Amex, Gurgaon
37. Standard Chartered Bank, Chennai
38. IBM, Bangalore
39. Accenture, Gurgaon, Bangalore
40. UBS, Hyderabad (Acquired by Cognizant)
40. Microsoft, Bangalore

Global Analytics and Consultancies firms having Indian Operations:

41. Fair Isaac India, Bangalore
42. Dun & Bradstreet, Chennai
43. Global Analytics Inc., Chennai
44. Dunhummby, Gurgaon
45. General mills, Mumbai
46. ACNielsen, Mumbai
47. Milwardbrown, Chennai
48. Novartis, Hyderabad
49. Deloite, Hyderabad
50. HLL, Bangalore
51. McKinsey, Gurgaon
52. Boston consulting, Mumbai

Indian Banks with Analytics operations
53. ICICI, Mumbai
54. HDFC, Mumbai

Mobile Service provider with Analytics Operations

55. Vodafone Telecommunications, Chennai, Mumbai
56. Nokia Networks, Gurgaon
57. Airtel, Gurgaon

Indian companies with Advanced web analytics (Behavioral Targeting using SPSS/Unica Affinium/R)
58. Rediff.com
59. Bharatmatrimony.com (Consim info pvt ltd.), Chennai
60. Naukri.com (Info edge group), Chennai
61. Timesofindia (Online Newspaper), Mumbai

Firms involved with Quantitative research Techniques

62. Irevena, Chennai
63. Amba Research, Bangalore

Indian Retail stores within house Analytics operations

64. ShopperStop
65. Reliance retail
66. Spencers Retail, Kolkata

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