India

Two US senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley plan to reintroduce a stricter H-1B visa reform legislation this year, making it mandatory for outsourcing companies such as TCS, Wipro and Infosys to hire local American workers before seeking any H-1B visas for their Indian employees.

The move, if implemented, would drastically increase costs and make it difficult for the Indian IT companies to send employees onsite at a time of wrenching economic slowdown. The bill will also ask these companies to pay the prevailing wages to H-1B workers, making offshore outsourcing more attractive, and onshore resources costlier by 20-30%.

"The Durbin-Grassley bill would require all employers seeking to hire an H-1B visa holder to pledge that they have made a good-faith effort to hire American workers first and that the H-1B visa holder will not displace an American worker," senator Grassley's office said in a statement.

Companies such as Wipro, which serves US customers including Citi and GE by sending H-1B visa holders to the country, say such regulations will be unfortunate, if introduced.

"If a restriction of this kind is introduced, the playing field will get unevenly poised," said Pratik Kumar, Wipro's HR executive vice-president. Wipro had sent about 3,000 people on H-1B visas in the past two years.

Granted by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, around 65,000 H-1B visas were issued to immigrants from companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, TCS, Infosys and Wipro last year. Each H-1B visa costs around $6,000.

Contract jobs in India have introduced new avenues for employers and employees alike. The course of hiring staff on contract has some new facets in the modern employment situation where the IT and ITES companies usually face the need of supplementary manpower. In this case those who are searching for jobs are now more exposed to dynamic career choices. If you want to find out more about contract jobs in India you've come to the right place.

Today there are quite a number of sources available for you to get started on finding more information on contract jobs in India. Speaking with consultants is a great way to get started. Consultants are there to offer you the services you need to take full advantage of any specific contract job in India. You may start searching in online directories and scan over sites you think can assist you more. You may then narrow down your list to the top 5 consultants for instance. Of course, one can say nothing is better than to ask for recommendations when it comes to checking the reputation of a consultant or company. Friends, family and/or fellow employers or candidates who have some experience with consultants are fantastic sources.

Good consultants will be able to find a spot for you in the best companies (if you are searching for a job as an employee). Not only that, good consultants will also be able to minimize the recruitment process that could take forever to follow-up. If you are lucky and find an extremely reliable consultant, you may find yourself having a flexible timeframe at the job and even less workload in the future. The advantage of working with contract is that you'll be able to gain experience from varying companies and/or industries. Thus, you'll be able to select the most excellent career path just for you. It is also possible to be offered a permanent job by a company if you've been working for them previously on contract.

The rapid growth of the internet over the past few years has actually increased the number of people who are using the medium of online freelance writing jobs to earn money for a livelihood. With the proliferation of internet marketing, content writing jobs have rapidly increased in number because in today's times content is God in the world of search engine based ranking and internet marketing.

The aptitude to write and create a document or a piece of writing has metamorphosed the life of many people by proving them with opportunities to earn a living through this talent. The right to expression of freedom of creativity that a writing job can offer you is indeed very amazing and creatively satisfying. If you are planning to start your career as a content writer, it is very important to know and understand what a good writing is and what a bad writing is. It is important for a content writer to understand the content needs of the particular webmaster for which he/she is going to write.

For instance if you are taking on a writing a technical writing contract, you have to comprehend the content, the details of the topic and the content style for the project to be completed according to the requirements and deadlines of your customer. Copywriting jobs are one of the lucratively paid copywriting jobs in the world today. Large multinational corporations depend on these content writing jobs to attract traffic to their websites and to amplify their sales. For anyone who wants to have an on-line copywriting job, one can only emerge successful if absorbing a powerful internet copies are written. Content writing jobs are easily available through the internet and one can so do a content writing job from the confines of the home.

Animation is the art and science of giving life to still cartoons. It is a science because you need to create an optical illusion by rapidly displaying some related and unrelated images. But animation courses also teach the art of displaying emotions and telling a story. Thus animation courses seek to nurture and channelize the sea of your creative fluids and help you giving shape to the ideas through a medium that is perhaps the most exciting.

Variety of Animation Courses in India: Depending on one's aspiration and confidence, students can select from a bouquet of animation courses. Thus animation institutes in India offer various certificate courses, diploma courses, degree courses and also postgraduate courses.  As art is at the core of the animation sector, one can also pursue Bachelor of Fine Arts or Master of Fine Arts courses to have an edge in animation education. Moreover students may also do some specializations in both 2D and 3D pre-production, sound engineering, editing, modeling, performance animation, technical animation and other branches of animation. The National Institute of Design, JJ School of Arts, Industrial Design Center, IIT Mumbai are some of the best institutes in India that offer courses in the animation sector.

Scope of Animation Courses in India: The animation industry in India is witnessing growth at an unprecedented rate and the size of India's animation market is expected to reach USD 950 million in 2009. This is a remarkable growth if we keep in mind the fact that India got exposed to the animation market only after mid 1990s. India has become a favored destination for various pre production work of the animation industry during the last decade mainly due to the availability of talented animation artists at relatively  low costs. Apart from outsourcing, the expansion of the domestic market has also opened up opportunities for the animation artists.

Hello,

You are invited to join us for SiliconIndia Career Fair of 2008 on November 3rd in Santa Clara, CA. This event will give you an opportunity to explore how you could be a part of the tech boom in India or to get a job in the U.S.

Opportunities are tremendous. Companies in India are looking for specialized skills in software, hardware engineering, chip design and testing, senior level project management, marketing, biz development and so on...There are job openings in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Noida and Chennai.

From our previous events, about half the attendees get offers letters for exciting jobs in India or U.S. These offers were for both senior and mid-level positions.Some of the techies have returned by having on-the-spot job offer in hand from these job fairs. The hiring companies make it a lot easier for the candidates to relocate as they usually take care of the airfare and make arrangements for the returnee's accommodations in the city.

Microsoft, Symantec, VMware, Yahoo, Qualcomm, Sandisk, Citrix, Tundra and several other multinationals are recruiting at this event for their India operations. Some of these companies will also be recruiting for their U.S. operations too.

Complimentary registration to qualified candidates.
Log on to: http://www.siliconindia.com/events

PANEL DISCUSSION
We have lined up an exciting panel to discuss issues that you are concerned about at this point in time. Come. Participate in the discussions. Hear to panel of experts- recruiters, HR managers, and returnees-as they talk about issues involved in moving back to India like relocation issues, lifestyle issues, career paths, taxes, immigration, and children's education, career paths are: