The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, board approved a fee hike from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh for the year 2008-09.

The new fee structure for IIMB is higher than the other IIMs , which will will make the IIM Bangalore the most costly IIM to study in. On March 26, 2007, the IIM had increased its fees from Rs 1.75 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh.

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta -  hiked its fee for 2008-2009 by Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh last month.
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad-  likely to hike its fee to Rs 3 lakh.

Justifying this fee hike, Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIMB, said increasing infrastructure cost was one of the reason for the hike.

United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) have adopted a new rule designed to address complaints that some companies are filing duplicate H1B applications.

According to the new H1B rule, USCIS will deny or revoke multiple petitions filed by an employer for the same foreign employee and will not refund filing fees submitted with multiple or duplicated petitions.

About 500 duplicate applications were received last year, according to associated press report.

This year, “to ensure a fair and orderly distribution of available H-1B visas,” USCIS will deny all multiple petitions filed and will not refund the $320 filing fee, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

However, related employers, such as a parent company and its subsidiary, can still apply for the same H-1B worker for different petitions, based on a “legitimate business need“.

Last April 1, 120,000 applications came in, nearly twice the annual limit of 65,000. The Congress has set a limit of 65,000 for most H-1B workers for the fiscal 2009, the window for H-1B allotments opens on April 1 2008.

Who says Indian IT companies takes away US jobs ? Scenario was different in Cincinnati at the time of US economic downturn fears when India’s tech major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) opened a new office near Cincinnati to employ 1,000 local hires

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland was among those who attended the opening of a new office for Tata Consultancy Services. This facility, spread over a huge 220 acres, has been developed at a cost of $20 million.

The delivery center, Located in Milford, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, the facility sits on 220 wooded acres and is the largest TCS facility in North America - most of who will be locally hired from the region and its universities.

This delivery center will handle design, development and delivery needs of TCS’ key North American customers such as Boeing, Nielsen and General Electric.

Officials have said the average salary for a Tata employee will be about $60,000. The company received a 90 per cent property tax break worth $15 million over eight years to locate in Ohio.

TCS has been operating in North America since 1979.

The World Economic Forum announced the list of Young Global Leaders for 2008.Each year the World Economic Forum identifies 250-300 extraordinary individuals, drawn from every region of the world. Together, they form a powerful international community which can dramatically impact the global future.

The Young Global Leaders for 2008 include 121 business leaders, as well as leaders from government, academia, the media and society at large from 65 countries. The new class represents all regions, including East Asia (64), Europe (58), the Middle East and North Africa (12), North America (45), South Asia (24), sub-Saharan Africa (21) and Latin America (21).

Young Global Leaders:
- are under 40 years old
- have substantial leadership experience
- have already clearly demonstrated a commitment to serving society

Forum has named 17 Indians in its annual list of Young Global Leaders for 2008.

Indians on the Young Global Leaders for 2008 list are

1. Vikram K. Akula Chief Executive Officer and Founder SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd
2. Sabeer Bhatia Chairman Bhatia Enterprises
3. Anurag Behar Managing Director Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Ltd.
4. Barkha Dutt Senior Editor New Delhi Television (NDTV)
5. Suhas Gopinath Chief Executive Officer and President Globals ITeS Pvt. Ltd
6. C V Madhukar Director PRS Legislative Research
7. Sandeep Parekh Executive Director, Enforcement and Legal Affairs Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
8. Sachin Pilot Member of Parliament, India
9. Meher Pudumjee Chairperson Thermax Limited
10. Ratul Puri Executive Director Moser Baer India Ltd
11. A R Rahman Music Composer
12. Trilochan Sastry Founder and Director Association for Democratic Reform & Centre for Collective Development
13. Anoushka Shankar Musician, Sitar player
14. Pooja Shetty Director Adlabs Films Ltd
15. Joseph Sigelman Founder & President PetroTiger
16. Pia Singh Managing Director DLF Universal & DLF Retail
17. Jeh Wadia Chairman Wadia Group