B-school trends come and go, but one that seems to have legs is the creation of specialized MBA programs, particularly by second-tier schools. The schools find them useful for attracting students and cementing their brand identities at a time when competition among schools for the best students is intense. In recent years, they’ve becoming increasingly common (BusinessWeek.com, 7/19/07) even at high-profile schools. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, and the Wharton School now offer specialized MBAs, majors, or dual degree programs in areas like real estate, sports management, biosciences, electronic commerce, and health care.

But is a specialized program always a good choice for an MBA student?

Not necessarily. While established programs have placement records on par with those of their general MBAs, many newer programs have not yet established the kind of recruiting relationships that guarantee students high-paying jobs at graduation. And graduates always run the risk of getting hamstrung by their specialties later in their careers, when an industry downturn forces them to look outside their specialties for opportunities.
Chart Your Own Path

Some who have gone through the specialized programs say they are best for those with a firm idea of their future goals, and who are keen to chart their own path. “I knew what I wanted to do,” said Carrie Stern Rathod, who received her MBA from Wisconsin’s Brand ‐ Product Management Center in 2005 and now works for Procter & Gamble (PG), which recruits regularly from the program. “There’s a range of people for whom this program is ideal. If you have an entrepreneurial bent but are not sure you’re ready to take the leap yet, the program might be right.” But, she added, “I think it would be tough if you wanted to go into consulting or something like that.”

For students who aren’t comfortable breaking away from the pack or seeking out professional contacts in unconventional ways, a specialized MBA might not be the best choice. This is especially true at less well-known schools, where big companies often don’t recruit. Students in these programs agree that making industry connections can require a lot of initiative from the student. “If you have a very specific company in mind, you might need to be a trailblazer in making relationships with those companies,” says Rathod.

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An extension of the knowledge base, more than anything else, strength of will of the Indian economy in the 21 century, as it is a conscious move to a central pillar of the knowledge of the nation’s Development planning.

This was the message that resonate in every conversation in recent weeks with companies and researchers throughout India.

At the opening of the annual summit of partnership, the Confederation of Indian Industry in Kolkata invited donors mid-January, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a plan to establish a Commission of knowledge. His agenda specific to know, but Mr. Singh’s message was loud and clear: the time for Inde’s leap is here.

Economically, India is at its best post-war period. The currency reserves exceed $ 131 billion - sufficient funds for imports rose by nearly two years. And the knowledge base has been too long without continually expanded is a strength.

“Think big, bold feel about our country,” said Singh, his audience, mostly corporate India.

India is on the cutting edge of knowledge, not only before the command of the English language. The level of competence in English, without the benefits of knowledge in many areas, none other than the ability to work for low English Master.

It would not be a nation globally competitive. Japan launched its leap without much spoken English and second in the world of the economy. Thus, China.

India is now better placed than postwar Japan and China. His brain is enormous power and English is an official language by far across the country. The association represents the new generation of specialists in India with their Western counterparts in technological capacity, economy and ingenuity of each platform oratory is rare in developing countries.

It is this combination of brains and language, that India is the main meeting point for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), otherwise known as information technology capable of services (IT-ES).

With this advantage, the Indians have the brain bank working more software, keeping accounts and Back-Office, functions for Western groups.

Today, American schoolchildren Santa Barbara after Michigan and Massachusetts are learning math and science online every day by the guardians to rest in places like Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the South India. The potential of this new service line is so great that “approximately U.S. $ 10 million-$ 12 million to the economy this year.

India, the assets in emerging countries tutoring, “said the president’s career launcher, Satya Narayanan, supra, was on January 16 at national level will be put into circulation daily, The Indian Express, mental strength is its superior in comparison with competitors like the Philippines, Singapore and one in Asia - Pacific countries.

Launcher is a career 10 Online brain, that school in Massachusetts, USA. There is also some 20 years, earns $ 350 per month for a pocket money tutoring online and USA children, as tutors say that the Americans in their own curriculum is never difficult, because “we Indians are intellectually superior.”

These allegations prahlerisch it may seem. But how is beyond try to study, many American and European certificate India brain power by one against competitors in the allocation of work in India demand for high intellectual performance for the recruitment of graduates of Indian universities learning.

“The best of India is comparable to the best in the world,” says Dr. G. Prakash Apte, director of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), it was found that 200 super-brain of each year.

The support of this thesis, Pawan Kumar, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, is now President and Chief Executive Officer of software developer VMoksha Technologies, said that in the years 1980, software, state - US field and was a “person outside India, India was thought likely to produce software.”

We now but the situation has changed, America and the world are in India hit the doors of orders. This country deserves $ 12.5 billion last year, outsourcing services, with an increase of 16.5 billion dollars this year. In addition, Indian people overseas, many of them in key positions of jobs in global companies, pump $ 4 billion-$ 5 billion per year.

India brain Well, Mr. Kumar said, is reflected in the structure of the population and the number of graduates license and other specific qualifications Indian universities and institutes of higher learning.

More than 500 million Indians are under 25 years. About six million of them deserve a bachelor of science, economics or art each year and 400000 others deserve to graduate engineers. Nearly half of these graduates of engineering software specialization.

In addition, 1200 young men and women specializing in the areas of management and technology just over half a dozen institutes of engineering, technology and management, as IIMB, across the country.

The National Academy of Sciences, a private organization established by Congress in 1863 to advise the Federal Government, has elected 60 new members. The election brings the number of active members to 1,683.

The academy also named 15 nonvoting foreign associates, bringing their total to 298.

Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded an American scientist or engineer. The academy said election recognized “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

Following are the new members and their affiliations at the time of the election. New Members

Yakir Aharonov, professor of physics, Tel Aviv University, Israel, and University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Paul G. Ahlquist, professor, Institute for Molecular Virology and department of plant pathology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Bishnu S. Atal, head, speech research department, A.T.& T. Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J.

Bruce S. Baker, professor of biological sciences, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.

Ransom Lee Baldwin Jr., professor of animal science, University of California, Davis.

Denis Baylor, professor and chair of neurobiology, Stanford University.

Malcolm R. Beasley, professor of applied physics and electrical engineering, Stanford University.

Klaus Biemann, professor of chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Claude R. Canizares, professor of physics, head of the astrophysics division and director of the Center for Space Research, M.I.T.

Charles P. Casey, Helfaer Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin.

C. Thomas Caskey, chief of medical genetics; professor of medicine and biochemistry; director, Institute of Molecular Genetics; Henry and Emma Meyer Chair in Molecular Genetics, and investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

India is emerging as a laboratory for testing out new technologies and business models for narrowing the digital divide between urban and rural people in a developing economy.

Lack of Internet and telephone connectivity in rural India, where over 70 per cent of the Indian population lives, is a major challenge for a number of authorities, NGOs (nongovernment organizations) and multilateral aid organizations. The business sector is also discovered that relays the digital divide could translate into new markets open.

For example, HP Labs, India, which was established in Bangalore earlier this year, Palo Alto, CA, Hewlett-Packard Co., is developing products for markets in rural India . “Our technology has been placed on three areas - information available to the technical means to use Indian languages, improvement of connectivity options, outside major cities are not currently have adequate access to the Internet and affordable devices, “said Srinivasan Ramani, director of HP Labs India.

“For example, we are working to create an Indian language for taking over experimental PC can be used for four users simultaneously,” said Ramani.

HP Labs, India is also to examine how digital photography, you can a second source of income for the village kiosks, access to computers and the Internet, and is also experimenting with techniques developed by its parent company, Palo Alto laboratory, Low bandwidth multimedia communications. “Teachers and students can create their own stories and presentations with such a system,” said Ramani.

Private sector participation in projects to strengthen the digital divide in India is likely to increase, Ved Prakash Sharma, director of information technology (IT) and computer and communication specialist of the National Agricultural Technology Project of the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management in Hyderabad. “Everyone by moderators, there was a chance to these initiatives, and that is good,” said Sharma. “The growth of the Indian economy of rural areas, a large number of customers for technology companies. ”

Projects in the public sector are also fashion and the establishment of communication infrastructures. Media Lab Asia (MLA), based in Mumbai, is setting up an 802.11 wireless network standard consistent with Internet and voice connectivity to India, the rural masses. Established by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ’s Media Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in tandem with the Indian government, MLA focuses on the development and deployment of technological solutions for closing the digital divide in developing economies.

Assessment Project 802.11 for rural connectivity is anchored MLA research centre in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur. From four villages around Kanpur, the project plans for a “corridor of information” between the cities of Kanpur and Lucknow in North India, which account for about 25 villages along the road. MLA plans deployment of 802.11, which until now have not been used in rural India, connectivity, because of its lower cost, according to Dheeraj Sanghi, MLA scientists at IIT Kanpur research centre.

While it is premature to the impact of recent initiatives MLA and HP, previous projects to provide solutions to bridge the digital divide, report remarkable success. The telecommunications and computer networks (Tenet) in the group, Chennai-based Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, developed in-house corDECT Wireless Local Loop (WLL) for the provision of technologies and Internet connectivity to 250 votes Community Kiosks offer these services to over 700000 people in rural India, according to Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor of Electrical Engineering Department of IIT Madras, and director of the Tenet. The wireless local loop based on micro-mobile, DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications), standard ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute).

The sustainability of Akshaya “overcome the digital divide” in the state project is carried out if the positive aspects of the famous model for development of Kerala emulated by private entrepreneurs, not afraid to take risks.

After the Prime Mover in the state of Kerala IT mission official of an executive body, Akshaya draws heavily time to test the model as schools, health centres primary, know-how centres (reading rooms public) and other utility companies within a few kilometres from each other to provide efficient services.

This unique development paradigm put into practice by directors of yore contributed to what the State achieve enviable physical quality of life index.

Provides concept, in the presence of Professor Kenneth Keniston visit, the Indian program director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), M. Kiran GR, Mission Coordinator, IT mission of the Business Line said that it wanted to be replicated in Akshaya, has already been mentioned in the pilot project in Malappuram district.

E-Akshaya kiosks have been planned so that every household in the country would not be farther than a long search for a distance of two kilometres to access electronic services. A number of masses of information and communication technology (ICT) to experiment with models elsewhere in the country have failed to take merely the absence of a sufficient number of service centers.

The government has directed public institutions, failed because of the laity management styles. In the Akshaya model, however, that the private contractor is responsible for enforcing the provision of services with the government ready to renew the support infrastructure, including content.

The sustainability of Akshaya centres is ensured, at least theoretically, to the extent that the contractor is underway for a benefit for which it has a Business Model. Unlike the case of a government of the project, the contractor is free to innovate and implement his ideas, according to local needs.

Asked if it spreads everywhere comparable model, Professor Keniston, said the group ITC e-choupal kiosks were the first to see in his eyes.

“At least, this is the only business model that I can not in India. It is a great effort disintermediation, where farmers have benefited and where the pay system itself. But what is operational and functional distinguishes itself by the Akshaya - Model and disability groups in which they become familiar with the theme on the needs of a rich and already well-established rural, agriculture, “he added.

There is another angle. Malappuram district is known for the large number of foreigners in the Gulf region, plus other sites abroad. Akshaya centres, a long way to ensure that women and communicate them immediately at a lower cost so menfolk with their employees overseas.

Among the five lakh families in Malappuram district, 4.5 times more than lakh have someone in the Gulf region.