Would-be MBA students getting ready to take the GMAT might be in for a little surprise when they show up at the testing center. In addition to all the usual security measures—including video monitoring and the computer adaptive test itself—test takers will soon be asked to submit to a new one: a biometric device that uses an infared light to capture the test-taker’s unique “palm vein pattern.”

Pearson VUE, the company that administers the GMAT for the Graduate Management Admission Council, plans to announce the new security effort tomorrow, but BusinessWeek got a sneak peak at it today.

The Fujitsu “PalmSecure” device will be rolled out next month at 16 testing centers in India and Korea for GMAT candidates. It goes live in the U.S. this fall, and when fully deployed will be used in 400 facilities in 107 countries by May 2009.

The announcement comes as the b-school world is embroiled in a cheating scandal involving the GMAT–users of a now-defunct test prep Web site, Scoretop.com, have been accused by GMAC of using it to post and access live test questions, and GMAC has said it will cancel the test scores of anyone who violated its rules.

But the new security measure is designed to stop a different kind of cheating–the use of professional test takers, or proxies, to take the exam on behalf of someone else. GMAC’s been burned by this type of cheater before. Back in 2003, it busted a half dozen people who took the GMAT for others for about $5,000 a pop. GMAC canceled 166 scores as a result, and five of the six imposters ended up at Rikers.

More : businessweek.com

Kolkata, April 8. Faculty members of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) are companies in their opposition to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry’s move to reduce taxes.

Prof. Asish K. Bhattacharyya, Dean (planning and management) of IIM-C and spokesperson of the Faculty, told Business Line, the Faculty of the opinion that the tax was cut under the autonomy of the Institute, which is registered by the association as a body independent, and not a hotel.

Professor Bhattacharyya said that there is an option of the Faculty, have resorted to legal measures. “We are considering all options. The judicial process is not a privileged, but we are obliged for such a measure as a major group of IIM-C,” he says. ”

“We also ask, Mr YC Deveshwar, president of the Governing Council on its draft resolution on reducing fees. IIM-C Faculty strongly believes that the Department of command on the subject was not a” mandatory “At the Institute. Approval for the new session at the IIM-C would begin in late May or early April.

Mr. Deveshwar, it is scheduled for April 16 Faculty.

In addition, the Supreme Court today directed all six IIMS to submit their comments on the issue of reducing costs by 16 April. The summit also court fixed the hearing of the public interest litigation on the subject, the same day. IIM-C response to the Supreme Court directive on the fee reduction would be completed early next week, according to the Institute of sources.

Prof. Bhattacharyya said: “We are discovering, through legal formalities, if we ever move the court”.

Regarding the issue of autonomy of the Faculty representatives pointed out that the memorandum of freedom of association and rules of IIM-C had clearly stated that “the general superintendence, direction and control over business of society (IIM-C-Gesellschaft) their income and property is vested benefits to the board of directors of the company, which bears the name “Board of Governors.”

The Faculty Council has estimated that the chairman of the Board of Governors, has been specially assigned by which they make, the resolution, Mr. Deveshwar could not as a “compromise” the autonomy of the committee. “The Institute of revenue, academic freedom, decisions concerning the students’ teacher-report and the curricula could not part of the area of the state,” he observed.

Prof. Bhattacharyya also pointed out that the IIM-C Faculty had a position paper of the Government in question to move in a reduction of taxes and the question of autonomy over a month ago, was the distribution to the officers.

Hewlett-Packard announced India, the development of its campus on the Move “initiative today to promote their products and solutions portfolio, under the earth the first educational institutions.

As part of the initiative, HP, while running a series of roadshows, including coverage of the main cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Salem, Trichy and other regions.

Talking about the initiative, P Raghuraman, Country Manager - Business Notebooks, Hewlett Packard, India said: “We agree with HP, the gap between what industry and academia who teach. Thanks to our success “Campus on the Move” initiative, we hope that with major universities across the country, improvement of school curricula so that they can to meet the needs of industry. ”

Under this initiative, HP offers the retail window for educational institutions for the implementation of information technology infrastructure, laptops, desktops and workstations, simple option of leasing measure After-Sales and Support. Many institutions have benefited from the implementation of “Campus with a wireless laptop with students to learn from anywhere on campus.

In recent years one of laptops, HP has delivered some of the most prestigious institutions such as symbiosis of India, Wellingkar, Manipal, Amity Business School, IIPM, Kalinga, Xavier’s Institute of Management, Sri Mahavir Jain, etc.

Hewlett-Packard, India’s Roll-out “Campus on the Move” initiative for the year 2006 to promote its products and solutions portfolio in the country schools.

As part of the “Campus on the Move ‘, HP, while running a series of roadshows, including coverage of the cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Salem and Trichy, among others.

Under this initiative, HP offers the retail window for educational institutions for the implementation of information technology infrastructure, laptops, desktops and workstations, simple option of leasing measure After-Sales and Support. Many institutions have benefited from the implementation of “Campus with a wireless laptop with students to learn from anywhere on campus.

P. Raghuraman, Country Manager, Business HP laptops, India, said: “We at HP, recognizes the gap between what industry and academia who teach. Thanks to our success,” Campus on the Move “initiative we hope to reach a major universities across the country, improvement of school curricula so that they can to meet the needs of industry. ”

In recent years one of laptops, HP has delivered some of the most prestigious institutions in India, as symbiosis, Wellingkar, Manipal, Amity Business School, IIPM, Kalinga, Xavier’s Institute of Management, Sri Mahavir Jain, etc.

Patents are the measure of output of R&D labs. That is how an IBM or an Intel publicises its research output. Even countries measure their research output based on the number of patents. India started appearing significantly on the radar only since 1998, the year when statistical reports from the US patents office show a separate breakout. The number of patents granted every year to companies in India has been growing since-from 85 in 1998 to 131 in 2000 to 179 in 2001 to 342 in 2002 (according to data with the Director-General of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research). That translates into a whopping 91 per cent in the last year.

This is still very small compared to many other countries, even companies. The US state of California filed 20,863 patents in 2001, Germany, 11,895 and IBM, 3,411. But take South Korea-home to giants like Samsung and LG-which filed 3,763 patents in 2001 or the red dragon that filed a very modest 266 patents in 2001 and the picture begins to look very different.

CSIR, which holds 42 per cent of Indian patents granted in 2002, filed 728 foreign patents thus far this year. A potential client list for 2003 of one of the patent lawyers in the country lists 112 non-it companies, including Indian companies, laboratories and MNCs. If MNCs, which have set up R&D centres (about a 100 of them have), file patents, these will be accounted under India.

India is still new to the patents game. Till recently, academics and researchers in India were of the opinion that publishing papers was the endgame of research and that knowledge had to be free. The equation now is patents = productisable ideas = wealth creation. And our scientists are now beginning to get it.

R.A. Mashelkar, who took over as Director of National Chemical Laboratory in Pune in 1989, changed the slogan from ‘publish or perish’ to ‘patent, publish and prosper’. Four scientists-current National Chemicals Laboratory Director Swaminathan Sivaram was one of them-from the laboratory patented a polycarbonate innovation. Now, polycarbonates are the playground of GE and the MNC started working with NCL. When then GE CEO Jack Welch found out about this, GE decided to set up shop in Bangalore. Now, the Jack Welch Research Center is slated to grow from 1,600 scientists to 2,400, at which point it will be the company’s largest R&D set-up anywhere in the world, including the US. By 2001, GE India had been granted 17 US patents.

Mashelkar, the Director-General of CSIR, compares the output from his 40 labs to that of Samsung; CSIR filed 184 pct (patents cooperation treaty) applications and tied with the Korean giant for the number one position for the number of pct applications filed by companies in developing countries. And he is not the only scientist who is looking to benchmark his output with that of global private sector labs. The pioneering Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala in IIT Madras asks: “If Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, could come out of nowhere as late as 1988 and get to be so big, why can’t we create a global company?” The good news is, his research and the goal of the cluster of companies that he has created is all towards reducing the cost of state-of-the-art telecom in India.