Makaan.com launches List property Android APP for Sellers

“Users can now list their property ON THE MOVE with Makaan.com’s newly launched “List property Mobile Application”

Today, most of the people access internet through their mobile devices. Most of the time spent in traveling is utilized using internet to keep a track on the world around and to find utilities. Keeping pace with the behavior and to cater to the changing needs of the modern man, Makaan.com, India’s fastest growing property website, has launched List Property App for Sellers.

The App has a fresh and Intuitive user interface and sellers can now list properties within 3 min. Users can upload multiple photos, geo tagging their properties all on the move” says Aditya Verma, CEO of Makaan.com.

List property on Mobile application has been built and designed in-house on an entirely new platform with a design to that is visually appealing across all smart phones.

Features and benefits of the new application include:

•    The application would allow the seller to list a property within few minutes on mobile
•    Ensure higher quality listing by using their phone to click and directly upload the pictures
•    It is fast, easy and convenient
•    User friendly design
 

Avoiding prepayment penalty on home loans

The prepayment penalty that is applicable when the borrower decides to pay back in advance a portion of the home loan in order to reduce the interest burden in the long run is a matter concern in all home loans. The banks stand to lose their earning in terms of interest on the borrowed capital which is why they try to discourage prepayment of any kind of loan by incorporating clauses such as the prepayment penalty.

RBI and NHB on Prepayment penalty of Home Loans

Both the Reserve Bank of India as well as the National Housing Bank is against the policy of banks charging prepayment penalties on home loans. Both the bodies have issued directive in this regard to all housing finance companies. However at present the ban on prepayment penalty charges is applicable only for home loans that floating or adjustable interest rates and not on the conventional fixed rate home loans which form the majority of home loans in the country.

Tips to avoid Prepayment Penalties

Here are a few practical points which can help avoid or even reduce to some extent the prepayment penalties that the banks levy of the customers.
 

Negotiate: This is the first step towards prepayment of a home loan whether in whole or partially. The borrower has to discuss and negotiate hard with the lending institution to waive of the prepayment penalties applicable on the home loan. Reasons such as high interest rates and affordability of the loan are justifiable and the banks will find it logical to help out the borrower by permitting partial prepayment, extension of tenure or lowering of Emi rather than ending up in default of repayment situation.

Switch to Floating Rate: Certain banks permit the switching of a home loan from fixed to floating rates in between the repayment period. This is permitted as the floating interest rates are usually a bit lower than the fixed interest rates. Thus prior to prepaying your home loan one must try to switch over first. Once the home loan is changed to a floating rate type then the bank cannot take any prepayment penalty in case the prepayment has to be made in full or partially.

Make partial Prepayments: In certain cases the home loan borrower can approach the bank to permit him to make a partial prepayment of the outstanding amount in order to reduce the net amount on which a high rate of interest is being charged. The banks may permit up to 25% prepayment of the outstanding amount in one go without any penalty being charged thereon. The customer may again attempt to make another prepayment of up to 255 of the now outstanding amount after some intervening period.

Prepayment from Own Source: Prepayment or foreclosure of an outstanding from the borrower’s own sources does not invite any prepayment penalty from the bank. But the onus of proving the source as being his own lies on the borrower. Sources such as maturity of policies or sale of other properties or assets are acceptable means to prepay a home loan without any penalty.

The home loan requires repayment over a period which may be as long as two decades. Thus the borrower must make all calculations carefully while deciding on the amount and tenure of the home loan so that there is no unnecessary EMI burden in between.

Property Prices in India and their future trends

Live chat with users hosted by Mr Aditya Verma, CEO, Makaan.com on Moneycontrol.com. Please have a look at the chat transcipt below -

Q: Sir, out of Dwarka Expressway and Greater Noida, which is better for an end-user? 
A: Both Dwarka Expressway and Greater Noida are coming up essentially as a residential hubs. But between the two, I would prefer Greater Noida for 2 reasons 1. It has a better mix of commercial & residential which is good for any area 2. The prevailing prices in Greater Noida are more attractive as compared to Dwarka Expressway Hope it helps.

Q: Sir, I purchased a 3 bhk unit in Anant Raj Madelia, Manesar for investment purpose @ 2800/- per sqft. What are the current resale rates in the area. Also, what future price appreciation can I see; and what rate is the best for exiting. Thanks. 
A: Your purchase price is extremely good. Most people who entered Manesar during 2009-10 at 2300/- to 3000/- are sitting on good appreciation. The current rates for resale are in the range of 4200/- and 5000/- psf. You can expect a price appreciation of 7-10% pa from here on. Hope this helps.

Q: is the right time to buy property in hyderabad? 
A: Property prices in Hyderabad have remained stable for over 2 years now; check Pricetrends  at Makaan.com for more detail. I feel, this is the right time to invest there due to political stability and clarity.

Q: Sir, Dwarka Expressway area has seen a sharp vertical rise over the past few years. Do you feel that there is still scope for a major appreciation in this area, or you feel the price bubble is just about to burst from here on? 
A: I agree that Dwarka Expressway has seen a vertical rise in property prices. People who invested there 4-5 years back have made good money but the same cannot be said for people who invested in last 12-20 months. There is a BIG gap in prices offered by developers and secondary market. This is not a very comfortable position so people should exercise caution.

Q: Sir, Current rates for buying a plot at Jakkur Bangalore and your comments on investment around North Bangalore?
A: North Bangalore has seen good development over the past few years. You can check the current rates there on pricetrends at Makaan.com. Among all the areas there, I would prefer hebbal, yelahanka among others.

Q: From investment angle which city will be better Noida or Lucknow I want to invest in flats If Noida then whether Noida extension or Greater Noida?
A: I am not sure if you are looking at capital appreciation or rental benefits or both. But if you want both, Noida will always give you better returns. For places to invest, you can search on Makaan.com by using "Invest" button. This will give you properties that can give you better RoA. Among areas in Noida for investment, you can look at Sec: 143, 77 and other areas on Noida Expressway. From a 6-7 years perspective you can also look at Yamuna expressway.

Q: Sir, I have purchased a 2 bhk flat in the Ramprastha Edge Towers, Sector 37d, Gurgaon (Dwarka Expressway). Original issue price was 2300/- per sqft in 2008. I have purchased it at 4125/-, 2 years back thru resale. If you visit the area, it looks like an urban jungle. What price appreciation can I expect in the near future? How would you rate this area for residential purpose? 
A: Sector : 37D, is coming up as an area with high population density. The location of the sector is good and it could have appreciated more if there was more open space. I do not foresee any major price appreciation in the next 12 months. To keep a tap on property prices you can log on to Pricetrends at Makaan.com

Q: Sir, I need your opinion regarding Aashiana Aangan project in Bhiwadi. Is it a wise investment? What price appreciation can be seen in the near future? Also, overall, what scope of appreciation do you foresee in Bhiwadi area. 
A: As a company policy, we do not comment on any specific project or developer; but on a general basis, Bhiwadi can be a good investment destination specially as it falls on the Indo-Japan industrial corridor. An investment there can fetch an appreciation of 7-10% pa. You can also try makaan.com "Invest" link to find more properties for investment in and around Delhi NCR.

Q: Keen to have your views on Jagatpura in Jaipur, purely from an investment pooint of view, with a three to four year horzon?
A: Acitvities in Jaipur real estate market have picked up after the formation of new and stable government. In fact over the past 6 months, Jaipur market has given a decent appreciation in value. In my opinion, an investment at the current rate can give a annual double digit appreciation over the next 3-4 years.

Q: Best region in Hyderabad for investment purpose budget 50 lakh should go for flat or plot of land?
A: In Hyderabad, you can look at Hi-tech City, Kondapur as potential areas for investment. 
 

Home Buyers' expectations from the new BJP led Government: Research done by Makaan.com

India has seen a decisive electoral mandate after a long gap and we have a stable government at the center. All industries are excited about the outcome of the general election. There are talks of sentiment improvement in the real estate sector too. With the intention to gauge the expectation of home buyers from the new BJP-led government, Makaan.com, India’s fastest growing property site, conducted a research in the month of May 2014 among 1400 home buyers in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Indore and more.

Key expectation of Home Buyers’ are:

1. Home buyers are excited about the positive impact on real estate & are planning a property purchase

Home buyers were sitting on the sidelines for the past 1-2 years, hesitating to put their hard earned money in the property market, waiting for the economy to revive. This mood seems to have given way to a more optimistic sentiment. When asked whether the new government arrival will have a positive impact on real estate sector, the majority, 80% of home buyers answered in affirmation. The development agenda, which was the central theme of the election campaign, seems to have created a resonance among the Indian home buyers and they counting on the new government to keep its promise. It needs to be seen whether the new government will consider the aspirations of the home buyers and give them enough reasons to smile.

To check, if this positive sentiment will lead to increase in actual transaction, we quizzed home buyers on their intention to buy a property. A sizable number percentage (38%) are extremely excited and are planning to buy a property in next 6 months. Another 34% expressed their intention to buy property in next 12 months (see chart below).

2. Homebuyers expecting drop in property prices          

Property prices have remained stable over the past few months and the mood of the market might change to a drop in property prices. 26% of home buyers feel that the residential property prices would drop of over 10% in the coming 12 months. Almost an equivalent number expect the prices to remain stable. 19% of buyers expect the prices to go up from the current level with majority of them expecting an appreciation of up to 10%. This should bring some relief to the buyers in the coming months. It is widely debated that the real estate prices can be brought down by 10-20% just by simplifying the procedural delay and by offering clarity to developers regarding approvals. The government has already indicated that they would look into the issue.

3. Budget of Home Buyers is likely to remain the same, after the announcement of new government

The budget of the Indian Home Buyers has remained the same in-spite of the economic slowdown of the past few years. 62% of buyers are willing to spend the same amount of money as they have budgeted for, around 1-2 years back (but were waiting for the right opportunity). There are 30% of buyers who have reduced their budget allocation while there are another 8% who are ready to dish out more money for property buying.

4. Property investment budget for home buyers is 0-40 lakhs

Owning a home has been a priority for Indians since ages; it is treated as a symbol of financial stability and social status. Affordable housing (budget upto 40 lakhs) will continue to be a preference for majority of home buyers with almost 60% buyers opting for this. Mid segment housing (40 to 75 lakhs) will be the preferred budget category for 27% of home buyers. High end housing (75 to 125 Lakhs) will be preferred choice for 8% of buyers whereas 5% of buyers will be looking for luxury housing (budget over 125 lakhs). There seem to be an expectation that the new government will take steps to boost affordable housing so that people can realze their property dream. It needs to be seen if this demand will be attended to or not.

Makaan.com allows home buyers to search property for INVESTMENT

Home buyers in India can be classified into two broad categories (a) users who buy the property for self use and (b) users who buy to grow their capital. Real Estate has grown as an asset class with more and more buyers looking at it as a preferred INVESTMENT option. Keeping the needs of these buyers in mind, Makaan.com, the fastest growing property website in India, today launched “INVEST” tab on their site. The “INVEST” functionality, which is currently in beta version, allows users to search properties that have given higher Rate of Appreciation (RoA) in the past years. Users can refine their search based on other popular filters like geographical preferences, budget, property type etc to arrive at a suitable shortlist.

Lets elucidate on how this new functionality will benefit the Investors: 

• INVEST tab allows users to search properties based on Rate of Appreciation (RoA)
• Users can refine their search based on geographical preferences, budget, property type, bedrooms etc to arrive at a suitable shortlist 
• Trend charts are available to track price movements; users can see historical and most recent price movements (a key requirement for an INVESTMENT)
• Users who want rental returns can see the expected rent for select properties
• Multiple properties can be compared to arrive at a shortlist
• Users can contact the seller thru “Instant Call back” feature

An internal study @ Makaan.com revealed that people INVEST in real estate to (a) secure their future with rental returns and / or (b) get capital appreciation. This functionality takes into account both these aspect and allows filtering based on individuals investment objectives. Makaan.com made use of its rich analytics strength i.e., Makaan.com Property Index (MPI), Makaan.com Buy Vs Rent Index (MBRI), Price Trends to come up with complex algorithm to launch this unique offering.

Speaking on the occasion, Aditya Verma, CEO Makaan.com said, “home buyers who want a property for self use, look at current and future requirements of their family, to zero down on the property specifications. The criteria for INVESTMENT is different and therefore there was a need for a differentiated product offering. We are sure, new INVEST functionality, the 1st of its kind in the Indian market, will cater to this need effectively and help a already large and growing population of people, realize their INVESTMENT dream”.     

Fewer takers for GATE this year

Despite the award of scholarships and direct admission to the Ph.D programme, not many seem to have taken up the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for an M.Tech seat this year. According to statistics provided by IIT-Madras, there is a drastic fall in the number of candidates registered to take up the exam this year.

According to the data provided by IIT-M’s GATE office, last year 2.4 lakh students from IIT-Madras zone (Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, parts of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh) had registered to take up the exam whereas this year the number has come down to 1.8 lakh.

Asked about the trend, former deputy director and professor emeritus at IIT-M V.G. Idichandy said that the numbers reflected that those preferring engineering had reduced.

“I am surprised by looking at the trend, we need to wait and see how it turns out in future,” he said. N.V.Krishnan, an engineering graduate, was of the opinion that several students either took up jobs or looked at management studies as a career option as they found it difficult to crack GATE.

“To crack GATE one needs to put in a great deal of effort, besides going for coaching. “Do you think an IITian who spent the most part of his school days studying  to get into IIT will again get into coaching,” he said.

Aakaash, another student, pointed out that several students got placed in the course of the campus placement process. “The placement scenario looks gloomy right now and students don’t want to miss the job they get. Hence, very few have aspired to go in for higher studies this year, and this reflects in the number of GATE aspirants,” he said.

IIT-M, 5 Universities Tie up for Joint PhD

Universities from China, France, Israel, UK and Canada came together for joint-PhD degree programmes with IIT-Madras recently. The five universities are Université de Technologie de Troyes, UTT of France, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in China, University of Waterloo in Canada and University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

The joint PhD programme is aimed at developing research with a global flavour in multiple disciplines with doctoral faculty ‘intellectual go-betweens’ between countries.

New IITs are Facing Trouble to Get Attention from Recruiters

This placement season, many of the new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), are facing a stiff competition in getting enough attention from recruiters. They are playing hard to have their students get picked for a well-settled career.

Most institutes are letting the recruiters take their as much time as they need to select the desired students, despite having little space, insufficient resources and low scope of negotiations to make.

Though this ongoing third edition witnessed better placement scenario than previous ones, yet young IITs are struggling to attract firms to offer job prospects to them.

A placement officer from a newer IIT told that those companies who earlier have already come for placement but did not select any student have not looked back this season. All the while, the students who rejected companies offers in the earlier batch, refused to register again. Besides, the gloomy economy can also add up to the bleak job offer factors.

Faculty of IIT Patna told about the companies taking tests of students and most of them not turning up for the second interview round.

Placement in IIT-Jodhpur commenced on December 1 in sync with others, observing 5 companies - Morgan Stanley, Cognizant, Cisco, Samsung and Oracle offering jobs at their Indian offices. However, these many recruiters are still insufficient and students from mechanical engineering department still need to be picked. To accommodate recruiters the IIT-Jodhpur had to rent 3 blocks of the Jodhpur University.

Up till now Cognizant has selected 7 students from IIT-Jodhpur which makes it the largest recruiter and Morgan Stanley offered the highest salary of Rs 13 lakh per annum.

IIT-Gandhinagar with 44 M.Tech students in addition to 120 final year graduates is expecting 21 registered companies to arrive on its campus for placements, most of which were IT firms. Of the 21, 19 companies have visited and made 39 offers. The maximum students were picked by E-clerx i.e. 12 students.

No slowdown at placements, IIT-K students bag $210,000 pay package

No slowdown at placements, IIT-K students bag $210,000 pay package

Engineering graduates from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been getting extremely lucrative job offers from MNCs as well as Indian companies despite the poor state of the economy. The number of companies visiting IIT campuses has gone up this year and several graduates have landed jobs with pay packages of several lakh rupees.

The highest pay package is as high as $210,000 per annum, which has been offered to three students of IIT-Kanpur by Oracle US, confirmed sources in the placement team.

Earlier, there were reports that two of them had declined the offer given by the Oracle US and instead took the Job at Google, but sources confirm that none of the students declined any such offer.

  

The highest domestic package at IIT-Kanpur is Rs 40 lakh per annum, which has been offered to three Computer Science graduates, according to sources. However, they declined to divulge any information about the company's name.

Meanwhile, amidst the good news a few students have been left disappointed as they were eyeing Facebook. However, the social networking firm is not visiting the campuses this year, placement co-ordinators said. Facebook had offered lucrative packages to students in the last few years.

Though, a student of IIT-Bombay managed to get a pre-placements offer (PPO) from Facebook.

Flipkart has picked 36 students while EXL Services has offered jobs to 34 students. At least 250 IIT-K students had accepted the job offers till now.

Google USA, Orcale USA, Linkedin USA, InMobi, EXL Services, Flipkart, Mitsubishi Japan and Sony Japan are some of the companies amongst others which are participating in the placement drive at IIT-Kanpur.

Over 80 companies have visited IIT-Kanpur till day 5th of the placements and a total of 250 domestic and international companies will participate while in IIT-Bombay 230 companies will visit the college.

The number of startups participating in the placement drive has also increased. "Many startups have requested to participate in the placement drive and students are also willing to join them. The packages they are offering are competitive and even some start-ups are paying higher than many big companies," said IIT-Bombay Assistant Placement officer SK Mehta.

To meet the demand of companies and with the large number of participants, IIT-Bombay college is conducting the interview at a separate 10 storey building for the first time. "We are using 10 storey building for conducting placement drive. More than 170 rooms are being used for the interviews," said Mehta. The placement interview generally goes on till 2 am in the initial days.

In four days, 123 domestic and international companies have participated and made 495 job offers. Samsung has picked 42 students, Goldman Sachs 16 students, Microsoft offered jobs to 9 students, ITC to 7 students, Microsoft Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Conductor to 18 students, US-based Epic to 18 students.

First phase of placements at IITs have started on December 1 and will continue till December last second week. The number of companies visiting the campuses is between 200 and 250 in the top IITs.

Education companies: long road to recovery

Shares of education services companies Career Point Ltd, Educomp Solutions Ltd and Everonn Education Ltd are pale shadows of their former selves. While the Career Point stock halved, the latter gave up three-fourths of their value in the past one year.

Unbridled expansion in their heyday and a sudden change in the business environment have hit the companies hard. Educomp Solutions and EveronnEducation are losing money. Profits at Career Point fell sharply, as its bread-and-butter tutorial business was hit by changes in the engineering entrance examinations.

Still, the stocks continue to see lots of action. All three breached their upper circuit limits at least once in the past week and rallied over 10% each. The spurt in the share prices is perplexing as fundamentally no significant development happened during the week.

That said, the companies are moving in the right direction to set their houses in order. Beleaguered Everonn Education has received the approval of the Madras high court to restructure its business. In line with its new promoters’ core expertise in school management, the company has decided to focus on K12 schools (kindergarten to Class 12) and technology-based education services. To reduce losses, Everonn will slowly exit the higher education and capital intensive businesses, the company’s managing director A. Srinivasan told The Times of India. With debt restructuring in process, interest costs are coming down.

Educomp Solutions has also applied for debt restructuring. The company is curbing capital intensive businesses, optimizing the existing school capacities, increasing the focus on collections and it has outsourced the logistical and hardware responsibilities to another firm. Career Point, on the other hand, is ramping up the formal education business, which is more stable in nature. The company expects the contribution of the formal education business to overall revenue to reach 50% in four years, from less than a quarter now.

Investor interest continues to remain poor in most of the education stocks. The sharp fall in share prices has battered investor confidence. As Daljeet S. Kohli, head of research at IndiaNivesh Securities Pvt. Ltd, points out, for investor interest to revive two things have to happen. One is consistency. The operational performance of education companies has been volatile. Enrolments, schools and classroom additions are prone to sudden spikes and slumps. Innovative and intelligent planning of courses can reduce the impact of seasonality on revenues.

The second requirement is pruning debt. Despite being in restructuring mode for some time, companies (except Career Point) are not able to bring debt levels to sustainable levels. Sure, they are refocusing and taking steps to improve profitability. But with no signs of stability emerging, investors would do well to remain cautious about the stocks despite their low valuations.

Crore-plus packages back at IIT-M but Google not offering the highest

After a gap of three years, crore-plus salaries are once again back at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M). Two B.Tech (final year-computer science engineering) students at the premier institute got offers of $210,000 (Rs 1.31 crore) each for international roles at a US-based company. 

The dollar package has risen 40 percent from $150,000, while domestic offer this year increased by nearly 70 percent to Rs 48.6 lakh a year against Rs 28.8 lakh last year, according to Lt Col (Retd.) Jayakumar, Deputy Registrar (Students and Placement), IIT-M. 

While Google offered packages of Rs 92 lakh to three students, a report in The Times of India said Oracle topped the list with the crore-plus packages. AFP Samsung Electronics, Epic, Microsoft India R&D, Oracle, LinkedIn, Deutsche Bank, ITC, and Google were some of the companies that visited the campus. 

About 100 students got placed in 25 multinational companies on day one of this year’s placement season which began Sunday. Last year, 22 companies recruited 95 students on Day One. As many as 1,366 students had registered for placement this year whereas it was 1,282 last year. According to a report in The Times of India Microsoft and Google are likely to unveil compensation packages of around $110,000 (Rs 68 lakh) to shortlisted candidates at IIT-Bombay. Google has offered $120,000 (Rs 74.8 lakh) at IIT-Guwahati. 

Google US also offered the highest pay of around Rs 93 lakh at IIT Kharagpur. Across IITs, the top offers have come in from the likes of Schlumberger, Mitsubishi, Apple and Oracle, and Indian start-ups such as Zomato.

Studying online opens up a new world of opportunity

Distance learning is gaining in respect and popularity as a way to achieve an MBA, wherever you are in the world.

"We are very proud to be running a high-quality MBA in cyberspace," announced Professor Julius Weinberg, vice-chancellor of Kingston University, earlier this year, as the university launched its first distance learning Master of Business Administration degree.

The university is one of the UK's most respected providers of MBAs and has already spread its wings as far as Moscow, delivering MBA courses in the Russian capital. But in venturing into cyberspace, offering prestigious UK degrees to students based thousands of miles away, it is joining a sizeable and ever-growing club. Cyberspace, increasingly, is where the MBA of the 21st century is being forged.

There are more than 20 UK universities and business schools offering MBAs and similar qualifications off campus, attracting students from all over the world. Most of the students will need to visit the UK at some point, but they are spared the hefty costs of a full-time residential course and, thanks to flexible teaching methods and modular courses, can combine part-time study with full-time employment.

Kingston's new distance learning MBA, beginning in January 2014, is fairly typical of what the UK has to offer. The cost of the course, spread out over three years, is £16,000, compared with £18,560 for a full-time MBA, a saving of £2,560; and after a two-week induction in Kingston, students can continue their studies online, wherever they are, be it a bedroom, a café or an aeroplane.

Learning on the hoof may not compete emotionally with the old university ideal of long lazy days on campus, arguing about Keynes and Marx, but it is an option more and more people are choosing – or being forced to choose in straitened economic times.

"The way the global job market is changing has led to much more pressurised working lives," says Professor Jean-Noel Ezingeard, dean of the Kingston Business School. "It is increasingly hard for people to take time off work to study – hence the attraction of an MBA delivered by a leading business school which incorporates the flexibility to study at home, in the office or while travelling."

The new course has attracted interest from over 70 countries, with students from Russia, the Americas and the Middle East leading the pack. The distance learning model, which can be traced back to the 19th century, when London University pioneered the concept, has never been more popular. Almost a third of all MBA enrolments in the UK are now for distance learning courses, according to a survey last year by AMBA, the Association of MBAs.

As a stepping stone to a fatter pay cheque, the distance learning MBA still lags a little behind the residential MBA. The average salary of a graduate after completing a distance learning MBA is around £80,106, that of a graduate of a full-time MBA £85,865.

But that gap is closing fast, and the differential in earnings needs to be offset against the significantly higher cost of residential courses. The £2,560 which distance learners at Kingston will save is dwarfed by the £10,000-odd which they would save at the Manchester Business School or the London School of Business and Finance.

Students enrolling for distance learning MBAs are typically a few years older than those opting for the conventional MBA. At the Open University, where the MBA course costs £14,425, the average age of students on the course is 37. They come from 126 countries and can take between 30 and 84 weeks to complete the course, according to their personal circumstances. Flexibility – and the more flexibility the better – remains the guiding principle of distance learning.

Once rather esoteric, the distance learning MBA has now become such a familiar feature of higher education in the UK that those shopping around for courses are spoiled for choice. Almost all institutions offering such MBAs are accredited with AMBA, AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) or EQUIS (the European Quality Improvement System), or sometimes all three, creating an alphabet soup in which it is easy to flounder.

The closest thing to a league table is the annual QS Distance Online MBA Rankings, which takes into account employability, student quality, diversity, faculty and teaching, class experience and accreditation.

The distance learning MBA offered by the Warwick Business School emerged as the top-ranked such course in the UK in 2012, with Manchester Business School, Durham Business School and Imperial College London also scoring highly.

The most important thing for students looking to enrol for a distance learning MBA is to find a course tailored to their needs, with modules compatible with their choice of career and a pattern of study suited to their personal circumstances.

IIT-M launches Ph.D. scholarship programme

A Ph.D. scholarship programme was launched at the Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, recently to provide the next generation of researchers in India and Melbourne world-class academic supervision and support.

The Melbourne-India Postgraduate Programme (MIPP) will link the University of Melbourne with leading research institutes in India – Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore (IISC), Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur (IITK) and Indian Institute of Technology – Madras (IITM).

The $3 million programme, a joint initiative of the four institutions would provide 16 Ph.D. scholarships and associated support for research exchanges for the next three years. The programme will commence in 2014 and will be open to Ph. D. students enrolled at the University Of Melbourne, to be co-supervised by staff at IITK, IITM or IISC. Students enrolled in one of the three Indian institutions will have access to co-supervision with Melbourne academics.

Prof. Glyn Davis, vice-chancellor, Melbourne University, said the new programme was a value addition to Melbourne’s extensive scholarship offerings.

Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT-Madras, said, “IIT-Madras looks forward to very productive collaboration between faculties of both the institutions with a vibrant student exchange programme at all levels, particularly the research scholars.”

Prof. R. Nagarajan, Dean, International and Alumni Relations, IIT-Madras, said, “IIT-Madras has embarked on a systematic programme of research collaboration with leading universities across the globe. We envision a four-stage process, starting with faculty interaction, leading to research scholar exchanges and joint supervision of Ph.Ds, culminating over time in joint doctorate programs.”

How IT education companies are fighting slowdown

Education technology companies are looking to sell their services directly to students as they seek alternative avenues to push their ware at a time when their traditional customer base — schools are defaulting on payments and adding to their debt burden. "What we are looking at is, how we can interact directly with the end-user. 

In this case, the primary beneficiary in the whole process is mainly the student. We have about 4,000 schools currently and if we are looking at even a 1,000 kids in each school, we could reach about 4 million kids," said Chetan Mahajan, business head at HCL Learning. HCL Learning, which began three years ago, is further ahead on the path of directly targeting schools as compared to its peers. 

Last month, the company launched MyEduWorld, which has course and learning material for school children. Traditionally, companies like Educomp, NIIT, Everonn and HCL Learning sold a combination of hardware, software and learning material to schools on multi-year contracts, but as schools defaulted on payments and the market slowdown impacted the demand for education products, service providers have been struggling. Educomp has cut about 3,500 jobs and Everonn is restructuring its business, looking to exit the hardware-supplying business entirely. 

Educomp, which has struggled with its schools business, is in the process of launching products for individual students. "We are focusing on launching student-centric products. We will be launching Uniclass — a low-cost product that enables content access for individual learner. 

It is the key focus for us and going forward we will be enhancing our product range targeting individual learners," said Shantanu Prakash, chairman and MD, Educomp. As a business model, selling directly to students has till now proved itself as a profitable one. 

Meritnation, an e-learning website backed by Naukri.com's owner Info Edge, earned Rs 9.8 crore as revenue from operation but posted a loss of Rs 21.7 crore for the financial year-ended March 2013. The company spent Rs 9.5 crore, about as much as its revenue, on advertising and promotions.

 "What is happening here is in a sense category creation. This is an untested category. We won't spend big money on advertising because that is a huge expense, we would rather target students through schools for now," HCL Learning's Mahajan said. HCL Learning has sales of about Rs 100 crore.Other education technology companies are taking a wait-andwatch approach. 

"We are studying the retail market and at an appropriate time we will have solutions on iPad and mobile phones as well, which are under development right now. If we find the market is conducive, we will take a call at that moment," said Hemant Sethi, president of school learning solutions at NIIT. 
But despite the problems, the schools business, which is the mainstay of the education business, is not going away. "There are instances where schools have defaulted or delayed payments beyond reasonable time frames. 

However, alarge majority of schools do pay in a timely fashion and it still makes a lot of sense for us to do business with schools," Educomp's Prakash said. Industry experts think that sooner than later the companies will have to look at alternate sales channels, if growth in traditional channels doesn't pick up.

Pleasant surprise for IITs ahead of placement season

For the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), this placement season may be much beyond their expectations. IITs say, given the economic scenario, they expected placements to be a muted affair, but the response from companies has been quite good. 

There is more. Placement cells have recorded an increase of 10-20% in average salary levels. The highest salary offered has seen an increase of around 20-90 per cent as compared to last year. Final placements on IIT campuses begin on December 1.

"Given the slowdown, we wondered if the placements would be as decent as last year but a good number of companies have confirmed participation allaying our fears," said a placement official from IIT Bombay.

A US-based software major has offered the highest salary (so far) of Rs 1.30 crore per annum, to an IIT Bombay student. However, an institute official said this cannot be confirmed till placements begin as the final offer has not been made yet. Last year Samsung (Korea) offered the highest salary at Rs 80 lakh per annum. 

IIT Bombay will see 1,600 students sitting for placements this year and expects around 250-270 companies to participate."Some US companies have doubled the salaries this year against what was offered last year," the placement official added. 

IIT Bombay said this year there is a lot of interest from software companies. Microsoft, Oracle, LinkedIn, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Shell and  Samsung are  a few companies which have confirmed participation so far. 

Even IIT Kanpur and Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) are expecting salaries to be better than last year.  The institutes said IT giants like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will be visiting the campus during placements next month. 

"There is misleading speculation that none of the US companies are coming to IITs for placements. This is not true. Some of these giants have taken care of their requirements through pre-placement offers (PPOs) which is why they are not coming. However, major IT, consulting, finance and core engineering companies like ITC, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have confirmed their participation in the placements at IIT-KGP this year," said Sudhir Barai, head - training and placement at IIT-KGP.

For IIT KGP, feedback from recruiters has been "very good". "The number of companies participating at KGP has increased from 180 last year to 220 this year.  The feedback from recruiters have been very good and salaries will be higher than last year," said Barai. The batch size at IIT KGP this year is over 2000 students.

Seconding Barai is Vimal Kumar, chairman - training and placement at IIT Kanpur who said that global firms like Google, Microsoft and Amazon will be visiting its campus.  

"Some companies have dropped out after confirming but it is not alarming. This happens every year. However, salaries will be higher or at least like last year," said Kumar. IIT Kanpur will roughly see 200 firms participating in the placements process for a batch size of over 1000 students.  Other firms likely to participate at IIT Kanpur placements include Oracle, Mitsubishi, Diamond Consulting, Crédit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, among others.

IIT Madras could not be reached for comments.