Issue 1 - ICTACT.IN

Aug 2010 / Volume 1 - Issue 1 

COLLABORATE 

TO 

TECHNOVATE

magazine 

C O N T E N T 

Aug 2010 

2 

About ICT Academy 

of Tamil Nadu 

2010 – 2020 - A Decade 

of Innovations 

5 

6 

Writing High Performance 

.NET Code 

IT for Non IT Teachers - A Joint 

Initiative of University of Madras 

and ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu 

9 

10 

Language & Communication Skills 

Launch of ICTACT Educational 

Portal & Release of ICTACT Journal 

on Communication Technology 

11 

12 

Employability-an Industry 

Perspective 

ICTACT - ORACLE Higher Education 

Initiative For Tamil Nadu 

14 

16 

The Value of Certification 

for IT Professionals 

CII – NASSCOM – ICTACT Event on 

“Role of ICT Academy for 

the Industry” 

19 

22 

Eventz 

Creative Industry is India’s Future 

23 

ICTConnect 

A Quarterly Magazine from ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu 

Volume I - Issue 1 - Aug 2010 

Editorial Board 

Dr. J.G. Sheshasaayee 

Dr. G. Sainarayanan 

Mr. B. Anbuthambi 

Dr. K. Narasimhan 

Published By 

ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu 

ELCOT Complex, 2-7 Developed Plots 

Industrial Estate, Perungudi, Chennai - 600 096 

Ph : 91- 044 42906800 

Fax : 91- 044 42906820 

E-mail : ictconnect@ictact.in 

Website : www.ictact.in 

Disclaimer : The text and other material on ICTConnect magazine are the views and opinions of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinions, or 

information of ICTConnect or ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu. All trademarks and/or registered trademarks are the property of their respective companies and / 

or owners. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Individuals are authorized to 

photocopy items only for personal use and not for commercial use. 

Published by ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu by its Editorial Board and Printed at Knack Media Solution, Chennai - 26. Website : www.knackmedia.in 

ICT CONNECT MAGAZINE 

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magazine 

About ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu 

ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) is a 

not for profit autonomous society, formed as a 

Consortium of Government of India, Government of 

Tamil Nadu and Confederation of Indian Industry 

(CII) under the Private – Public - Partnership (PPP) 

model that endeavors to create an industry relevant 

knowledge eco system and the next level of talent pool. 

In the current scenario, the issue faced by both 

industry and institutions is addressing the gap between 

University curriculum and industry requirements. 

The need was felt by the Industry, Government and 

Academia to create a platform to address this critical 

issue. This would enable to make Tamil Nadu an ICT 

hub. 

ICTACT has associated with the leading 

Universities and Academic institutions to understand 

and cater to their requirements. Over 450 institutions 

are now being serviced by the academy. 

ICTACT has associated with Corporate bodies 

like Cognizant Technology Solutions, Tata 

Consultancy Services, Microsoft Corporation, Intel, 

Hexaware Technologies, Oracle, National 

Instruments, Cadence etc, to support this novel 

initiative. Through this initiative, the Industry shall 

benefit by the improved availability of quality talent 

pool that is industry ready. This will help the industry 

to cut down on training costs and reduce the lead time 

required to deploy fresh talent in to productive work. 

The need is also felt to have industry – institute 

interaction to share the ever changing industry 

requirements in terms of technology and the skills 

required for the future talent pool. 

ICTACT is a platform for all the stakeholders of 

the knowledge ecosystem to Innovate, Collaborate 

and Educate. 

2 

ICTACT publishes peer-reviewed international 

journals every quarter. Currently ICTACT publishes 

the following three journals. 

ICTACT Journal on Communication 

Technology (IJCT) 

ICTACT Journal on Soft Computing (IJSC) 

ICTACT Journal on Image and Video 

Processing (IJIVP) 

Governing Board 

Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan 

Vice Chairman 

Cognizant Technology Solutions 

Mr. P.W.C. Davidar IAS 

IT Secretary 

Government of Tamil Nadu 

Dr. Santhosh Babu IAS 

Director & CEO 

Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency 

Mr. K. Jayaramakrishnan 

Vice President 

Tata Consultancy Services 

Mr. Som Mittal 

President 

NASSCOM 

Mr. Gopal Srinivasan 

CMD 

TVS Capital Funds Ltd 

Mr. M. Raghunandan 

Director 

Redington India 

Mr. Sameer Garde 

Country Head 

Dell India 

R. Nandini 

Chairperson 

CII TN State Council 

Mr. M. Sivakumar 

CEO 


ICT CONNECT MAGAZINE

magazine 

M E S S A G E 

K Jayaramakrishnan 

Vice President – Global Alliances, 

Tata Consultancy Services 

Member of the Governing Board, 


It gives me immense pleasure to share my thoughts for “ICT Connect” – a magazine from the house of ICT 

Academy of Tamil Nadu. The scenario around the globe is changing and the demand for quality manpower is 

increasing. I am glad to inform you that ICTACT works towards the key objective of empowering the academia 

and the industry through its bridging the industry – academia gap thereby creating the new generation of industry 

relevant talent pool. 

ICTACT over the last one year has been associated with hundreds of colleges and all state Universities in 

Tamil Nadu. The interest and enthusiasm shown by the higher education community has been great and found to 

be increasing. 

Corporate bodies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle etc. have come 

forward to support ICTACT in the PPP model. I take this opportunity to invite corporate in the IT, ITES, 

Electronics and Telecom verticals to participate in ICTACT and support us to create the industry relevant 

manpower for our industry, specifically in Tamil Nadu. 

ICTConnect magazine is the outcome of our understanding from the academia and the industry on the need 

to share the best practices and success stories in both sides. 

The key aim of this magazine is to provide a platform for the corporate executives, teachers, students, 

researchers and domain experts to share and learn technological advances in ICT, Best practices of the industry, 

Career guidance for students, Skill development initiatives, Industry relevant Case studies, teaching and learning 

methodologies, emerging areas in ICT, Industry expectations, Skill Gap Analysis and more. I am sure this 

magazine would help all stake holders of the education eco system including the industry and academia. 

With best wishes 

K. Jayaramakrishnan 


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M E S S A G E 

R. Nandini 

Chairperson – CII TN State Council & 

Secretary, GRG Institutions 

I am very happy to note that ICTACT is bringing out a new magazine “ICT Connect” as a platform for 

students, researchers, teachers and working executives to share knowledge and experiences related to the latest 

trends in ICT. 

Since its inception, ICTACT has been rendering very high quality service to its stakeholders. Among its 

many activities and programmes, it has focused on a critical need of educational institutions – faculty 

development. As we all know, there is an acute shortage of qualified and experienced faculty in many of the 

institutions today. And, there is an undeniable reality of lack of readily-employable students for the industry. This 

is an area that requires concerted efforts from all of us who are engaged in generating young, technology-enabled 

leaders for tomorrow. Realisation of our dream for India 2020 depends on how technologically advanced we are. 

It is in this context that the effort of ICTACT in bringing out ‘ICT Connect’ needs to be seen and 

commended. 

I wish ICTACT all the success it deserves. 

With best wishes 

R. Nandini 

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magazine 

2010 – 2020 - A Decade of Innovations 

Dr. J.G. Sheshasaayee, President 


Our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has 

declared 2010 –2020 as a “Decade of Innovations” during 

his inaugural address in the 97th session of Indian 

Science Congress held on 3rd January 2010 at 

Thiruvananthapuram. The primary objective of this 

declaration is to develop an innovation- based ecosystem, 

which aims at producing solutions for the 

societal needs in terms of healthcare, energy, urban 

infrastructure, water and transportation. 

The Ministry of Science & Technology in its 11th 

five year plan (2007-12) has made a plan outlay of 75,304 

crores for promoting scientific and technological 

advancements through research agencies and academia. 

There are many areas which need innovation, especially 

the agriculture sector for tracking monsoons, prediction 

of natural disasters, guiding farmers with environment 

changes, smart-water usage etc. and also in the areas of 

personalized medicine which directly involves genebased 

products and services, biomarkers, development 

of pharmaceuticals for gene-based diseases, replacing 

surgeries and chemotherapy in the field of healthcare, 

advanced manufacturing, nano technology, pervasive 

computing, Bio-fuels, Water management, carbon 

management, advanced transportation, energy 

management, security and tracking. 

Technology and Innovation are two critical 

factors for inclusive growth; hence collaboration 

between academia, corporate and research institutions 

become vital. This collaboration will be of mutual 

benefit and hence would result in a win-win situation, 

ultimately benefitting the society and increasing the 

economic strength of the country. 

According to the draft version of “The National 

Innovation Act of 2008” the Government of India would 

Promote finance for innovation and setting up of special 

innovation zones for establishment of clustering 

enterprises engaged in scientific, mathematical, 

technological or engineering research or services, for the 

purpose of innovation. There are also measures from 


appropriate government to support Public-Private 

initiatives which facilitate and encourage innovation, 

including in low cost technologies, products and services 

for the benefit of common man whether in rural or in 

urban India. 

The corporate bodies like Biocon, Dr. Reddy’s 

Laboratories, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cadila Healthcare, 

SmithKline specializing on low cost medicine and 

affordable health care, TATA’s, Mahindra in 

automobile segment, Aricent, HCL, TATA in the 

telecommunication domain, TCS, Infosys, HCL in IT 

sector and many more. In addition to India based R&D 

companies, around 150 MNCs already have a presence in 

Indian R&D industry. To list a few, Microsoft, SAP, Dell 

and AMD in IT arena, Daimler-Chrysler in the 

automobile sector, LG, Nokia, Motorola and others in 

the Telecommunication domain, Rolls-Royce in aerospace 

sector etc. These corporate have their own research 

centers and collaborate with their research wing for 

providing solutions favoring mankind. 

At this point of time, it is imperative that the 

corporate sponsored research departments, research 

agencies like DST, CSIR, DRDO, ICMR, ISRO etc and 

academia need to collaborate and innovate newer 

products, newer applications and newer technology 

which would help India to emerge vastly as a global leader 

by 2020. 

Dr. JG Sheshasaayee, President, ICT Academy of 

Tamil Nadu, is a Ph.D holder in Computer Applications and 

Engineering Education. He has over 25 years of experience in 

Software Development, Academia and Education Industry. 

He has authored 18 books in the field of computer science and 

authored over 45 research articles. He is currently responsible 

for Business process management at ICTACT. His research 

interests are e-Learning, User Interface and Educational 

Technology. 

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magazine 

Writing High Performance .NET Code 

Milind P Hanchinmani, Sr. Application Engineer, Intel 

Introduction 

Since most day to day operations are moving 

online (Core banking, Reservations, Shopping), 

software performance has become vital to their success. 

So many a times visits to a web site takes long time to 

load, resulting in frustration and the migration to a 

different site (similar business). For businesses this can be 

fatal as they lose customers. Web sites often slow or even 

go down when traffic increases. Performance/stress 

testing of your application can help avoid such 

downtime. There are tools that tell you performance of 

your application is bad but not necessarily why. But if 

you have information knowing what to look for, what is 

good and what is bad, will put your application in better 

shape later. 

With Microsoft® .NET Framework, developers 

can now build complete business solutions quickly with 

more functionality and robustness with its rich and easy 

to use features and functionality. But with this comes 

increased opportunity for architects and developers to 

design and build poor, non scalable solutions because 

architecting and designing these solutions are not really 

very straight forward. This paper talks about the core 

performance related issues that one should be aware of in 

.NET. It also focuses on some common mistakes which 

one should avoid and provider few tips for writing high 

performance .NET code. 

This paper will discuss: 

.NET Framework components and CLR 

execution Model 

Threading support in .NET and tips for avoiding 

common threading mistakes 

Automatic Memory management – Writing GC 

friendly code 

Briefly talks about performance tools available 

for tuning .NET code 

.NET Framework Components and CLR execution Model 

Languages (C#, VB.NET, C#) 

Presentation Layers (Windows Forms / Web Forms) 

Base Class Libraries (String, ADO.NET, XML) 

Common Language Runtime 

(GC, Threading, Object Manager, Security) 

Windows Operating Systems 

The .NET Framework provides a run-time 

environment called the CLR, which manages the 

execution of code and provides services that make the 

development process easier. CLR provides features such 

as automatic memory management (GC), exception 

handing, security, type safety, JIT (Just in time compiler 

for converting msil to native code) and more. CLR is 

implemented as a dll called “mscorwks.dll”. It also has 

support for Base Class Libraries (BCL) which sits on top 

of CLR, providing libraries for functionalities such as 

String, File I/O, and Networking, Collection classes, 

Data Access (ADO.NET) and XML processing. On top 

of BCL there are presentation layers (Web Forms and 

Windows forms), which provide UI functionality. Last, 

one finds the languages that Microsoft ® provides for 

.NET. Currently there are more than 15 different 

languages that are targeted for .NET framework. 

CLR Execution Model: 

6 


magazine 

Each Language has a compiler which compiles and 

converts the code to msil (Microsoft® Intermediate 

Language). There are multiple optimizations that are 

built into each of these compilers which produce 

efficient IL code. Then CLR takes over and it has the JIT 

compiler convert this IL code into native code that CLR 

can execute. The JIT compiler also has many 

optimizations built in which can produce efficient native 

code for better performance. If the code is unmanaged, 

then we bypass most of this and can directly run 

unmanaged programs. Note that .NET provides 

additional features by which we can use pointers to 

access arrays etc through a feature called “unsafe” for 

better performance. 

Threading support in .NET and tips for avoiding 

common threading mistakes: 

Threading support in .NET is implemented in 

System.Threading namespace. This provides the classes 

and functions such as creating/destroying threads, 

synchronization primitives for atomic access that 

needed to write multi threaded code. This namespace 

also provides a class that allows us to use the pool of 

system provided threads called “Threadpool”. 

Threadpool basically handles thread creation and 

cleanup. It recycles threads to minimize the thread 

creation and clean up overhead. Threadpool also sees 

other threads running such as GC threads so it can adjust 

the thread creation logic. A developer may not consider 

the number of threads that should be used, critical to 

proper performance. Threadpool also has built in 

heuristics enabling it to adjust the number of threads. It 

is recommended to use thread pool when you are 

thinking about threading your application. ASP.NET 

already uses Threadpool for processing web requests. 

Earlier, in this article it is mentioned that 

Threadpool automatically decides how many threads are 

needed for optimal performance. For ASP.NET (web) 

applications, tune using the machine.config file to 

reduce the contention. Tune using this method when the 

following conditions are true (2) 

You have available CPU 

Your application performs I/O bound operations 

and 

The ASP.NET Applications\Requests in 

Application Queue performance counter indicates that 

requests are getting queued. 

 

 

Requests will be queued if total # of available threads falls below this number. 

minLocalRequestFreeThreads="32" -> Requests from the local host will be queued if total # of available 

threads falls below this number. 

/> 

maximum # of worker threads in a threadpool. This is per CPU. 

maxIoThreads="12" -> maximum number of I/O threads in a threadpool. This is per CPU. 

minWorkerThreads="40" -> minimum worker threads available in the system @ any time. This is for the 

entire system 

/> 

Note: These values are not recommended values but just used for illustration purposes. 

7 


magazine 

So, how does the formula work 

T h e n u m b e r o f w o r k e r t h r e a d s = 

maxWorkerThreads*# of CPU (Cores) in the system – 

minFreeThreads 16 = 12*4-32 (assuming you are 

running a 4 core machine). The total number of 

concurrent requests you can process is 16. But an 

interesting question arises. How do you know that this 

actually worked Look at the “Pipeline Instance Count” 

performance counter and it should be equal to 16. Only 1 

worker thread can run in a pipeline instance count so 

you should see a value of 16. You have to be very careful 

when doing this as performance may degrade if you use 

random values. 

.NET threading API’s and Thread pool make a 

developer’s life easier, but still there are many threading 

related issues that can hurt performance and scalability. 

Creating more or fewer number of threads than required 

can impact performance. Use Thread pool to help you in 

this instance. Ideally, the number of threads will equal 

the number of cores, and will yield the highest 

performance as each thread that can run concurrently on 

a processor. Threading wrong portion of application: 

This is by far the major problem in threading. Analyze 

your application completely before deciding where to 

thread. You have to thread the portion of your code 

where you spend most time to get significant 

performance. Multi threading also complicates 

debugging and events such as dead locks and race 

conditions. Have a good debug log (that you can enable 

in debug mode) to solve some of these complex nature 

bugs. 

Threading Tips: 

a) Distribute the work equally among threads – If 

the work is imbalanced, one thread will finish the work 

quickly, but must wait till other thread(s) finish their 

job, impacting performance. 

b) Don’t use too much shared data among threads 

– If any data or data structure is shared among threads, 

then synchronization is required to update that data. This 

increases the amount of serial code/paths in your 

application hurting your scalability 

c) Acquire Lock late and release it early. This is very 

important as you must take a lock just before you 

8 

absolutely have to and release it first before doing anything 

once the atomic region is executed. Here is an example in 

.NET 

void foo () 

{ 

int a, b; 

…. //some code 

//Following code has to be atomically executed 

{ 

} 

…. //Some other code 

//End of atomic region 

} 

//WRONG: Increased atomic region. Lock will be held 

longer thus hurting performance 

void foo () 

{ 

int a, b; 

Object obj ; //for synchronizati Monitor.Enter(); or 

lock(obj) { 

…. //some other code 

Monitor.Exit(); or } 


} 

//WRONG: Entire function is synchronized. Bad idea. 

using System.Runtime.CompilerServices; 

MethodImplAttribute(MethodImplOptions.Synchroniz 

ed)] 

void foo () 

{ 

int a, b; 

…. //some code 

//Following code has to be atomically executed 

{ 

} 

…. //Some other code 


} 

Milind P Hachinmani, is currently a Senior Application 

Engineer with 13 years of industry experience with over 7+ 

years @ Intel. He joined APAC enabling team last year and 

has been working with Enterprise ISV’s and SI’s to improve 

their application performance on Intel® Architecture. At 

Intel, in his previous role for 6 years Milind worked as a 

member of the Intel on-site team at Microsoft in driving 

improvements in the quality and performance of three 

generations of Microsoft® .NET Framework for Intel 

Architecture. His expertise includes performance 

methodologies, benchmarking and .NET CLR internals. 

To be Continued in the next Edition 


magazine 

IT For NON IT Teachers – 

A joint initiative of University of Madras and ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu 

Making University of Madras with 100% e’Literate Faculty Members 

A study among 500 teachers in Tamil Nadu 

across various disciplines showed that 61.25 per cent 

favored using ICT in teaching. Even among those 

who were in favor of using the ICT, it was necessary 

to study the extent of their awareness. Some of the 

teachers were only using it for mailing and not for 

teaching. There is a strong growing need to shift 

from traditional teaching tools to new ones – 

primarily those that involve the use of technology. 

Urging teachers to become e-literate, Dr. G. 

Thiruvasagam the Vice Chancellor of University of 

Madras insisted that “the use of information 

communication technology could reduce cost and 

time and improve the productivity of teachers”. All 

communication from University of Madras to any 

college from to be made will be paperless, Vice- 

Chancellor has said. 

This was set to change as the University of 

Madras, in association with the ICT Academy of 

Tamil Nadu, offered a specific course on “IT for Non 

IT Teachers” to train all the Non IT teachers in the 

university and its affiliated colleges to make them e- 

literate. 

ICTACT involved in the Design, 

Development and Delivery of “IT for Non-IT 

Teachers” training program which aimed towards 

creating 100% IT literacy among the Non-IT 

Teachers of the University of Madras and its 

affiliated colleges. 

Thiru.K.Ganesan, Principal Secretary - Higher Education, Government of Tamil Nadu 

releasing ICTACT Newsletter and first copy received by Dr.G.Thiruvasagam, 

Vice Chancellor of University of Madras 

in their teaching process. The participation in this program 

encouraged use of technology in education. Technology 

tools can support and enrich the learning process by 

putting the students in centre of their quest for knowledge. 

This learning process can only happen with the sustained 

guidance and thoughtful intervention of the teachers. The 

teachers can become the mentor and guide, showing 

students how technology can enhance learning. This 

curriculum is designed to motivate the teachers get started 

with technology. 

In the first phase, 760 teachers of University of Madras and 

its affiliated Colleges were trained. This course was cosponsored 

by Emerge Learning Services and the first batch 

launch was held at Bharathi Women’s College, Chennai. 

Thiru.K.Ganesan IAS, Principal Secretary to Government 

of Tamil Nadu, Higher Education Department, was the 

Chief Guest of the Valedictory function conducted at 

Bharathi Women’s College and issued the certificates for 

the teachers trained in the first batch. 

The goal of this program is to enable teachers 

use ICT technology tools to enhance teaching – 

learning process. This program will not only 

empower the teachers with basic IT skills, but also 

provide strategies and techniques to use technology 


9

Language & Communication Skills 

Nikhil Indrasenan 

Business Head – Ma Foi Academy 

Why is it difficult to talk with some people and so 

easy to talk with others Is communication a skill or an 

art Whatever be the type, communication is a 

competency every professional has no choice but to 

master. To be a good communicator, do we need to have 

sound social skills or will language proficiency suffice 

Well, both are important. 

The four aspects of communication: reading, 

listening, speaking and writing are equally essential and 

important. In addition to these four dimensions of 

language, body language is also a vital aspect. Conversely 

body language is known as nonverbal communication. 

Almost all job interviews are based on communication 

and language competencies. A good presenter can make 

an impression, a very positive one at that, even if he/she 

does not demonstrate relevant domain knowledge. I have 

heard employers state that role-based skills can be 

developed but not language skills. 

`Give me a candidate who can articulate well and 

write with clarity; we can train him in work skills’. With 

communication getting briefer and quicker in this age of 

speed, written communication, being the most popular 

mode of business interaction, needs to be faultless. 

Written English requires more care than spoken English. 

Usage of simple and plain words instead of fancy phrases, 

and short and concise sentences is a pre-requisite of the 

global communication work culture. Brevity does not 

imply brusqueness or abruptness. On the one hand, we 

have to dispense with redundancy in words – we do not 

say `endeavour to ascertain and accomplish’; we just say 

`try to find out and complete’. Jargon, trendy 

buzzwords, sms-ese, acronyms are all, if featured in 

written communication, read with impatience and 

irritation! Mark Twain said, `I never use a word like 

communication needs to be effective and impacting 

getting the expected response to achieve results. Spoken 

language is critical too, as it involves self confidence, non 

verbal skills, active listening, expression and a good 

vocabulary. More important, spoken communication 

warrants earnestness, without which, the speaker can 

sound shallow and pretentious. Spoken language is a habit 

and needs to be cultivated consciously. If picked up and 

practiced the wrong way, correction and unlearning takes 

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magazine 

a long time. The reason why people think they can get 

away with improper and incomplete verbal 

communication is because the in-person interaction has 

other aspects like body signs, expression, gestures, 

interruptions, prompting from listener, and so on. While 

all these are important for communication, the verbal 

skills remain the primary focus. Many errors and gaps 

occur in verbal communication. Verbal or speech tics are 

those words which are habitually used by the speaker. Do 

you recall your student days, when you noted down the 

number of times your teacher uttered – you know, do you 

understand, okay 

Most of us are not aware of our speech tics and we 

regularly use them to start a conversation, fill in the gap 

and at times, as mere expressions. One of my colleagues 

asked another colleague - so, basically, how are you doing 

My other colleague replied - thank you, I am naturally 

doing well; but, fundamentally you should not be asking 

me this, because you see me every day! Verbal tics can 

cause not only annoyance but also fatigue to the listener. 

The best way to get rid of this habit is to choose someone 

who interacts with you closely and have that person give 

you instant feedback. Like I said, unlearning or breaking a 

long standing habit takes a while, but in due course of time, 

with conscious effort, you will have achieved the desired 

results. There are other conversational irritants such as the 

hemming and hawing; in other words, hesitation and 

fumbling in speech. The new age of speed and quickness 

has no room for classic meeting addresses such as this: er… 

I attended, hmmm, a meeting with the VP, yes, the VP. 

Okay And, and I thought hummm I should share what, 

uhh what we discussed, so that………. The group members 

by that time would have exchanged a few phone messages, 

maybe made couple of quick calls and sent out some 

emails. And, can we blame them Clarity, articulation, 

pace, choice of vocabulary, assertiveness and confidence 

are the components that make verbal communication 

highly effective and impactful. 

A good communicator is a preferred business leader. 

Nikhil Indrasenan possesses over 18 yrs of 

entrepreneurial and HR experience in recruitment, 

consulting & training. He has managed and delivered on 

assignments across multiple industries / locations and found 

career opportunities for over 5,000 professionals in his tenure. 

He currently holds a dual responsibility of Head - Ma Foi 

Randstad Academy and Country Manager and Director of 

Ma Foi Randstad Sri Lanka. 


magazine 

Launch of ICTACT Educational Portal & Release of ICTACT Journal on 

Communication Technology 

To strengthen the training process, ICT 

Academy of Tamil Nadu launched the Educational 

Portal to benefit the learners. In the Education Portal, 

the teachers have the technology and industryrelevant 

content available to them along with the 

pedagogical tools for effectively training their 

students. Further, the teachers can also benefit from 

Simulations, Question Bank etc. which is a part of this 

portal. This technology driven learning is a first of its 

kind in India. This portal provides equal opportunity 

for teachers to have access to industry-relevant 

content. The teachers in the second and third tier 

towns do not have access to knowledge about 

industry requirements and relevant content or the 

new teaching methodologies. ICTACT is creating the 

environment for them to be on par with any other 

teacher anywhere. This PortaI enables the teachers to 

enhance their knowledge and use the e-content 

available to train and mentor their students, which 

would help the students to get employed in the ICT 

companies. 

Today, the number of research scholars in the 

country is a matter of concern. The release of the 

ICTACT’s International peer reviewed Journal on 

Communication Technology is a first step to provide 

a platform to the academicians to publish their 

research articles in the domain of ICT. 

Asking Information Technology (IT) 

companies to take note of the circumstances and 

background of many students who are being rejected 

by the industry on the basis of “sub-standard verbal 

skills,” IT Minister Dr. Mrs. Poongothai Aladi Aruna 

said, 

Dr.Poongothai Aladi Aruna, Honorable Minister of Information Technology launching the ICTACT portal. 

Mr.Lakshmi Narayanan Chairman ICTACT, Dr.Santhosh Babu MD ELCOT, Mr.Jayaramakrishnan Vice President of TCS, 

Mr.Purushothaman Regional Director NASSCOM and Mr.Sivakumar CEO ICTACT were also present. 

“Merit is an important criteria but taking along students 

from all segments of society is important too.” While the 

government will try and give as many students as possible to 

the sector, she said that the industry must take “not just the 

icing, but the whole cake.” 

Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, Chairman of the ICTACT 

governing body, said, “Technology has to be used as a 

leverage at the school and college level if education has to 

reach large numbers of students in the eligible age group.” 

He added that schemes like the Right to Education could be 

successfully implemented if only the best teachers were 

accessible to students, wherever they may be. “According to 

the estimates of the Knowledge Commission there would be 

an additional 1500 colleges in the next four to five years and 

hence apart from capacity addition, technology can provide 

some solutions,” Mr. Narayanan said. 

Mr. Sivakumar, CEO –ICTACT said “As a first step, 

we are here to witness the release of ICTACT’s first Journal. 

We believe that this initiative would open many spectrums 

in theoretical, fundamental and applied issues in ICT 

domain. This gives a platform to the researchers from 

academia and industry to publish their research works.” 


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magazine 

Employability-an Industry Perspective 

Vijayalakshmi Rao 

COO & Director, Scope eKnowledge Center P Ltd. 

President, Empowering Women in IT 

Fact #1: Indians are among the youngest in the 

world-about 60% of the population is below 25 years of 

age. 

Fact #2: India produces about 3 million engineering 

graduates per annum, accounting for nearly 25% of the 

global output. 

little idea as to how to actually apply it in the workplace. In 

my company - for instance, we recruit engineers across all 

disciplines, from colleges all over Tamil-Nadu for content 

related work. We find most of these students very good in 

their concepts and attitude. However, their application 

orientation, communication skills and basic grooming 

leave a lot to be desired. 

Fact #3: Our state of Tamil Nadu alone produces 

75,000 engineers-double of what the entire US produces 

annually. These demographics are certainly impressive; 

albeit, when reviewed superficially. The actual truth is 

hardly as pleasant as these statistics. 

According to HR experts, the nation is heading 

towards a talent crunch. While millions graduate every 

year, only a small percentage of them are immediately 

employable. The rest need to be trained or retrained for 

prolonged periods in various skills before they are fit to 

take up employment. 

Job-readiness is looming as a major issue across the 

manufacturing and service sectors. This is especially true 

of the ICT sector that depends almost completely on 

‘human’ resources to largely meet the stringent 

requirements of the global marketplace. While campuses 

beckon, most companies are finding that they can recruit 

only a small percentage of graduating students. The 

majority, either do not meet the companies’ requirement 

or companies envisage where a long drawn out training 

process should be put in place to make the candidates 

‘job-ready’. 

The biggest reason is that engineering colleges are 

not yet fully attuned to the requirements of the industry. 

While the faculty consists of good academicians, not too 

many are constantly in touch with industry 

developments. Also, the focus of the syllabus is on 

textbook-based learning rather than on hands-on 

knowledge. This results in a situation where we have 

engineers who have a sound knowledge of the subject but 

12 

Employability skills are the basic skills necessary for 

getting and retaining a job and performing well in a given 

role. ICT companies, necessitated as they are to constantly 

keep an eye on margins and ROI tend to look for the best 

value-for-money when it comes to employment. Once an 

engineering graduate is recruited, he is required to 

immediately start functioning in his/her role with very 

little investment in training. Companies are quick to sizeup 

prospective employees. While the CV is a giveaway 

more often than not, the test/interview is a sure indication 

on the candidate’s job-readiness. 

Academic and domain skills retain their slot as the 

most important factor in determining employability. 

These are the most basic hard skills, and reflected by the 

marks scored, subjects/ electives covered, area of 

specialization, etc. While the job may not necessarily 

utilize that knowledge (for example, an IT firm may 

recruit a non-IT engineering graduate for a programming 

job), the candidate’s knowledge and comprehension skills 

are likely to be assessed. Projects/internships undertaken 

during the course, which are of relevance for the position 

applied for, carry a premium. 

Higher order thinking skills also play a key role in 

employability. These include analytical skills, 

lateral/creative thinking skills, etc. Companies typically 

judge this by the nature of projects independently 

undertaken, participation in technical competitions, 

papers published, etc. Candidates with such skills are seen 

to require less training than those that come with academic 

credentials alone. They may also have the potential to 

take up value-added roles faster. 


magazine 

Such skills usually get evaluated through advanced 

tests that include logic and reasoning related questions. A 

person who can think and act logically is expected to be 

good at analyzing situations and solving problems. Such 

employees can obviously be trusted to take the right 

decisions in an organization. 

Soft skills are assuming a significant role in today’s 

employment scenario. Positive attitude, good values and 

habits which constitute the core of soft skills are 

inherent or can be acquired by a person only over a 

period of time. However, soft skills such as time 

management, the ability to work as a team, leadership 

qualities and simple language and communication skills 

can be picked up and are critical for any job profile. To 

assess these aspects of a candidate, companies often tend 

to look for participation in extra and co-curricular 

activities and assess such qualities during the interview. 

For instance, a sports person is usually seen to be having 

better team-spirit, and a good debater is considered to be 

a good communicator. Again, a candidate who cannot 

write 250 words in simple English on why he/she 

considers himself/herself suitable for the job under 

consideration will not be short listed. 

Fortunately, most employability skills, which 

seem so crucial to ‘job success’, can be taught and learned 

with some effort. To enhance employability, teachers 

and students need to actually understand and appreciate 

these skills, and do a skill-gap analysis. In-depth coverage 

of the subject is required so that the student get a 360º 

view of his domain. Remote learning needs to be 

substituted with application oriented training. Certain 

ground values – such as initiative, discipline and team 

spirit – can go a long way in making students job-ready. 

Having overseen recruitment of a vast number of 

engineers across Tamil Nadu for my organization over 

the past ten years, my experience is that, on the job, a 

candidate with a reasonably good academic background 

and a holistic exposure and personality is far more 

successful than a candidate with academic credentials 

alone! 

Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Rao , COO of Scope e-Knowledge 

services Pvt Ltd, is a post graduate in Management from 

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. 

Mrs.Vijayalakshmi has almost 27 years of experience in 

Knowledge Management and consulting. She is in charge of 

all project execution and oversees the Human Resource 

Function in Scope. 

magazine 

Advertisement Tariff 

S.No. Advertisement space details Amount 

1 Front Cover Inside page in color (Size A4) Rs. 20000 

2 Back Cover Outside page in color (Size A4) Rs. 25000 

3 Back Cover Inside cover in color (Size A4) Rs. 15000 

4 Full page advt. in black (Size A4) Rs. 10000 

5 Half page advt. in black Rs. 5000 

To advertise in this magazine Contact 

ictconnect@ictact.in or 044 - 4290 6800 


13

magazine 

ICTACT - ORACLE 

Higher Education Initiative For Tamil Nadu 

ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) has 

partnered with Oracle Academy to Support 

Professional Development of Faculty and Help 

Students Develop Critical IT Skills. The Oracle 

Academy and (ICTACT), have signed a 

memorandum of understanding to support more 

than 400 colleges in Tamil Nadu through the Oracle 

Academy program. 

Under this agreement, the Oracle Academy 

will provide software, technical support, and access 

to curriculum and professional development 

opportunities for the faculty of the enrolled 

institutes to deliver ‘Introduction to Computer 

Science’ and ‘Advanced Computer Science’ 

programs. These programs will benefit around 

250,000 students from the state in three years. 

As part of the ‘Introduction to Computer 

Science’ program, the Oracle Academy will provide 

the following to participating colleges: 

300 hours of curriculum for database design, 

programming with SQL and programming with 

PL/SQL. 

10 weeks of virtual training and 5 days of 

instructor-led training for select 240 instructors by 

July 2011. 

Access for all faculty and students to a hosted 

online environment to conduct their regular classes. 

Mr.M Sivakumar CEO of ICTACT and Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik MD of Oracle India exchanging the 

MOU in the presence of Dr.Poongothai Aladi Aruna, Honorable IT Minister of Tamil Nadu and 

Mr.Lakshmi Narayanan Vice Chairman Cognizant. 

on Oracle 11g, while all other faculty members will be 

entitled to receive discounts on faculty training. The 

students will also receive discount vouchers for their 

certification exams. 

The Oracle Academy is a cutting-edge program that 

provides global education institutions with industryleading 

software, curriculum, support, and certification 

resources that the faculty can integrate into their 

classrooms. As a result, students gain hands-on experience 

of the latest technologies and develop skills that help them 

excel in the next-generation workplace. 

At present, more than one million students in 91 

countries are enrolled in the Oracle Academy program. In 

India, over 58,000 students from more than 350 educational 

institutions are currently benefitting from the Oracle 

Academy program. 

Under the ‘Advanced Computer Science’ 

program, colleges will receive software licenses for 

Oracle 11g Database, Application Software and 

Developer Suite; 24x7 technical support and access 

to curriculum developed by Oracle. In addition, 200 

select faculty members will be provided free training 

14 


magazine 

INVITING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 

ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) invites Technical Universities, Engineering Colleges and Arts & 

Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu to be part of this initiative as institutional members thereby benefitting the teachers 

and students. 

Industry Specific faculty Training Programs 

and Workshops 

Industry relevant Content 

Access to ICTACT Learning Portal 

International Research Journals 

in ICT Domain 

Membership Benefits 

Research Collaboration 

Link to ICTACT Portal 

Assessments & Certifications 

To Enroll as members please visit www.ictact.in or 

Technical support to selected final year projects 

Job fair opportunities to students 

Contact : Mr. S. Subramaniam DGM - Academic Initiatives - 95000 46709 - subbu@ictact.in 

Activities of ICT Academy for Educational Institutions 

ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu is engaged in the process of training the teachers of Higher Education in the 

domain of Information and Communication Technology on the Industry relevant content to top up with the regular 

curricula of the various universities in Tamil Nadu. 

: 

We have successfully conducted 43 training programs to over 2400 teachers from 772 Engineering & Arts and 

Science Colleges. These programs have given deep insights on the hands on application on various technologies that 

are currently used by the IT Industry. We engage with the Technology Companies and bring in their content and 

Industry experts as trainers to train the teachers. We also give them the content to be taken to the students. We are 

currently working with Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, National Instruments, Cadence, TCS, Cognizant etc. There are 

other programs in pipeline for ICT areas. 

To take to the next logical step of reaching the students we have now initiated a pilot project with 5 colleges to 

conduct certification programs to the interested students in their respective college. The teachers in those colleges have 

been trained by us, the industry relevant content was given by us along with the course plan which includes theory, lab 

modules and project work on the technology. The students are to be engaged in the college premises through the 

Academy trained faculty and the Academy will have interventions during the program by way of guest lectures, 

project evaluation and final assessment. This will lead to the joint certification along with the respective college. 

Further, the certified students’ resume will be hosted in ICTACT Education portal for the Industry to look into, 

when they hire freshers during their recruitment process. 

Further, we are in the process of calling for Projects proposals from the Final Year students of ICTACT 

Member Colleges from Engineering/Science disciplines in the areas of Information and Communication Technology. 

These projects after its completion will be reviewed for its originality and select the best of them and award a trophy 

along with a cash prize. 

Our International Journals have been received well by the member institutions. 


15

magazine 

The Value of Certification for IT Professionals 

By Todd Thibodeaux 

President and Chief Executive Officer, CompTIA 

The rapid evolution of technology makes it 

difficult to pinpoint “the next big thing,” but the outlook 

for information technology (IT) employment remains 

promising. Technology permeates every sector of the 

economy. From manufacturing to retail, healthcare to 

agriculture, and financial services to education, 

technology helps to make products or deliver services 

faster, better and more efficiently. 

with computer science capturing the largest share (31 

percent). The study also confirmed that certification helps 

many individuals enter the IT field through a nontraditional 

path. For example, many with a business 

degree (21 percent) were able to boost their career 

prospects through complementary skills. These nontraditional 

path certification holders serve an important 

role in the IT workforce. 

Technology-intense industries require highly 

skilled workers. IT training and certification serve a vital 

role in helping to meet the demand for skilled technical 

workers. This is further confirmed by the international 

research firm IDC, which expects worldwide certification 

revenues to grow by an average of around 5 percent over 

the next few years. In some critical areas, such as security 

and networking, growth rates will be much higher. 

Millions of individuals around the world hold IT 

certifications. Collectively, IT professionals spend 

millions of hours preparing for certification exams. In all, 

significant resources are devoted to IT training and 

certification. In 2009, CompTIA, the leading non-profit 

trade association for the world’s IT industry conducted a 

survey of more than 1,500 IT professionals worldwide to 

better understand their reasons for obtaining an IT 

certification and how it has affected their careers. 

The survey revealed that the typical IT professional 

holds an average of 1.2 industry certifications, while 17 

percent of those surveyed have three or more 

certifications. Workers employed by IT companies and 

by government entities are most likely to be certified, but 

individuals employed in other industries also reported a 

high level of certification. 

The profile of certification holders reflects the 

diversity of IT jobs. Among workers in the CompTIA 

study holding a certification, the data suggests that 

slightly over half of the holders have a four-year college 

degree or higher. Among those with a college degree, 

about half of them majored in a science or math, 

16 

Certification Drivers 

Like many career-related investments, economics 

remains a key driver of IT certifications. Professionals 

investing time and money, not to mention the 

opportunity cost of the investment, expect a financial 

return. Eighty-eight percent of certification holders in the 

CompTIA survey indicated they pursued a certification to 

enhance their résumé. Additionally, 50 percent use 

certification to facilitate a job or career change. 

Economics is important, but it’s not the only reason for 

pursuing a certification. Personal growth also factors 

heavily into the decision. An identical 88 percent indicate 

that personal growth is a major or minor reason in their 

decision to pursue a certification. This confirms that many 

professionals are truly committed to the IT field and take 

pride in developing their skills and showcasing their 

expertise. Perceptions of value are shaped by real world 

examples and firsthand experiences. In the area of 

promotions, bonuses and other economic benefits, about 

half of certification holders have a positive firsthand 

experience. Fourteen percent of certification holders 

receive a salary increase, while nine percent received a 

promotion. Additionally, 19 percent receive some other 

type of recognition, such as acknowledgement among 

peers for the accomplishment or other benefit such as time 

off. 

IT professionals knowingly and in some cases 

unknowingly use what they learn from certification 

preparation long after the actual exam. Overall, 82 percent 


magazine 

of the IT workers surveyed by CompTIA said the 

certification materials they learned are relevant to their 

job with 44 percent using the material on a regular basis 

in the workplace. 

Beyond the development of technical skills, IT 

certifications often produce more well-rounded 

employees. Nearly one in four certification holders 

believe they have better customer skills. Thirty percent 

of the holders feel certification enhanced their 

productivity directly, but the bigger positive impact to 

productivity stems from more insightful problem 

solving (47 percent). This is a situation where the 

employee may not fully realize the benefits of the 

knowledge gained from certification preparation, but it 

certainly has an impact on the workplace. 

Top Ways IT Certifications Impact Job Performance 

More insightful problem solving - 47% 

Abilities to understand new or complex 

technologies - 37% 

Improved career advancement opportunities 

- 31% 

Higher productivity - 30% 

Higher customer satisfaction - 23% 

Better communication with co-workers and 

clients - 23% 

Source : IT Training and Certification: Insights 

and Opportunities, CompTIA, August 2009 

Future Outlook 

With a rapidly changing technology landscape, 

on-going training and education is not a luxury, but a 

necessity. This certainly applies to IT workers, but also 

to virtually any knowledge worker. 

Interest in pursuing future certifications reflects 

perceptions of usefulness, market demand and potential 

ROI. The greatest number of IT certification holders 


expects to pursue additional training in the area of 

security, and related fields of ethical hacking and 

computer forensics. Given the growing reach of security 

(threats continue to become more pervasive and 

dangerous). It makes sense that many IT professionals 

view this as a must-have for career advancement or even 

job maintenance. 

Interest in Pursuing Certifications over 

the Next Five Years 

Security - 37% 

Ethical hacking - 18% 

Forensics - 13% 

Green IT - 7% 

Healthcare IT - 5% 

Mobile technologies - 5% 

Software-as-a-Service - 2% 

Source : IT Training and Certification: Insights 

and Opportunities, CompTIA, August 2009 

Technology demands people who possess the right 

skills to make it work properly. Moreover, these skills 

continually evolve. For economies to take full advantage 

of IT, ongoing and widespread IT training and 

certification must take place. This approach has a proven 

track record of helping businesses and governments get 

the most out of their IT making them more likely to 

succeed no matter what the economic climate might be. 

Just as IT itself has moved from the basement to the 

boardroom, the IT professional has the opportunity to 

evolve into something that is much more integral and 

valuable to the business, as a whole. Businesses are 

looking for, and are willing to pay for technology 

workers with skill sets that can be used to make the 

company more competitive and more productive. The 

role of the IT professional is more strategic for 

organizations and technical skills alone are no longer 

enough for most IT jobs. 

17

magazine 

Individuals who are securing jobs in today’s tech 

workplace are equipped with greater versatility and a 

broader skill set than was required in the past. Five years 

ago it was far easier to find a good-paying IT job. Now 

people who want to be in IT need an edge; a means of 

proving they can do the tasks assigned. Professional 

certifications are a step toward that proof. 

A certification makes an individual more 

marketable. Unless the employer is familiar with the 

school the job candidate had attended or the 

organizations that candidate may have previously 

worked for, he or she has no independent means of 

knowing how rigorous the program or experience is. 

When a job candidate comes to an employer with a 

professional certification degree which is recognized and 

accepted globally, it gives the employer more to go on. 

For workers new to the employment market without a 

great deal of past experience, the combination of an 

academic degree and an industry-recognized 

certification puts the worker in a stronger position when 

looking for a job. To maintain their relevance, IT 

certifications must be continually evaluated and updated 

to keep pace with the changing requirements of the 

workplace. Employers want IT certifications that cover 

both technology essentials and the specialized skills 

required in different job roles. For example, including 

some element of “soft skills” in the certification process 

demonstrates the need for IT workers to be able to 

interact and communicate verbally and in writing in a 

clear and professional manner with co-workers, 

customers, partners, and others. 

More than ever, companies value employees who 

can think strategically and communicate effectively, as 

well as those who possess strong business fundamentals. 

IT workers who understand how to use technology to 

meet business goals, and who can articulate this 

understanding, are golden in the eyes of employers. 

Todd Thibodeaux is the president and chief executive 

officer of CompTIA, the leading non-profit trade 

association representing the business interests of the global 

IT industry. He is responsible for leading strategy, 

development and growth efforts for the association. 

ICTACT PUBLICATIONS – INTERNATIONAL JORNALS 

CALL FOR PAPERS 

ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu publishes peer-reviewed international journals quarterly. With the objective of 

creating Indian-based Journals of International quality and to build up local research content, ICTACT 

welcomes Scientists, Researchers, Academicians and Engineers to submit their original research papers which is 

neither published nor currently under review by other journals or conferences. 

Papers should emphasize original results relating to the theory and/or applications of the respective areas. 

Review articles, focusing on multidisciplinary views are also welcome. The Journal will highlight the continued 

growth and new challenges in both basic research and application development. ICTACT is publishing the 

following International Journals (Quarterly issues) 

ICTACT Journal on Communication Technology (IJCT) 

ICTACT Journal on Soft Computing (IJSC) 

ICTACT Journal on Image and Video Processing (IJIVP) 

For further details, visit us at www.ictact.in/journal.htm 

18 


magazine 

CII – NASSCOM – ICTACT Event on 

“Role of ICT Academy for the Industry” 

A joint event of the Confederation of Indian 

Industry, NASSCOM and ICT Academy of Tamil 

Nadu (ICTACT) was held on 21st July, 2010, at 

Hotel Park Sheraton, Chennai. Honorable Minister 

for Information Technology Dr. Tmt. Poongothai 

Aladi Aruna was the Chief Guest and eminent 

personalities including Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, 

Vice Chairman of Cognizant, Dr. Sandhya 

Chinthala, Senior Director – Education Initiatives of 

NASSCOM, Ms.Nandhini Rangaswamy, 

Chairperson of CII Tamil Nadu were the panelists 

discussing the Role of ICTACT. The session was 

moderated by Mr. Sanjay Pinto of NDTV- Hindu. 

The CEOS and top management of more than 70 

ICT companies participated in this event. 

During the discussion the Honorable Minister 

Ms. Poongothai urged the IT industry to give 

preference to rural candidates in recruitment. She 

mentioned that often intelligent students from rural 

background lose out to their urban counterparts 

during interviews because of the lack of 

communication skills. The minister also urged IT 

companies to increasingly participate ICTACT’S 

initiative. She also mentioned that the ICTACT 

which had a unique partnership model, had “broken 

the firewall” of skepticism and cynicism normally 

associated with public-private partnerships. 

Dr.Sandhya Chinthala- Sr Director NASSCOM, Mrs.Nandini Charperson CII Tamil Nadu, 

Dr.Poongothai Aladi Aruna Honorable Minister for IT, Mr.Sanjay Pinto Executive Director NDTV Hindu 

and Mr.Lakshmi Narayanan Chairman ICTACT during the CII-NASSCOM-ICTACT event. 

looking to recruit candidates. Ms. R. Nandini, chairperson, 

CII-Tamil Nadu, said the ICTACT programmes enabled 

students to take up industry-specific projects. she also 

opined that the services of ICT Academy to the academia in 

terms of offering industry relevant courses is excellent and 

strong participation of the academia with ICTACT is the 

need of the hour. 

ICTACT has associated with companies including 

Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Oracle, 

Intel, National Instruments, Cadence ect,. ICTACT 

invites all companies in the ICT domain to participate in 

this Private Public Partnership model which benefits both 

the industry and academia. 

Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice-chairman, 

Cognizant, said the ICTACT provided the muchneeded 

platform for the IT industry and academia to 

work together and address common issues. It was 

launched in the context of the calls getting louder 

and louder from industry about the lack of 

employable graduates. 

Dr. Sandhya Chintala, Senior directoreducation 

initiatives, NASSCOM, said that quality, 

capacity and scale were the key words for companies 


19

magazine 

INVITING CORPORATE 

MEMBERSHIPS 

ICTACT invites corporate bodies to be part of its initiative. As a corporate member of ICTACT, corporate 

will have reach, networking and close linkage with the Academia in the state of Tamil Nadu,. ICTACT’s 

innovative approach has a focused objective of helping corporate to increase efficiency in terms of identifying right 

entry level manpower, decreasing hiring costs, decreasing entry level training costs and improving effective 

academia interaction for corporate. 

Through this initiative, the Industry shall benefit by the improved availability of quality talent pool, which is 

industry ready. This will help the industry to cut down on training costs and reduce the lead time required to deploy 

fresh talent in to productive work. The need is also felt to have industry – institute interaction to share the ever 

changing industry requirements in terms of technology and the skills required for the future talent pool. 

Benefits to Corporate Members: 

Reach to Colleges across Tamil Nadu 

Industry – Institute Interaction 

Vertical Specific Forum 

Joint Seminars and Conferences 

Campus Recruitment facilitation 

Access to Educational Portal 

Access to Assessment & Certifications for employees 

International Research Publications 

Advertisement Banner space in ICTACT Portal 

Concessional rates for ICTACT seminars, 

trainings, conferences and other joint programs 

Free job postings of your requirements at ICTACT 

Portal 

Magazine 

ICTACT is a platform for all the stakeholders of 

this knowledge ecosystem to Innovate, 

Collaborate and Educate 

Visit us at www.ictact.in 

Corporate Membership Form can be 

downloaded from our website 

Participating Corporate 

Corporate interested in participating in this 

novel initiative are requested to contact 

Mr. B. Anbuthambi 

DGM Corp & Govt Initiatives 

anbu@ictact.in or 95000 46710. 

20 


magazine 

Eventz 

Chancellor of Noorul Islam University Dr. Majid Khan 

distributing the Certificates for Participants 

of the Faculty Development Program 

Signing of MoU between ICTACT and Intel 

Signing of MoU with Sona College of Engineering 

as Associate Nodal Institution 

MOU Signing ceremony between ICTACT 

and PSG College of Technology 

Inauguration of Faculty Development Program at 

Jayam College of Engineering & Technology 

Valedictory function of 8 day Faculty Development Program 

at KLN College of Engineering 

ICTACT official Mr.Raghav Srinivasan speaking 

on the inauguration of the Computer Society at 

Velammal College of Engineering 


MoU signing with Muthayammal Engineering College 

for being the Associate Nodal Institution 

21

magazine 

22 


magazine 

Creative Industry is India’s Future 

A new revolution that has gone on without much 

public attention, very keenly watched by industry 

experts across the globe, is taking place in the Indian 

media industry. The Indian Media & Entertainment 

Industry, which is also called the ‘creative industry’ is 

driving this present revolution. In fact, according to 

most studies and industry projections, the Indian Media 

and Entertainment industry as a whole is expected to 

cross Rs. 1,052 billion by 2013. Hence a new business 

opportunity, of developing ‘mesmerising Digital Media 

content’ not just for Indian market but also for 

international market, has evolved. 

Besides print and television media, this industry 

also comprises, of subsidiary industries like Animation, 

Graphic Design, and Video Gaming. Animation 

industry, which holds the key to this revolution, is 

expected to grow from the Rs. 13 billion at present to Rs 

40 billion by 2013. Video Game industry, another 

important segment propelling the growth of media and 

entertainment industry as a whole, is projected to reach 

Rs. 300 million by the end of the decade. Graphic 

Design and Product Design industry is also witnessing 

an extraordinary growth. 

The contribution of Animation and Gaming 

industries to this overall growth is evident from the fact 

that Global Entertainment majors like Walt Disney, 

Sony pictures, IMAX, Warner Brothers have signed up 

huge contracts with Indian animation companies. 

Gaming Giant EA (Electronic Arts) and Microsoft have 

set up their own shops in the country for production 

and distribution of Computer Games. Chennai, 

Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai have emerged as 

major Animation production hubs not only for India, 

but also as a source of content for Global Animation 

Industry. 

WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION 

The very same factors that were behind the IT 

revolution in the 1980s and 1990s are propelling this 

digital revolution in India. 

Cost advantage for International projects executed in 

India 

Unlike the IT industry, where outsourcing is the 

predominant business model, global players are 

adopting other models like Foreign Direct Investments 

(FDI), Co-production and Strategic Alliances. 

For the global animation industry, India offers 

significant cost advantages in terms of Real estate, 

Infrastructure and most importantly the trained and 

competent workforce. The making of a full length 

animated film, which might cost an estimated 100 

million USD to 175 million USD in the United States, 

can be produced in India at only about 15 to 45 million 

USD which is actually a fraction of the cost. As a result 

international animation giants are looking to India. 

In 80’s India identified the growing opportunities 

in IT and established itself as a Super power by the 

90’s. Similarly, the opportunity in Animation, 

identified in the beginning of this century is all 

set to repeat the IT success by the end of this 

decade. 

Companies like Rhythm & Hues, Electronic Arts (EA), 

Imageworks etc., operate as Indian companies. 

Thomson has formed a strategic alliance with 

Dreamworks and invested in Bangalore based 

Paaprikaas Animation Studios to produce world class 

animation in India. Warner Brothers and Prasad 

Corporation have formed a strategic alliance for Digital 

Intermediaries and Digital Restoration for Hollywood 


23

magazine 

and Indian films. International investments are 

virtually pouring in. This growth is not merely driven 

by global markets as there has been a significant increase 

in demand in the domestic market. The domestic 

demand for Animation is due to various other factors. 

Increase in production of Indian Animated Films 

The success of Hanuman Returns – A fully 

animated movie has boosted the interest levels for 

animated movies in the domestic market. Adlabs along 

with Ocher Studios is producing a high-end CGI 

animation film titled ‘Sultan - The Warrior’ on Indian 

Superstar Rajnikanth. The film will have music by A.R. 

Rahman. The film will be launched in Tamil, Telugu, 

Hindi and English languages. 

Advertising companies add creativity 

Pioneered by the Indian advertising industry, 

animation in India has been adding creativity to 

commercial advertisements. The fully animated 

AMARON battery advertisement is a classic example. 

The list of commercial advertisements using animation 

is long, with products ranging from chewing gums and 

soft drinks to mobile phones and services like insurance. 

Visual FX adding the success to Bollywood and 

Kollywood Films 

Visual effects (Visual FX or VFX), which had 

already started playing a significant role in Advertising, 

especially TV Ad Commercials, has also taken the 

Indianfilm industry by storm. The success of several 

Bollywood and Kollywood films like Krissh, Dhoom 2, 

Don, Shivaji, and Dasavatharam amongst many others, 

which had VFX as their USP, bears testimony to this. 

Image Infotainment Limited is among the earliest 

to identify the potential and opportunity that animation 

as an industry offered. An ISO 9001-2000 certified 

Knowledge Powerhouse, IMAGE Infotainment Ltd, 

incorporated in 1996, is a pioneer in the field of 

Multimedia Education and Digital Media content 

development. Not to be left behind the Image College 

of Arts, Animation and Technology (ICAT), was 

established in 2004 realizing the need for well trained and 

qualified professionals in the field of Digital Media, a 

pioneering institution offering campus based education 

culminating in Graduate degrees and post graduate 

diplomas in Animation, Visual FX and Gaming. For any 

i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t t h e c o m p a n y , v i s i t 

www.image.edu.in & www.icat.ac.in 

ICT ACADEMY OF TAMIL NADU 

(A consortium of Government of India, Government of Tamil Nadu and 

Confederation of Indian Industry CII) 

CALLING STUDENTS 

INCREASE YOUR VISIBILTY 

Register on www.ictact.in Student Corner for Jobs. 

Create Your Resume 

View Job posting by Companies 

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ICT Academy of 

Tamil Nadu 

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