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Finishing schools for Engineers

February 7, 2006, 12:00 am
Once finishing schools, mostly in Switzerland, were meant for rich girls on the threshold of marriage. Call it democratization of the concept, the HRD ministry is planning finishing schools for engineers.

The ministry’s move is born out of various Nasscom reports, which say that though there is no dearth of engineering graduates in India, most are unemployable. The ministry said that “while enhancing the quality of technical education should remain the goal in the long ter ........................

India tops raise list

February 7, 2006, 12:00 am
Credit card bills are biting harder, personal loans are chewing up a bigger pound of flesh and Mamata Banerjee has just called another road blockade.

Relax. Hope may be lurking no farther than the next annual pay package.

Wage increase in India this year is expected to be highest in the world across all levels, a survey has forecast.

“Indian workers are set to receive the highest raise in 2007 with companies forecasting an annual salary hike of 12 percent r ........................

City software exports surge

February 13, 2006, 12:00 am
The city’s aim to emerge as one of India’s fastest-growing IT centers continues to gain momentum, with exports from the software technology park (STP) rising 42.67% during the first nine months of this fiscal.

Exports from the STP climbed to Rs. 2,181.66 crore during April-December, as new kids on the block like HSBC Electronic Data Processing and Tech Mahindra continued to function impressively. Software exports had stood at Rs. 1,529.18 crore during April-December 2005.< ........................

Placement cry on campus

February 16, 2006, 12:00 am
At a time when B-schools and tech schools across the country are leaving no stone unturned to place their graduates in topnotch corporate houses, Calcutta University is leaving its bright young brains to fend for themselves.

Fed up with the apathy of the authorities to their long-standing demand for a placement cell, students of the university’s Rajabazar Science College campus have launched an indefinite movement, starting this week.

“We will continue our move ........................

Yes, But... - Tal Ben-Shaher

June 1, 2009, 12:00 am
I attended a dinner party last week. The conversation meandered from affairs of the heart to current political affairs, from food and cooking to dreams and aspirations. At a certain point, we went around the table and talked about books we had recently read and enjoyed. When my turn came, I talked passionately about Built to Last which I believe to be one of the most important books in the area of organizational behavior. The book discusses visionary companies—organizations that have shape ........................

Toward a New Formulation of Self-Esteem: Dependent, Independent, and Unconditional - Tal Ben-Shaher

June 1, 2009, 12:00 am
According to psychologist Nathaniel Branden, self-esteem is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. Self-confidence refers to one’s feeling of competence and efficacy in facing life’s challenges; self-respect refers to one’s feeling of being worthy of happiness. Another helpful distinction in understanding the nature of the self is the one between dependent and independent self-esteem. As their names suggest, dependent self-esteem is self-esteem that is generate ........................

Self-Esteem and The Making of Independent Thinkers - Tal Ben-Shaher

June 1, 2009, 12:00 am
What makes certain individuals independent thinkers? What characteristics separate individuals like Einstein, Beethoven, Freud, and Bill Gates from others in their respective domains? Is it possible to create structures in our education system which will encourage and foster independent thinking? I will argue that self-esteem, specifically a component that I have called independent self-esteem, is the distinguishing characteristic of independent thinkers.

Self-esteem generally refers ........................

A Question of Focus - Tal Ben

June 1, 2009, 12:00 am
To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
How is it that some people who have every conceivable reason to be happy, who have fulfilled their dreams and attained success, are miserable, whereas others, who repeatedly face misfortune and hardship, rarely fail to celebrate life? It seems as if external factors—whether feats or failures—have little to do with our overall happiness.

In general, how happy we are is a function ........................

Psychological Maturity - Tal Ben-Shaher

June 1, 2009, 12:00 am
A friend recently asked me to define psychological maturity. After some reflection I said that it’s the ability to willingly shift perspectives in time and in space, the capacity to appropriately choose between engagement in the here and now and awareness of the big picture. While this definition does not fully capture the nature of psychological maturity, it does pinpoint an important aspect of it.

The here and now, present perspective, pertains mostly to our emotions; the big ........................

Permission To Feel - Tal Ben-Shaher

June 1, 2009, 12:00 am
"One's suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields—even to sadness." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Imagine Main Street if we didn’t rein in our emotions. Rude comments tossed at a passersby who fails to meet our unrefined esthetic sensibilities; obscenities running wild each time our expectations are frustrated; an uninvited growl and then a leap at a sexual object walking past. The rules of the jungle—the product of impulse, impatien ........................