Actuarial Profession

You must have seen, heard and read about companies which provide insurance cover to policy holders in case of any eventuality like accidents, hospitalization, household hazards, thefts or death and still others who look after investment schemes, employee benefits, retirement benefits and pension schemes. The policy holders are required to pay a fixed amount as installments at regular intervals and they get this money back in the event of any untoward incident or upon the maturity of the policy. Have you ever wondered who decides as to what amount of money a policy holder should pay as premium or what sum should be given as pension amount or returns by the company?.

Well, this exactly is what an actuary does. They calculate insurance risks and premiums. Technically speaking the job of an actuary is to assess the financial impact of an uncertain future event. Roughly speaking they look at the financial aspect of disasters, sarcastically speaking they are financial astrologers.

An actuary has to combine the skills of a statistician, economist and financier and employ techniques of probability, compound interest, law, marketing, management etc to predict the outcome of future contingencies and design solutions to lessen the financial severity of such events.

Actuarial profession was formally established in 1848, with the formation of Institute of Actuaries, London. In India, traditionally actuaries were found only in the life-insurance sector but now with the opening up of the economy they are wanted by non-life insurance companies, banks, stock exchanges, private and government agencies and this is one field where demand exceeds supply.

The Actuarial Society of India (ASI), the only professional body of Actuaries in India was formed in 1944 and was admitted as a member of the International Actuarial Association (IAA), an umbrella organization to all actuarial bodies across the world, in 1979. It was registered in 1982 under registration of Literacy, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act XIII of 1960. Its objectives include the advancement of Actuarial profession in India, providing opportunities for interaction among members of the profession, facilitating research, arranging lectures on relevant subjects and providing facilities and Guidance to those studying for the professional Actuarial Examination.

The Institute of Actuaries Of India (IAI or formally ASI) was initially started as a non-examining body when Actuaries used to get qualified from Institute of Actuaries or Faculty of Actuaries of UK. The Institute of Actuaries of India started conducting Entrance Examinations in India for students of Institute of Actuaries, UK, in 1975. In 1989, it started conducting examinations for its Indian qualification up to Associate ship level, and in 1992, it started conducting Fellowship level exams. The IAI has been following the UK pattern of examinations since November 2000 with an eye to be a part of global standards set by the International Actuarial Association (IAA).

To become an actuary one must be a Fellow of a recognised professional examining body like the Actuarial Society of India (ASI), Mumbai or the Institute of Actuaries, London. The work of an actuary involves a lot of number crunching and the nature of work is quite tedious, nevertheless it offers rewards in terms of intellectual challenge, status, job satisfaction and earnings. As their judgment is the basis of decision making for many business activities, their career paths often lead to upper management and executive positions.

Eligibility : The Actuarial Society of India and Institute of Actuaries, UK are professional examining bodies which conduct certificate, associateship

Remuneration : If you can survive the grilling tests, there is a payoff - the median annual salary for an actuary is handsome.

IBM offers laid-off US workers jobs in India

IBM is offering its laid off employees in North America a chance to take a job with the company in India, Nigeria, Russia or other countries through Project Match, a media report said.

Citing an internal company document CNN said its Project Match will help interested workers whose jobs are on the chopping block to "identify potential opportunities in growth markets and facilitate consideration by hiring managers in those markets."

The company also will help with moving costs and provide visa assistance, it says.

Other countries with IBM opportunities include Argentina, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey and United Arab Emirates, according to the document.

Only "satisfactory performers" who are "willing to work on local terms and conditions" should pursue the jobs, the document says.

CNN said IBM would not immediately confirm if it means that the workers would be paid local wages and would be subject to local labour laws.

A spokesman for Alliance@IBM, a workers' group that is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America but does not have official union status at IBM, slammed the initiative.

"IBM not only is offshoring its work to low-cost countries, now IBM wants employees to offshore themselves," spokesman Lee Conrad told CNN.

"At a time of rising unemployment IBM should be looking to keep both the work and the workers in the United States," he said.

New York based IBM has confirmed recent layoffs but has not provided any specifics on the number of people affected. Conrad said IBM has laid off more than 4,000 workers in the US since the beginning of the year, but called that "a conservative number."

"This is unacceptable to the Alliance and we are pursuing this by asking our members and all IBM employees to contact their political representatives to demand an accounting and transparency in job cuts and offshoring from IBM," Conrad said.

Source: http://howrah.org/business/39268.html

Lloyds’s IT offshoring ‘worse than Lindsey Oil Refinery recruitment tactics’

The union that represents workers at Lloyds TSB said that the bank's strategy to send UK IT jobs overseas is less acceptable than Lindsey Oil Refinery attempts to cut costs by shipping in workers from other parts of Europe.

Workers in the oil refinery industry across the UK have held wildcat strikes in support of skilled UK workers being overlooked for jobs in favour of workers from abroad. This has caused anger amongthe oil refinerybusiness as well as the general public.

The workers have now voted to return to work after the company agreed to make 102 jobs available to UK workers.

The union claims the fact that Lloyds TSB has received financial support from taxpayers is more reason for it to protect UK jobs. The government now owns more than40% of the bank. Lloyds TSB has already offshored about 4,000 jobs and with the integration of HBOS planned more are expected. The bank is in the process of sending another 450 IT roles to India.

"The Lindsey Refinery protests concern new vacancies being denied to UK-based staff, whereas Lloyds is ditching the jobs of its existing UK staff merely because it can replace them with lower paid workers in India," said the union.

It said by halting the transfer of further jobs to India and returning to the UK the 4,000 that have already been transferred to India, Lloyds TSB could help safeguard jobs.

Steve Tatlow, assistant general secretary at LTU has said,"There can be no excuse whatsoever for existing UK-based staff losingtheir jobs merely because they can be replaced by lower paid workers in India."

"The Government must not let the new Lloyds Banking Group get away with cutting tens of thousands of jobs without taking all reasonable steps to avoid compulsory redundancies. This must include using its massive stake in the company as leverage to force it to abandon its offshoring policy."

Source: http://www.computerweekly.com

Over 70,000 job cuts announced in a single day

The deepening global economic recession claimed over 70,000 jobs in a single day, with six companies, ranging from manufacturing to telecom across the US and Europe, announcing job cuts as part of a cost cutting measures to grapple with the slump in consumer spending.

With the bloodbath in the job market on Monday, the tally of total jobs lost in January so far crossed two million.

Construction machinery manufacturer Caterpillar, pharma major Pfizer, telecom firm Sprint Nextel Corp, home improvement retailer Home Depot were among the six major firms that announced massive job cuts.

A total of 20,07,120 jobs have been lost so far this year. Nearly 2.6 million people were rendered unemployed through 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945.

Caterpillar said it would cut 20,000 jobs amid a "very challenging global business environment".

The company had already planned to lay off 15,000 workers since the fourth quarter of 2008. It added another 5,000, bringing the total to 20,000. Pfizer would be cutting 10 per cent of its 81,900-strong staff and close five of its manufacturing plants.

Further, about 15 per cent of the workforce would be laid off in a second round, from the combined Pfizer/Wyeth staff of 1,20,000, taking the total to 26,000 jobs lost. The company already cut 4,700 jobs in 2008.

Sprint Nextel would cut about 8,000 jobs by March 31, it said in a release, adding, it plans to reduce internal and external labour costs by about $1.2 billion annually.

The world's largest home improvement retailer Home Depot announced it would eliminate its EXPO design centre business and cut 7,000 jobs, or two per cent of its total workforce.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com
Yoshita Singh/ PTI / Chicago January 27, 2009, 17:07 IST

Simply Hired Brings Job Search to Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies List

Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) January 23, 2009 -- Simply Hired, the largest job search engine and recruitment advertising network, announced today a content sharing agreement with CNNMoney.com to provide job listings on Fortune Magazine online for its annual, "100 Best Companies to Work For" feature. Visitors will be able to view current job openings at the employers that ranked on Fortune's special report, released January 22, 2009.

Job seekers visiting the "Best Companies to Work For" report will have access to jobs at top employers and Simply Hired's database of over 5 million jobs globally. In addition, Simply Hired will provide "100 Best Companies" and "Fortune 500" job search filters for all job seekers visiting www.SimplyHired.com.

"The job listings provided through this partnership will complement the content of this special report, allowing highly qualified visitors to the site to potentially fill the open roles at these top companies," said Gautam Godhwani, Co-founder and CEO of Simply Hired. "It is a great distribution point for employers to reach into such an attractive audience."

Through this partnership, CNNMoney.com joins Simply Hired’s recruitment advertising network, which consists of over 5,000 social networks, blogs and content sites, including LinkedIn, Fox Television Stations, CNET, US News and World Report. Simply Hired advertisers will benefit by exposing their job listings to the unique demographic the CNN Money / Fortune site offers.

About Simply Hired
With more than 5 million job listings worldwide and over 5,000 job search partners, Simply Hired (www.SimplyHired.com) is the largest job search engine and recruitment advertising network. The company has exclusive partnerships with MySpace and LinkedIn as well as the largest set of professional apps on Facebook. The company has international sites in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and India. Simply Hired has been lauded as one of the "50 Coolest Websites" by Time Magazine and declared "Best of the Web" by Business Week. Simply Hired has raised $17.7M in funding from News Corporation's Fox Interactive Media, Foundation Capital, Garage Technology Ventures and individual investors. The company is privately held and is based in Mountain View, California.

About CNN Money/Fortune
CNNMoney.com is the world's leading business website. The site is the online home of FORTUNE, MONEY, and FSB: FORTUNE Small Business magazine, and serves as CNN.com's exclusive business site. The site attracts more than 10 million unique visitors per month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. CNNMoney.com is a division of Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/01/prweb1899484.htm

NIPM National Conference to be held in Aurangabad

Aurangabad chapter of National Institute of Personnel Management will organise its Annual National Conference from January 22 to 24, 2009. The conference will be inaugurated by Rajesh Tope, the higher education minister..

NATIONAL ANNUAL Conference of National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) will be organised on January 22 to 24, 2009, in Aurangabad. About 500 members from across the nation are expected to attend the conference said office bearers of NIPM Aurangabad chapter.

This is 27th year of NIPM Annual National Conference and for the second time it is being organised in Aurangabad. The conference will focus on "reinventing human resource (HR) in changing economy," said Makarand Deshpande, chairman, NIPM Aurangabad chapter, in a press conference. Deshpande further said that the economy is passing through lot of ups and downs. This has posed a big challenge before the business and HR professional to find innovative ways to strike balance between expectations of HR and the business requirements. Deshpande also added that this is the right time to come together in this conference and discuss whether we can reinvent the HR to tackle the challenges posed by frequently changing economy.

Ulhas Bhoomkar, NC convener said that the conference to be organised at Welcome Hotel Rama International, Aurangabad will be inaugurated by higher education minister Rajesh Tope at 5pm on January 22. Member of parliament (MP) Chandrakant Khaire, member of legislative assembly (MLA) Rajendra Darda, Dr Kalyan Kale, Mayor Vijaya Rahatkar will be present on the occasion, Bhoomkar said. He further added that the conference will throw light on how HR function can play a major role in the current economic slow down and recessionary conditions. It will also project Aurangabad as a career destination for various professionals. Dr AK Balyan, NIPM national head and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) director-HR; Jean Marie Lagey, managing director (technical) Skoda; Karsten Bogun, managing director (commercial), Skoda, Hazra, CMD, Shipping Corporation; and Guruji G Narayana, chairman, Emeritus Excel Industries will honour the chairs of special guests for the conference.

Regarding the programmes to be organised in the conference, Manoj Gupta, secretary NIPM Aurangabad chapter, said that about 500 delegates would attend the event.

“We have got confirmations of 19 HR heads, managing directors (MDs) and chief executive officers (CEOs) of big corporates, who will be addressing this conference. Apart from these, four directors of India’s top Master of Business Administration (MBA) institutes- Narsee Monjee Institute of Management and Higher Studies (NMIMS), Xavier’s Institute, Institute of Management Technology (IMT) and National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) will participate in panel discussions during the conference. After inauguration, first NIPM National award for best HR practices will be distributed followed by award of NIPM diploma’s and medals.

Office bearers of NIPM Aurangabad chapter Arun Pathak, Sanjay Gadhe, Sunil Sutavane, Rajesh Wani, Ganesh Ghughe, Mahesh Dolare, Baseerat Ali Siddiqui, Rajesh Jawlekar, Dnyadev Suryawanshi, Saquib Siddiqui, Swati Jagiasi, Vishal Pawar, Anurag Kalyani and Ganesh Kulkarni were present in the press conference.

About NIPM Aurangabad Chapter

NIPM has 52 chapters across India and includes more than 10 thousand members. The Aurangabad chapter of National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) formally came into existence in 1991. NIPM is a non-profit making body.

Global employment survey finds confidence ‘faltering but not evaporating’

A new survey of hiring and firing trends covering businesses in 107 countries around the world has found a definite slowdown in job prospects for professionals and managers, but also that 43% of the organizations questioned still intended to recruit at this level in the first quarter of 2009.

The quarterly ‘Global Snapshot’ from the international recruitment firm, Antal, asked over 2700 major companies in 23 key markets such as western and eastern Europe, Africa, India and China and in 84 other countries around the world whether they were currently hiring at professional and managerial level. It then asked whether they planned to do so in the coming quarter and whether they were currently letting staff go or were planning to do so in the next three months.

Western Europe

The survey found that hiring activity in the UK is down slightly on the previous quarter with 28% of respondents currently seeking staff at managerial and professional level in contrast to 31% in the autumn. Optimism about the future also seems to have been eroded with only 18% expecting to hire over the next three months, down from 48% last time. However, the effects of the general downturn are by no means uniform. The market for senior sales and marketing professionals, for example, appears to be particularly active, perhaps due to a desire get the most out of this key business function by recruiting and retaining high quality staff.

Despite the fact that the global downturn has now hit the German economy, levels of recruitment activity are actually higher than they were in the autumn with 81% of respondents looking for managerial and professional staff as opposed to 57% last quarter. However there are increasing signs of uncertainty about the early part of 2009 with only 9% of those questioned expecting to hire during this time. In Italy hiring at managerial/professional level was looking considerably healthy in the poll in the autumn of 2008, yet in the current climate this has dropped from 73% to as low as 47%. However, for Italy the downturn has not meant an increase in firing resulting in relative stability across the senior jobs marketplace.

Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Even Poland, arguably Eastern Europe’s most successful economy, has been hit by the downturn with current hiring levels down from 93% in the autumn to 62% now and the percentage of organisations expecting to recruit in the coming quarter dropping from 63% to 39%. Hungary ran into major economic problems shortly after the publication of the last Global Snapshot in the autumn. As a result of the turmoil hiring levels are down – from 74% to 45% - and confidence about future recruitment plans somewhat shaky with only 17% firmly intending to hire over the next quarter in comparison to 59% in the autumn. In sharp contrast to most other countries featured in the survey Romania is showing a significant increase in hiring levels – up from 37% in the autumn to 54% now – although the survey suggests that the current employment drive may mean that these high levels will drop over the coming three months.

Africa and the Middle East

‘Bridge’ nations such as Egypt and the UAE are still experiencing relatively high demand for professional and managerial staff although the boom conditions of recent years have definitely been dampened. In South Africa current levels of recruitment are high with as many as 92% of businesses in sectors such as FMCG currently hiring although nervousness about the future means that these figures drop to as little as 3% for the coming quarter.

Asia

In India after a period of extremely strong demand for managers and professionals the Global Snapshot confirmed a degree of caution entering the hiring process. Intentions to recruit in the coming quarter are down substantially since the last report in the autumn of 2008. In China hiring levels are also down noticeably from the extremely high levels seen in the autumn 2008 survey, although they still remain relatively buoyant in comparison to those in many other countries. Despite new worries about its economy Singapore still has one of the highest expectations in terms of future hiring. And whilst Singapore seems to be gearing up for a hiring spree in the coming months, the Philippines appear to be in the middle of one now with more organisations than in any other country actively looking for new professional and managerial personnel.

Latin America

Hiring levels in the region's largest economy, Brazil, still remain very high at 85% of businesses questioned but seem set to drop during the first quarter of 2009 to as low as 16%.

Conclusions

“When we undertook our last survey of hiring and firing around the globe in the autumn of 2008, most countries appeared confident about the future. Now that confidence has faltered, but it seems, hasn’t evaporated completely,” says Antal’s CEO, Tony Goodwin. “There is no denying that the slowdown in economies across the world has had a knock-on effect on jobs and career development prospects for professionals and managers at all levels. However this does not mean that recruitment has come to a complete stop by any means. The hiring of locals and returnees in preference to international staff in countries such as China, India and Russia has really taken off, for example, as organisations look for best value from their hires. Rather than being a classic downturn, this one seems to be developing a very specific nature, which hits certain countries and sectors extremely hard whilst leaving others – parts of eastern Europe and industries such as pharmaceuticals, bio-tech and renewables, for example - relatively or even completely unscathed.”

Notes
About Antal International
Founded in 1993, Antal International is a management and professional recruitment specialist with a particular focus on the sourcing and retention of candidates at middle and senior level. One of the first recruitment organisations to devote substantial resources to emerging markets, the company now has 52 offices in 28 countries and works with many of the world’s most successful and ambitious multi-nationals.

• Submitted by: BlueSky Public Relations Ltd (Previously: TMD Communications)
• Monday, 19 January 2009

Source: www.sourcewire.com