Higher growth may not create as many jobs

A healthier world economy and a more decisive government at the Centre is expected to push up India's growth from decade low 4.9% likely this year and create more jobs. But a Crisil BSE 2.02 % report suggests that in recent years, there is lesser employment generation per unit of growth and just higher growth may not be sufficient to absorb everyone entering the workforce:

IBM launches 50 times faster high-end servers

 International Business Machines, in its latest attempt at reviving demand for its hardware products, is launching high-end system servers that it says are 50 times faster than its closest competitor at analyzing data.

The POWER8 servers, the product of a $2.4 billion, three-year investment, are part of the company's decade-long shift to higher-value hardware technology. IBM said the machines are 50 times faster than the low-end x86-based servers it sold to Chinese PC maker Lenovo in January.

The technology services provider said it hopes the servers, designed for large-scale computing, will appeal to clients looking to manage new types of social and mobile computing and mass amounts of data.

Last week, the company reported its lowest quarterly revenue in five years, weighed down by falling demand for its storage and server products.

IBM dominates the higher-end server market with 57% market share, according to research firm Canalys.

"For IBM customers in particular the POWER8 represents a generational jump forward so far as overall performance and system capacity goes," said Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT in California.

"POWER8 should help IBM move forward in this very cloud-centric, analytic path that it has been working on," he said.

Some analysts, however, say that IBM's shift to high-end servers makes products like POWER8 appealing only to niche customers.

"Not every app needs a high-end server," said Jefferies analyst Peter Misek. "With IBM getting out of that lower-end business, it dramatically shrinks their addressable market."

In order to make the servers adaptable to different needs, IBM released the data specifications for its POWER8 processor to the OpenPOWER foundation, allowing the development community to deliver new system designs based on POWER8.

The foundation, whose more than two dozen members include Google, Israeli chip designer Mellanox Technologies , US chip-maker Nvidia and Taiwan-based server supplier Tyan Computer, will have access to hardware previously proprietary to IBM.

9 Ways to Say No

                                                                      No way     
This modern-sounding phrase has actually been around since the 1700s, and was included in Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist jeremiadUncle Tom's Cabin. The one-word regional variant noways was used as early as the 1400s. Modern usage of no way peaked in the 1980s, but has since been declining.

NAY: This modern-sounding phrase has actually been around since the 1700s, and was included in Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist jeremiadUncle Tom's Cabin. The one-word regional variant noways was used as early as the 1400s. Modern usage of no way peaked in the 1980s, but has since been declining.

Never

Strangely, never had the same original meaning as nay, "not ever." However, nevercomes from Old English, as opposed to Old Norse. Luckily for us, English is a motley language that accepts most contributions, so there’s room enough for both never andnay.

NotThough this ubiquitous word is most commonly used as an adverb, it has also experimented with being an interjection, particularly used to negate what was said before it or reveal sarcasm. This ancillary sense was first attested in 1900, but it was popularized in 1989 by Wayne's World sketches onSaturday Night Live and has since fallen out of popular use, for better or worse.

Nix

Nix entered English in the late 1700s from the German wordnichts meaning "nothing." The verb sense of the word, as in "to nix a project," did not arise until the early 1900s in the United States.

Ixnay

This neologism arose in the 1920s. This strange word is the pig Latin word for nixwith the inversion of n-and -ix and the addition of the syllable-ay. The origins of pig Latin remain unknown, though it has been around since the 1700s.

Veto

This term comes from the Latin word of the same spelling that literally means "I forbid." In Ancient Rome, the word, which happens to be an anagram of vote, was used by tribunes of citizens to oppose legislation of the Roman Senate. The term entered English in the 1600s as a noun and began to be used as verb in the early 1700s.

Deny
Deny has its origins in the Latin worddenegare, which comes from the prefixde- meaning "completely" andnegare meaning "to refuse." The shortened ending is due to the word's development through Old French in the 1500s.







Nope
This colloquialism was coined in the late 1800s in the US. It may have co-evolved with yep, the common alternative for yes. Sometimes in language evolution, opposites do attract

Introducing Gmail Shelfie

Today, Gmail hits the double digits. Over the last 10 years, you—our users—have been our biggest inspiration. You've sent us ideas for features you want, and told us what you like (and didn't like...). So while it may be ourbirthday, we want to say thank you to you with a gift that is, well, all about you.

When custom themes launched back in 2012, we urged you to find “your perfect image and make Gmail your own.” And you did. Many of you rushed to take photos of yourselves to upload as your Gmail custom theme, which you started referring to as selfies.
An early selfie in Gmail
As you undoubtedly recall, this term quickly spread beyond email themes and has permeated our culture so thoroughly that the Oxford Dictionaries named it Word of the Year in 2013.
Custom themes catalyzed selfie generation
You all love setting selfies as your custom theme in Gmail, but you’ve told us there’s one major problem: there isn’t a way to share your selfie with others. As the pioneering platform for selfies, Gmail is committed to being at the forefront of innovation in the selfie space. And we think it's a tragedy that your handsome hair, luscious lashes and beautiful brows have been trapped in your own inbox. Until now, that is. Today, we’re proud to free your selfies by launching Gmail Shelfie, the SHareable sELFIE. 

Gmail Shelfie is built on the idea that you shouldn’t be selfish with your selfie. With just a few clicks, your mom, your aunt, or that girl you have a crush on can set your Shelfie as their Gmail theme so they can enjoy checking, reading, and writing emails while seeing your friendly face in the background.

Got an awesome selfie? Upgrade it to a Shelfie! Simply open or refresh Gmail on the desktop and share it with your friends. If you're looking for inspiration, set your theme to Gmail's top trending Shelfies. You can also see who's currently trending on our Google+ page.

5 Tips to Better Sales and Marketing Alignment

Marketers like shiny objects. It’s a fact. Dangle a new software or strategy in our face and we are like two-year olds in a candy store. We also use buzz words like value add, synergy, alignment, and transparency to avoid marketing speak (what an oxymoron). But I digress… What distinguishes a good marketer from a great marketer is being able to take a step back from the present and plan for the greater objective, which in most cases is generating revenue for the organization. We call this strategic planning.

One critical component that often gets missed or glossed over from the plan is Sales and Marketing alignment. I can’t underestimate the importance of the synergy among these two departments. (If you’ve worked in organizations with bad synergy…you know what I’m talking about.) Even if the teams don’t always see eye-to-eye, establishing mutual respect and setting goals to support will… pay… off.

Here are five simple tips when incorporating Sales and Marketing alignment in your strategic planning:

1. Share Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – such as Opportunities generated and Closed Won business to measure success. Set monthly/quarterly/yearly goals towards each.
2. Create a shared dashboard that Sales and Marketing teams visit to track progress.
3. Reward both teams when goals are met.
4. Incorporate the sales team in your content planning. Listening to front-line conversation will lead to better deliverables.
5. Make sure Sales and Marketing leadership have a shared vision and have signed off on each other’s plan. Without that, the synergy cannot begin.

Sales and Marketing alignment might not be the most glamorous thing you work on as a marketer, but it’s certainly one of the most important. And, now I’m curious… what types of Sales and Marketing alignment strategies have you seen work particularly well?

BE YOUR OWN MENTOR

Mentors are Myths.  Or at least unicorns.  If you are waiting for a mentor to help develop you professionally, my best advice is to stop waiting for the magic mentor and go create your own opportunities.

I have written about the concept of five minute mentors, and the more people discuss the topic, the more I believe that learning from whomever you can whenever you can in combination with taking charge of your own destiny is your best path for success.

How many people do you know who have a professional relationship with someone who is really a mentor?  I would be shocked if you said any, let alone many.  The odds are just not good.

People are busy and distracted.  They have their own interests to take care of.  And even those with the best intentions don’t have the ability to be a mentor in the way that most people think about the word.  If you are able to get someone who can be helpful to pay attention to you, that’s fantastic.  Do what you can to develop a relationship and learn, but don’t have expectations that the relationship will endure on an ongoing basis or that they will think of you when you think that they should be.  That’s setting yourself up for disappointment.

Even worse, it may lessen the so-called pressure on you to straight-up hustle your butt off to make things happen for yourself in your professional life, whether as an entrepreneur or as an employee.

If you can find someone to be that person who puts their arm around you, says, “you are the chosen one,” looks out for you, tells you when you make good decision, tells you what to take away as a learning opportunity from bad ones, calls you when a new opportunity presents itself that is perfect for you, then by all means, grab on and don’t let go.  But kind of like the woman who waits for a Disney prince to live happily ever after, it’s probably not the best recipe for success in the real world.

Make your own opportunities and success.  Someone else can open a door for you, but in the end, you need to walk through yourself.

50 FACTS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS

It doesn’t matter what your industry, social media matters. And whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur or some other professional, you’ve probably wondered what that means for you.

Here, to give you some interesting food for thought, are 50 statistics about social media for business today!

General Social Media Facts

1. 62% of adults worldwide now use social media
2. Over 80% of Americans use social media
3. 91% of those Americans access social media every month
4. People spend more online time social networking than they do emailing, searching or shopping
5. Social media is the most popular online activity
6. 22% of online time is spent on social networks
7. Around 40% of people access their social media accounts on mobile devices

Specific Social Networks

1. Facebook is still the top destination among social networks
2. There are over 800 million people using Facebook
3. Americans spend more time on Facebook than on any other United States website
4. More than half of Facebook users log in every day
5. 42% of mobile users are sharing multimedia on Facebook
6. 51% of Facebook users are more likely to buy from brands they follow
7. Smartphone users now spend as much time on social networking apps as they do playing games
8. 40% of Twitter users regularly search for products via Twitter
9. 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from the brands they follow
10. 12% of people have bought a product because of info on Twitter
11. Pinterest is the third most popular social network, right behind Twitter and Facebook
12. Buyers referred from Pinterest are 10% more likely to make a purchase
13. On mobile devices, Google+ is the second most used social network

Demographics Info

1. 98% of 18- to 24-year-olds use social accounts every month
2. College towns have the highest Facebook logins
3. 57% of Facebook users have completed some college (and 24% have degrees)
4. 46% of Facebook users are 45 or older
5. 60% of Pinterest users are female
6. 50% of Pinterest users are in the United States
7. 50% of Google+ users are 24 or younger

Social Media for Business

1. 53% of small businesses are using social media
2. 88% of them are using social media to increase exposure
3. 60% of small business decision makers spend less than $100 on social media
4. 53% of active social media users follow a brand
5. 65% of the world’s top companies have an active Twitter profile
6. 90% of marketers are using social media for business
7. 93% of marketers using social media rank these tools as important
8. 43% of marketers have seen sales increase due to social campaigns
9. According to Ning, it only takes 20 people to build meaningful, many-to-many networking

 Social Media for B2B

1. 44% of small to mid-sized business (SMB) decision-makers use social media
2. 86% of those SMB decision-makers use Facebook
3. 41% of SMB decision-makers use LinkedIn
4. 33% use Twitter

Social Media and Customer Relations

1. 20% of social media users would make a purchase from a social media site
2. 50% of small business owners have reported getting new customers through social media activity
3. 47% of consumers are somewhat likely to buy from a brand they follow online
4. Active adult social media users are 75% more likely to spend a lot of money on music
5. Active adult social media users are 47% more likely to spend a lot of money on clothes, shoes and accessories
6. Social media users are willing to pay a 21% premium for brands that deliver great service through social media
7. Social media users who have a great service experience tell an average of 42 people, compared to 9 for those who aren’t on social channels
8. 60% of them are also willing to post on Facebook about products/services if they get a great deal or discount
9. Social media users who have a bad service experience will tell an average of 53 people, compared to 17 for those who aren’t on social channels
10. According to research from ComScore, brands that post at least once a day will reach 22% of their fans in a given week.