NIIT Limited appoints Rahul Patwardhan as CEO Designate

NIIT, today, announced the appointment of Rahul Patwardhan as its next CEO. Rahul would take over from Vijay Thadani as CEO from April 1, 2015.

Rahul Patwardhan has earlier worked with NIIT for close to 20 years, and  headed the software business for NIIT Technologies in Europe and APAC in his last assignment in 2004 when he left NIIT to head Logica's India Offshore unit as CEO. At Logica he became the MD of Global App Services leading a revenue line of over $1.5 billion.

This appointment is part of succession planning for the founders of NIIT. Vijay Thadani would be elevated to the role of Vice Chairman and Managing Director. P Rajendran, who was the Chief Operating officer of NIIT would become the joint Managing Director.

His global experience would help NIIT which has been seeing rapid growth in its Managed Training Services business  (Training Outsourcing) where it is among the leading companies in the world.





 

CTET Details Announced - Next Exam on February 16, 2014

CBSE has announced the date for the CTET (Central Teacher Eligibility Test). You can check out further details here. The format of the test remains the same as last time as last time. Last time, despite the increase in time limit just 11% test takers had managed to clear the exam. Remember one has to score over 60% to clear the exam. Several coaching institutes are now offering programs to help teachers prepare for this exam. NIIT, India's largest education company and is the most trusted name in the field of education and training, has also launched a program for CTET Coaching in Delhi, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad this year. The program details look interesting. Anyways, best wishes to all teachers preparing for the exam!

Important Dates
The exam date is February 16, 2014 for both Paper I and Paper II
The last date for submission of online application forms is October 31, 2013
Print out Confirmation page should reach by November 7, 2013

Infosys enters IT Training?

It is reported that Infosys is entering IT education segment with plans to spin off its Mysore campus into a training arm. Lets look at the possible reasons for Infosys to take this step

• Infy cannot afford to keep thousands of people in training so the campus, which it had inaugurated only a few years back with much fanfare, is underutilized and is looking at the skies for much of the time. 
• Infy wants to monetize its real estate holdings 
• Convert a cost centre into a profit centre 
• Does not want to lay off training staff, which might be a PR disaster, so has got made them masters of their own fate 
• Infosys really believes that training segment is a real money spinner (
• Perhaps it was inspired by an ex Infosys employee who now heads an education company in the neighborhood or maybe it wants to get back at him for deserting infy a few years back

Whatever be the reason, it actually could be positive for players such as NIIT and Aptech for the following reasons 

• Some people, who had written off IT training market, would take note and start believing there is a future still 
• Improves the image of the Indian education sector which has been punished due to corporate governance issues at some prominent listed companies ultimately benefiting those who have a better image