Fading Start Up Culture At Google Leading To Brain Drain
In recent times, Google has witnessed a loss of high profile departures including Ms Sheryl Sandburg who moved to Facebook and Mr Doug Merrill who joined EMI. Earlier, executives such as Mr Ethan Beard and Mr Chris Sacca also left the search engine. However, over all Google still continues to suck talent with more than 6,000 employees joining it last year. But the company is seeing a drain of some of its entrepreneurial energy that drove its early growth. Some former Google executives believe that the company has lost two vital ingredients of its culture: the anything-goes approach of a start-up environment and the chance to strike it rich. Thus, the fading of its start-up culture poses threat for Google’s ability to attract and retain the right sort of talent. 

Indian IT firms Questioned Over H1-B Visas
US Democrat senators Mr Richard J Durbin and Mr Charles E Grassley have asked nine Indian IT firms - Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services, Cognizant Tech Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Patni Computer Systems, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, i-Flex Solutions and Mphasis- to provide detailed information on how they use the H1-B visa programme. The senators want to verify if the H-1B programme is being used for its intended purpose to fill a temporary worker shortage. In 2008, these firms accounted for nearly 20,000 of the available 65,000 H-1B visas. Interestingly, there has been an over 50 per cent drop in the number of H1-B visas issued to some Indian IT firms in 2008 against 2006.The senators claim that they want to make sure that the H1-B programme doesn’t become a job killer in America.

Dell To Cut More Jobs Than 8,800 Announced Earlier
In a bid to restore sales and profit, Dell plans to cut more than the 8,800 job cuts announced earlier. 5,500 jobs have already been cut as part of the reorganization plan. A new target has not been given but at least 1,000 more jobs will be cut in the current quarter. The cuts are part of a broader push to trim $3 billion in costs in the next few years.