The US government will inject $ 20 billion into troubled banking giant Citigroup and will provide a guarantee of $ 306 billion to the financial firm.
"The US government on Sunday entered into an agreement with Citigroup to provide a package of guarantees, liquidity access, and capital," the Federal Reserve said in a statement.
As per the rescue plan, the treasury would invest $ 20 billion in Citigroup from the Troubled Asset Relief Programme in exchange for preferred stock.
Besides, the Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) would provide protection against $ 306 billion of toxic loans and securities backed by residential and commercial real estate and other such assets, which will remain on Citigroup's balance sheet, the statement added.
"As a fee for this arrangement, Citigroup will issue preferred shares to the Treasury and FDIC. In addition and if necessary, the Federal Reserve stands ready to backstop residual risk in the asset pool through a non-recourse loan," the release said.
The move comes close on the heels of the sliding 60 per cent fall in the share price of Citigroup last week.
"Citigroup will comply with enhanced executive compensation restrictions and implement the FDIC's mortgage modification program," the Federal Reserve added.
The Federal Reserve asserted that "we will continue to use all of our resources to preserve the strength of our banking institutions and promote the process of repair and recovery and to manage risks."
Once the world's most valued bank Citigroup, headed by NRI banker Vikram Pandit whose own job is reportedly under attack, had over 3,75,000 employees at the end of last year and it aims to trim it down to below three lakh, as part of efforts to cut costs and help the crisis-ridden bank return to normalcy.
Close to 25,000 jobs have already been axed so far this year.
The financial crisis, that began 15 months ago, is now taking toll and recent months have seen government taking over quasi-public mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae, bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, sale of Merrill Lynch, rescue of American International Group among others.
Monday, November 24, 2008
uBoost Selected for Software & Information Industry Association's Ed Tech Business Forum 2008 'Innovation Incubator Program'
uBoost, the student recognition and rewards solution , announced today that it has been selected as an "Innovation Incubator" participant for the 8th annual Ed Tech Business Forum, sponsored by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), on Dec. 1 and 2 in New York City. SIIA's Innovation Working Group, Education Division Board and Ed Tech Business Forum's Steering Committee chose uBoost as one of 10 new organizations poised to change the market and critical to the ed tech industry's future."We are more excited than ever about this year's line-up of 'Innovation Incubator' participants," said Karen Billings, vice president of SIIA's Education Division. "uBoost's technology-based recognition and rewards program exemplifies the type of ingenuity and creativity that will revolutionize learning."
The Ed Tech Business Forum is the leading business and finance conference for the K-12 and postsecondary education market. At the conference, uBoost Founder John Bower and Vice President of Sales and Marketing Gregg Levin will introduce the company's groundbreaking online platform for recognizing students and discuss how it puts students on the path to success.
With uBoost, students are rewarded immediately for their progress, earning points they can redeem for prizes or turn into donations to charities of their choice. uBoost works across age groups, curricula, achievement levels and reward offerings, motivating students to achieve academic success while building a partnership between students, teachers and parents that is fundamental to educational development, growth and success.
"Recognizing and rewarding students at school is not a new concept," said Bower. "However, uBoost takes it to the next level by meeting kids in the digital world in which they live and providing teachers with an easy, efficient and effective way to reward students for positive behavior and academic achievement. We look forward to participating in the Innovation Incubator Program and introducing uBoost to the ed tech community." About SIIAThe Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry.
SIIA provides global services in government relations, business development, corporate education and intellectual property protection for more than 500 leading software and information companies.
About SIIA's Education DivisionSIIA's Education Division serves and represents more than 150 member companies that provide software, digital content and other technologies that address educational needs. The Division shapes and supports the industry by providing leadership, advocacy, business development opportunities and critical market information. SIIA provides a neutral business forum for its members to understand business models, technological advancements, market trends and best practices. With the leadership of the Division Board and collaborative efforts with educators and other stakeholders, the Division undertakes initiatives to enhance the use of educational technology and the success of SIIA members.About uBoostuBoost's mission is to inspire students to perform at their highest academic level by surrounding them with motivational elements that foster interaction with and recognition from teachers, tutors, parents and peers.
uBoost's core concepts originate from It's All About Kids, LLC, a tutoring company that demonstrated the ways that rewards and recognition programs can improve student attendance, retention and achievement. uBoost appreciates that students are unique - that they learn differently and that intrinsic motivation varies across subject areas. uBoost's rewards platform empowers students by recognizing their individual academic achievements through a point system and allowing them to choose from more than 100,000 prizes, including merchandise, gift cards, digital assets, contributions to charitable organizations and special offers.
The Ed Tech Business Forum is the leading business and finance conference for the K-12 and postsecondary education market. At the conference, uBoost Founder John Bower and Vice President of Sales and Marketing Gregg Levin will introduce the company's groundbreaking online platform for recognizing students and discuss how it puts students on the path to success.
With uBoost, students are rewarded immediately for their progress, earning points they can redeem for prizes or turn into donations to charities of their choice. uBoost works across age groups, curricula, achievement levels and reward offerings, motivating students to achieve academic success while building a partnership between students, teachers and parents that is fundamental to educational development, growth and success.
"Recognizing and rewarding students at school is not a new concept," said Bower. "However, uBoost takes it to the next level by meeting kids in the digital world in which they live and providing teachers with an easy, efficient and effective way to reward students for positive behavior and academic achievement. We look forward to participating in the Innovation Incubator Program and introducing uBoost to the ed tech community." About SIIAThe Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry.
SIIA provides global services in government relations, business development, corporate education and intellectual property protection for more than 500 leading software and information companies.
About SIIA's Education DivisionSIIA's Education Division serves and represents more than 150 member companies that provide software, digital content and other technologies that address educational needs. The Division shapes and supports the industry by providing leadership, advocacy, business development opportunities and critical market information. SIIA provides a neutral business forum for its members to understand business models, technological advancements, market trends and best practices. With the leadership of the Division Board and collaborative efforts with educators and other stakeholders, the Division undertakes initiatives to enhance the use of educational technology and the success of SIIA members.About uBoostuBoost's mission is to inspire students to perform at their highest academic level by surrounding them with motivational elements that foster interaction with and recognition from teachers, tutors, parents and peers.
uBoost's core concepts originate from It's All About Kids, LLC, a tutoring company that demonstrated the ways that rewards and recognition programs can improve student attendance, retention and achievement. uBoost appreciates that students are unique - that they learn differently and that intrinsic motivation varies across subject areas. uBoost's rewards platform empowers students by recognizing their individual academic achievements through a point system and allowing them to choose from more than 100,000 prizes, including merchandise, gift cards, digital assets, contributions to charitable organizations and special offers.
Arab meeting on Information, Communication technology to start in Damascus
Yemen is set to take part in the meeting of Arab ministers of Information and Communication and Information Technology to be held in the Syrian capital Damascus on 17 November. Information Minister Hassan Ahmad al-Lawzi , head of the Yemeni delegation to the meeting, said the significance of the meeting comes because of the issues it will discuss in light of new challenges imposed by accelerating advancements in modern media, communications technology, information revolution, and integration processes growing among these triple dimensions.
The meeting will deal with activating decisions of the World Summit on information technology, particularly on the Arab arena as well as the relationship that should be strongly built between the information and communication sectors in the Arab World at the country and national levels to serve economic and political development.
The meeting will look into the needs of Arab media and the importance of its participation through learning from available potentials provided by the communication technology to achieve stated goals and convey its message currently and in the future with the aim for the Arab media to integrate and cope with the technology development, he said. " The most important topic at the meeting would be the issues of launching new fields for mutual cooperation among Arab media in the field of providing non-profit community service especially in areas such as culture, education and health." He said.
The Yemeni delegation will present a paper on the Arab Electronic Government aiming at investing new assumptions of information technology and communication, in addition to achievements of digital integration aimed at providing knowledge visual and audible services, through establishing an Arab common database that will be provided with modern ways by every Arab country electronic government. Al-Lwazi said the project will make it easy to access the Arabic website to find all information linked to crucial issues and topics. The minister added the scientific project will provide basic and important services that will help benefiting from available information in various development areas, in addition to facilitating ways of using them.
Survey puts ethics, morals at the top of IT wish lists
By Thomas Hoffman
Information technology leaders are hungry to recruit .Net programmers, desktop support technicians and voice-over-IP project leaders, according to an online survey conducted in June by the Society for Information Management.
But when asked by SIM to cite the top workplace skills that they're seeking in candidates for both entry-level and midlevel IT jobs, the 300-plus respondents placed the greatest emphasis on ethics and morals.
SIM didn't disclose the number of respondents who cited ethics and morals. But that choice overwhelmingly topped alternatives such as communication skills and business acumen, said the group, which released the full results of the annual survey at its SIMposium 2008 conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., last week.
Jerry Luftman, a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology and SIM's vice president of academic affairs, said that many IT executives have voiced concerns about reports of tech workers doing unethical things such as circumventing security systems.
Luftman, who is executive director of the information systems graduate programs at Stevens, also noted that cheating scandals at some U.S. colleges have grabbed people's attention.
"It's hot on everyone's minds," Luftman said. "This whole issue of ethics and morals is becoming paramount to IT executives."
"To me, this is the price of entry into my [IT] department," said Paul Major, CIO at The Aspen Skiing Co. in Colorado. Major noted that he recently had to fire two people from his 20-person IT organization because they didn't "exhibit the type of principles that we try to emulate with our team and in our company."
Major also said that prior to getting into any discussions about technical skills during job interviews, he does a "gut check" of the applicants based on how they're dressed and how they present themselves. "Then I give them the spiel on the company's guiding principles," he said.
Mike Close, chief technology officer at The Dannon Co. in White Plains, N.Y., said that gauging the moral fiber of job applicants has long been part of the vetting process at the yogurt maker, which has done "a significant amount of hiring" over the past couple of years.
This version of the story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.
Information technology leaders are hungry to recruit .Net programmers, desktop support technicians and voice-over-IP project leaders, according to an online survey conducted in June by the Society for Information Management.
But when asked by SIM to cite the top workplace skills that they're seeking in candidates for both entry-level and midlevel IT jobs, the 300-plus respondents placed the greatest emphasis on ethics and morals.
SIM didn't disclose the number of respondents who cited ethics and morals. But that choice overwhelmingly topped alternatives such as communication skills and business acumen, said the group, which released the full results of the annual survey at its SIMposium 2008 conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., last week.
Jerry Luftman, a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology and SIM's vice president of academic affairs, said that many IT executives have voiced concerns about reports of tech workers doing unethical things such as circumventing security systems.
Luftman, who is executive director of the information systems graduate programs at Stevens, also noted that cheating scandals at some U.S. colleges have grabbed people's attention.
"It's hot on everyone's minds," Luftman said. "This whole issue of ethics and morals is becoming paramount to IT executives."
"To me, this is the price of entry into my [IT] department," said Paul Major, CIO at The Aspen Skiing Co. in Colorado. Major noted that he recently had to fire two people from his 20-person IT organization because they didn't "exhibit the type of principles that we try to emulate with our team and in our company."
Major also said that prior to getting into any discussions about technical skills during job interviews, he does a "gut check" of the applicants based on how they're dressed and how they present themselves. "Then I give them the spiel on the company's guiding principles," he said.
Mike Close, chief technology officer at The Dannon Co. in White Plains, N.Y., said that gauging the moral fiber of job applicants has long been part of the vetting process at the yogurt maker, which has done "a significant amount of hiring" over the past couple of years.
This version of the story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.
24 US Universities organizing education fair in Delhi
The United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF) is organizing a U.S. University Fair on October 23, 2008 from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. at USIEF Lawns, “Fulbright House”,12 Hailey Road, New Delhi. Representatives from 24 Universities across the U.S. will be participating in the fair and will offer detailed information about their institutions and programs. You will also get an opportunity to get first hand information on F-1 visas from the consular officer, American Embassy. Don’t miss the bus! Admission is free to this fair.
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