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Hello Drupal training organised by Srijan & VOH at Dharamshala college

Continuing with our efforts to evangelize Drupal and Open Source technologies across the state of Himachal Pradesh, Srijan team organised a Hello Drupal camp at the Government Post Graduate Degree College in Dharamshala on the 4th of February 2012. The camp was attended by more than 70 students of the BCA, PGDCA and MCA courses being offered by the College. The attendees also included the Vice Principal and Lectures of the Computer Science department of the College.

In an engaging session, which lasted for more than two hours, the participants learnt about the basics of website building, difference between static and dynamic websites, content management systems and Drupal. Varun, our Hello Drupal trainer, also introduced the students to the opportunities which exist in the open source world and especially the career opportunities associated with developing skills in Drupal. The introductory session was followed with hands on Drupal installation and website building sessions.

Hello Drupal training at Dharamshala CollegeHello Drupal training: Introductory session

Q & A sessionsQ & A Sessions

Q & A session continuedA BCA first year students lists differences between a Static and a Dynamic website

Srijan team helping the students with Drupal installationsSrijan team helping participants with Drupal installation

Students were quite excited to be part of this training and were interested in knowing more about the technology. Our team would like to thank the faculty members of Dharamshala College for providing their support and participation in this workshop. We look forward to more such engaging sessions on topics such as Operating systems, System Analysis, Programming techniques, Database & Software engineering with the students of this campus in the days to come.

Next Saturday, we are visiting Dronacharya College, which has a beautiful campus offering educational services to students of rural areas close to a place called Rait.

About the Author: Divyanshu Puri, is working as a Management Intern with Srijan. He is pursuing an MBA degree with a major in Marketing from Himachal Pradesh University Business School at Shimla.

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Srijan opens its new software develpment centre in Dharamshala

Tucked away in the beautiful Dhauladhar ranges of Himachal Pradesh is a small little hill station called Dharamshala. Known for its record rainfall and the place of residence for H.H. The Dalai Lama, Dharamshala has become the second home for Srijan family. We have recently opened our second software development centre in Dharamshala when operations started on 15th June, 2011. Situated amidst an idyllic environment, our office in Dharamshala offers programmers an opportunity to code in heaven. This town is a paradise for trekkers and nature aficionados. With mountain ranges as high as 6000m, this town has attracted mountaineers from all over the world since ages. Besides being a trekking destination the town also attracts hordes of honey-mooners, spirituality seekers, weekend revelers and cricket fans for matches in the international cricket stadium. With this new office, we plan to make Dharamshala an attractive destination for geeks, nerds engineers and mavericks from all over the world.

Why Dharamshala?

Dharamshala Mcleodganj SnowfallThe town is getting major fillip to its infrastructure as the government is focusing heavily on developing education and sporting facilities in this place. In the last 10 years this district has seen establishment of 3 universities, numbers of engineering and diploma colleges offering quality technical education. With English as a subject being taught from school the graduating engineers are well versed with a language required to communicate with our international clients. We hope to train and offer jobs to engineers graduating from these institutions. In terms of physical infrastructure Dharamshala offers broadband connectivity through a fibre optic backbone connected to the national grid. There are enough backup options with all major telecom operators offering connectivity solutions through DSL or 3G technology. Electricity is another major plus as the state of Himachal Pradesh is a power surplus state with number of hydro power stations setup across the state. Besides quality of supply the cost of electricity is heavily subsidized.

Facilities

Aerial view of Dharamshala, cricket stadium and Dhauladhar mountainsWith 1200 sq feet of office, we have enough room to house a team of 35 odd engineers. The office also offers a small kitchenette, meeting room and a sleeping room. Yes, we don’t mind if our engineers catching a wink every once in a while. The town offers our engineers an opportunity to live life to the maximum. With clean and green environment, this town gives additional benefits as necessitated by modern lifestyle. The town is well connected by road, railways and air with Chandigarh and Delhi. Being a tourist place there is no paucity of restaurants, resorts and picnic spots. Restaurants here serve excellent food of all delicacies be it Japanese Sushi, German bakeries, Italian pizzas and Israeli falafel. Nights can be fun with live music hangouts in Mcleodganj. With a government medical college and other private hospitals, the medical facilities are well established. Besides the famous cricket stadium the town also offers a well equipped indoor stadium with facilities like gymnasium, badminton, table tennis and an athletics running track.

An IPL match in progress at Dharamshala”

Invitation to code in heaven

We like having guests in our office. Especially the ones who come up to us and say “Hey we can do this thing together”. So if you are the kind who is keen on settling or moving to the mountains then do get in touch with us. We may just have the right work opportunity waiting for you.

We’re sure you are there on Facebook, more Dharamshala pics on our Facebook page 🙂

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Invitation to Code in Heaven

We want to work with software developers who see themselves doing some cutting edge technology work in the open source space. We work on technologies & frameworks which work behind the scene of some of the worlds largest visited websites and applications. Sitting in Dharamshala, we enjoy the the mountains and yet cater to clients across time zones. If you are person who is looking to reclaim your life then this is a place to be at.

Job location:
Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

Perks of working in Dharamshala

Enjoy long walks & treks in the mountains and high passes almost on all weekends
Be part of a global melting pot with people converging all over the world at Mcleodganj
Get to breathe fresh air in office instead of one coming through air conditioning ducts
Spend evenings gazing at the stars with family & friends
Look at the bluest of the blue sky which is free of dust and pollution
Enjoy all the four seasons of a year and actually feel the transition from one to the other
Good sporting infrastructure for sports like TT, Badminton, Cricket, Basketball, Mountain Biking & Football
Volunteer with non-profit organisations working in the field of education, environment and healthcare

Software Engineers at the company work on

  • LAMP/WAMP Engineers: Create websites, portals using Drupal, Drupal module development, jQuery, Contribute to Drupal core & new module development, Mobile Apps
  • Sys Admin: Maintaining a cloud environment, server optimisation, back-up, maintain JIRA, SVN, Jenkins, Hudson, Maintain local workstation environment of both Linux & Windows.
  • QA Engineers: Automated and Manual testing, UI and Functional testing, Selenium RC, Selenium IDE

Desired Skills & Experience

1. Technology

    • Graduation in IT/Computer science
    • Proficiency in LAMP environment
    • Experience in working on any of the open source CMS like Drupal, WordPress, Joomla & CakePHP
    • Believer in open source systems
    • Contributions to open source projects
    • Exposure to tools like Git, SVN, JIRA, Basecamp is appreciated.

2. Personality

    • You should be thoroughly bored of staying in cities like Delhi / Chandigarh / Bangalore / Pune / Mumbai / Chennai / Kolkata / Hyderabad.
    • Should be a nature lover and a greenie.
    • Should have love for the mountains, its ecology and people.
    • Understands and values the importance of start-up/entrepreneurship/bootstrapping etc.
    • Once in a while be ready to cook meals for self and office colleagues.
    • Should be comfortable watching the latest flick on on DVD and not in a multiplex.
    • Seeking spirituality yet enough money to lead a comfortable and stress free life.
    • Looking forward to adapting to a slower pace of life and slow not because of traffic jams.
    • You should be ready to teach the skills honed over the years with the local community & freshers.
    • Willing to learn some life skills from the community in return.
    • Sees the next one to two years as a journey and not the end in itself.

Additional Information

1. Type:  Interns / Full-time

2. Experience: Freshers to Mid level

3. Functions: Software Development, Project Management, Information Technology, Engineering, Design

4. Industries: Design, e-Commerce, Computer Software, Information Technology and Services, Media & Publishing

5. Compensation: Commensurate with Experience and at par with Industry standards

If you want to discuss this opportunity speak with Varun at +91 98055 10111 or s him your CV at varun@srijan.in

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Want to move to the mountains? Lets talk!

I made a decision to work in the mountains when I was 18.  Since then have been trying to find some relevant work which could help me fulfill this dream.  Voice of Himachal, the non-profit which I helped setup in 2003  did help me in moving back with a purpose.

Now that I am here and have lived for more than 3 years high up in the mountains I look forward to networking with like minded people who share similar beliefs such as mine.

Over these years have gained some insights about living in the mountains and I hope to connect / network / team-up with people sharing the following traits:

  • You should be thoroughly bored of staying in cities like Delhi / Chandigarh / Bangalore / Pune / Mumbai / Chennai / Kolkata / Hyderabad.
  • Should be a nature lover and a greenie.
  • Should have love for the mountains, its ecology and people.
  • Willingness to walk in wilderness for long distances is a must. (To catch up with the team when not working).
  • Understands and values the importance of start-up/entrepreneurship/bootstrapping etc.
  • You are comfortable working from an office little larger than a car garage but with amazing views of mountains and river flowing by.
  • Once in a while be ready to cook meals for self and office colleagues.
  • Should be comfortable watching the latest flick on a pirated CD and not in a multiplex.
  • Seeking spirituality yet enough money to lead a comfortable and stress free life.
  • Looking forward to adapting to a slower pace of life and slow not because of traffic jams.
  • You should be ready to teach the skills honed over the years with the local community & freshers.
  • Willing to learn some life skills from the community in return.
  • Would like to spend Saturday evenings gazing at stars with family and friends.
  • Enjoy the bluest of the blue sky which is free of dust and pollution.
  • Sees the next one to two years as a journey and not the end in itself.

Well if you think you are so desperate that you would like to hitch the next bus/tempo or even bailgari up the serpentine roads then lets talks.  Maybe this helps you exercise a choice which you always wanted to.

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New year and new pursuits

With the beginning of 2011, life has come full circle for me. A journey which started in 1998 of growing out has moved to be of growing within. Back then I was a teenager raring to go out and explore new territories. Leaving behind high mountains and a doting family to find out what I wanted to be.

The journey has been long and eventful. In this period I did loose some loved ones and met some many more loving and affectionate people. No doubt that I can now claim of have friends sitting in every nook and corner of this world. Be it micro finance practitioner in Kenya to a techie in New york or a Doodhwala in AMUL.

Over the years I had dreamt of moving back to Himachal and so I did with a IL&FS in 2007. But it is only now that I have truly started exploring my real dreams of being an entrepreneur. Last few months have been quite exciting and at the same time have tested me as well. From managing HimVani.com,one of the largest read news portals about Himachal to hosting the toughest Mountain Biking Challenge in India and helping start GreenKrafts, a handicrafts based social venture near Dharamshala. Have tried my little bit of contributing to the society in a positive manner.

More recently have been involved with few like minded entrepreneurs to start an IT initiative in Himachal Pradesh. We have some interesting plans for up-skilling the youth in the region and hope to generate employment for many. In the process we probably will end up guiding few youngsters in setting up similar initiatives.

So the task is cut out in front of us and we shall use every second of this year working towards fulfilling our dreams.

Ending this piece on a rather selfish note, I seek your blessings, support and guidance throughout the year.

So wish us luck ! Bon Voyage !

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Price comparisons of VOIP telephony operators

VOIP services in India have become legal for quite some time now. Moreover with family and friends staying all over the world reaching out to them  is also becoming common. Keeping this in mind I tried to figure out the cheapest possible VOIP service available.

The figures are based on the pricing sheet provided by these service providers on 30th March 2010. The Euro and the Dollar conversion rates into Rupees are also of the same date. Hope this is of some value to my fellow internet users.

Pricing comparison of VOIP operators (Rs / Min)
as on 30th March 2010
Smart VOIP Skype Just VOIP Webcalldirect VOIP Buster vBuzzer ooVoo
Dubai Landline 10.12 13.92 10.12 9.15 9.01 13.52 12.62
Dubai Mobile 10.12 13.56 10.12 5.88 12.17 13.52 12.62
Germany Landline 0.00 1.08 0.00 0.00 1.35 6.76 1.08
Germany Mobile 5.15 12.75 5.76 4.24 9.91 20.28 13.07
India Landline 0.79 4.78 2.91 1.33 9.01 6.76 4.51
India Mobile 0.79 4.78 2.55 1.33 18.02 6.76 4.51
Saudi Arabia Landline 2.55 12.71 6.49 0.97 2.48 11.72 12.17
Saudi Arabia Mobile 5.39 13.70 10.12 3.94 7.21 13.52 12.17
South Korea Landline 0.73 1.08 0.00 0.00 0.90 9.01 1.58
South Korea Mobile 1.21 3.79 1.46 0.97 2.70 11.27 3.83
Switzerland Landline 0.36 1.08 0.00 0.00 0.90 9.01 0.00
Switzerland Mobile 7.21 19.02 7.21 6.55 14.87 18.02 0.00
US Landline 0.00 1.08 0.00 0.00 9.01 6.76 0.90
US Mobile 0.00 1.08 0.00 0.00 9.01 6.76 0.90

Exchange rate

1 Euro = 60.53 INR
1 $ = 45.06 INR

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HRTC gets service oriented

The HRTC taxi service in Shimla connecting The Mall with various suburbs of Shimla is a real blessing. Without doubt we should complement the people who designed this service and have made it accessible for common man to reach the Mall.  I recently got the taste of the service while travelling from Chakkar. In the past, travelling from areas such as Panthghati, Chakkar, New Shimla to the Mall was always being on a mission.

Imagine you just had your Sunday lunch and now you want to go to the Mall to meet your friends. It certainly is a difficult proposition for lazy bones like mine to getup and catch a bus where in most likely circumstances I will not get a seat.   This service atleast gives me a positive reinforcement to execute the plan.

Moreover Rs 20 from New Shimla to the Mall doesn’t seem to be expensive as one would spend more than this amount if travelling in bus or own vehicle. Another first with service is the introduction of electronic ticket vending machine by the corporation. The driver acts as a conductor and provides an electronically printed ticket instead of the pre-printed one which is then punched by the bus conductors.

The transport corporation is now planning to introduce electronic ticketing machines in all its local buses as well as inter-city buses. This would certainly prevent cheating on part of both the conductor and the commuter. The tickets printed from the machine are specific and provide details of fare as well as the name of the destination unlike the old tickets. So a passenger, who does know the cost of journey, cannot be overcharged by the conductor. Similarly a passenger cannot dupe the conductor.

In spite of the upsides there remains apprehensions such as paper roll getting stuck in the machine or how the conductors will provide tickets in over crowded bus running in the Shimla town. Since the new system is yet to be introduced the downsides will come to be known only with time.

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Public sector all the way in financial sector

Himachal has recently seen a spate of financial institutions opening offices and branches here. In the past 2 years banks like ICICI, HDFC have opened branches in the major towns of the state. The skylines are dotted with hoarding of insurance companies such as Bajaj Allianz, HDFC Standard Life, Reliance Insurance and Max New York life amongst many others. So are the offices of brokerage and share trading firms like Reliance money and India Infoline. Certainly the people who were once left to deal with public sector behemoths have newer options and opportunities to seek better financial services. But the question here is “Are these private sector firms offering any better services?

The picture is not so rosy when it comes to the service delivery aspect of it. In the last 3 months HimVani team has been hearing stories of customer apathy from many of its readers and citizen journalists. Boudhayan, who had recently moved to Shimla from Delhi wanted to renew his motorcycle’s insurance policy. The last one was issued by Reliance General Insurance in Noida. But he was shocked to find that in spite of having centralised systems the companies branch in Shimla was unable to process the renewal of the policy reason given was that branch did not fall in the same zone as Delhi. The option available to him were to go back to Delhi with his vehicle, get it inspected and then a new policy would have been issued.

Service delivery in private sector bank is no better. On a visit to ICICI bank in Shimla one is bound to find bored to death faces of front desk staff, which is just doing its job rather then creating a customer experience. The latest PR campaign of the bank says that it is well capitalised and has high networth. Well Mr. Kamath, certainly your bank is doing well in financial terms but customers expect good service. The “Hum Hein Na” factor is missing in this part of your operations.

Closer by on the mall road, the branch of HDFC bank is no better. Recently a friend wanted to open an institutional savings account for their society in the bank. She was surprised to find that the staff did not proper knowledge of the product as well as the documentation required for it. An account which normally takes an hour to open in a public sector banks is yet to be opened after chasing bank officials for more then 20 days. At the time of application the bank executives found that the board resolution is not in the format which is acceptable to the bank. However they accepted the application with a promise that they will be able to take approvals from their Cluster Head for the same. Surprisingly the approvals are yet to be taken in spite of chasing the bank executives almost every day.

Surprisingly in the both cases the ray of hope came in the form of the much criticised public sector institutions. Boudhayan who finally went to United General Insurance in Shimla had a new policy issued in one hour . All his paper work, vehicle inspection and processing of papers was done by an agent of the company who did not even charge any money from him. Shilpa got her societies account opened with State bank again in one hour and could put in her first cheque the same day. In both the situations the paperwork was completed and the service delivered at the branch itself. The same would have taken 15 – 20 days in private sector institution as service delivery comes from centralised offices in Mumbai or Gurgaon.  It is due to this the HDFC bank executives are still figuring out whether they will get approvals from their bosses or not.

An analysis into the situation shows that in public sector institutions the branch managers have lot more decision making authority. Moreover for them the business is totally dependent of relationships and not on the process. A branch executive in a private sector institution is not confident while committing a service delivery to their clients unlike their counterparts in public sector institutions. Now that most of the public sector institutions are heavily using IT to deliver services through ATM and Online banking the staff is lot freer to offer personal services to customers thus increasing the whole customer experience as well as competition for the private banking and financial institutions.