Leveraging social networking for talent management:an exploratory study of Indian firms

Utilizing the social capital and social network theories, this research explores and highlights how social networking has been strategically utilized as an effective tool by organizations for employer branding and innovative talent acquisition strategies in India. Qualitative data from 78 semistructured interviews with human resources (HR) professionals of information technology (IT), information technology-enabled services (ITeS), and talent acquisition organizations confirm the growing utilization of social networking sites (SNSs) as part of the organizational HR strategy for employer branding and talent sourcing, acquisition and retention, and reinforcing stronger relationship with their employees. The study contributes to the fields of talent management and social networks and has several key implications for practitioners regarding the usefulness of SNSs to organizational branding, talent management, and retention

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.Comment: 139 pages, Physics White Paper of the ICAL (INO) Collaboration, Contents identical with the version published in Pramana - J. Physic

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Human Resource Driven Turnaround at North Delhi Power Limited: Transition from a Public Utility to a Private Enterprise

The case illustrates how a public sector utility entity with almost no human resource (HR) system in place went on the road of transformation and learning. The case documents areas of transformation from an archaic personnel architecture towards institutionalization of strategic HR system. From file maintenance to strategic partnership, the journey of HR along with top management support and line management involvement is mapped throughout the case. The establishment of a psychological contract acted as the foundation, resulting in commitment and faster adaptation to change. Organizational learning took roots with systemic changes starting from the external customer and later in the internal customer. The role of HR as a strategic partner in this transformation was exemplified as HR enjoyed voice and space at the board level of the organization. This case is useful for showing how internal change agents and the active partnership of HR can lead to greater commitment than compliance with top management directives.Organizational Change, HR Strategy, Organizational Learning