Why IBM, TechM BPOs are dumping telcos

BANGALORE: Severe competition and nose-diving tariffs in the once-celebrated Indian telecom industry have squeezed margins out of business process outsourcing firms catering to the sector, forcing many to quit the space.

Domestic BPOs such as Tech Mahindra, Intelenet (now Serco), Firstsource and IBM BPO are either walking away from, or choosing not to bid for new, telecom-based contracts, as a steep fall in call rates coupled with a sharp rise in costs have made such projects unviable, industry insiders said.

The BPOs usually follow a Full-Time Employment (FTE) pricing model or one based on duration of calls handled. In FTE, after taking in factors like call volume and call-arrival patterns, the BPO employs a fixed number of staff in consultation with the operator. In the second model, the BPOs typically charge about Rs 3 a minute.

"The decline in call tariffs has affected revenues of the telecom operators who are reducing the payout to partners," said SV Sriram, senior vice-president at Tech Mahindra. He said this was becoming a challenge for BPOs serving the telecom sector, especially in Tier-I cities like Mumbai and Delhi, where costs are soaring.

The average revenue per user for Indian telecom operators has plummeted from about 240 in June 2008 to 96 this June - a drop of 60% in just four years.

TechM just concluded its six-year-old partnership with Tata Teleservices as talks for price renegotiation fell through. It also chose not to renew its three-year contract with Reliance Communications for similar reasons. Sriram said costs in a Tier-I city have risen about 35% in the last three-four years.

Also, the decision by telecom operators to start charging for customer care calls, which were toll-free earlier, led to a significant drop in their numbers, hurting revenues of the BPOs. In the last one year alone, call volumes dropped about 15%, the BPOs said.

Besides TechM, IBM BPO and Serco are the other leading players in the Indian telecom BPO sector, which analysts estimate to be worth about Rs 7,400 crore. All three declined to comment on the specifics of deals that were renegotiated or declined.

However, firms like Vertex, Competent Synergies and Magus, which operate mainly in smaller towns and cities, do not spend as much as their bigger rivals on rent and salaries, allowing them to save on costs. This has made it possible for them to lure customers away from the bigger players with better pricing and deals.

For instance, when Aircel wanted to reduce costs, its existing BPO partner offered to move its centre from a Tier-I city to a Tier-II city and give it a 15% discount. But the telecom company eventually opted for a mid-sized BPO with a larger presence in smaller towns to get nearly double the savings offered by its existing service provider.

But Serco sees this move towards smaller players as temporary. "These contracts are going from larger player to smaller and Tier-II companies, but there are short-term gains. There will a consolidation in the market," said Bhupender Singh, CEO for AMEAA (Africa, Middle East, Australia and Australasia) at Serco. Serco's revenue from the domestic telecom segment makes up only 40% of the total, down from 70%, three years ago.

But some analysts believe that the turn of events should prompt Indian BPOs to move up the value chain beyond plain vanilla customer care call centres. "The BPO players can leverage on the existing opportunity by moving up the value-chain and offering new services like call management, collection management," said Milan Sheth, partner, technology advisory services at Ernst & Young.

Source : TOI

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, Oracle, Adobe hiring talent from small towns

BANGALORE | KOLKATA: When Sukruth KS first walked into the National Institute of Technology in the small town of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh three years ago, he was just another engineering student. When he passes out in May next year, he will be the one who Microsoft hired for a $1,00,000 (approximately Rs 60 lakh) salary for a global posting.

Anmol Kumar, Balmukund Trivedi and Dinesh Reddy, three of Sukruth's batchmates, have also snagged similar salaries from Epic Systems, a US-based company that makes software for healthcare companies. To put that in perspective, the highest pay cheques seen at top-notch IITs are in the $1,40,000 range.

Global tech and internet firms are on the prowl in small towns this placement season, looking to lure talent from NITs and good private engineering colleges. Both would rank a notch lower than IITs in the talent pecking order.

Sample this: Amazon, Google, PepsiCo, Yahoo, Cisco, Oracle, Deloitte, Adobe, DE Shaw, Flipkart, Direct-i, Caterpillar, Future First and IBM are making offers this year at non-IIT campuses in Vellore, Madurai and Mesra, and also at private colleges in Delhi and Bangalore. Placement heads at these colleges say companies are hiring more than last year.

The companies are offering higher salaries and dangling better perks, including international assignments, free holidays and joining bonuses of up to Rs 1 lakh.

Amazon, Google, PepsiCo and more such marquee employers wooed students at NIT Warangal with salaries in the Rs 8-20 lakh range. Global IT services major IBM also hired 85 students from the institute this year. "Even gaming firms such as EA Sports have come in and selected four students for Rs 12 lakh," says M Chandrasekhar, NIT's placement head.

"It's a question of supply and demand which cannot be met by going only to IITs," says Yugesh Goutam, executive director of KEC International, the infrastructure firm of the RPG Group.

"When we have to hire 1000, it is not possible to take them only from the IITs, which only have a handful," says P Thiruvengadam, senior director, Deloitte India. "Also, tier-II and III colleges are important because they give us a good mix of students from different cultures," he adds.

"We strike a healthy balance by hiring a mix of students from IITs and from tier-II and III colleges," says V Nagarajan, VP and head-HR, Times Internet. "Students from the latter come with high aptitude and a high emotional quotient." Times Internet hires 20-25% of its talent from tier-II and III colleges.

Engineering and tech firms and core product companies form part of the first wave of recruiters at such campuses. IT service giants such as Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant, TCS and HCL will start visiting campuses from September. Salaries offered by these mass recruiters are typically around Rs 3.75 lakh.

In the past few years, students have preferred product and core companies rather than the IT services sector as whispers of a downturn, delays in joining dates, etc, affect the image of the industry, sources from these colleges say.

At the Vellore Institute of Technology, Flipkart beat Amazon and Google with a Rs 12.5 lakh package, while Microsoft offered Rs 10.5 lakh. Another e-commerce firm, PayPal, hired for Rs 8.25 lakh. Others such as Schneider, Cisco and Thoughtworks are offering Rs 6-10 lakh. DE Shaw came armed with a package of Rs 14.5 lakh and Amazon has given students a retention bonus of Rs 1 lakh after a year. "We are here to compete with MNCs such as Google, Yahoo and Adobe since we need students with similar caliber," said Aparna Ballakur, HR head for Flipkart. The e-commerce company will pick up its fresh batch from IITs, BITS Pilani, NITs and VIT.

At the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, IT product companies alone have so far absorbed 8-10% of the 375-400 undergraduate batch. These include the likes of Microsoft, Facebook and Direct-i. Overall, packages are 15-20% higher than last year, says Saitab Sinha, deputy placement head at the institute. Bangalore-based RV College of Engineering has seen 35-40% of its 1,000 students roped in by a similar lot, and at double the pay in some cases. Salaries offered at Delhi Technological University are 30% higher than last year. "Several Korean companies have offered packages of Rs 35-40 lakh, including perks, and joining bonus amounting to Rs 1 lakh," says Neeraj Nimwal, training & placement officer for the college.

IBM hired 154 students from the 2013 batch at Madurai-based Thiagarajar College of Engineering, compared to 90 last time. Amazon has selected two students for Rs 11.5 lakh and ITC, Thoughtworks, Athena Healthcare have recruited for around Rs 6 lakh and above. Automotive manufacturing companies such as Tata Motors, Maruti and SKF are ready to pay Rs 4.25-5.5 lakh to candidates.

Source : TOI

'IT companies should not over-reach themselves'

BANGALORE: India's big IT companies are building strong consulting practices that are taking them into spaces traditionally dominated by the likes of Accenture, Deloitte, PwC and even McKinsey and The Boston Consulting Group.

Infosys' $350-million acquisition of Switzerland-headquartered Lodestone, a consulting firm focused on SAP-enabled business transformation, is only the latest indication of how serious IT companies have become about consulting.

Cognizant has been organically building its consulting business but has also made five global acquisitions since 2005 that have strengthened its consulting capabilities in telecommunications , media & entertainment, IT infrastructure services , high-end programme management and IT testing.

HCL acquired UK-based Axon in 2008 that brought capabilities in SAP consulting. Wipro has been focusing on business transformation consulting and its head of consulting services Kirk Strawser has said the company intends to become "the largest pure-play business transformation consulting practice in the world" , with 5,000 consultants by 2015.
The company now has 1,750 consultants that offer advisory services on designing, adopting and operating new business models to outpace competitors.

Sundararaman Viswanathan of globalization advisory firm Zinnov Management Consulting says Indian IT companies are increasingly seen as viable options for some of the costlier offerings from global consulting companies.

For IT companies, consulting brings at least two big benefits . One is, as Gartner India's distinguished analyst Partha Iyengar says, they make for "stickier client relationships". A lot of consulting happens not with the CIO - the traditional interface for IT - but with other CXOs. This helps get mindshare in company managements and boards, which then translates into deeper and longer-term client relationships.

"We sell 40% of our consulting services through CXOs such as CEO, CFO, COO, chief medical officer, chief marketing officer, chief risk & compliance officer, and chief merchandising officer," says Nat Radhakrishnan, VP in Cognizant's business consulting division. He says in the last one year, consulting also helped to get 25 new clients for Cognizant.

The second benefit is the downstream one. Most consulting assignments will eventually translate into IT orders, because any business change and transformation today involves technology transformation or the use of technology. Iyengar notes that Cognizant has a strong application portfolio management practice.

"If a customer hires Cognizant to analyse their application portfolio, and the company spends 6 months doing it, then the customer will inevitably also give the recommended application work to Cognizant. I believe a lot of their application development and maintenance deals are a result of their strong consulting practice," he says.

Acquisitions can accelerate and add to these benefits. An acquisition not only brings new consultants with access to new customers and geographies (which will eventually help the IT business), it could also bring better tools and frameworks to diagnose problems and recommend new ways.

It is these reusable tools and frameworks that are a consulting model's strength. Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research, says Lodestone's methodology and culture would transform Infosys. "Lodestone brings its trademark IDEA methodology . IDEA represents insight, design, execute and achieve. This approach aligns with Six Sigma standards and SAP ASAP (the roadmap for implementing SAP solutions in a cost-effective , speedy manner ) to improve the quality of implementation outcomes," he says.

Gartner's Iyengar, however, warns that IT companies should not over-reach themselves. He says consulting's sweetspot is when a company strategizes around the work (IT services in this case) that it is doing; suggest to clients how to do their IT better, how to optimize.

"But if you try to do high end management consulting (organization design/structure, general strategy etc that the McKinseys do), it may not work out. Many clients have told us the last thing they want from India is another management consulting firm. We don't have the capability and maturity to provide such consulting. And acquisitions will not help either," he says.

He believes Infosys has tended to get into high end management consulting in the US. "The jury is out on that. There could be short to medium term challenges," he says.

Cognizant has also been reaching into those spaces. It's working with Saint-Gobain Building Distribution in the UK and Ireland to improve its business processes, and identify areas of improvement and unlock synergies among its many brands.

It's working with a publishing company to transform them into an integrated media play. Technology is just a small part of these exercises.

On the contrary, Wipro seems focused on technology-enabled business transformation consulting (transforming businesses through, say, newer technologies like mobility, cloud etc), which some find appealing.

Research firm Forrester recently analysed IT firms that are into such consulting and said that amongst the pure-play Indian IT vendors, "Wipro is the most advanced in terms of its approach and its vision for transformational consulting".

Source : TOI

National Policy on IT to create 10 million jobs by 2020

NEW DELHI: The National Policy on Information Technology 2012, which envisages the growth of the IT market to $300 billion and creation of another 10 million jobs by 2020, has been approved by the union cabinet.

A statement from the communications and IT ministry said the policy attempts also to leverage India's global edge in information and communication technology (ICT) to advance national competitiveness in other sectors, particularly those of strategic and economic importance.

The thrust areas of the policy includes encouraging adoption of ICTs in key sectors to improve their competitiveness and productivity besides providing fiscal benefits to small and medium enterprises and start-ups for adoption of IT in value creation.

It envisages creating a pool of 10 million additional skilled manpower in ICT and make at least one individual in every household e-literate.

The policy will enhance transparency, accountability, efficiency, reliability and decentralization in government and in particular, in delivery of public services.

The policy will be notified in the Gazette shortly, the ministry said.

Source : TOI

Bench employees may hurt TCS, Wipro, Infy profits

BANGALORE: The rising number of idle workers in the US and Europe for Indian software companies could drag profitability lower. This will add to troubles already caused by an uncertain business environment, where clients are delaying decisions around technology projects.

The so-called 'bench' consisting of engineers who are not working on any active projects has increased by at least seven percentage points at TCS, Infosys and Wipro, analysts said. Industry executives and analysts are of the view that the swelling bench could shave off up to 150 basis points from operating margins in the coming quarters.

Onsite utilisation rates, or the proportion of engineers in client locations assigned to billable projects, have fallen to below 90 per cent from 97 per cent at the beginning of the year. A senior industry executive, who works closely with large IT companies, said that up to 18 per cent of onsite staff are sitting idle at some firms.

"Onsite bench size has swollen across large IT firms," said Hitesh Shah, director of equity research at Mumbai-based brokerage IDFC Securities. "With every contract won, companies hired more local staff, but they are retained even after the deal matured. This adds to the bench until they find another contract."

Typically, as an outsourcing contract matures, part of the work is moved to less expensive offshore locations such as India. However, with the jobless rate staying stubbornly high in the US and outsourcing becoming caught in election-year politics, Indian IT companies would not want to be seen as adding to problems.

Infosys, TCS, Wipro and HCL declined to comment.

Over the past two years, Indian IT firms have also been hiring more aggressively in the US in anticipation of economic recovery there as well as in response to higher rates of rejection of visa applications to send workers from India. Local hiring is also being used to project a community-friendly image in the US.

For Infosys, which counts JPMorgan and Bank of America among clients, the swelling US bench has already made a dent in profits - a 210-basis-points negative impact on its operating margins during the April-June quarter, according to Barclays Equity Research, which said that Infosys saw its onsite bench rise to about 11 per cent during the period from 5 per cent earlier.

Part of reasons why workers are sitting idle is because they do not have the right skill sets that new IT projects call for.

"There is a serious mismatch between the available skill sets and the market demand," said Ajit Isaac, chief executive of Ikya Human Capital Solutions, a professional staffing company that serves the Indian IT sector.

If traditionally, application development and maintenance made up lion's share of Indian IT's work, increasingly, clients are increasing seeking services based on emerging technology areas such as enterprise mobility, cloud computing and data analytics. Employees trained in these technologies, however, are scarce, especially in the US.

Typically, about 10-15 per cent of the workforce of large IT firms is based overseas at client locations. Bangalore-headquartered Infosys has around 13,000 employees in the US while Wipro has about 10,000 employees. HCL Technologies has around 8,000 and TCS some 6,000.

Such a fall in utilisation levels and the burden of an idle workforce in expensive locations could snowball into a persistent headache, if business does not pick up in US and Europe, which together contribute about 80 per cent of revenues for large Indian IT companies.

Source : TOI

Tier-II technology companies like MindTree use Facebook, Twitter for hiring

BANGALORE: With the top information technology services companies toning down their recruitment push at campuses this year, many second-level players are aggressively promoting themselves on social media to lure quality talent.

Lacklustre growth and tight budgets at top IT firms like Infosys and Wipro have given Tier-II companies like MindTree an opening to go after the cream of the crop at engineering colleges. To give potential candidates an idea of what's in store, Tier-II companies are beefing up their presence on social media sites like Twitter, Youtube and Facebook-the favourite online haunts of students.

MindTree is bringing together a team of about half a dozen social media experts whose only goal will be to ensure that online videos highlighting its employee-friendly policies go viral, or in other words ensure that they get as many views as possible.

"Attracting the best is a huge effort," said Ravi Shankar, chief people officer at MindTree. "Areas like computer science are no longer as interesting they were few years ago."

MindTree, which has about 11,000 employees, hopes to hire 3,000 more this year. The Bangalore-based company said the social media team, formed by hiring professionals from multinationals, will be given specific targets like the number of hits expected for a video. Its performance will be evaluated every few weeks.

A recent report by digital measurement company comScore said that one in four minutes spent online was on social networking sites, making them an important platform for companies looking to hire staff, market themselves or transact with customers. Recognising this trend, even the government recently approved a code of conduct for employees using social media sites.

Since finding the right fit is vital for both the student as well as the company, social media sites help raise awareness and reduce costs arising from a possible mismatch, said S Sadagopan, director of the International Institute of Information Technology in Bangalore.

"This will work very well in Tier-II colleges where the best student thinks of Wipro and Infosys as the only representative of the IT sector," he observed.

The IT industry in India hires around 2 lakh engineers every year, with campus placements commencing in September. This year the big ones are playing it cool - while Infosys indicated that it may not go to all the 370 campuses it visited last year, the country's third-largest software exporter Wipro is hiring fewer people directly from campuses.

Another second-tier company, UST Global, has its own strategy in place. With more than 7,000 employees in India and plans of hiring about 2,500 this year, it relies on cloud-based campus-hiring platform Bind to inform students who sign up about placement dates and other updates."This helps to push the UST brand on the web," Praveen Parameswaran, head of sourcing (offshore).

The company began its social media marketing efforts almost a year ago. "We realised how important online platforms are, especially when it comes to engaging with campus hires and prospective employees," Parameswaran said.

A few others have even asked the bosses to pitch in. Infinite Computer Solutions told its CEO Upinder Zutshi to join Twitter last month. The company, which will conduct interactive sessions using Facebook, has put in place a team to monitor conversations about it on social media platforms.

Source : TOI

Engineering R&D to create 1 million jobs by 2020: Nasscom

NEW DELHI: Indian offshore engineering research and development (ER&D) services market is expected to reach $37-45 billion by 2020 and create over one million jobs, software industry body Nasscom said today.

This exponential growth is a result of flexible business models, short product life cycles and decreasing time to market, Nasscom President Som Mittal said at the two-day Engineering Summit 2012 at Pune.

"Indian ER&D service has played a pivotal role in accelerating innovation and is establishing India as a design and innovation hub," Mittal said, adding that incremental growth will be driven by newer verticals and markets.

ER&D exports are estimated to be $10.2 billion, growing year-on-year at 14 per cent and comprising 15 per cent share of the IT-BPO exports.

Mittal said the domestic Indian ER&D market is expected to add to future growth with infrastructure, automotive, aerospace and energy as well as increasing focus on promoting local manufacturing.

"To further build on this leadership position, the industry needs to pursue continued efforts to build a high-calibre R&D pool by instilling relevant research aptitudes and capabilities, both from educational and training perspective," Mittal added.

While the ER&D services industry has been growing by leaps and bounds, certain challenges exist and and require immediate redressal.

"India needs to sustain its cost competitiveness and fill its absence of linkages to manufacturing capabilities. Also, lack of a formal innovation policy and supporting ecosystem will pose a threat to the budding ecosystem. Collaborative action is required to ensure future growth," he said.

India is now an emerging epicentre of the global ER&D market with more companies exploiting its supply base for future growth.

"It is important for major stakeholders of this industry - Indian Government and trade associations to ensure the growth trajectory of the industry and moving it to the next level of product development," Mittal said.

The theme of the summit is 'Engineering Innovations for a better world' and has focus on key verticals including automotive, robotics, construction, heavy engineering and telecom.

Source : TOI

MindTree Placement Paper : Candidate Experiences Latest (2012)-14 Sep 2011

Hello friends...

Mind Tree visited to our campus on 15th sep 2011.(engineers day). And I got best gift of my life on engineer’s day...really proud to be an engineer!!!

Out of 400+ only 30 could made it!


Selection process of mind tree was as follows:

1 Aptitude test

2 Technical interview

3 HR interview


Aptitude Test:

Paper pattern of Mind Tree is always variable. There were four sections:

1. Aptitude(Quant and Reasoning)(R.S. Agarwal is sufficient)

2. Technical(only C programming)

3. Programming(we have to write C code or algorithm or flowchart)

4. Essay Writing(email to ur manager)


Time limit was 50 mins for both Technical and aptitude section then 20 min for C programming and 10 min for easy writing.

Test was conduct by Mind tree team only. HR himself was present for test and it was very very strict environment.

It was not online test. Around 400+ students gave aptitude test.

90 shortlisted among them then 60 shortlisted in technical interview and finally 30 were placed. I was so happy when i cracked aptitude.


Then they gave their presentation only to shortlisted candidates. Listen it carefully. Many times they ask a question related to PPT. PPT was interesting.


Then they called us for technical interview on the same day. My technical interview lasted for almost 1 hour. He ask me about all the possible subjects which i studied till date. First he ask me to explain the C code which i had written in aptitude test.

I had done lots of mistake. He ask me to correct those mistakes. Then he ask me to write a code to swap to variables using stack. I explained him nicely but he was not giving me satisfactory expression.

He ask me very difficult questions related to C then i told him that i am from Electronics and Telecommunication engineering. Then he arrogantly answer me so what am also from ECE branch and I have studied C before 20 years(he was pass out from IIT). You must answer it.

Then i somehow manage to answer him. Then he ask me about my favourite subject. I said microcontroller. Then he immediately told me i will not ask u a single question related to microcontroller. Lets discuss about microprocessor. He ask me about 8085,8255,8086. I answered all his questions.

Then he ask me about OPAMP, antenna, operating system. I answered all his question very calmly and with confidence. Friends just be through with any one subject which u have studied. It will be good if your subject is related to digital electronics. And have patience.

Interviewer may try to loose your confidence but please don’t give him chance and show confidence on ur face. Be happy. Coz mind tree is looking for happy people. So keep smiling during interview.

Then just after Technical interview i was called for my HR. I was not at all prepared for HR interview when they announced my name. Then i went for my 1st HR interview.


And my HR interview goes as

Int:tell me something about yourself apart from ur resume.(be ready for this question as this is very 1st question.)

What are your strengths and weakness?

Live example where u have done team work.

What are five senses of human body?

What is social networking?

Tell me four networking sites?

How many hours u spend on facebook daily?

Advantages and disadvantages of facebook?

Which movie u saw recently?

Who were actress and actor in it?

What do u like from that movie?

Who is ur role model?

By which train u go to home?

How often u go to home?

Ur preferences?

About family background

I gave him all answer very confidently and maintain my smile.

Friends just relax and be confident whatever u speak. Don’t lie or don’t try to bluff. HR is smarter than u. And go with positive attitude.

Friends don’t get frustrate there is something reserve for u too. Keep faith on god. And remember hard work always pay!! So ALL THE BEST!!

See u in MIND TREE!!!

Apgenco Placement Paper : Technical - Other Latest-21 Jan 2012

APGENCO Model Question Papers(Control System):

1. Electronic control systems have the serious draw‐backs of
(a) low reliability (b) operational difficulty (c) temperature sensitiveness (d) all of
above

2. The system whose characteristic equation has the following roots is marginally
stable
(a) ‐j, j, ‐1,1 (b) ‐3,‐2,0 (c) ‐2+3j, ‐2‐3j, ‐2 (d) ‐3,‐2,‐1

3. A phase log compensation will
(a) improve relative stability
(b)increase the speed of response
(c)increase band‐width
(d) increase overshoot

4. For Nyquist plot we use
a. open loop function
b. closed loop function
c. characteristic equation
d. any of the above

5. A system with gain margin close to unity or a phase margin close to zero is
a. highly stable
b. oscillatory
c. relatively stable
d. none of these

6. Root locus diagram exhibits the
a. frequency response of a system
b. poles of the transfer function for a set of parameter values
c. bandwidth of system
d. all of the above

7. Increase in the gain K makes the system
a. more stable
b. unstable
c. none of above

8. The transfer function of a system is used to determine
a. the output for a given input
b. the type of system
c. the input for a given output
d. the steady state gai n

9. In a servo system the voltage induced in the control transformer rotor is the
a. error voltage
b. driving voltage
c. opposing voltage
d. none of these

10. With the feedback system, the transient response
a. decays slowly
b. decays rapidly
c. rises slowly
d. rises quickly

11. An open loop control system has its
(a) control action independent of the output or desired quantity
(b) controlling action, depending upon human judgment
(c) internal system changes automatically taken care of
(d) both (a) and (b)
(e) all (a),(b) and (c)

12. A servo system must have
(a) feedback system
(b) power amplifier to amplify error
(c) capacity to control position or its derivative
(d) all of these
(e) none of these

13. The major disadvantage of a feedback system may be
(a) Inaccuracy
(b) inefficiency
(c) Unreliability
(d) instability
(e) Insensitivity

14. Properties of a transfer function
(a) It is ratio of two polynomials is S and assumes zero initial conditions
(b) It depends on system elements and not input and output of the system
(c) Coefficients of the powers of S in denominator and numerator are all real
constant.
The order of denominator is usually greater than or equal to the order of
numerator
(d) All of these
(e) It is a function which transfer one physical system into another physical
system.

15. The classical analogous of a simple lever is
(a) Capacitor bridge
(b) transformer
(c) mutual inductor
(d) either of these

16. Two blocks G1(s) and G2(s) can be cascaded to get resultant transfer function as
(a) G1(s) + G2(s)
(b) G1(s) / G2(s)
(c) G1(s) G2(s)
(d) 1+G1(s) G2(s)
(e) 1‐G1(s)G2(s)
(f) two blocks cannot be cascaded

17. The principles of homogeneity and super position can be applied to
(a) linear time invariant system
(b) non‐linear time invariant system
(c) digital control system
(d) both (a) and (b)

18. Pick up the nonlinear system
(a) automatic voltage regulator
(b) d.c. servomotor with high field excitation
(c) temperature control of a furnaces using thermistor
(d) speed control using SCR
(e) all of these

19. Signal flow graph (SFG) is a
(a) polar graph
(b) semi log graph
(c) log log graph
(d) a special type of graph for analyzing modem control system
(e) a topological representation of a set of differential equations

20. Disadvantages of magnetic amplifier
(a) time lag, less flexible, non‐sinusoidal waveform
(b) low power consumption and isolation of the active circuit
(c) saturation of the core
(d) all of these

21. Pick up false statement regarding magnetic amplifiers
(a) The gate coil of an ideal magnetic amplifier has either zero or infinite
inductance
(b) Resistance of control and gate winding is very small
(c) Magnetic amplifier gas dropping load characteristics
(d) Magnetic amplifiers are not used to control the speed of d.c. shunt motor
(e) Magnetic amplifiers can be used in automatic control of electric drivers of
higher rating.

22. High power amplification is achieved by using
(a) push pull amplifier
(b) amplidyne
(c) magnetic amplifier
(d) DC amplifier
(e) D.C. generator

23. Pick up false statement regarding servomotors
(a) The d.c. servomotors are lighter than equivalent a.c. servomotors
(b) The d.c. servomotors develops higher starting and reversing torque than
equivalent a.c. servomotor.
(c) A drag cup a.c. servomotor has one windings on stator and other on rotor
(d) Output power of servomotors varies from 1/20 W to 100 W

24. To reduce steady state error
(a) decrease natural frequency
(b) decrease damping
(c) increase damped frequency
(d) increase time constant
(f) increase gain constant of the system

25. A good factor for Mp should be
(a) less than 1
(b) lying between 1.1 and 1.5
(c) more than 2.2
(d) zero
(e) infinity

26. Pick up false statement. Routh‐Hurwitz criterion
(a) is used for determining stability of a system
(b) is an algebraic procedure
(c) gives the exact location of roots of the characteristic equation
(d) does not indicate relative degree of stability or instability

27. Which of the following is the time domain method of determining stability of a
control system
(a) Bode plot
(b) Nyquist plot
(c) Nicholos chart
(d) Routh‐Hurwitz array
(e) Constant M and (fy) locus
(f) Root locus technique

28. The technique which gives transient response quickly as well as stability
information is
(a) Nyquist plot
(b) Routh‐Hurwitz criteria
(c) Bode plot
(d) Root locus plot
(e) Nichols plot

29. The bandwidth can be increased by use of
(a) phase lag network
(b) phase lead network
(c) both (a) and (b) in cascade
(d) both (a) and (b) in parallel
(e) none of these

30. Nyquist plot is drawn on
(a) semi log graph paper
(b) log log graph paper
(c) polar graph paper
(d) centimeter graph paper

31. If the gain margin is positive and the phase margin is negative the system is
(a) stable
(b) unstable
(c) indeterminist

32. The Bode plot is applicable to
(a) all phase network
(b) minimum phase network
(c) maximum phase network
(d) lag lead network
(e) none of these

33. The valid relation between setting time ts and rise time tr is
(a) tr>ts
(b) ts>tr
(c) ts=tr
(d) none of these

34. As a root moves further away from imaginary axis the stability
(a) increases
(b) decreases
(c) not affected
(d) none of these

35. Flat frequency response means that the magnitude ratio of output to input over
the bandwidth is
(a) variable
(b) zero
(c) constant
(d) none of above

36. How many octaves are between 200 Hz and 800 Hz
(a) Two octave
(b) One octave
(c) Four octave
(d) None of above

37. Human system can be considered as
(a) open loop system
(b) close loop system with single feedback
(c) close loop system with multivariable feedback
(d) none of these

38. In a feedback system the transient response
(a) Decays at constant rate
(b) gets magnified
(c) decays slowly
(d) decays more quickly

39. Transfer function of a system is used to calculate
(a) the steady state gain
(b) the main constant
(c) the order of system
(d) the output for any given input
(e) all of the above

40. Transfer function of a system is defined as the ratio of output to input in
(a) Laplace transform
(b) Z‐transform
(c) Fourier transform
(d) Simple algebraic form

41. Introduction of feedback decreases the effect of
(a) disturbances
(b) noise signals
(c) error signals
(d) all the above

42. The system response of a system can be best tested with
(a) unit impulse input signal
(b) ramp input signal
(c) sinusoidal input signal
(d) exponentially decaying input signal

43. Which of the following is a closed loop system
(a) electric switch
(b) car starter
(c) de generator
(d) auto‐pilot for an aircraft

44. Which of the following is used as an error detector
(a) potentiometer
(b) field controlled ac motor
(c) amplidyne
(d) armature controlled ac motor

45. The break away point of root loci are
(a) open loop poles
(b) closed loop poles
(c) open loop zeros
(d) closed loop zeros

46. Noise in a control system can be kept low by
(a) reducing the bandwidth
(b) attenuating such frequencies at which external signals get coupled into the
system
(c) both (a) and (b)
(d) none of these

47. Main cause of absolute instability in the control system is
(a) parameters of controlling system
(b) parameters of controlled system
(c) parameters of feedback system
(d) error detector where the two signals are compared

48. Basically a controller is
(a) a amplifier
(b) a clipper
(c) a comparator
(d) a summer

49. A system with gain margin close to unity or a phase margin close to zero is
(a) highly stable
(b) highly oscillatory
(c) relatively stable
(d) none of these

50. Which of following elements is not used in an automatic control system
(a) sensor
(b) error detector
(c) oscillator
(d) final control element

51. AC systems are usually preferred to the DC systems in control applications
because
(a) AC systems are cheaper
(b) AC systems are more stable
(c) AC systems have better performance characteristics and smaller in size
(d) all of these

52. A system has the transfer function (1‐s)/(1+s); It is known as
(a) low pass system
(b) high pass system
(c) all pass system
(d) none of the above

53. In control systems, excessive bandwidth should be avoided because
(a) noise is proportional to bandwidth
(b) it leads to low relative stability
(c) it leads to slow speed of response
(d) none of these

54. In most systems, an increase in gain leads to
(a) larger damping ratio
(b) smaller damping ratio
(c) constant damping ratio
(d) none of these

55. A step function is applied to the input of a system and output is of the form y = t,
the system is
(a) stable
(b) unstable
(c) not necessarily stable
(d) conditionally stable

56. Which of the following can be magnified by magnetic amplifier
(a) voltage
(b) current
(c) power
(d) none of above

57. The inductance is not used in lag network because of
(a) big size
(b) time delay and hysteresis losses
(c) high reactance
(d) none of these

58. Saturation in a stable control system can cause
(a) conditional stability
(b) over damping
(c) low level oscillations
(d) high level oscillations

59. Excessive noise in control systems can cause
(a) reduction in bandwidth
(b) reduction in gain
(c) saturation in amplifying stages
(d) oscillations

60. The type‐0 system has
(a) net pole at the origin
(b) no pole at the origin
(c) simple at one origin
(d) two poles at the origin