It was previously mentioned that Microsoft was dishing out WP7 devices to its staff and interns, and now word is out that the software giant is also giving AT&T workers free WP7 devices to spur acceptance. An employee has claimed that about 100 devices were given out to those attending an event in Minneapolis, though it wasn't confirmed if it was a US-wide policy. It wasn't mentioned which specific phone amongst the many WP7 devices were given, but with the Samsung Focus being the first to ship, it's assumed that the lucky workers received said phone. Such a move isn't new as Apple gave free 8GB iPhones to all of its full-time workers back in June 2007 when the iPhone was first launched, both as a reward for their work and to familiarize them with the platform. Saturday, October 16, 2010
Microsoft Giving Free WP7 Devices To AT&T Staff
It was previously mentioned that Microsoft was dishing out WP7 devices to its staff and interns, and now word is out that the software giant is also giving AT&T workers free WP7 devices to spur acceptance. An employee has claimed that about 100 devices were given out to those attending an event in Minneapolis, though it wasn't confirmed if it was a US-wide policy. It wasn't mentioned which specific phone amongst the many WP7 devices were given, but with the Samsung Focus being the first to ship, it's assumed that the lucky workers received said phone. Such a move isn't new as Apple gave free 8GB iPhones to all of its full-time workers back in June 2007 when the iPhone was first launched, both as a reward for their work and to familiarize them with the platform. 
First Week gross: Mahesh Khaleja collected over Rs 21 Crore!
Hyderabad, 15th Oct: Prince Mahesh’s Khaleja, despite average talk on the film has collected over Rs 21 crores in the first week. The mouthtalk and web sites average reviews could not keep Prince’s fans away from the film. Nizam - 5,75,13,000; Ceded- 3,25,09,000; Vizag - 1,20,12,000; E.Goavari - 85,41,000; W.Godavari - 86,33,000; Krishna - 83,79,000;Guntur - 1,48,74,000; Nellore - 54,98,000; Overseas - 3,85,50,000; Karnataka - 1,81,25,000; Rest of India - 85,63,000; Total - Rs 21,31,97,000
Friday, October 15, 2010
Tata donates $50 mn to Harvard
India's Tata Group has given America's prestigious Harvard Business School a $50 million donation, the largest gift the school has received from an international donor in its 102-year history.
Earlier this month Anand Mahindra, head of India's Mahindra Group, gave $10 million to Harvard where he earned his undergraduate and master's degrees.
The funds will be used to build a new academic and residential building on the school's campus in Boston. Harvard said it hopes to break ground for the building, which will be named Tata Hall, next spring.
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons Ltd. since 1991, attended the school's advanced management programme - one of three leadership programmes offered by the school's executive education programme-in 1975 and received its highest honour, the Alumni Achievement Award.
Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria hailed the 'historic gift.' Indian-born Nohria became the school's 10th dean earlier this year. He has said his focus will be on business ethics, a cause he has long championed, particularly during the financial crisis.
Earlier this month Anand Mahindra, head of India's Mahindra Group, gave $10 million to Harvard where he earned his undergraduate and master's degrees.
The funds will be used to build a new academic and residential building on the school's campus in Boston. Harvard said it hopes to break ground for the building, which will be named Tata Hall, next spring.
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons Ltd. since 1991, attended the school's advanced management programme - one of three leadership programmes offered by the school's executive education programme-in 1975 and received its highest honour, the Alumni Achievement Award.
Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria hailed the 'historic gift.' Indian-born Nohria became the school's 10th dean earlier this year. He has said his focus will be on business ethics, a cause he has long championed, particularly during the financial crisis.
Delhi overcomes challenges to close Games on a high
Delhi put on a second flawless spectacle of song and dance on Thursday to close the Commonwealth Games on a high after at one stage threatening to become a national embarrassment to India.
The $6 billion Games started in crisis and struggled through a first week of organisational blunders before finally getting into its stride to leave athletes happy and a host nation proud of its best ever showing in the sporting arena.
Chief local organiser Suresh Kalmadi, who bore the brunt of public anger and was jeered at the closing ceremony as he had been at the opening, paid tribute to the spirit the city had shown in bringing the Games back from crisis.
"A month ago questions were being asked about whether the Games would be held at all," he said. "We knew it was about India's ability to stand up and show the world what we are capable of and we can achieve in the face of adversity. We did just that."
India's hope was that the Games would display its ability to put on a world class multi-sport gathering but chaotic preparations and a series of organisational blunders turned it into a public relations disaster.
India is proud of being the "jugaadu" -- the Hindi word for "making do" -- nation, however, and the filthy athletes' village was quickly made fit for habitation, a collapsed footbridge was reconstructed by the army and security was effective.
"The organisation of this Games has been characterised by many challenges and (they) have overcome those obstacles to deliver a truly outstanding event," Games Federation chief Michael Fennell told the 60,000 crowd at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
Earlier, India's badminton queen Saina Nehwal clawed her way back from match point down to claim a 38th gold for the hosts and ensure second place on the medal table, their best ever finish.
Australia topped the table for the sixth successive Games with 74 gold medals with England (37) just edged into third ahead of Canada (26). South Africa, Kenya and Malaysia won 12 golds.
The centre of Indian capital was again locked down on Thursday with reports in the British media of a specific threat to the closing ceremony a reminder of security concerns which caused some athletes to stay away from Delhi.
Rajan Bhagat, a spokesman for Delhi police, ruled out any new threat and said the 100,000 police and military who have been guarding Delhi and the various Games venues were not reinforced.
"There is adequate security and there is no change in the levels of threat perception," he said.
After marching bands and the handover of the Games flag to the 2014 host city Glasgow, the David Dixon award for the Athlete of the Games went to Jamaica's Trecia Smith, who successfully defended her triple jump title.
PASSIONATE FANS
It was India's success in the sporting arena, however, that helped turn the event around with crowds flocking to venues that had been virtually empty at the beginning of the 12-day event.
"This is not the end but the beginning," Kalmadi, who is also President of the Indian Olympic Association, added. "For the athletes this was a life-changing experience. For India it was a new beginning in sports. For the world, it was what India can do."
Nehwal showed what she could do when she beat Malaysia's Mew Choo Wong in front of a delirious packed house at the Siri Fort complex.
"The crowd was really important," Nehwal said. "I've never been match point down before so I was under pressure. I think it was the toughest match of my career."
Kenya won both men's and women's gold in the marathon, which kicked off the final day, to complete its domination of the athletics with 11 golds.
Few spectators braved the security barriers and morning heat but the city's wildlife was again out in force with police chasing stray dogs and using sticks to clear monkeys from the course.
Indian's men's hockey team failed in their quest to win a first Games gold, humbled 8-0 by triple defending champions Australia.
Despite the Delhi belly stomach complaints and the security that kept them mostly locked up in the village, athletes were mostly positive about their Delhi experience.
"There were spectacular venues and really caring people ensured all our needs were met," said Canada's chef de mission Martha Deacon. "The Games are an incredible success. We had a great two weeks in Delhi."
The $6 billion Games started in crisis and struggled through a first week of organisational blunders before finally getting into its stride to leave athletes happy and a host nation proud of its best ever showing in the sporting arena.
Chief local organiser Suresh Kalmadi, who bore the brunt of public anger and was jeered at the closing ceremony as he had been at the opening, paid tribute to the spirit the city had shown in bringing the Games back from crisis.
"A month ago questions were being asked about whether the Games would be held at all," he said. "We knew it was about India's ability to stand up and show the world what we are capable of and we can achieve in the face of adversity. We did just that."
India's hope was that the Games would display its ability to put on a world class multi-sport gathering but chaotic preparations and a series of organisational blunders turned it into a public relations disaster.
India is proud of being the "jugaadu" -- the Hindi word for "making do" -- nation, however, and the filthy athletes' village was quickly made fit for habitation, a collapsed footbridge was reconstructed by the army and security was effective.
"The organisation of this Games has been characterised by many challenges and (they) have overcome those obstacles to deliver a truly outstanding event," Games Federation chief Michael Fennell told the 60,000 crowd at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
Earlier, India's badminton queen Saina Nehwal clawed her way back from match point down to claim a 38th gold for the hosts and ensure second place on the medal table, their best ever finish.
Australia topped the table for the sixth successive Games with 74 gold medals with England (37) just edged into third ahead of Canada (26). South Africa, Kenya and Malaysia won 12 golds.
The centre of Indian capital was again locked down on Thursday with reports in the British media of a specific threat to the closing ceremony a reminder of security concerns which caused some athletes to stay away from Delhi.
Rajan Bhagat, a spokesman for Delhi police, ruled out any new threat and said the 100,000 police and military who have been guarding Delhi and the various Games venues were not reinforced.
"There is adequate security and there is no change in the levels of threat perception," he said.
After marching bands and the handover of the Games flag to the 2014 host city Glasgow, the David Dixon award for the Athlete of the Games went to Jamaica's Trecia Smith, who successfully defended her triple jump title.
PASSIONATE FANS
It was India's success in the sporting arena, however, that helped turn the event around with crowds flocking to venues that had been virtually empty at the beginning of the 12-day event.
"This is not the end but the beginning," Kalmadi, who is also President of the Indian Olympic Association, added. "For the athletes this was a life-changing experience. For India it was a new beginning in sports. For the world, it was what India can do."
Nehwal showed what she could do when she beat Malaysia's Mew Choo Wong in front of a delirious packed house at the Siri Fort complex.
"The crowd was really important," Nehwal said. "I've never been match point down before so I was under pressure. I think it was the toughest match of my career."
Kenya won both men's and women's gold in the marathon, which kicked off the final day, to complete its domination of the athletics with 11 golds.
Few spectators braved the security barriers and morning heat but the city's wildlife was again out in force with police chasing stray dogs and using sticks to clear monkeys from the course.
Indian's men's hockey team failed in their quest to win a first Games gold, humbled 8-0 by triple defending champions Australia.
Despite the Delhi belly stomach complaints and the security that kept them mostly locked up in the village, athletes were mostly positive about their Delhi experience.
"There were spectacular venues and really caring people ensured all our needs were met," said Canada's chef de mission Martha Deacon. "The Games are an incredible success. We had a great two weeks in Delhi."
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Sachin banishes 'loser' tag
He has just managed to get one of the biggest demons off his shoulders – that his mental 'mettle' is not strong enough when India are battling against the odds, or need his skills to power to a win.
Over the years, numerous critics have been hounding Sachin, saying he plays for personal aggrandisement and fails to contribute to India's cause when the team's chips are down – the team generally loses. Invariably, India loses and Sachin has to carry the cross.
Best of all, he has scripted this 'achievement' by letting his bat, and not his mouth, do the talking.
This time, a triumphant Sachin, in a fitting reply, has thrown dust in the faces of all his critics.
But it is not in the nature of Tendulkar to score 'political' points and instead, he would be concentrating more on the positives that he has achieved in the just-concluded Test against the Australians.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Unemployed find old jobs now require more skills
WASHINGTON The jobs crisis has brought an unwelcome discovery for many unemployed Americans: Job openings in their old fields exist. Yet they no longer qualify for them.
They're running into a trend that took root during the recession. Companies became more productive by doing more with fewer workers. Some asked staffers to take on a broader array of duties — duties that used to be spread among multiple jobs. Now, someone who hopes to get those jobs must meet the new requirements.
As a result, some database administrators now have to manage network security.
Accountants must do financial analysis to find ways to cut costs.
Factory assembly workers need to program computers to run machinery.
The broader responsibilities mean it's harder to fill many of the jobs that are open these days. It helps explain why many companies complain they can't find qualified people for certain jobs, even with 4.6 unemployed Americans, on average, competing for each opening. By contrast, only 1.8 people, on average, were vying for each job opening before the recession.
The total number of job openings does remain historically low: 3.2 million, down from 4.4 million before the recession. But the number of openings has surged 37 percent in the past year. And yet the unemployment rate has actually risen during that time. Companies still aren't finding it easy to fill job vacancies.
Take Bayer MaterialScience, a unit of Bayer. When the company sought earlier this year to hire a new health, safety and environment director for one of its plants, it wanted candidates with a wider range of abilities than before. In particular, it needed someone skilled not just in managing health and safety but also in guiding employees to adapt to workplace changes.
Joe Bozada, chief of staff for Bayer's CEO, said the company initially interviewed 30 candidates. Then it did final interviews with seven. But none had the additional experience the company now wanted. Ultimately, Bozada said, the company chose one of its own employees it had already trained.
That shift, across multiple industries, has caught the eye of David Altig, research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Workers aren't just being asked to increase their output, Altig says. They're being asked to broaden it, too.
A company might have had three back-office jobs before the recession, Altig said. Only one of those jobs might have required computer skills. Now, he said, "one person is doing all three of those jobs — and every job you fill has to have computer skills."
The trend is magnifying the obstacles facing the unemployed. Economists have long worried that millions of people who have lost jobs in depressed areas like construction don't qualify for work in growing sectors like health care. But it turns out that some of the jobless no longer even qualify for their old positions.
Frustrated in their efforts to find qualified applicants among the jobless, employers are turning to those who are already employed.
"They're hiring a known quantity that already has this specific experience on their resume," said Cathy Farley, a managing director at Accenture. "It is slowing some of the re-hiring from the ranks of the unemployed."
Only 49 percent of people laid off from 2007 through 2009 were re-employed by January 2010, according to a Labor Department survey. It's the lowest such proportion since the survey began in 1984.
And more than 40 percent of the nearly 15 million unemployed Americans have been out of work for six months or longer. That's near the record high set during the recession.
Some of the unfortunate ones are information technology workers. One reason is that tech companies are increasingly combining business analyst and systems analyst positions.
Suppose a company wants a new software application. A business analyst would seek the least expensive approach and then propose the technical requirements. Separately, a systems analyst would build the technology.
But now, employers want "those two skill sets in one human being," said Harry Griendling, chief executive of DoubleStar Inc., a staffing firm outside Philadelphia.
The trend reflects the push that companies made during the recession to control costs, squeeze more output from their staffs and become more productive. Productivity measures output per hour worked. Economy-wide, it soared 3.5 percent last year. It was the best performance in six years.
And it means workers are bearing heavier burdens. In manufacturing, employees increasingly must be able to run the computerized machinery that dominates most assembly lines. They also have to carry out additional tasks, such as inspecting finished products, notes Mark Tomlinson, executive director of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
Manufacturers advertised nearly 200,000 jobs at the end of August, a jump of about 40 percent from a year ago, according to government data. Yet hiring by manufacturers has risen less than 6 percent over that time — evidence that they are having a hard time finding qualified workers.
"There are jobs available, but the worker just has to have more skills than before," Tomlinson said.
Bob Brown, 49, has felt the demand for broader skills firsthand. After working for 30 years in manufacturing, including 20 as a plant supervisor, Brown was laid off in July 2009.
He spent a year looking for a new job. His efforts yielded only three calls from employers in the first four months.
But once things began to pick up, Brown noticed something else: The plant manager jobs he used to have, and that he was aiming for again, all required certifications in productivity-boosting management practices.
So Brown paid for courses at a community college to learn a management strategy known as "six sigma." It's an approach to cutting waste and raising efficiency popularized by General Electric. The courses allowed him to obtain his certification. In August, he was hired by an electrical product assembly plant near Williamsport, Penn.
"That's the way the industry's going," Brown said. "Everybody wanted certifications."
Human resource specialists say employers who increasingly need multi-skilled employees aren't willing to settle for less. They'd rather wait and hold jobs vacant.
HR specialists even have a nickname for the highly sought but elusive job candidate whose skills and experiences precisely match an employer's needs: the "purple squirrel."
"There are lots of requests for purple squirrels nowadays," said Joe Yesulaitis, chief executive of Aavalar Consulting, an IT staffing firm.
They're running into a trend that took root during the recession. Companies became more productive by doing more with fewer workers. Some asked staffers to take on a broader array of duties — duties that used to be spread among multiple jobs. Now, someone who hopes to get those jobs must meet the new requirements.
As a result, some database administrators now have to manage network security.
Accountants must do financial analysis to find ways to cut costs.
Factory assembly workers need to program computers to run machinery.
The broader responsibilities mean it's harder to fill many of the jobs that are open these days. It helps explain why many companies complain they can't find qualified people for certain jobs, even with 4.6 unemployed Americans, on average, competing for each opening. By contrast, only 1.8 people, on average, were vying for each job opening before the recession.
The total number of job openings does remain historically low: 3.2 million, down from 4.4 million before the recession. But the number of openings has surged 37 percent in the past year. And yet the unemployment rate has actually risen during that time. Companies still aren't finding it easy to fill job vacancies.
Take Bayer MaterialScience, a unit of Bayer. When the company sought earlier this year to hire a new health, safety and environment director for one of its plants, it wanted candidates with a wider range of abilities than before. In particular, it needed someone skilled not just in managing health and safety but also in guiding employees to adapt to workplace changes.
Joe Bozada, chief of staff for Bayer's CEO, said the company initially interviewed 30 candidates. Then it did final interviews with seven. But none had the additional experience the company now wanted. Ultimately, Bozada said, the company chose one of its own employees it had already trained.
That shift, across multiple industries, has caught the eye of David Altig, research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Workers aren't just being asked to increase their output, Altig says. They're being asked to broaden it, too.
A company might have had three back-office jobs before the recession, Altig said. Only one of those jobs might have required computer skills. Now, he said, "one person is doing all three of those jobs — and every job you fill has to have computer skills."
The trend is magnifying the obstacles facing the unemployed. Economists have long worried that millions of people who have lost jobs in depressed areas like construction don't qualify for work in growing sectors like health care. But it turns out that some of the jobless no longer even qualify for their old positions.
Frustrated in their efforts to find qualified applicants among the jobless, employers are turning to those who are already employed.
"They're hiring a known quantity that already has this specific experience on their resume," said Cathy Farley, a managing director at Accenture. "It is slowing some of the re-hiring from the ranks of the unemployed."
Only 49 percent of people laid off from 2007 through 2009 were re-employed by January 2010, according to a Labor Department survey. It's the lowest such proportion since the survey began in 1984.
And more than 40 percent of the nearly 15 million unemployed Americans have been out of work for six months or longer. That's near the record high set during the recession.
Some of the unfortunate ones are information technology workers. One reason is that tech companies are increasingly combining business analyst and systems analyst positions.
Suppose a company wants a new software application. A business analyst would seek the least expensive approach and then propose the technical requirements. Separately, a systems analyst would build the technology.
But now, employers want "those two skill sets in one human being," said Harry Griendling, chief executive of DoubleStar Inc., a staffing firm outside Philadelphia.
The trend reflects the push that companies made during the recession to control costs, squeeze more output from their staffs and become more productive. Productivity measures output per hour worked. Economy-wide, it soared 3.5 percent last year. It was the best performance in six years.
And it means workers are bearing heavier burdens. In manufacturing, employees increasingly must be able to run the computerized machinery that dominates most assembly lines. They also have to carry out additional tasks, such as inspecting finished products, notes Mark Tomlinson, executive director of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
Manufacturers advertised nearly 200,000 jobs at the end of August, a jump of about 40 percent from a year ago, according to government data. Yet hiring by manufacturers has risen less than 6 percent over that time — evidence that they are having a hard time finding qualified workers.
"There are jobs available, but the worker just has to have more skills than before," Tomlinson said.
Bob Brown, 49, has felt the demand for broader skills firsthand. After working for 30 years in manufacturing, including 20 as a plant supervisor, Brown was laid off in July 2009.
He spent a year looking for a new job. His efforts yielded only three calls from employers in the first four months.
But once things began to pick up, Brown noticed something else: The plant manager jobs he used to have, and that he was aiming for again, all required certifications in productivity-boosting management practices.
So Brown paid for courses at a community college to learn a management strategy known as "six sigma." It's an approach to cutting waste and raising efficiency popularized by General Electric. The courses allowed him to obtain his certification. In August, he was hired by an electrical product assembly plant near Williamsport, Penn.
"That's the way the industry's going," Brown said. "Everybody wanted certifications."
Human resource specialists say employers who increasingly need multi-skilled employees aren't willing to settle for less. They'd rather wait and hold jobs vacant.
HR specialists even have a nickname for the highly sought but elusive job candidate whose skills and experiences precisely match an employer's needs: the "purple squirrel."
"There are lots of requests for purple squirrels nowadays," said Joe Yesulaitis, chief executive of Aavalar Consulting, an IT staffing firm.
3 win economics Nobel for job market analysis
STOCKHOLM – Two Americans and a British-Cypriot economist won the 2010 Nobel economics prize Monday for developing a theory that helps explain why many people can remain unemployed despite a large number of job vacancies.
Federal Reserve board nominee Peter Diamond was honored along with Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides with the 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.5 million) prize for their analysis of the obstacles that prevent buyers and sellers from efficiently pairing up in markets.
Diamond — a former mentor to current Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke — analyzed the foundations of so-called search markets, while Mortensen and Pissarides expanded the theory and applied it to the labor market.
Their work, dating back to the 1970s and '80s, sheds light on why the classical view of markets, in which prices are set so that buyers and sellers always find each other and all resources are fully utilized, doesn't always apply to the real world.
One example is the housing market, where buyers can struggle to find new homes even though there are a number of unsold properties available.
Another is the labor market. Because searching for jobs takes time and resources, it creates friction in the job market, helping explain why there are both job vacancies and unemployment simultaneously, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
"The laureates' models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy," the citation said.
Their work resulted in the so-called Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model, a frequently used tool to estimate how unemployment benefits, interest rates, the efficiency of employment agencies and other factors can affect the labor market.
"One conclusion is that more generous unemployment benefits give rise to higher unemployment and longer search times," the academy said.
Diamond, 70, is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an authority on Social Security, pensions and taxation.
President Barack Obama has nominated Diamond to become a member of the Federal Reserve. However, the Senate failed to approve his nomination before lawmakers left to campaign for the midterm congressional elections.
Senate Republicans have objected to what they see as Diamond's limited experience in dissecting the inner workings of the national economy.
Bernanke was one of Diamond's students at MIT. When Bernanke turned in his doctoral dissertation back in 1979, one of the people he thanked was Diamond for being generous with his time and reading and discussing Bernanke's work.
Diamond said he was returning to his suburban Boston home from New Zealand when he found out about the prize. His wife and son picked him up from Logan Airport and he got a phone call from a friend.
"Fortunately I was sitting down and wasn't behind the steering wheel," Diamond said.
Pissarides, a 62-year-old professor at the London School of Economics, was the first Nobel winner with Cypriot citizenship, academy spokesman Erik Huss said.
Speaking from his north London home, Pissarides told The Associated Press the announcement came as "a complete surprise" though his work had already helped shape thinking on both sides of the Atlantic.
For example, the New Deal for Young People, a British government initiative aimed at getting 18-24-year-olds back on the job market after long spells of unemployment, "is very much based on our work," he said.
"One of the key things we found is that it is important to make sure that people do not stay unemployed too long so they don't lose their feel for the labor force," Pissarides told reporters in London. "The ways of dealing with this need not be expensive training — it could be as simple as providing work experience."
Mortensen, 71, is an economics professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, where the academy reached him by phone as he was having lunch with colleagues.
Mortensen told AP he was asked not to share the news until the announcement in Stockholm 30 minutes later.
"So I was sitting there at the table and I think they knew from the smile on my face what had happened. Everyone knows this is the day," he said.
Diamond wrote a paper in the early 1980s that found that unemployment compensation can lead to better job matches. Workers "become more selective in the jobs they accept" because of the employment aid. And, that makes for better matches and increases efficiency, he found.
He told a Senate committee during his nomination hearing in July that a central theme of his research has been how the economy deals with risks that affect both individuals, and the entire economy.
"In all my central research areas, I have thought about and written about the risks in the economy and how markets and government can combine to make the economy function better for individuals," he said in that hearing.
The economics prize is not among the original awards established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in his 1895 will, but was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank in his memory.
The economics jury was the last of the Nobel committees to announce 2010 winners.
Last week, British professor Robert Edwards won the medicine prize for research that led to the first test tube baby. Russian-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov shared the physics prize for groundbreaking experiments with graphene, the strongest and thinnest material known to mankind.
The chemistry award went to Richard Heck and Japanese researchers Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for designing techniques to bind together carbon atoms.
Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa won the literature prize and the imprisoned Chinese democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The awards are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
Federal Reserve board nominee Peter Diamond was honored along with Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides with the 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.5 million) prize for their analysis of the obstacles that prevent buyers and sellers from efficiently pairing up in markets.
Diamond — a former mentor to current Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke — analyzed the foundations of so-called search markets, while Mortensen and Pissarides expanded the theory and applied it to the labor market.
Their work, dating back to the 1970s and '80s, sheds light on why the classical view of markets, in which prices are set so that buyers and sellers always find each other and all resources are fully utilized, doesn't always apply to the real world.
One example is the housing market, where buyers can struggle to find new homes even though there are a number of unsold properties available.
Another is the labor market. Because searching for jobs takes time and resources, it creates friction in the job market, helping explain why there are both job vacancies and unemployment simultaneously, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
"The laureates' models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy," the citation said.
Their work resulted in the so-called Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model, a frequently used tool to estimate how unemployment benefits, interest rates, the efficiency of employment agencies and other factors can affect the labor market.
"One conclusion is that more generous unemployment benefits give rise to higher unemployment and longer search times," the academy said.
Diamond, 70, is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an authority on Social Security, pensions and taxation.
President Barack Obama has nominated Diamond to become a member of the Federal Reserve. However, the Senate failed to approve his nomination before lawmakers left to campaign for the midterm congressional elections.
Senate Republicans have objected to what they see as Diamond's limited experience in dissecting the inner workings of the national economy.
Bernanke was one of Diamond's students at MIT. When Bernanke turned in his doctoral dissertation back in 1979, one of the people he thanked was Diamond for being generous with his time and reading and discussing Bernanke's work.
Diamond said he was returning to his suburban Boston home from New Zealand when he found out about the prize. His wife and son picked him up from Logan Airport and he got a phone call from a friend.
"Fortunately I was sitting down and wasn't behind the steering wheel," Diamond said.
Pissarides, a 62-year-old professor at the London School of Economics, was the first Nobel winner with Cypriot citizenship, academy spokesman Erik Huss said.
Speaking from his north London home, Pissarides told The Associated Press the announcement came as "a complete surprise" though his work had already helped shape thinking on both sides of the Atlantic.
For example, the New Deal for Young People, a British government initiative aimed at getting 18-24-year-olds back on the job market after long spells of unemployment, "is very much based on our work," he said.
"One of the key things we found is that it is important to make sure that people do not stay unemployed too long so they don't lose their feel for the labor force," Pissarides told reporters in London. "The ways of dealing with this need not be expensive training — it could be as simple as providing work experience."
Mortensen, 71, is an economics professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, where the academy reached him by phone as he was having lunch with colleagues.
Mortensen told AP he was asked not to share the news until the announcement in Stockholm 30 minutes later.
"So I was sitting there at the table and I think they knew from the smile on my face what had happened. Everyone knows this is the day," he said.
Diamond wrote a paper in the early 1980s that found that unemployment compensation can lead to better job matches. Workers "become more selective in the jobs they accept" because of the employment aid. And, that makes for better matches and increases efficiency, he found.
He told a Senate committee during his nomination hearing in July that a central theme of his research has been how the economy deals with risks that affect both individuals, and the entire economy.
"In all my central research areas, I have thought about and written about the risks in the economy and how markets and government can combine to make the economy function better for individuals," he said in that hearing.
The economics prize is not among the original awards established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in his 1895 will, but was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank in his memory.
The economics jury was the last of the Nobel committees to announce 2010 winners.
Last week, British professor Robert Edwards won the medicine prize for research that led to the first test tube baby. Russian-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov shared the physics prize for groundbreaking experiments with graphene, the strongest and thinnest material known to mankind.
The chemistry award went to Richard Heck and Japanese researchers Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for designing techniques to bind together carbon atoms.
Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa won the literature prize and the imprisoned Chinese democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The awards are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
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