In the wake of the global financial meltdown, India’s top business school graduates are most eager to work in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, according to Nielsen, which reported the results of its Campus Track B-School Survey on Monday.
Management Consulting (35% of respondents), Software/IT Consulting (23% of respondents), Foreign Banks, and Retailing (both 22% of respondents) rounded out the top five most popular sectors among students. 
“Preferences seem to have shifted in favor of large business conglomerates and the IT sector as a consequence of the current global financial turmoil.  …

Most global consumers agree that their countries have hit recession, but opinion on how long the recession will last remains mixed, Nielsen reported Wednesday.
While 53% of those surveyed by Nielsen think their country has hit a prolonged recession that will last more than 12 months, 18% of consumers, concentrated in a handful of emerging markets, like India, Vietnam, China, and Russia, told Nielsen they expect their countries to be out of recession within the next 12 months.
In contrast, consumers in Japan, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, Italy, Taiwan, the U.S., and Spain were the …

Boosted by their country’s booming economy and armed with growing disposable incomes, Indians are increasingly venturing abroad for leisure and business travel. 
According to the Nielsen India Outbound Travel Monitor 2008, most international travelers from India are well-educated urbanites.  Countries in Asia — Singapore (24% of Indians), Dubai, Australia, and Malaysia (17% of Indians, respectively) — are the most popular destinations for India’s new travel elite. 
Overall, Asian destinations account for 72% of international leisure trips and 63% of business trips originating in India, Nielsen reported.  In comparison, travel to Europe accounts for just …

Mobile Internet users in the growing Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) mobile markets are likely to visit entertainment-themed websites while on the go, according to a report released Tuesday by Nielsen.
Meanwhile users across the U.S. and Europe commonly use their phones to access news and information online, Nielsen found. 
Entertainment, gaming, and music websites rank among the top five categories visited via the mobile Web in all four BRIC countries, while email, weather, news, and search are the top categories for both American and European mobile Internet users. 
In the U.S., entertainment, …

Just one in seven people with savings in India are aware of mutual fund investment opportunities, Livemint.com (India) reported Tuesday.
Mutual funds are most popular in urban areas, as well as in northern India and in well-developed western states like Gujarat and Maharashtra, according to Kalyan Karmakar, Associate Director, Customized Research, Nielsen. 
Meanwhile, investors in the eastern and the southern regions of the country still focus on land and gold, Karmakar noted.
“There is a huge portion of India which is yet to participate and be a part of the mutual fund bandwagon,” he told Livemint.
Learn …

Nielsen announced Thursday that it will join forces with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) to study travel consumers in India. 
Based on a sample of 2,000 respondents across 10 cities in India and updated annually, the Indian Outbound Travel Monitor will explore the behavior and considerations of Indian travelers when planning for, during, and after a trip abroad. 
The Monitor, which will track travelers’ destination preferences and travel decision-making processes, aims to help tourism professionals identify and optimize growth opportunities in India.
The Indian outbound travel market has expanded by nearly 10% annually …

Advertisers spent a record $88.5 billion across 12 key markets in the Asia Pacific region during the fourth quarter of 2007, Nielsen Media Research Asia Pacific reported today. 
Overall, TV, newspaper, and magazine ad spending rose by 12% from 2006 to 2007 across the markets surveyed for the report. 
India (+31%), Indonesia (+17%), China (+15%), and Malaysia (+15%) showed the strongest growth, while Singapore (-1%) and Taiwan (-1%) registered the only ad spending declines. 
The data reveals that China, which claimed 61% of the ad spending for the region in 2007, has emerged …