Shivapriya Wirtschaftlichen Zeiten Forex

Quelle: The Economic Times 11 Jun, 2008, 0000 hrs IST, N Shivapriya, ET Bureau Need zu konzentrieren ist mehr für ein mittelgroßes co Nach acht Jahren bei Wipro, wo er einige seiner frühesten Akquisitionen und leitete die wichtigsten Americas und Europa Märkte, PR Chandrasekar zog nach Hexaware Technologies letzten zwei Wochen als CEO. Seine Verschiebung kommt zu einer Zeit, wenn schlechte Devisen-Verträge Hexaware getroffen haben und das mittlere IT-Segment ist auf dem Rückgang. In einem Interview mit ET. Hexaware CEO PR Chandrasekar spricht darüber, warum er die Verschiebung und seine Pläne, Hexaware zu einem Milliarden-Dollar-Unternehmen wachsen. Auszüge: Der Marktanteil der mittelständischen IT-Unternehmen schrumpft, und Branchenexperten prognostizieren, dass sie für härtere Zeiten sein könnten. Die Situation ist mit der US-Verlangsamung anspruchsvoller geworden. Glaubst du immer noch glaube es gibt Platz für mittelständische Unternehmen zu wachsen Was sind Ihre Pläne für Hexaware Es gibt keine einfachen Antworten. Es ist ein schwieriges Umfeld, aber Wachstum ist immer noch passiert. Unternehmen wie Infosys und Wipro haben das Offshore-Modell glaubwürdig gemacht, was wiederum die Glaubwürdigkeit für Unternehmen wie Hexaware erhöht hat. Wir können diese nutzen, um zu wachsen, solange wir in der Lage sind, bestimmte Kompetenzen anzubieten. Wir werden die Art und Weise, wie wir Kundenkonten verwalten, weiter intensivieren und nutzen, was wir bereits in Bereichen wie BPO, Testing und Risikomanagement haben. Nach vielen kleinen Deals würden die Kosten steigen und die Margen unter Druck setzen, vor allem für mittelständische Unternehmen. Was sagen Sie Überraschend, ist diese Bindung nicht sehr unterschiedlich für große Unternehmen. Sein gerade die Skala, die unterschiedlich ist. Unsere Absicht ist nicht, eine Menge von Kunden zu verfolgen, sondern die zu identifizieren, die wir brauchen, um danach zu gehen. Ich glaube, die Notwendigkeit, sich zu konzentrieren ist noch größer für eine mittelständische Unternehmen. In mancher Hinsicht ist es nicht so viel, was Sie tun werden, aber was Sie nicht tun. Also, gehen Sie nach einem anderen Satz von Kunden, die kleiner und relativ unterdurchdringlich sind Wir können nicht nur gehen, nachdem diese Kunden. Sie können nicht ignorieren einige große Kunden, weil sie so viel Gelegenheit bieten. Wir werden Allianzen mit Microsoft oder SAP in Technologien und Paketlösungen rund um sie haben. Plus, eine Menge von Kunden haben begonnen, die Differenzierung zwischen Dienstleistungen wie Infrastruktur-Beschaffung oder ADM (Anwendungsentwicklung und Wartung). Also, während es Vendor Konsolidierung in Projekten gibt es auch eine neue Kategorie, die auf verschiedene Anbieter für verschiedene Dienste sieht. Es gibt Führungskräfte, die außerordentlich gut in großen Unternehmen getan haben, aber nicht so gut in kleineren Unternehmen durchführen. Was macht den Unterschied Sie sollten mich fragen, drei Jahre ab jetzt. Ich habe nicht die Antwort heute. Vielleicht ist das eine gute Sache. Weil manchmal, wenn Sie zu viel denken, Sie nicht ändern. Ich fühle, dass eines der Dinge, um zu schützen ist nicht zu duplizieren, was kommt natürlich in einer großen Firma. Warum haben Sie sich Hexaware Beide beruflichen und persönlichen Gründen. Professionell war dies eine Chance für mich, ein Unternehmen durch und durch als CEO führen. Basierend auf meinem Gespräch mit Atul (Nishar) und was Ive abgeholt aus dem Markt und anderen Quellen, Hexaware hat eine Reihe von talentierten Menschen und eine gute Reihe von Kunden, ausreichende Infrastruktur, Ressourcen. So professionell, hier ist eine Chance, alle Herausforderungen zu stellen, und wenn Sie es auf die nächste Ebene zu nehmen, das ist eine große Leistung Real-Time After Hours Pre-Market News Flash Zitat Zusammenfassung Zitat Interaktive Charts Default-Einstellung Bitte beachten Sie, dass, sobald Sie machen Ihre Auswahl, wird es für alle zukünftigen Besuche der NASDAQ gelten. Wenn Sie zu einem beliebigen Zeitpunkt daran interessiert sind, auf die Standardeinstellungen zurückzukehren, wählen Sie bitte die Standardeinstellung oben. Wenn Sie Fragen haben oder Probleme beim Ändern Ihrer Standardeinstellungen haben, senden Sie bitte eine E-Mail an isfeedbacknasdaq. Bitte bestätigen Sie Ihre Auswahl: Sie haben ausgewählt, Ihre Standardeinstellung für die Angebotssuche zu ändern. Dies ist nun Ihre Standardzielseite, wenn Sie Ihre Konfiguration nicht erneut ändern oder Cookies löschen. Sind Sie sicher, dass Sie Ihre Einstellungen ändern möchten, haben wir einen Gefallen zu bitten Bitte deaktivieren Sie Ihren Anzeigenblocker (oder aktualisieren Sie Ihre Einstellungen, um sicherzustellen, dass Javascript und Cookies aktiviert sind), damit wir Sie weiterhin mit den erstklassigen Marktnachrichten versorgen können Und Daten, die Sie kommen, um von uns zu erwarten. IT News Flash INDUSTRY NASSCOM FORMS EXPERT PANEL TO HELP ENTREPRENEURS New Delhi Die Economic Times Business Standard Deccan Herald Nasscom am Mittwoch angekündigt, ein Gremium von Experten zu knüpfen Unternehmer bauen starke Software-Unternehmen helfen. Im Einklang mit der globalen Agenda von Nasscom8217, kontinuierlich neue Chancenbereiche zu identifizieren und ein solides Umfeld für das Wachstum der Branche zu schaffen, geben wir heute die Gründung des Product Business Guidance Panel bekannt, erklärte Nasscom-Präsident Kiran Karnik. Der PGBP wird unter Product Forum Special Interest Group funktionieren. Das Gremium würde eine Kerngruppe von Industrievertretern umfassen, mit dem Ziel, als Unternehmer für Unternehmer tätig zu sein, Organisationen, die sich an den verschiedenen Aspekten der Gründung und dem Betrieb einer Softwareproduktfirma orientieren möchten. Die indigene Software-Produkt-Sektor war noch in einem frühen Stadium der Entwicklung und braucht Anleitung von Experten, unabhängig davon, dass Indien hat globale Anerkennung als Software-Kraftpaket gewonnen hat Karnik hinzugefügt. Ziel ist es, Unternehmen und Unternehmern dabei behilflich zu sein, starke Softwareproduktfirmen aufzubauen, indem sie ihnen helfen, eine Vielzahl von Herausforderungen zu meistern, sagte Subhash Menon, der das Produktforum leiten wird. Zu den Mitgliedern des PGBP-Panels gehören der CEO von SubexAzureamong, Leiter der Accenture Technology Labs Lin Chase, der CEO von mChek, Sanjay Swamy, Jumpstartup Fund Advisors, MD Sanjay Anandaram, Verismo Networks VP und GM (Operations) Abhay Dubey, Compulink MD und CEO Vishwas Mahajan und Airtight Netzwerke Vizepräsident (Ingenieurwesen) Samir Palnitkar. GOVT STUDY ZU SET UP IT INVESTMENT REGIONEN Neu-Delhi Die Economic Times Die Regierung führt eine Studie zur Einrichtung von IT-Investitionsregionen, die dazu beitragen würde, globale Investitionen anzuziehen. Die IT-Investitionsregionen würden den globalen Unternehmen dabei helfen, geeignete Standorte für ihre Investitionen zu identifizieren. IT - und Kommunikationssekretär Jainder Singh erklärte PTI am Rande der Elcomp India 2007. Allerdings weigerte er sich, weitere Details dazu zu geben. Früher, während Sprechen auf der Veranstaltung sagte er eine acht-köpfige chinesische Delegation besuchen Indien heute. Die Regierung würde mit dem Besuchsteam diskutieren Wege zur Förderung der verarbeitenden Industrie. Singh sagte, dass Indien im elektronischen Hardware-Herstellungssektor noch hinkt. Weltweit würde die elektronische Hardware-Design-Markt deutlich zu 155 Milliarden Dollar in den nächsten 20-30 Jahren von 43 Milliarden Dollar derzeit erhöhen. AP ERWARTET GROSSE INVESTITIONEN AUS WEST ASIEN Hyderabad Die Hindu Business LineDie staatliche Informationstechnologie und Kommunikation Minister, R. Damodar Reddy, heute angedeutet, auf die Möglichkeit der Investition von Rs 6.000 crore aus Dubai und Ras Al Khaimah. Bei einer Pressekonferenz am Mittwoch nach einem Handelsdelegationsbesuch in Dubai sagte Reddy, ohne in konkrete Projekte zu gehen, diese Investitionen in den Bereichen IT, Telekommunikation und Hardware. Ras Al Kahiamah ist Gastgeber für mehr als 3.500 Unternehmen, von denen 41 Prozent Unternehmen mit indischem Ursprung sind. Er sagte, dass Ras al Khaimah Freihandelszone daran interessiert war, komplette Geschäftslösungen anzubieten, und bot Inkubatoranlagen zu den indischen Firmen an und äußerte Interesse an der Zusammenarbeit mit der Andhra Pradesh Regierung. Reddy sagte der Gitex Hyderabad statt jedes Jahr im Januar wird nicht im Januar 2008 statt und stattdessen ein IT-Gipfel im März stattfinden wird. Er sagte, dass während der Interaktion mit dem Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC), bat die letzteren die Landesregierung, die Zusammenarbeit fortzusetzen. DUE DATE FOR ADVANCE FRINGE BENEFIT STEUER ERWEITERT Neu-Delhi Die Hindu Business LineDas Finanzministerium am Mittwoch sagte, dass die erste und zweite Tranche der Vorschuss Nebenerwerbssteuer (FBT) auf Mitarbeiter Aktienoptionsprogramme (ESOPs) könnte am oder vor dem 15. Dezember bezahlt werden, Der das Datum der dritten Tranche ist. Der Umzug, mehr Zeit zu geben, diese Raten zu zahlen, kam im Gefolge des Fehlens von entsprechenden Richtlinien von der zentralen Direktion der Direkten Steuern (CBDT) für die Bestimmung des Marktwertes von solchen Optionen oder Schwitzen Aktien Aktien. Eine offizielle Version sagte, dass CBDT war derzeit in der 8220-Endphase8221 der Finalisierung der Methode zur Bestimmung des Marktwertes. Die erste Tranche des Vorschusses FBT sollte am 15. Juni bezahlt werden und die zweite Tranche war am 15. September fällig. 8216TECHNOLOGIE MACHT DAS LEBEN EASY8217 Vishakha Talreja Die ökonomische Zeiten (Bangalore Ausgabe) Beim Reisen auf dem Luftweg liebt er, Schach auf seinem Handy zu spielen, während Sein Laptop ist sein Begleiter auf der Straße. Moninder Jain, Regisseur, Indien Südostasien, Logitech (ein Computer-Peripherie-Unternehmen), ist ein technisch versierte Musik-Buff zu. Sein bevorzugtes Handy ist ein Sony Ericsson W900i. 8220It8217s eines jener wenigen Telefone, die ein Schachspiel hat und it8217s viele Niveaus. Ich schalte ihn in den Flugmodus, wenn ich an Bord bin und mein Schachspiel genieße, sagt er. Er verwendet auch ein Motorola Razr V3i und ein Dell-Laptop. Jain ist sehr gern von Gadgets, vor allem die, die er in seinem Wohnzimmer verwendet. Er hat ein Streaming-Musiksystem, das bei der Übertragung von Musik vom PC zum Heimkinosystem, drahtlos hilft. 8220Ich höre alle Arten von Musik von Ghazals bis zu westlichen Klassikern bis zu Bollywood-Liedern. Dieses Gadget kommt praktisch als I8217m ein großer Zeitmusik-Buff, 8221 sagte er. Er hat auch einen 80 GB Video-iPod und freut sich auf den kürzlich gestarteten iPod. 8220I haben alle iPod-Zubehör wie Lautsprecher und Mobiltelefone. Ich warte nur auf den neuen aufgerüsteten iPod, 8221 sagt er aufgeregt. HDIL UNVEILS RS 2.000-CRORE IT-PARK IN KOCHI Bangalore Die Wirtschaftszeit (Delhi Ausgabe) Housing Development und Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) ist das neueste Mitglied des Rennens für die Einrichtung von IT-Parks in Kerala. Das Unternehmen entdeckt Rs 2.000-crore IT-Park in Kalamassery bei Kochi, auf 70 Hektar, die von HMT für rund Rs 150 crore erworben wurde, sagte Quellen. Das Projekt HDIL8217s wird auf 7,9 Millionen Quadratfuß geschätzt, wovon rund 5,4 Millionen auf IT-Ventures in den Bereichen Hardware, Software, BPO und KPO eingestellt werden. HDIL, ein Teil der Wadhawan-Gruppe, hat der koreanischen Regierung mitgeteilt, dass das Projekt etwa 50.000 Arbeitsplätze schaffen könnte. NORWEST VENTURE PARTNER ERÖFFNET OFFICE IN INDIEN Mumbai Die Economic Times (Bangalore Ausgabe) Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), eine führende Silicon Valley Venture Capital Firma, hat ihre Niederlassung in Indien eröffnet. Das Unternehmen, geführt von Promod Haque, ist bekannt für seine Technologie Investitionen bekannt. Sein Portfolio umfasst 60 Unternehmen, darunter 20, die in den USA basieren, aber eine indische Präsenz haben. Fünf seiner Beteiligungen befinden sich in Indien. Norwest8217s Indien-Operationen werden in Mumbai basieren und Geschäftsführer Niren Shah wird der Indien-Kopf sein. Anders als einige VC Firmen, die Indien spezifische Fonds geschwommen haben, NVP bildet alle seine Investitionen von einem globalen Fonds. Die Investitionen sind in den USA, Indien und Israel. Mike Shaw führt eine Investition von rund 2 Millionen in das in Bangalore ansässige IT-Produktunternehmen Agile Labs ein. Der Deal ist der jüngste, was offenbar ein wachsender Investorenappetit für produktgetriebene IT-Start-ups ist. Agile Labs hat eine Prozess-Engine 8212 Profit5RM 8212 in der Enterprise-Anwendungsdomäne entwickelt. Laut Quellen ist die Investition von Mike Shaw und einer Mumbai-basierten Gruppe von Private-Equity-Spieler. Herr Shaw wird einen Platz im Vorstand der Gesellschaft einnehmen. ET hatte früher geschrieben, dass Agile viel Interesse von VC-Firmen und Investoren wie IDG Ventures, Vinod Khosla8217s Norwest Venture Partners, Cognizant und Jerry Rao sah. Als kontaktiert, Agile Labs CEO Raghunathan Perumal bestätigt, dass sein Unternehmen hat die Finanzierung von rund 1,5 Millionen geschlossen. 8220Die Mittel werden für neue Infrastrukturen, die Einrichtung von Marketingbüros in den USA, Europa, Australien und Afrika und die Einstellung von Beratern verwendet werden, sagte er. Das Unternehmen, das bereits über 300 indische KMU-Kunden für das Produkt, zielt auf Einnahmen von Rs 3 crore in GJ08. Profit5RM ist eine Technologieplattform, auf der Echtzeit-Enterprise-Anwendungen wie SCM, CRM und ERP ohne Schreiben von Softwareprogrammen erstellt werden können. Da es keinen Code für einen bestimmten Geschäftsprozess enthält, ist die Laufzeit nur eine 5 MB-Anwendung, die in der Lage ist, Enterprise-Anwendungen jeder Größe zu rendern. Dies ist ein wichtiger Unterschied zwischen den bestehenden Framework-basierten Enterprise-Anwendungen wie SAP und Siebel. Die Entwicklung jeder Anwendung ist auch schneller, da weltliche Software-Programme wie GUI, Transaction Management, Messaging automatisiert werden. (Mumbai Ausgabe) Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, eine Tochtergesellschaft des französischen Konglomerats Alcatel, plant technologische Bindung-mit zwei von India8217s führenden Technologiefirmen, von TCS und von von Reliance. \ R \ n \ r \ nAcatel ARM EYES TECHNICAL TIE-UPS MIT TCS, RCOM Rajesh Unnikrishnan, Mitteilungen. Am Rande der G-Force 2007, sagte Genesys Telecommunication Labs Indien Geschäftsführer Sunny Rao, dass sie in den Prozess der Fertigstellung Allianzen mit TCS und Reliance Communications. 8220 Wir werden diese beiden Bündnisse bald offiziell bekannt geben, sagte er. Während TCS die Entwicklung von Softwareanwendungen für die Kernbank - und Enterprise Resource Planning mit Hilfe von Software-Anwendungen entwickelt, die von Genesys entwickelt wurden, wird das US-Unternehmen die Call Center von Reliance Communications8217 sowie die von ihnen verwalteten kleinen Call Center verwalten. Genesys, führender Anbieter von Call-Center-Technologien, hat vor kurzem einige Schlüsseltechnologien vorgestellt, die die Contact Center-Branche in der Region Asien-Pazifik in den nächsten 3-5 Jahren beeinflussen werden. Bei G-Force Melbourne, einer Veranstaltung von Genesys Telecom Labs USA vor kurzem in Melbourne, Australien, konzertierte die gesamte globale Contact Center-Branche, um Trends hinsichtlich Technologien zur Verbesserung der Kundendienst - und Erfahrungsstandards zu diskutieren. Sprechen bei G-Force Melbourne, sagte Genesys Telecom Laboratories CEO Wes Hayden sie erweitern Operationen in Indien. 8220Wir haben bereits ein Forschungs-und Entwicklungszentrum in Chennai, 8221 er sagte, und fügte hinzu, dass das Wachstum der Internet-und mobilen Plattformen wird Einführung neuer Herausforderungen für kundenorientierte Organisationen. IP-Technologie über Plattformen wird die Kundenservice-Methoden in der mittel-bis langfristig dominieren, sagte er. 8220Das kürzlich eingeführte dynamische Contact Center-Konzept steht im Mittelpunkt dieser Revolution und wir sehen ein enormes Potenzial für Traktion und Akzeptanz dieser Technologien in Indien und der APAC-Region vor, sagte er. TRIPLE POINT KAUFEN CORAL GRID Pune Die Hindu Business LineTriple Point Technology, Anbieter branchenübergreifender Softwareplattformen für das Angebot, den Handel, das Marketing und die Warenbewegungen, hat angekündigt, dass sie Coral Grid Software (P) Ltd, ein in Chennai ansässiges Unternehmen, erworben hat Edelmetall-Software-Anbieter. Anand Veerkar, President, Asia Operations, Triple Point Technology und Krishnan Padmanabhan, Direktor Marketing, Coral Grid, teilten den Pressemitteilungen mit, dass die Akquisition im August abgeschlossen sei, während sie sich zu den finanziellen Details des Deals nicht äußern werde. Die Akquisition erfolgt durch interne Rückstellungen. Das Unternehmen ist jedoch nicht für die zweite Runde der Finanzierung in der unmittelbaren Zukunft suchen. Anand sagte, die Akquisition würde auch Cross-Selling-Chancen, wie Coral Grid Kunden waren in erster Linie die Finanzinstitute in Asien. SFO TECH SCOUTING FÜR AKQUISITIONEN Preeti Mehra Das Hindu Business LineRecently in Stockholm SFO Technologies, das 200-Millionen-US-amerikanische Konglomerat von Technologie-Unternehmen, das Teil der NeST-Gruppe ist, sucht nach Akquisitionen in Indien, um das Elektronik - und Softwareoptik-Geschäft weiter auszubauen. 8220Wir schauen, um indische Betriebsmittel in der Elektronik - und Softwareoptik zu verwenden, mit Plänen, über die Auftragsfertigung hinauszugehen. Dafür könnten wir eine Akquisition in Indien durchführen, sagte 8221 Dr. David Darby, General Manager der Northlight Division von SFO Technologies mit Sitz in Stockholm, Schweden. Das Unternehmen wurde im vergangenen Jahr von der NeST Group übernommen. Northlight entwirft, produziert, vertreibt und vertreibt optische Sender, Empfänger und Faserverstärker für optische Netze bis zu 10 Gbit / s. NEUE VERSION DER IBM SOFTWARE Bangalore Die Hindu Business Line Die Times of India Die Economic TimesIBM hat die neuesten Versionen ihrer Enterprise Collaboration Software, Lotus Notes 8 und Lotus Domino 8 veröffentlicht. Lotus Notes 8 vereint E-Mail, Kalender, Instant Messaging, Office-Produktivitäts-Tools und benutzerdefinierte Anwendungen. Es enthält Produktivitätswerkzeuge, die es Benutzern ermöglichen, offene, standardbasierte Versionen von Tabellenkalkulationen, Textverarbeitungsdokumenten und Präsentationen zu erstellen, zusätzlich zur Unterstützung vieler Dateiformate aus traditionellen eigenständigen Anwendungen. Es unterstützt auch mehrere Plattformen, darunter Linux und Windows für Clients und Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, AIX und IBM System i für Server. DHANUS TECHNOLOGIE ZUR ERWEITERUNG VON INFRASTRUKTURMÖGLICHKEITEN Mumbai / Ahmedabad Business StandardDanus Technologies, die im Juni auf Pilotenfahrten mit FleeTrac getestet wurden, plant, ihre Infrastruktur-Support-Systeme durch den Kauf von Netzwerk-Betriebssystemen für ITES und FleeTrac zu erweitern. Das Unternehmen hatte die Registrierung für die Einrichtung eines Fahrzeug-Tracking-System mit einem Fahrzeug montiert Einheit (VMU) erhalten. Unternehmen Beamte sagte der Fahrzeug-Tracking-Service gefunden hat begünstigt mit großen Transport-und Logistik-Spieler und nahe 12.00.000 Kunden wurden während der Pilot-Test selbst erworben. Laut Daten internationaler Umfragen dürften die Verkäufe von Fahrzeugverfolgungssystemen in Indien zwischen 2008 und 2009 etwa 35 Millionen erreichen. Um ihre infrastrukturellen Anlagen auszubauen, wird das Unternehmen am 10. September mit einer öffentlichen Emission von 38.35.000 Aktien von Rs 10 jeweils über einen 100prozentigen Bookbuilding-Prozess in die Kapitalmärkte eintreten. Dhanus ist in drei Branchen vertreten, darunter Telekarten (V-Tel globale Calling Cards), teleservicesTESPO und Softwaredienste (BPO Services und Software Services und Entwicklung) sowie Telematik (FleeTrac Vehicle Tracking Services). Nahezu 70 Prozent der Umsatzerlöse des Unternehmens8217s stammen aus dem weltweiten Calling-Card-Segment, die Telematik-Vertikale werden in den kommenden Jahren als bedeutende Umsatzerlöse betrachtet. Als Teil ihrer Pläne, in der anderen ITeS-Vertikale zu wachsen, startete das Unternehmen im Jahr 2006 den BPO-Betrieb. Derzeit umfasst der BPO-Betrieb 85 Sitze und wird bis Ende 2007 auf 500 Sitze erweitert. Der Bereich bietet Schuldenlösungen und Telemarketing-Dienstleistungen an Dem Vereinigten Königreich, den USA und Australien. Alle Server befinden sich in Santa Clara und Florida, USA. RUPEE-HIT ES EXPORTEURE KÖNNEN EINE REGIERUNG HELFEN Niranjan Bharati, Neu-Delhi Die ökonomischen Zeiten Die Regierung plant frische Sops für Softwareexporteure, die durch die scharfe Wertschätzung im Wert von Rupie in den letzten Monaten geschlagen worden sind. Der Hauptbestandteil des Pakets wäre eine Verringerung der Bandbreitengebühren für Unternehmen, die Geschäfte von Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Quellen in der Abteilung für Information Technology (DIT), sagte. 8220Zur Anfang planen wir, die für den Datenexport benötigten Bandbreiten auf ein einheitliches Niveau von Rs 7 lakh pro zwei Megabyte pro Sekunde (Mbps) aus dem derzeitigen Bereich von Rs 11-14 lakh pro zwei Mbps zu reduzieren, 8221 ein Beamter in der DIT sagte. Die Regierung, fügte er hinzu, war auch in Betracht ziehen Anreize für die Exporteure in einigen anderen Bereichen als auch. Der Umzug würde als eine große Erleichterung für die verhältnismäßig kleinen Exporteure kommen, die hart durch die scharfe Aufwertung im Wert der Rupie gegen den Dollar während der letzten Monate geschlagen worden sind. Die Rupie hat in den vergangenen acht Monaten etwa 12 Prozent gegenüber dem Dollar geschätzt und damit die Gewinnmargen der IT-Exporteure, die die Mehrheit der Kunden in den USA haben, untergraben. Gegenwärtig hat STPI unterschiedliche Bandbreitengebühren für Softwareparks, abhängig von der Stadt, in der sie sich befinden. Die Gebühren sind auf der Oberseite für eine Metro wie Delhi oder Bangalore, während sie auf der Unterseite für Tier-II oder Tier-III Städte sind. Der Umzug würde jedoch keine Belastung für die Finanzen der Regierung machen, da die Bandbreiten in den letzten paar Jahren stark gesunken sind, sagte er. Die Industrie hat ständig verlangt, dass die Gebühren reduziert werden. STPI normalerweise Bandbreiten von Telekom-Biggies wie Bharti und dann verleiht es an kleinere Unternehmen zu vergleichsweise günstigen Tarifen. QUSCIENT GETS RECOGNITION Chennai Die HinduQuscient Technologies hat weltweit die vierte Position in der Bereitstellung von Outsourcing-Finanz - / Buchhaltungsdienstleistungen für mittelständische Kunden in den Tabellenlisten des Black Book on Outsourcing bewertet. Quscient hat drei Lieferzentren in Chennai, sagt eine Freigabe von der Firma. SUN FÜHRT DIENSTLEISTUNGSMARKT IN INDIEN Bangalore Die ökonomische Zeit (Bangalore Ausgabe) Sun Microsystems Indien gab bekannt, dass es eine führende Position im nicht-x86 / UNIX Bedienermarkt im zweiten Viertel von 2007 in Indien, mit 60.1 Marktanteil in den Einheitsausdrücken verdient hat Und 46,6 Marktanteil in den Einkommenausdrücken. Dies ist nach IDC8217 Asien-Pacific Quarterly Enterprise Server Tracker, 2Q 2007, August 2007. Sun war auch der Nummer eins Anbieter über Segmente in den Non-x86 / Unix-, High-End-, Mid-Range-und Volume-Server-Segmente in Indien , Sowohl in den Versandbedingungen als auch in den Umsatzbedingungen. Darüber hinaus setzte Sun seine Nummer drei Position in Indien auf dem gesamten Server-Markt in 2Q 2007 in Bezug auf Umsatz beibehalten. SAMSUNG-TUNES FÜR DEN BIGGER DIGITALEN SPITZEN Pritha Mitra Dasgupta, Mumbai DNASamsung, bekannt für seine TV-Geräte, Kühlschränke und Klimaanlagen, konzentriert sich mittlerweile weitgehend auf digitale Medienprodukte wie MP3-Player und Camcorder, um das enorme Potenzial im Segment zu erschließen. In der country8217s MP3-Markt, der meist mit chinesischen Produkten befallen ist, hat Samsung derzeit einen Anteil von 12 Prozent. R Zutshi, stellvertretender Geschäftsführer von Samsung, sagte: 8220Wir sehen ein großes Potenzial im MP3-Geschäft und wollen es durch Vielfalt weiter stärken und durch Konzentration auf den Einzelhandelskanal. Wir haben bereits einen Vorteil dank Design und Features. Nach der Verringerung der Aufgaben im vergangenen Jahr, wurde es einfacher für uns, die Preise wettbewerbsfähiger zu machen. Wir überarbeiteten die Preise im vergangenen Jahr nach dem Budget und sie sind ziemlich stabil jetzt.8221 Von Oktober-November wird Samsung drei neue Modelle von MP3-Playern zu starten. Das Flaggschiff der neuen Serie heißt YP-P2 Palm Theatre. Das YP-P2 verfügt über eine Reihe von Funktionen, darunter Musik, Video, UKW-Radio und Sprachaufzeichnung, tragbare Dateispeicher, etc. Das YP-P2 verfügt über bis zu 35 Stunden Musikwiedergabe, 5 Stunden Filmwiedergabe und ist verfügbar 2 GB, 4 GB und 8 GB NAND-Flash-Speicher. Während die bestehende Palette von Produkten im Bereich von Rs 3.980-Rs 9.000, wird die neue Palette von Preisen zwischen Rs 10.000 und Rs 15.000 festgesetzt werden. DOT-AKTIEN EINE IDEE, UM MEHR LÄNDLICHE BEREICHE UNTER NETZ ZU BRINGEN Rishi Raj, Vrishti Beniwal, Neu-Delhi Die Financial Express-DNANachdem ein großer Erfolg bei der Infrastrukturverteilung für mobile Dienste im ländlichen Raum erkennbar ist, hat die Abteilung für Telekommunikation (DoT) Verbesserung der Breitbandkonnektivität in den ländlichen Gebieten des Landes. Betreiber, die bereit sind, Glasfasernetz für Breitbanddienste zu nutzen, erhalten Unterstützung vom Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), wie sie es bei mobilen Diensten gibt. Gegenwärtig tragen alle Betreiber 5 der bereinigten Bruttoeinnahmen zum USOF bei. In einem Brief an alle Dienstleister, schrieb DoT-Sekretärin DS Mathur, 8220 Um in dieser Richtung voranzukommen, besteht die Notwendigkeit, das OFC-Netz in ländlichen und abgelegenen Gebieten zu stärken, und USOF plant, ein neues System für diese 8221 einzuführen. Derzeit haben mehrere Dienstleister ein Glasfaser-Kabel (OFC) - Netzwerk bis zu den Bezirkshauptquartieren. Jedoch ist die Backhaulkapazität zwischen Bezirkshauptquartieren und Blockhauptquartieren unzulänglich. In Anbetracht dessen wurde das Telekommunikationsberatungs - und Ingenieurbüro TCIL des öffentlichen Sektors mit der Aufgabe betraut, eine Studie durchzuführen und Informationen von Dienstleistern und Organisationen mit OFC-Netz in den ländlichen Gebieten sowohl hinsichtlich der Faserkapazität als auch der Endgerätekapazitäten zu sammeln. HUDA RECORDS ZUR VERFÜGBARKEIT Ravindra Nath Jha Hindustan Times (Delhi Ausgabe) Alle Rekorde von Haryana Urban Development Authoritys (HUDA) Grundstückseigentümer werden nun online verfügbar sein. Die Behörde hat beschlossen, alle ihre Büros im Staat zu computerisieren. HUDA hat eine Privatbank angeheuert, um diesen Plan in den nächsten sechs Monaten durchzuführen. Der Schritt wurde unternommen, um Transparenz in der Arbeit des Personals zu gewährleisten und Korruption im HUDA-Büro zu bremsen, sagte T. C. Gupta, Chief Administrator, HUDA. Der Umzug wird auch dazu beitragen, eine Überprüfung der Immobilienhändler, die in und um die HUDA Büro zu bewegen, irreführende Grundstückseigentümer, fügte Gupta. HUDA hat verschiedene Initiativen zur Überprüfung der Korruption in der Abteilung. Die Installation von Nahkommunikationsfernsehen (CCTV), die Ausstellung von Personalausweisen an alle HUDA Mitarbeiter sind einige davon. TIGER CAPITAL INVEST 12M IN MakeMyTrip Boby Kurian Urvashi Jha, Bangalore The Economic Times (Delhi-Ausgabe) US-Hedge-Fonds Tiger Kapital wird voraussichtlich 10-12000000 in India8217s größten Online-Reiseunternehmen MakeMyTrip zu investieren, hieß es. Der Deal ist der Abschluss und kommt, auch wenn das Unternehmen kurzfristig Pläne für einen Börsengang zurückgeschoben hat. FLAG TELE BAGS CERN CONTRACT Mumbai The Hindu Business Line Deccan Chronicle Reliance Communications8217 Besitz FLAG Telecom Group Limited (FLAG) einen Vertrag von CERN, der Europäischen Organisation für Kernforschung gewonnen hat, Gigabit-Konnektivität zwischen dem organisation8217s Forschungszentrum in Genf und Tata Institute zur Verfügung zu stellen Der Grundlagenforschung in Mumbai. Diese Bekanntmachung ist gut für die jüngsten Intentionen von FLAG8217, ein Next Generation Network (NGN) zu implementieren, bekannt als die globale Service Delivery Platform, die eine globale Bandbreite anbieten kann, sagte eine Aussage von Reliance Communications, die die finanziellen Details nicht enthüllte der Deal. CENTRE SETZT E-AUKTION IN GEWÜRZEN AUF FAST TRACK Bangalore The Economic Times (Mumbai-Ausgabe) Die Union Handelsministerium groß auf elektronische Auktionen wettet (e-Auktionen) eine Preisbasis für die Erzeuger Informationsplattform zur Verfügung zu stellen, insbesondere in den Gewürzen Sektor. Nach dem Start e-Auktionen für Tee, hofft das Ministerium nun, e-Auktion für Kardamom nationalen nehmen und machen es verfügbar an allen 15 Zentren, wo das Produkt gehandelt wird. IT MINISTER Bhopal Der PioneerIT Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya während Adressierung einer Sitzung des beratenden Ausschusses der Abteilung sagte am Dienstag, dass Maßnahmen gemeinsame Dienstleistungszentren in den Staat zu gründen würde bald unter die eingeleitet werden: 9232 E-Kiosken im Zustand SET UP E-Governance-Plan. Diese Zentren würden helfen, schnelle Dienste für den gemeinsamen Mann auf dem Gebiet der Bildung, Gesundheit, Unterhaltung neben der Bereitstellung von verschiedenen Daten-und High-Level-Videos. Er teilte mit, dass so viele wie 9.232 gemeinsame Service-Zentren (E-Kioske) im Staat eingerichtet werden würde. Auch würde die Beschäftigung 16 000 Personen indirekt über dieses Projekt zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Vijayvargiya sagte, dass ein Zuschuss von Rs 1,30 Crore wurde von der Union Regierung für Madhya Pradesh im Rahmen der nationalen e-Governance-Plan sanktioniert. Darüber hinaus e-Governance Straßenkarte und Blaupause wurde von der staatlichen Regierung genehmigt wurde an die Union Regierung für seine Zustimmung gesendet worden. HCL Infosystems 100 KARRIEREENTWICKLUNG ZENTREN Chandigarh The Hindu Business Line The Economic Times Business Standard DNAIn eine Anstrengung zu öffnen und die Lücke in Angebot und Nachfrage von Fachkräften in der IT-Branche zu überbrücken, die 2,7-Milliarden-HCL Infosystems plant 100 weitere berufliche Entwicklung Zentren zu öffnen Über das Land innerhalb eines Jahres. Wir werden 100 weitere solche Zentren im Land eröffnen, die die Einschreibung von 60.000-70.000 Studenten innerhalb der nächsten 12 Monate beinhalten werden, sagte HCL Infosystems Executive Vizepräsident Rajendra Kumar Reportern hier nach dem Start des 31. Zentrums. Das Unternehmen hat 5.000-6.000 Studenten in diesen Zentren eingeschrieben. Die Studierenden verfügen nicht über die erforderlichen Fähigkeiten auf führende Technologien, die ganz entscheidend für den Aufbau der IT-, Kommunikations - und Telekommunikationsinfrastruktur im Land sind. Es wird geschätzt, dass es eine jährliche Nachfrage von rund 2 lakh Networking-Profis im Land, während das Angebot auf etwa 60 Prozent der Nachfrage begrenzt ist, fügte er hinzu. Bis 2010, sagte er, würde es eine Nachfrage für 2,3 Millionen Profis im Land geben. IT-gestützter Dienste SPANCO Pläne BPO VENTURES N Shivapriya, Mumbai Der Wirtschafts - TimesSpanco Telesystems und Lösungen entflechten, die den Zuschlag für die Einrichtung und ein flächendeckendes Contact-Center-Netzwerk für die Bahn läuft, wird die Konsolidierung aller Geschäftsprozess-Outsourcing (BPO) Ventures unter Eine 100-prozentige Tochtergesellschaft, Spanco BPO Ventures. Die neue Gesellschaft wird auch als Holding für alle ihre Joint Ventures im BPO-Geschäft tätig sein, darunter das Eisenbahnprojekt Bharat BPO Services, an dem sie mit 50 Prozent beteiligt ist. Spanco8217s Middle East Joint Venture, in dem es 51 Prozent hält, sein Call-Center-Geschäft in Großbritannien und das internationale BPO-Geschäft von Respondez wird nun unter Spanco BPO Ventures kommen. Mit ihrer Vereinbarung mit Intelenet Global Services (jetzt mehrheitlich im Besitz des Private Equity-Unternehmens Blackstone), die im Mai 2007 zu Ende gegangen ist, wird das Unternehmen auch eigene BPO-Chancen anstreben. Spanco hatte sein inländisches BPO Geschäft, Sparsh abgebaut und es an Intelenet 2006 verkauft. Spanco8217s BPO Einkommen war Rs 35 crore oder weniger als 10 Prozent seines Gesamtumsatzes von Rs 430 crore, 2006-07. Das BPO hat eine Kapazität von 730 Sitzplätzen, aber dies kann mehr als verdoppeln. Ein Analyst mit einem lokalen Börsenmaklerunternehmen sagte, dass Spanco plant, seine Arbeitskräfte bis 2.000 bis 2008-09 aufzuladen. Nach dieser Kapazitätserweiterung dürften die Einnahmen aus dem BPO in den Jahren 2008-09 auf Rs 82,9 crore wachsen, bei 52 Prozent zusammengesetzte Jahresrate. Die Kerneinkommensmargen würden jedoch in diesem Jahr aufgrund einer niedrigeren Abrechnungsrate und höheren Personalkosten sinken, so der Analytiker. Spanco8217s Nahen Osten Joint Venture, das operativ im Dezember letzten, hat keine Offshore-Komponente. Aber die Nachfrage nach Call-Center-Dienstleistungen in dieser Region ist hoch, und pro Sitz Realisierungen könnten höher sein, nach Branchenexperten. Spanco8217s Systemintegration Geschäft, das Netzwerk-Engineering umfasst derzeit fast 90 Prozent seines Umsatzes. Das Netzwerk-Engineering-Geschäft umfasst den Aufbau von Telekom-Türmen und anderen netzbezogenen Infrastruktur-Services für Telekom-Betreiber. The company8217s share price, which has risen considerably in the last one year, has lost about 30 percent from its 52-week high of Rs 300 over the past month. On Monday, the stock ended 0.85 percent up at Rs 212.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. It currently trades at nearly 48 times its 12-month trailing earnings. AVIVA DEFERS TAKING BACK BOT CONTRACTS N Shivapriya, Mumbai The Economic TimesTwo leading India-based business process outsourcing firms, WNS Global Services and EXLService Holdings, got a breather as their client Aviva has deferred by three months a possible move to take back its build-operate-transfer (BOT) outsourcing contracts with them. Such a transfer typically leads to a sharp fall in revenues for the service providers. But with Aviva extending the date for exercising its transfer option, the earliest the shift can take place is only in April 2008, a source said. An Aviva Global Services spokesperson confirmed the development but did not cite any reasons for the extension. 8220The process of transfer has been deferred by three months. There are no other changes,8221 the spokesperson said. Between them, EXL and WNS have about 2,900 employees in Pune working on general insurance and life insurance transactions for Aviva. Under BOT contracts, outsourcing firms build teams and competencies to handle the business functions of their clients, which eventually take over those operations. Had Aviva exercised the transfer under the earlier deadline of January 2008, it would have dealt a severe blow to both WNS and EXL. TCS PLANS NEW TECH PLATFORMS Vishwanath Kulkarni, Bangalore The Hindu Business LineTata Consultancy Services (TCS) expects to launch two new technology platforms shortly, which should help the company expand its business process outsourcing (BPO) offerings. The Chief Operating Officer, N. Chandrasekaran, said the company expected to launch the human resource outsourcing (HRO) and finance and accounting (FA) platforms in the next couple of months, which have been developed internally. A technology platform is an underlying application on which transactions such as claims and mortgage among others could be processed to deliver the desired benefit for the customer8217s clientele. Chandrasekaran said the company8217s insurance platform was doing well and that the new platforms would be targeted at both existing and new customers. TCS is betting heavily on its Platform BPO business and expects to add few more platforms. 8220We will have about five to six new platforms over the next three years with each platform delivering a business of 100 million plus,8221 he said. The company is looking at areas such as retail and banking among other sectors and will be developing these new platforms on its own. 8220We may also look at partnerships in some cases to develop these platforms,8221 he said. TCS derives close to six percent of its revenues from the BPO business, which mainly comes from the transaction processing and platform-based offerings. The company does not have any voice-component in its BPO business. SEAGATE LAUNCHES NEW HARD DRIVE PRODUCTS IN INDIA New Delhi Mint The Economic Times Deccan HeraldIT products maker Seagate Technology on 12 September launched security and storage capacity devices for Indian consumers. The company unveiled nine products mainly hard drives, with a focus on data security and increased capacity to meet the demand for all types of digital content. 8220Security, data protection and simplicity are integral to the powerful products and solutions Seagate is delivering. From enterprise computing to consumer electronics, home entertainment, security and mobile applications, our products make it easy for users to keep their valuable data safe, secure and accessible,8221 Seagate CEO Bill Watkins said. The devices, meant for notebook, PC, mobile, video surveillance and small and medium business houses, have capacities up to one terabyte. However, the company has not fixed any price for the products. Seagate also announced its first one terabyte hard drive with full disc encryption for strong data security. WIPRO LAUNCHES SUPERCOMPUTERS Bangalore The Hindu Business Line The Times of India The Economic Times Mint Business Standard DNA The Tribune Deccan Herald The Hindu Wipro Infotech on Wednesday launched a range of supercomputers under the brand Supernova. Partnering with the US-based Z RESEARCH Inc, which specialises in commoditising supercomputers and superstorage, the company has developed a complete range of supercomputers. The entry-level supercomputer has a configuration of 1 trillion mathematical calculations per second. The fastest of them can deliver up to hundred thousand trillions of calculations per second. The storage products called Superstorage can hold hundreds of Petabytes of data. Supernova marks Wipro Infotech8217s foray into new markets. Targeting engineering colleges, technical training institutes, design start-ups, corporate research labs and media houses, the firm will begin selling in India and might take it abroad at a later stage, said Ashutosh Vaidya, Vice-President, Wipro Personal Computing. The global supercomputer market stands at 35 billion. Thunder currently ranks 19 in the list of top 500 supercomputers in the world. The companies plan to market a modular package of the supercomputing nodes with storage. The cost of such an entry level package will be Rs 25 lakh, for a combination of a 1 teraflop supercomputer with 4 Terabytes of storage, he said. 8220Thunder, to be renamed under the Supernova brand, is Z RESEARCH8217s open source supercomputer comprising a cluster of 4096 Intel Itanium2 processors with an output of 20 teraflops (a teraflop is a trillion calculations per sec).8221 HCL SERVER The TelegraphHCL Infosystems Ltd has launched Quad-socket high-end enterprise server IGL 4700 FC, which is based on Intel8217s 7300 series of Quad core Xeon MP processors. The server has got 16 computing cores in a 7-inch (4U) form factor. The server will be priced at Rs. 2.7 lakh onwards. SAHARA LAUNCHES NEW PRODUCTS New Delhi The HinduSahara Computers and Electronics on Wednesday launched a new range of personal computers. The range includes Core Duo and Core 2 Duo laptops and desktops besides Intel8217s new business platform Santa Rosa-based laptop. Priced between Rs. 25,999 and Rs. 45,000, the new range of computers has been re-engineered with a completely different look, promising customers value for money. 8220The new range of personal computers has been launched keeping in mind the expectations of our customers. Loaded with best features and latest technologies, the new products would help us in further strengthening our product portfolio,8221 Sahara Computers8217 COO George Van Der Merwe said. IGATE GLOBAL The Hindu Business LineTARGET: RS 383 Spark Capital has reiterated its buy recommendation on iGate Global. 8220We expect IGS to report fully diluted EPS of Rs 22.1 for FY-08 and Rs 32 for FY-09. At the current price of Rs 246, IGS trades at a P/E multiple of 11.1x FY08E EPS and 7.7x FY09E EPS. We believe that the current valuations are compelling for IGS, We assign a P/E of 12x based on the last year average forward P/E. Attaching this multiple to our FY09E fully diluted EPS, we arrive at a price target of Rs 383,8221 says a Spark study. CITRIX GROWS 41 IN H1 AS APPLICATION DELIVERY CATCHES ON IN INDIA Joe A Scaria, Thiruvananthapuram The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)US-based Citrix Systems, which entered the Indian market with the acquisition of a local company PowerTel Boca, has grown 41 in the country in the first half of 2007 as against the same period in 2006. Citrix India area vice-president Souma Das said the company was projecting a strong growth in the subcontinent going by the trend among Indian companies to opt for application delivery solutions. Citrix Systems, which is a global applications delivery major, acquired 140 customers in India last year, and added 87 customers in the first half of 2007. Company officials said there was a higher adoption of Citrix products by Indian telcos, which was a big growth driver. Application delivery and acceleration solutions help to slash application latency while using existing bandwidth to the optimum, with the focus being on application acceleration and WAN acceleration. Mr Das said many Indian companies faced the problem of delivering applications to remote users, with companies having branch offices located at remote sites. This in turn makes it difficult to deliver business-critical applications to users in these locations owing to poor and unreliable connectivity. BHARATH KALYANRAM IS PRESIDENT OF NESS TECH Bangalore The Economic Times (Mumbai edition)Ness Technologies, a global provider of IT services and solutions, on Wednesday announced the appointment of Bharath Kalyanram as its new president and managing director. He joins Ness Technologies from Perot Systems, where he served as vice-president for Apac and India. Kalyanram has several years of diverse business experience spanning information technology, consumer and industrial electronics and retail industries, a company statement said. TAIPEI ELECTRONICS SHOW IN CHENNAI Chennai The Economic TimesA three-day Taipei international electronics show, TAITRONICS India 2007, showcasing the latest trends in various industries and to increase bilateral trade co-operation, will be inaugurated here on September 14. Walter Yeh, executive vice president of Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) told reporters here that Taipei World Trade Centre and Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association had partnered with the Tamil Nadu government and the Confederation of Indian Industry to organise the show. TAITRA also opened its 2,400 sq ft Taiwan Trade Centre in the city, which would take up disseminating global trade information to Taiwans enterprises, publishing periodicals and reference books in English and Chinese, researching and disseminating important market trends and developments and analysing regional competitiveness and bilateral trade issues. INDIAN COMPANIES EYE 100 MN CONTRACTS AT GITEX EXPO Dubai The Economic TimesIndian companies are expected to ink deals worth between 80-100 million during the ongoing IT expo - Gitex here. Nearly 67 Indian companies are in the fray at the event, which is the Middle Easts largest IT show. As many as 31 firms affiliated to the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) are participating in the show this year, compared to 25 last year. ESC has encouraged Indian IT companies - particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs) - to fully exploit the potential of co-operation between the Middle East and India, ESC executive director, D K Sareen said. Last year, ESC had bagged orders worth 60 million at the Gitex show. The total value of IT exports - consumer electronics and software products - into the Middle East stood at 837.06 million, compared to 809.45 in 2005-06. Of that, 500 million came from hardware and 337 million from software. ESC is focussing more on the emerging markets. In the next three years, the focus will be more on Middle East, Africa, Latin America and CIS counties. We are planning to bring in a business-to-business delegation within the next six months and hold one-on-one talks with UAE companies, Sareen said. HP NAMES DISNEY EXECUTIVE AS MARKETING CHIEF Los Angeles The Economic TimesHewlett-Packard Co on Tuesday tapped Walt Disney Co theme park executive Michael Mendenhall as its chief marketing officer. Mendenhall, 45, had directed marketing and publicity for Disneys parks and resorts business around the world. He will begin at HP on October 1. Both companies have major consumer businesses. HP has overtaken Dell Inc as the leading personal computer maker and has long been the largest personal printer maker, as well. The company is launching a 300 million marketing campaign to promote Web-based printing services. SONY ERICSSON EYES PLAYSTATION BRAND London Business StandardSony Ericsson is considering tapping into Sony8217s PlayStation and Bravia television brands to create new ranges of high-end handsets. 8220Its an area of possible future activity,8221 said Miles Flint, president of the SwedishJapanese handset market. The company, which is 50 percent owned by Sony, is already producing a Braviabranded handset with mobile television capability in Japan, with operator NTT DoCoMo. A PlayStation phone was also a possibility, said Flint, although he stressed the technology behind such a device was still some way from being perfected. Wednesday, September 12, 2007 INDUSTRY WIPRO SET TO TRAIN 10K EXPERTS BY 2010 Bangalore The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line Mint Business Standard The Hindu The Hindu Business LineWipro Technologies has teamed up with academia to launch Mission10X, an initiative that aims to enhance employability of graduate engineers in India. The programme will promote systematic changes to current teaching-learning paradigms in engineering education. Mission10X will use the Wipro Learning Model to help faculty make a student imbibe higher levels of understanding of a subject along with development of soft skills and analytical skills. The programme involves capability-building workshops for faculty and will be rolled out across the country in a phased manner. Wipro Technologies vice-president - talent transformation Selvan D, said, the target of Mission10X initiative is to equip 1,000 faculty in the current fiscal, 3,000 next year and 6,000 in the year after, taking the total faculty trained to 10,000 people by 2010. After launching the programme on Teachers Day, Wipro chief Azim Premji said, this year, about 5 lakh engineers including 1.5 lakh diploma holders will graduate in the country. The spending on education has grown five times in the last 50 years, engineering colleges are growing at 20 a year and quality of engineering education is also getting a boost. MEGA TOWNSHIPS GET THE GREEN SIGNAL R Jayaprakash, Bangalore The Times of India A huge Rs 25,000-crore investment in the form of 11 integrated townships for IT, BT and ITES sectors is on its way in Bangalore. In a major boost to IT and the real estate sector, the Karnataka government has given the green signal to 11 local, national and international developers to set up mega townships in the city. The state high-level committee, headed by the chief minister, which recently sanctioned 59 big projects worth over Rs 60,000 crore, has okayed IT-related, real estate proposals, which will be spread over 100 and 200 acres each, with every company estimated to spend somewhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 crore. The projects will come up at Sarjapur Road, Whitefield, Magadi and Bidadi. All project promoters are keen only on Bangalore, as they want to put up massive self-contained integrated townships. The high-level committee has, in principle, agreed to the projects and a list of these companies with project details will be sent to the government for cabinet approval, said industries department officials. The size of the projects will give a major fillip to the IT sector, which is crying for more space. The initiative will put a check on IT companies looking outside Karnataka to set up campuses, the officials added. Some firms have formed a consortia after tying up with US and Singapore-based companies to put up integrated townships. OPINION INDIA WILL EMERGE AMONG TOP 3 ECONOMIC POWERS IN 25 YRS New Delhi The Hindu Business Line Global chip giant Intel today announced an alliance of 16 companies under its World Ahead Program to apply technology in health, education and rural empowerment in the country, while its Chairman Dr Craig Barrett exuded confidence that India would emerge among the top three economic powers in the next 20-25 years. Dr Barrett, who is currently on the last leg of his India visit, said while the country had been a bit slow in bringing out semiconductor policy, thereby missing the window on Intels manufacturing facility for now, India is still rated high on its list for future capacity building. Asking the Government not to protect legacy technologies, he said that the company was in discussion with the Government for including WiMax in 3G spectrum capabilities. My past comments on the need for Government to be technology-neutral are generic, and not targeted at India, in particular. New broadband and wireless technologies can improve connectivity for countries such as India and therefore countries need to make sure that they take a technology-neutral approach and not protect legacy technologies, Dr Barrett said at a conference here. Responding to media queries on the companys chip manufacturing plans, he pointed out that Intel worked out its manufacturing capacity planning years in advance. He further asserted that India would become a strong economic powerhouse in the coming years. If India continues to grow at over 8 percent, one can do the maths and see how long it takes for India to come in the top three economies worldwide. Countries like India and China will have faster rate of growth than the developed nations. Depending on how you do the maths it is inevitable, in 20-25 years, he said. Separately, Barrett said Intel expected to respond soon to the US Federal Trade Commission on a likely deal with STMicroelectronics N. V. (STM). The FTC has requested for additional minor information. We expect a very rapid response back to FTC and then a rapid response from FTC back to us, he said. Meanwhile, the 16 Indian companies which are a part of World Ahead Alliance include Apollo, NIIT Ltd, Comat Technologies, Digital Empowerment Foundation, Educomp Solutions, eGovServices, Fortis Healthcare, Karishma Software, Manipal University, Sankara Nethralaya, SN Informatics, SREI SAHAJ e-Village, and TCS. IT PARKS/SEZ DDA HALTS COMING PROJECTS NEAR YAMUNA Kavita Chowdhary, New Delhi The Indian ExpressThe Delhi Development Authority has put on hold all future projects on the Yamuna riverbed, with the exception of the Commonwealth Games Village, in view of environmental concerns. Dinesh Rai, the DDA vice-chaiman, said the moratorium would be in place till the high-powered committee, constituted by the Centre last week, studies all environmental aspects related to the riverbed and floodplain. As per the DDAs decision, the Games Village, the Delhi Metro depot and station, and an Information Technology park being set up by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation are out of this freeze sphere. The DMRC is building the IT park on 6 out of 59 hectares allotted to it. The DDA has turned down Delhi Metros request for an additional six hectares. FASHION CITY COMING UP IN PUDUCHERRY D Govardan, Chennai The Economic TimesConstruction work on the Rs 3,000-crore Fashion City in Puducherry, being promoted as a SEZ for the fashion industry, is expected to start in about 30-45 days. With Jurong of Singapore designing the SEZ, the construction process is likely to be completed in about 12-18 months, enabling the units to start operations. Meant to cater to all segments of fashion industry from apparel to accessories to leather garments, the SEZ will have an IT Park and a large residential township. The initial development cost for the SEZ has been pegged at around Rs 3,000 crore and will be funded through a mix of debt and equity. While a part of the equity will come from us (promoters), the rest will come from co-developers of IT Park, residential space and logisticity, he added. VCF/PVT. EQUITY CANARA TO INDUCT ALLY IN VENTURE CAPITAL ARM Abhijit Lele, Mumbai Business Standard Bangalore-based Canara Bank is considering selling a stake in its venture capital subsidiary, Canbank Venture Funds, which manages a corpus of Rs 117 crore. It has also firmed up plans to float a Rs 250 crore fund to invest in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Canbank VC Fund manages a Rs 100 crore Bharat Nirman Fund, investing in emerging business such as IT/BPO and biotechnology. Canara Bank, Vijaya Bank and Andhra Bank are core contributors to the corpus. The fund has already invested about 75 percent of its corpus and expects to invest the remaining money by March 2008. Canbank Venture provided Rs 74.43 crore of risk capital to 84 SMEs in 2006-07. MA SATYAM EYES 100M BUY IN CONSULTING Hyderabad The Economic Times Satyam Computers is on the prowl in the global market. The Nasdaq-listed IT services major is scouting for a third acquisition in the consulting space in the US and Europe, in line with its commitment to strengthen this vertical. It is looking at spending anywhere between 50 million and 100 million for this buy. Satyam had flagged off acquisitions in the consulting space in April 2005 when it took over business consulting firm Citisoft with presence in London, Boston and New York. The deal was valued at around 38.7 million. This was followed up with the company buying Singapore-based Knowledge Dynamics, a consulting solutions provider in the business intelligence space, in July 2005. That was an all-cash deal involving a consideration of 3.3 million. We are constantly looking at different opportunities for our inorganic growth. Companies in the enterprise business consulting space are on our radar as it will help strengthen our consulting vertical, Satyam head (global marketing communications) Hari Thalapalli said. Satyam, which the fourth largest software exporter from India, is currently evaluating half a dozen niche players in this segment. The proposed move ties up with its strategy to offer integrated business solutions to customers. It is specifically looking at companies that will add value in expanding its expertise in enterprise resource planning (ERP) business solutions. According to Thalapalli, the companys inorganic growth strategy would be on similar lines as that of its earlier acquisitions. Satyam wants to weave its brand strategy with its inorganic growth plans so as to position itself as a complete business solutions provider that can add value to a customers requirements. Satyam is also doing business intelligence services based on simulated models. This will help customers, particularly in the manufacturing segment, to analyse future market trends and make informed decisions. The companys consolidated reserves and surplus stood at around Rs 5,974 crore at the end of the first quarter, this fiscal. AVOCENT PACT The TelegraphAvocent, the US-based solution provider for management of servers, networking components and telecom assets, has tied up with Neoteric Infomatique Pvt Ltd. Avocent plans to have a pan-India presence through the latters distribution network. SOFTWARE BAJAJ ALLIANZ PICKS SAS TOOL Mumbai The Hindu Business LineSAS Institute (India) Ltd has said that Bajaj Allianz has selected the SAS Rate Making solution for meeting the demands of insurance market. Motor insurance has been de-tariffed since January 2007. SAS gives us an edge and provides us a unique ability in determining the right pricing with unmatched and increased accuracy, said. Kamesh Goyal, Chief Executive Officer, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. SATYAM TOOL FOR MEDIA COS Chennai The Hindu Business Line Mint Business Standard The HinduSatyam Computer Services today launched an Integrated Digital Media Framework (IDMF), a software solution to improve the way media companies reuse content. It will tap traditional publishing companies looking at a Web presence. The solution will help media companies publish their content on the Internet faster and distribute products through multiple channels. The solution was launched on the sidelines of IFRA Expo 2007 here, says a press release from the Hyderabad-based software company. Kevin English, Senior Vice-President, Media Entertainment, Satyam, in the release said IDMF was not a product, but a combination of several intellectual properties (IP) of Satyam that are in the process of getting patented. It is a framework where several technologies from partner companies have been used underlying the IPs that Satyam has developed. The opportunities to add customer value with IDMF arise out of convergence of devices, data and media and the proliferation of the Internet and devices across both business and lifestyle, said Abhijit Dasgupta, Vice-President, Media Entertainment, Satyam. CMC SUCCESS The TelegraphCMC Ltds automotive solutions group has achieved Automotive SPICE Organisational Maturity Level 3 certification under the Pathfinder assessment scheme. INTELLIVISION, CRADLE TECH LAUNCH TRINETRA Bangalore The HinduIntellivision Software, a provider of self-service technologies and security solutions, and Cradle Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based semiconductor company, have announced a next generation platform, Trinetra. Developed in India, Trinetra enables intelligent video surveillance and enhanced security, Intellivisions Managing Director, S. Nair, told reporters here. HARDWARE INTEL TO RESPOND SHORTLY ON STMICRO DEAL New Delhi The Economic Times The TribuneIntel Corp, the worlds largest chip maker, will quickly provide information sought by US regulators over its plans to merge its chip unit with STMicroelectronics, and expects a prompt response, its chairman said. As you know, the Federal Trade Commission of the US made a second request for some additional minor information before giving approval, Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel, told reporters on Wednesday. The European Commission has already given Intel and STMicroelectronics permission for the deal, which is backed by private equity firm Francisco Partners. We expect a very rapid response back to FTC and then a very rapid response from them back to us, Barrett said. Barrett is in India for a UN programme to spread the use of computers in remote areas, in which Intel is involved. Last November, he said in New Delhi that Intel was waiting for India to form its semiconductor policy before deciding on plans to begin manufacturing in the country. The Indian government was a bit slow in coming out with its semiconductor manufacturing proposal and missed the window of our period of time that we had to commit our next branches of manufacturing capacity. That is a fact. That is the story, Barrett said on Wednesday. Intel said in March it would invest 2.5 billion to build a microchip plant in northeastern China, which will be its first semiconductor plant in Asia, with the production of chipsets to begin in 2010. But India remained important for the company and was a potential candidate for Intels future investments, Barrett said. When we have need for capacity in future, we will get engaged in discussions with India. Semiconductor firms such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Freescale NEW QUAD-CORE PROCESSOR TO BE LAUNCHED ON THURSDAY Hyderabad The Economic Times The Times of IndiaIntel Corporation will launch its latest quad-core Xeon processor on Thursday. The chip-based server platform in the 7300 series has been code-named Tigerton for the processor and Clarkboro for the chipset with data traffic optimisation. Earlier, the platform was known as Caneland. A real OEM quad-core MP (multi-processor) platform was first demonstrated in October last year, with two real-world applications at 2.66Ghz, an Intel India spokesperson said. The Caneland-based platform will be compatible with 45 nm (nano metre) next-generation Intel core-based processors to be released in 2008. The new chip went from design to production in record time, making it the fastest multi-processor schedule in Intels history. The core micro-architecture introduced a year ago brought energy-efficient performance leadership for us in volume servers. We built on that lead by introducing quad-core into the volume line in November last, the official said. INT/E-COMM STATE BANK OF PATIALA LAUNCHES E-TRADING FACILITY Mumbai The Economic Times State Bank of Patiala (SBP), in association with SBICAP Securities Ltd (SSL), today launched a 3-in-1 account e-trading facility for their account holders. The facility envisages SBP account holders investing in secondary equity markets through the on-line trading facility provided by SBICAP Securities Ltd, State Bank Groups broking affiliate. This facility will allow the account holders of State Bank of Patiala to trade on BSE and NSE equity and derivatives segments without the hassles of running around to a brokers office for placing orders or transfer of stocks by filling up physical delivery instruction slips for their demat accounts. SSL will provide both the demat account as well as the trading account to the SBP account holders, it said. BSNL SET TO OFFER NET TELEPHONY Joji Thomas Philip Deepshikha Monga, New Delhi The Economic TimesSoon, BSNL broadband users will be able to make international calls to any part of the world for as low as Re 1 per minute through their fixedline phones. The PSU is all set to float a global tender for technical tie-up to offer Internet telephony services across the country. BSNL is looking to offer Internet telephony, or Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), by the yearend, a top company official told ET on condition of anonymity. That may make BSNL the second telco after MTNL to offer VoIP, where subscribers can enjoy ultra-cheap ISD calls without even having a computer at home. The PSU had invited expressions of interest (EoIs) from all interested companies latest by August 31, the official said. However, the EoIs are expected to come in only by September 14-15 as BSNL received too many pre-bid enquiries seeking a lot of clarifications on the tendering process. The tenders will be released by September 15, the source said. Last month, MTNL, which offers telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai, had launched Internet telephony in these metros by utilising its broadband network. MTNL had tied up with Aksh Optifibre to be its network and technical partner to offer VoIP services. As per the deal, Aksh will invest about Rs 110 crore towards enabling MTNLs VoIP service during the next three years. The MTNL offer is open to those who did not have a PC at home. Such customers are required to subscribe to MTNLs broadband connection (which comes for monthly rentals starting at Rs 199) and buy an analog telephone adaptor (ATA) for Rs 1,500. The adaptor converts the fixed line phone into an IP (Internet protocol) device so that the user does not have to use a computer and carry it over the broadband Internet line. Globally, this kind of service, which is fixed to one location, is generally offered by broadband Internet providers such as cable and telephone companies as a cheaper flat-rate equivalent to the traditional landline service. Sources said that BSNL, which has one million broadband users, too would offer similar schemes to its subscribers. Tariffs too are expected to be on similar lines. This implies, for those who make PC-to-PC calls, the tariffs are likely to be as low as 10 paise per minute, while a call made from a PC to a landline or mobile abroad would cost a little over Re 1 per minute on account of the termination charges. At the same time, BSNL also plans to open up its Internet telephony services to its 2.5 million plus PCOs in the country. While private operators have so far refrained from matching MTNLs move, BSNLs entry into this segment is set to change the market dynamics and force other operators to follow suit. So far, all major telcos have not ventured into Internet telephony as they fear it will eat into their revenues from traditional mobile and fixed line calls. INDIA BACKS WIMAX TECH ON 3G NETWORKS Sreejiraj Eluvangal MintIndia has joined a growing list of countries supporting the inclusion of Wimax, an emerging wireless telecom technology that promises high data output, in the so-called 3G or third-generation telecom standard. A certification by the International Telecommunications Union (or ITU, the international industry body that approves the use of various technologies in telecom, among other functions) of Wimax as a 3G technology will enable mobile telecom companies to deploy mobile Wimax networks, if supported by enabling rules in countries such as India that are yet to roll out 3G networks. Wimax is short for worldwide inter-operability for microwave access, a standard that is capable of data speeds of 10 megabits per second (mbps), up to 2km away from a radio transmitter. The technology, which promises citywide coverage with a few transmitters, promises enough wireless capacity to support Internet telephony or voice over Internet protocol. 3G is a data-friendly evolution of the existing cellular networks and promises data throughput of 2mbps, but is seen less efficient in use of frequencies than Wimax. Currently, the ITU definition of 3G doesnt include Wimax. R. N. Agarwal, former wireless adviser to the government of India, said the move would have far-reaching commercial ramifications. Wimax will also become one of the technologies that a mobile operator can deploy using the 3G spectrum. As far as the operators are concerned, it will give them greater choice, he said. Indias recommendation was made last week in Seoul at a working party meeting of the ITU. If accepted by ITU, Wimax will become the first fully IP (Internet protocol)-based wireless technology to be accepted by the body on a radio-based network. E-GOVERNANCE E-GRAM SAMPARK CENTRE OPENS IN KAIMBWALA Chandigarh Hindustan Times (Chandigarh edition)UT administrator Gen S. F. Rodrigues (retd) today inaugurated the e-Gram Sampark Centre at Village Kaimbwala on the pattern of the Jan Sampark Services being offered free of cost in the urban areas. STATE TO OPEN E-POLICE STATION Mateen Hafeez, Mumbai The Times of India Maharashtra is finally getting its own full-fledged, cyber crime police station. City police sources said the rising number of cyber crimes as well as the need to protect the growing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has made it imperative for the state to get its own committed cyber crime-fighting unit with access to state-of-the-art technology. The police station has been sanctioned by the home department and is expected to be functioning within three months. It will be the third such police station in the country after the ones in Indias IT meccas of Bangalore and Hyderabad. The cyber police will also tackle financial terrorism, which involves money-laundering and hawala, and the online flesh trade. IT TRAINING NIIT TO OFFER IT TRAINING PROGRAMMES IN CHINA Mumbai Mint The Tribune The Times of India The Hindu The TelegraphLeading IT learning solutions company NIIT Ltd on 5 September said it has entered into an agreement with ChongQing Information Industry Bureau (CQIIB) to provide IT training programmes for universities and colleges in the city of ChongQing. In this regard, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between NIIT CEO Vijay K. Thadani and Secretary General of the Communist Party of ChongQing Wang Yang. CQIIB is a Chinese government department responsible for growth and development of IT industry in ChongQing. NIIT would offer training programmes in the areas of software engineering and application, network administration and management, game design and development. The training programmes would be offered in both English and Mandarin. NIIT would also train and certify the faculties at the institutions apart from training the workforce in IT and non-IT companies in ChongQing, the firm said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. GOVT SCHOOLS TO GET COMPUTERS Patna The Times of IndiaIt may be a dark reality that schools are run in the open and without blackboards, but there is also a growing need to catch up with the modern and urgent necessity of computerisation. The government has decided to make the students of government secondary schools computer-friendly. Each of the 2,300 secondary schools will be provided with 10 computers. And each of the 600 schools, which have been upgraded as Plus Two, will get 20 computers, HRD principal secretary Madan Mohan Jha told TOI on Wednesday. This means, the government will procure 35,000 computers for its schools. CM Nitish Kumar while inaugurating the Teachers Day function at S K Memorial Hall made brief reference of this scheme. He also announced pension scheme for the newly-recruited teachers in collaboration with UTI. He said under the scheme the teachers would be required to pay nominal premium. The CM said to monitor the recommendations of Common School System (CSS) panel, a committee of secretaries under the chief secretary has been constituted. INDUSTRY CHANDIGARH A PREFERRED DESTINATION FOR IT COMPANIES Chandigarh The Economic Times The Indian ExpressChandigarh has emerged as a preferred destination for the IT companies as per the recent report of Jones Lang Lasalle on World Winning Cities Series-Emerging City Winners 2006. Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Indore, Nagpur and Chandigarh were taken up for the study as Tier III cities under the subject series about India-The Next IT offshoring locations, said an official release issued here. The Country Head, Jones Lang Lasalle, India, Vincent Lottefier said, This report identifies the five leading tier III cities at the present time. Of these, Chandigarh and Kolkata are best positioned to mature into major centres over the next five years. As per the report, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh were likely to be the winners among the firms seeking lower costs. With lower wage rates and a significant pool of skilled staff, the Tier III cities are emerging as the favoured destinations to sustain the competitive advantage in the near future, it said. Chandigarh and Ahmedabad have also emerged as the most preferred destinations for companies requiring non-specialised labour. The report said that Dell selected Mohali near Chandigarh due to the availability of talented work force and Chandigarhs high quality of life. Chandigarh has also been rated the best city in North India for providing all hygiene factors for living standards. The report also mentioned that the efficient and pro-active administration of Chandigarh would be a key benefit to the IT companies that are considering expansion to the city. Top BANGALORE AMONG BEST PLACES TO DO BIZ IN THE WORLD New Delhi The Hindu Business Line Mint The Times of India Indias growing presence in the global economic arena has received a boost with Bangalore emerging as one of the best places to do business in the world, joining the league of cities like London, Shanghai and Singapore, a latest study says. Bangalore, known as the worlds back office, is among the 12 cities named in the Best places to do business in the wired world list recently compiled by Business 2.0, a magazines published by global media giant CNN-Time Warner group. Other cities, which find a place on the list, are - Tokyo, Hong Kong, Barcelona (Spain), Helsinki (Finland), Seoul, Stockholm (Sweden), Tallinn (Estonia) and Tel Aviv (Israel). The city is home to Infosys, Googles Research and Development Center, and some of the worlds most talented (and inexpensive) software engineers, the report said while describing Bangalore. Each place is described along with the availability of free Wi-Fi points, best place to get down to business, best place to celebrate closing the deal and tips on how to get around. Interestingly, the list also offers the address of saloon to get a good haircut apart from trivia about every city. On the What you might not know section on Bangalore, the report says, Residents call their city Bengalooru. Like Bombay (now Mumbai), the city was renamed to make it sound more Indian than British. Top INDO-US TASK FORCE ON GLOBAL INNOVATION: FICCI New Delhi Mint In a bid to ward off the emergence of possible friction between India and US over rise of Indian innovation, Ficci and the Los Angeles-based Pacific Council on International Policy have joined hands in establishing a Task Force of business leaders on both sides on Shaping global innovation economy: enhancing cooperation in India-US relations. The Task Force, drawn from various high technology sectors, will look at issues that will shape the global innovation economy and identify areas of cooperation between India and US. Business leaders from both sides will address Policy and Political Aspects in US-Indian Innovation Economy Trade Investments Information and Communication Technology Sector Bio, Life Sciences Nano Technology Sector Energy and Environmental Technology Sector Creative Industry, Services and Design Vertical and Aero - Space Technology Sector. Top ENTREPRENEUR DEVELOPMENT CENTRE TO SUPPORT IT COMPANIES Preeti Parashar, Chandigarh The Financial Express The much-awaited Entrepreneur Development Centre (EDC) to come up at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park (RGCTP) has got underway with the construction work. The Chandigarh IT departments initiative will serve as an incubation centre facilitating start-ups by providing the infrastructural support. The contractor - Sam (India) Built Well Pvt Ltd plans to develop the center within 15 months over the sprawling 1.5 acres. The project will entail a total investment of about Rs 15 crore and is likely to house small entrepreneurs, software developers, RD companies, IT/ITES, KPO etc. About 6-7 companies that are already operational at the Society for Promotion of Information Technology in Chandigarh (SPIC) centre have evinced interest to occupy space at the EDC. The rentals will be competitive enough and a minimum office space of 1,000 acres will be allotted to the interested company. The companies can operate from the EDC for four years including one year extension and then theyll have to move, a senior official said. The center would be developed and would operate on the lines of the SPIC centre. It would mainly focus on providing all the facilities to the smaller IT companies so that they can carry on their operations by renting a space in the RGCTP. Eventually the Regional Cyber Security Research Centre, presently functional at Punjab Engineering College, would be shifted to the EDC, added the official. The administration is pinning high hopes from the EDC to become a big software export centre and boost the software exports from the region. The project was approved in august 2006 to facilitate the IT software export companies that are willing to come to the park, but as yet does not have a fully developed building of their own, or their built to suite plot is not yet constructed. This will also have the administrative offices of the IT dept that will be more accessible and approachable for the IT companies in the vicinity. Top CITY TO BE IT HUB IN 5 YEARS, SAYS REPORT Chandigarh Hindustan Times (Chandigarh edition)Among emerging preferred destinations for IT companies is where an international survey has put Chandigarh. The report World Winning Cities Series: Emerging City Winners 2006 released recently by Jones Lang Lasalle presents data from Tier-III cities Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Indore and Nagpur studied for pinpointing the Next IT offshoring hubs in India. Jones Lang Lasalle country head Vincent Lottefier says: The report identifies five leading Tier-III cities for IT potential. Of these, Chandigarh and Kolkata are best positioned to mature into major centres within five years. Ahmedabad and Chandigarh were likely to be picked as winners by firms seeking lower costs. With lower wage rates and a significant pool of skilled workers, the Tier-III cities might be the favoured destinations in future to sustain competitive advantage. Chandigarh and Ahmedabad have also emerged as the most preferred destinations for companies requiring non-specialised labour. Dell picked Mohali near Chandigarh to set up its captive BPO after looking at the availability of talented workforce and the citys high quality of life. Chandigarh has also been rated the best city in north India satisfying all hygiene norms. Top QUALITY, KEY CHALLENGE FOR IT COS Bangalore Deccan Herald The Hindu Nasscom Chairman Lakshmi Narayanan says that the customers abroad were not too pleased with the quality of delivery by Indian companies. Brand India has now emerged as a trusted name in terms of quality. Amidst all the challenges, Indian IT image has helped raise the quality image of the country internationally. But when it comes to delivery, Nasscom Chairman Lakshmi Narayanan feels that we need to improve a lot. Addressing the gathering at the Nasscom Quality Summit here on Thursday he said that the customers abroad were not too pleased with the quality of delivery by Indian companies. Narrating his experience with the during interactions with foreign consumers about Indian IT services, Lakshmi Narayanan said I had felt that their perspective of Indian IT sectors excellence was different than those of Indian customers. Though we have achieved a quite a bit at the in processes or products, the quality within was something it had only started to learn . Speaking on the relevance of quality in the global context, Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said, Quality is more to do with structure and discipline while innovation needs creativity which is not so disciplined. The other area of concern is the availability of suitable manpower, he informed. On the same lines Motorola Software Group India Managing Director Soumitra Sana said: Since India now plays a major role in product development life cycle, it is all the more important to look at quality of experience reliability, security, usability 8212 all leads to customer delight. Engineers can look at quality matrix to improve performance. This saves a lot of cost for quality enhancing for organisations, he added. One of the points of discussion was the role of a CEO in quality management. Here the CEO has to define quality, show how to focus, demonstrate in action and translate it to employees. The quality in process has to be internalised for organisations and needs to become inherent to individuals. Among all success stories the key challenges hovering around the IT industry were exchange rates concerns, which is stabilised to some extent and lack of regulatory environment especially the tax regime and STPI policy. Top INDIAN FIRMS OUTSHINE OTHERS IN FORBES ASIA FABULOUS 50 LIST Dalian (China) The Hindu Business Line Mint The Financial Express DNA Deccan Herald The Hindu Mumbai MirrorChina may be the worlds factory, but Indian companies, led by software giants TCS and Infosys, continue to outshine and dominate the annual ranking of big-cap, profitable companies in Asia. A total of 12 Indian companies made it to the third annual Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 List, followed by Taiwan with 10 and China with seven, Forbes Asia said in a press release. Four of Indias IT outsourcing companies made the cut including the biggest, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) that writes software for leading American firms. Its revenues leapt 45 percent in the last year and its market capitalisation has doubled since listing three years ago to cross the 27 billion mark, the release said. Tata earns nearly all of its revenues overseas but will move some of its work back to India, it said. The 12 Indian companies on the Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 list are: Bharat Heavy Electricals, Bharti Airtel, Grasim Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys Technologies, Larsen Toubro, Reliance Industries, Satyam Computer Services, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel and Wipro. Most of the Indian firms on the list, however, did not have to leave home to find success, the release noted. With a relatively young population of 1.1 billion, India has its own huge market. Companies such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel are growing fast by reaching out to the countrys rural customers, not to Western markets. Others, such as Grasim, Larsen Toubro and Reliance, are shoring up the countrys infrastructure at a furious pace. Top IT PARKS/SEZ LAND FOR IT PARK ALLOTTED TO DLF AT CHEAP RATES: CONGRESS Gandhinagar The Economic TimesDemanding inquiry against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Leader of Opposition Arjun Modivadia on Thursday alleged the state government of indulging in corruption while allotting land to real-estate developer DLF for construction of an IT Park SEZ here. The state government has given 25 acre land in Gandhinagar for constructing an Information Technology (IT) Park to DLF for just Rs 50 crore, Modhvadia said claiming the land was worth Rs 125 crore as per existing market rates. The state government is engaged in corruption. Prime land has been sold to DLF at throw away prices at the instance of the chief minister, he alleged. Even if the price of land is calculated as per existing government rules, the IT Park is worth Rs 90 crore, he claimed. Top KERALA GOVT TO FLOAT FIRM FOR IT PARK PROJECTS Sanjeev Ramachandran, Chennai/ Thiruvananthapuram Business Standard The Kerala department of information technology has firmed up plans to float an IT infrastructure company soon. According to N Radhakrishnan Nair, chief executive officer of Thiruvananthapuram Technopark and Kochi Infopark, the government will hold 51 percent in the new venture and the remaining will have private participation. The new company, which is yet to be named, will be an apex body that will undertake and monitor works relating to building IT parks across the state. In each IT park project, the company will hold 26 percent and the remaining will be open to private participation. District centres will house information technology parks, with the government already having lined up proposals for a hub-and-spoke model of IT infrastructure. Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi would play the hubs. Special purpose vehicles (SPVs) will be formed to take up the projects in district centres. A study on this is currently being undertaken by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC). The first such IT park has been proposed to come up in Kozhikode on 75 acres of land. The project has been proposed to come up on 507 acres of land and is estimated to incur an investment of Rs 4,500 crore. It is being planned as a fully integrated IT city, complete with all infrastructure facilities and public amenities. Top MA COGNIZANT EYES BUYS IN EUROPE, US Bangalore The Hindu Business Line Business Standard Deccan Herald The Financial ExpressIT firm Cognizant Technology Solutions is looking for acquisitions in consulting space in Europe and the US, Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice-Chairman of the company said. We are looking at specific opportunities in the consulting end in certain geographies where we are not operating, Narayanan said on the sidelines of a NASSCOM-organised quality summit here. The company is eyeing consulting firms in Europe and the US but would not say if it is evaluating a few candidates at this stage or is in active discussion with firms for potential buy-out. Narayanan said the company aims to add 9,000 people to its roll by December-end, taking the overall headcount to 55,000. According to him, the company is in the process of investing 300 million in creating infrastructure and workspace in tier-I and tier-II cities. Top MASTEK SETS SIGHTS ON BUYOUTS IN US, UK Mumbai The Economic Times Mint Business Standard Indian software services provider Mastek, which recently got a makeover with a new management team, is pursuing acquisitions in the US and UK to help enhance its insurance software, Elixir. The firm has begun talks with target companies and has sought shareholder approval to raise Rs 150 crore overseas. Mastek Group chief financial officer (CFO) and finance director R S Desikan said the company had intentionally not added certain functionalities in Elixir and the acquisitions would fill those gaps. We have a team in the US for MA, he added. The company had cash and invested funds of nearly Rs 120 crore as on June 30. Part of the money would be used for capital expenditure and the rest would be available for acquisitions. Fresh funds would be raised through overseas convertible bonds or external commercial borrowings. In June, Mastek acquired Vector Insurance Services LLC, a provider of policy acquisition, administration, and processing solutions to insurance customers in the North America. However, this was a small acquisition involving an upfront payment of 4.5 million and with a similar amount payable over the next two years as earnouts. The company is also expanding its employee strength and has set aside Rs 80 crore for a new campus coming up in Chennai on 15 acres of land. In the first phase, we will add 1,500 people and the same number every year after that, according to Desikan. Top SOFTWARE YOU TELECOM LAUNCHES SME SOLUTIONS Mumbai The Economic TimesYOU Telecom Thursday announced a partnership with Elitecore Technologies Ltd to provide security solutions to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the country. YOU Telecom said it would provide the Cyberoam facility, an identity-based unified threat management appliance, to bring a strong and unique security solution to its leased line and SME customer base across the country. The company, which is Indias second largest private broadband Internet service provider (ISP), will also act as a national system integrator partner for Cyberoam. The Carlyle Group, the global private equity firm, funds Elitecore, a leading provider of convergent billing and unified threat management (UTM) solutions. Top HCL TO LAUNCH NEW MGMT OUTSOURCING MODEL AT GITEX IN DUBAI New Delhi The Economic Times The Hindu Business LineIT solution provider HCL Technologies on Thursday said it is planning a global launch of its new IT management outsourcing model at Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (Gitex), the largest IT expo in the Middle East, starting from September 8. With our participation in Gitex we plan to showcase our domain expertise, mature global delivery model, proven project management skills and domain expertise to customers in Middle East, HCL Technologies Country Manager Kiran Bhagwanani said in a statement. The company, participating in the five-day event for the first time, would showcase its integrated IT services offerings along with a new IT management model for GCC. HCL would build its stall on Explore and Transform theme exhibiting a range of integrated IT solutions and services for business transformation covering the end-to-end of IT spectrum, it said. Top INTENSE TO SET UP SUBSIDIARY TO MARKET PRODUCTS K Rajani Kanth, Chennai/ Hyderabad Business Standard With orders for conversion of paper documents into digital documents and the compliance requirements by the income tax department on the rise, software Products Company, Intense Technologies Limited has embarked on a product alignment strategy. The Hyderabad-based company recently clubbed two of its products, eTaxFile and eDoc, into volume business and is in the process of establishing a separate division to market them. In volume business, the value of the licence will be low but the number of licences that the company offers to its customers will be more. Top IBM OPENS BANGALORE CENTRE Mumbai Business Standard The Tribune The Hindu IBM and UK-based Innovation Group 8212 providing outsourcing services and software solutions to insurance companies 8212 on Thursday launched a Global Insurance Center of Excellence in Bangalore. The new centre, based at IBMs campus, provides clients with systems integration services based on Innovation Groups Innovation Policy and Innovation Claims software applications. The centre will help companies in the insurance sector innovate on next generation core systems, help them develop new business models, and tap emerging technologies to create competitive advantage and improve the customer experience. Top HARDWARE SOLAR SEMICONDUCTOR SIGNS RS 55 CRORE SUPPLY DEAL Hyderabad The Economic Times US-based Solar Semiconductor on Thursday announced it has signed a deal worth 10 million Euro (Rs 55 crore) for supply of PV modules to a European customer. The product will be manufactured in Solar Semiconductors module manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Company chief executive officer Hari Surapaneni said the company will be investing USD 40 million in current fiscal for its independent solar PV Crystalline cells and module manufacturing unit in the Fabcity here while the master plan envisages an investment of over USD 1.1 billion. Top LOGITECH SET TO ENTER CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SPACE Pallavi Jha, Mumbai Business Standard Logitech Electronics India, a subsidiary of the 2.2 billion Swiss-based Logitech, is set to enter the consumer electronics segment in the country with a new product range by the end of this month. The company will launch three new products, wireless DJ, a streaming music solution that can stream music from a PC to a music system (Squeexbox music system) and a universal remote. The company has been catering to the PC peripheral markets till date with products such as keyboards, mouse, webcams and audio speakers. We are now concentrating on the consumer electronics segment in India. It is a fast-growing segment and a major focus area for us, said Moninder Jain, director, India and South East Asia, Logitech. According to Jain, there is an increasing demand for non-IT peripherals in the home and personal entertainment space. This new segment is like a parallel track for our company. It is a new but growing segment. We are well-established in the IT segment. said Jain. Logitech is looking at leveraging its distribution network with modern retail format stores and consumer electronic stores to sell its products. We have relationships with almost all the modern retail format stores and consumer electronic stores. Hence, we will be stocking our products there, said Jain. The company works with four distributors, Ingram, Rashi Peripherals, Neoteric and Savex. Top INT/E-COMM IPTV RULES FOR TELCOS IRK CABLE OPERATORS Sreejiraj Eluvangal Mint The Economic Times The Pioneer The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday spelt out its position that the delivery of TV channels on local telecom networks using Internet protocol technology (IPTV) does not come under the definition of cable TV. The regulators opinion comes at a time when an inter-ministerial task force of the department of telecommunications (DoT) and the ministry of information and broadcasting is working out a policy on IPTV. Cable operators fear that the position, if accepted by the task force, may set back their ability to launch IPTV services INDUSTRY PUNJAB, HARYANA CAN EMERGE AS KNOWLEDGE VALLEY: ASSOCHAM Chandigarh, September 10, 2007 The Economic Times Hindustan Times (Chandigarh edition)Punjab and Haryana can emerge as the Knowledge Valley of India, attracting Rs 50,000 crore additional investments, which can create employment opportunities for 25 lakh skilled and unskilled people by 2012, a study by industry chamber Assocham has said In a paper Punjab and Haryana - The Knowledge Valley of India, Assocham said that the promising areas in knowledge valley would include educational institutions, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and nano-technology. Assocham President V N Dhoot said low investment in the region prompted Assocham to conduct a study in Punjab and Haryana to find out how ways attract investment in the region. Stating that the proposed investment could come through public-private partnership (PPP) model, Dhoot advocated for foreign investments in the field of education sector. He said Assocham has already urged the Union government for allowing 100 per cent FDI in education sector. The chamber further said both state governments should focus on building a strong infrastructure for the knowledge valley of India. Investment in knowledge valley basically aims at uplifting the people below poverty line, improve human resources and achieve total literacy level in this region, which is less than 75 per cent, he said. 13 INDIAN FIRMS IN WEF GLOBAL GROWTH COMPANIES LIST Dalian (Beijing), September 10, 2007 Mint Thirteen fast-growing Indian firms have joined as founding members of the 125-strong community of Global Growth Companies, a new initiative of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Announcing the new initiative at the Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions, which concluded here in the northeast Chinese port city on Saturday, Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF, Klaus Schwab, said he was elated with the creation of a new community of fast-growing companies who are destined to join the ranks of global multinationals in the next 5 to 10 years. These are a very special group of companies that have not really been understood, he said on list, which is dominated by 22 fast-growing Chinese companies. The 13 Indian companies are: Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Co. Ltd, Apollo International Ltd. CMS Computers Ltd. Crompton Greaves Ltd. Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. iGATE Global Solutions Ltd. Moser Baer India Ltd. Praj Industries Ltd. Rajshree Sugar and Chemicals Ltd. Rupa Co. Ltd. UTV Software Communications Ltd. Wockhardt Ltd. and YES BANK Ltd. Forty percent of the members of the Community of Global Growth Companies are from Asia 26 percent hail from Europe 20 percent are based in the Americas and 14 percent come from Africa and the Middle East. HP SET TO BECOME THE NEW INFOTECH CZAR Chidanand Rajghatta, September 10, 2007 The Times of India (Delhi edition)Which is the biggest infotech company in the world Microsoft leaps to mind immediately because of its high profile and its 266 billion market cap. But the correct answer might surprise you. In terms of revenue, Hewlett-Packard (HP) currently occupies top spot, having pipped IBM with 91.7 billion in sales in 2006 compared to Big Blues 91.4 billion. It is expected to become the first 100 billion I-T company in terms of revenue, with sales expected to cross that figure in 2007. Just to get a relative sense of that number, Indias total exports are in the region of 125 billion. Quite a feat for a small workshop cranked out of a garage (hence originator of the term garage start-up) in 1939 by two Stanford University graduates with an investment of 538. The story goes that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to determine whether the company would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. Packard won, but still decided on HP. Over the years HP grew to be an American behemoth best known for its printers. It was one of the first and finest products of the Silicon Valley eco-system. SMALL-UNIT IMPETUS TO IBM GROWTH Sohini Mookherjea, Calcutta, September 10, 2007 The Telegraph IBM India is opening offices in tier II and tier III cities to tap small and medium businesses (SMBs). The company said India, China, Korea and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were the fastest growing markets for small and medium businesses. After Jamshedpur, we will go to Nashik, Surat, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Madurai and Ludhiana, said Vivek Malhotra, vice president 8212 global small medium business, IBM India. The company earlier opened similar centres in Visakhapatnam, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Goa, Bhopal and Lucknow. India contributes 24 percent to IBMs growth in the SMB segment, while China contributes 35 percent. The companys SMB division contributes nearly 20 percent to its total revenue. In the eastern region, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bengal and Assam have a huge potential in the segment, Malhotra said. The offices will help us in being close to our customers. This presence is critical since the SMBs employ almost 70 percent of the global workforce, said Malhotra. In the Indian subcontinent, the SMBs have spent around 7.7 billion to ramp up their infotech infrastructure. Research agency ACNielsen forecasts this amount to go up substantially in 2008. There are over nine million SMBs in India and each of them spends around Rs 30 lakh on IT solutions. IBM plans to revamp its solutions to meet SMB needs. It will scale down solution and application functionalities to suit operational-management capabilities and budgets. SMBs are looking for operational efficiency, lower cost of operations, security and an infrastructure thats easy to use. We are investing to strengthen education, demand generation and technical support to business partners, Malhotra said. OPINION POSITIVE ACTION FOR DEALING WITH CHANGE Nandan M Nilekani, September 10, 2007 The Economic TimesAs global business leaders, we operate at a time when the need to address larger issues such as climate change and poverty is becoming more urgent. Questions are being asked about the role that large companies play in addressing these challenges. This is why the inquiry into Tomorrows Global Company, initiated by the Tomorrows Company think-tank, has proved so timely and relevant. This writer co-chaired the inquiry that brought together representatives from businesses based in Asia, North America and Europe as well as people from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and not-for-profit groups. They came from ABB, Alcan, Amnesty International Business Group, BP, Dr Reddys, Ford, The International Institute for Sustainable Development, KPMG, Leaders Quest, McKinsey, Standard Chartered etc. Given this diversity of backgrounds, it was interesting to find a remarkable degree of consensus in our views. We agreed that the market economy has proved a powerful force for innovation, growth, employment and development. Today, the markets power is most dramatically seen in the process of globalisation, which is driving up productivity and creating prosperity. However, we also agreed that the world is undergoing unprecedented change, characterised not only by economic growth but by increasing pressure on the environment and continuing social, political and cultural divisions. The positive power of globalisation is not touching many lives. Global companies 8212 with their scale, power, capabilities and experience 8212 are uniquely placed to deliver practical solutions to resolve these issues. They can develop new technologies, create jobs, raise skill levels, set benchmarks in working conditions and provide goods and services to improve living standards for the worlds poor. In other words, companies can make a positive difference. Going beyond our current efforts, we need to envision a world in which companies make profits and create shareholder value while tackling large global problems. There is no simple answer. But we have agreed on specific priorities 8212 actions we believe companies should take to realise our shared vision. Our three priorities were: redefining success, living by strong values, and deeper engagement with governments, etc. to create stronger market frameworks. We saw these as critical factors for changing businesses from wealth creators to agents of social change. (The author is co-chairman, Infosys Technologies) IT PARKS/SEZ VIDEOCON TO INVEST RS 100-500 CRORE ON PUNJAB SEZ Chandigarh, September 10, 2007 The Economic Times Hindustan TimesConsumer electronics major Videocon Industries on Sunday announced its decision to set up a multi-product special economic zone spread over an area of 1,000 hectares in Punjab with an investment of Rs 100-Rs 500 crore. We will be developing a 1,000 hectares SEZ in the field of agriculture as well as electronics and hardware sectors in Punjab which will involve an investment of over Rs 100 to Rs 500 crore, Videocon Industries Chairman and Managing Director, VN Dhoot told reporters here on Sunday. Dhoot is expected to meet Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in this regard. The company will acquire land for this purpose on its own rather than asking the state government, he said. Videocon Group is also looking for a suitable location for to set up a semi-conductor unit in the country. We are scouting for the land for the setting up a semi - conductor unit but the location has not been finalised yet, he said. The company, which proposes to invest over Rs 1,000 crore on semi-conductor unit, is also looking for some incentive from government for this unit. We will be setting up this unit in that state which will offer us land and power at reasonable rates. In addition to it, the government should also provide us enough water for our semi conductor unit, he said. However, he dismissed reports that the company was setting this semi conductor unit in West Bengal. INDORE IT PARK MIRED IN RED TAPE Shashikant Trivedi, New Delhi/ Bhopal September 10, 2007 Business StandardBureaucratic hurdles, non-transparency in dealings and corruption has marred the privatisation process of Crystal IT Park in Indore. Even six months after awarding special economic zone status to the IT Park, the MP government is yet to decide on the privatisation of the multi-storeyed building. No software company has come forward to take a square foot of the park, even after one year of the completion of the building. The 550,000 square foot building bears a deserted look since its completion. Built with an investment of Rs 44 crore at prime locality of Bhanwarkuan near Indore University, even local IT companies have shown no interest in the park. Earlier, the state government had decided to rope in private players to market it. Last year, the AKVN, nodal agency to put the IT Park onto market, had made efforts to join hands with Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), Wipro, SKIL, and Infosys. We are looking for a private player to finish the common area of the park, Agrawal added. An industry source that is closely monitoring the construction of the building informed that valuation of the building and a land area in the vicinity, which is nearly 23 acre, holds the key. It is under valued at Rs 60 crore. While the total cost of the IT park should be around Rs 150 crore. There were reports that the original design of the building of two stories at basement and eight stories above it has been altered to one (basement) plus nine thereby incurring additional expenses to the state, the source said. CM PROMISES IT PARK, VARSITY Karimnagar, September 10, 2007 Deccan ChronicleChief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy assured to set up an IT park and a new university in the district. Dr Reddy inaugurated various developmental works including the launch three irrigation project works being taken up at a cost of Rs 1,644 crore during his whirlwind tour of the district under tight security on Sunday. Speaking to newsmen after laying the foundation stone for the Markfed feed mixing plant in Karimnagar, the Chief Minister said that an IT park would be set up in the Markfed land near the Dairy under the aegis of the APIIC. The government has already sanctioned IIT to Telangana region and set up a JNTU college in Karimnagar district to harness the vibrant employment potential of technical education. Of the total cultivable area of 15.61 lakh acres in the district, a total of 14.05 lakh acres will be irrigated after the completion of the ongoing irrigation projects, he said and added that the district outshined the East and West Godavari districts in paddy production in the last rabi season. MA ACCENTURE September 10, 2007 The TelegraphAccenture has entered into a business process outsourcing contract with BT for five-and-a-half-years. Under the deal, Accenture will provide finance and accounting services to BT. SOFTWARE HCL BULLISH ON RETAIL GROWTH Shivani Shind, Mumbai September 10, 2007 Business Standard HCL Technologies, the New Delhi-based information technology company, is increasing its focus on the retail segment. The company will be taking its total outsourcing offering to the retailers in the small and medium enterprise (SME) category, whereas for the large retailers, it will pitch the best-of-the-breed target solutions to cater to specific problems. While the company has been working with global retail chains, it is also increasing its focus in the domestic retail market. The company is also in the process of working with its technology partners to create models such as pay-per-use or software-as-a-service for the SME segment. Under its outsourcing platform, the company will provide application development and maintenance (ADM), business process outsourcing and infrastructure management. Sidhartha Chowdhury, associate vice-president, HCL Technologies, said, We see the outsourcing model really picking up among the retail players. We are in talks with almost all the top players in the Indian retail segment. IBS PLANS TWO MORE CENTRES Chennai/ Thiruvananthapuram September 10, 2007 Business Standard The Thiruvananthapuram-based IBS Software Services, a major in the travel, transportation and logistics (TTL) space, on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, has lined up plans to open two new development centres in India soon. IBS chairman and managing director V K Mathews said in a release that the company, which has centres in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi in Kerala, would shortly have the two new development centres outside Kerala. Mathews stated that the group sees itself as an Rs 1,000 crore firm company by year 2010. IBS has grown to a multinational company operating from 11 global centres around the world and offers a range of as many as 15 software products and other customised solutions. MICROSOFT OPENS KOCHI OFFICE Chennai/ Kochi, September 10, 2007 Business Standard The HinduMicrosoft on Thursday announced the opening of its office in Kochi as part of its initiative to partner Keralas growth into a knowledge-based, inclusive society. With Kochi as a hub, the company plans to service the other cities of Kozhikode, Kottayam, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. Neelam Dhawan, managing director, Microsoft India, said, Microsoft has been working with customers in Kerala for several years and products and services have been successfully leveraged both by government organisations and the private sector. Some of Microsofts largest customers in India are based in Kerala 8211 such as US Technologies, NeST and RM Education. The company also intends to consolidate its relationship with industry associations in the region to understand and address local business challenges and accordingly customise its local market education initiatives and programmes. Besides Kochi, Microsoft opened offices in four cities - Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Indore, and Chandigarh in India this year - and will shortly open an office in Coimbatore. BSNL AWARDS CDR PROJECT TO TCS, WIPRO, HCL New Delhi, September 09, 2007 The Economic Times The Financial Express DNA Mumbai Mirror The StatesmanFive years after it first invited bids for its Call-Data-Record project, state-run BSNL has finally placed Rs 1,200 crore orders with TCS, HCL and Wipro for the programme that will enable it to provide a single bill to subscribers for all its services. We have placed the purchase order with three IT firms, TCS, HCL and Wipro, for the CDR billing project at a total value of Rs 1,200 crore. It will be completed in December 2008, BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal said. The project will not only help the customers to get a convergent bill for the entire range of services the PSU offers, but would also come as a relief to operators who complain of unfair and incorrect pricing. The project, for which Expressions of Interest were first invited five years ago, will help the firms 65 million subscribers in getting a single bill for all the services. The companys customers at present get different bills for different services. With the project, BSNL expects to face competition from private operators by providing efficient billing and customer care solutions. It envisages building of countrywide intranet network, reduce cost of operation, increase revenue realisation, besides providing round-the-clock customer care operations. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had earlier directed all telecom operators to implement CDR-based billing system by March 31, 2004. The delay in decision was due to BSNLs vast network and changes in the companys requirements. BSNL will implement CDR-based billing and customer care solutions across India with four zones and four data centres. EMERSON OPENS DEVELOPMENT CENTRE IN CHANDIGARH Pune, September 10, 2007 The Hindu Business Line Emerson has opened a design engineering centre at Mohali near Chandigarh, its second in the country. The new facility will engage in the development of solutions supporting global IT systems for finance, HR and supply chain management and also be involved with product and sustaining engineering. The centre is being developed on the business model of the centre at Pune and will augment the engineering and IT capabilities for Emerson to meet its customers needs, a statement said. The Pune center, opened five years ago, was the first multi-divisional global RD centre for Emerson anywhere in the world catering to the entire product development cycle, from concept, design and optimisation to physical prototype, testing and product manufacturing. It currently has 500 employees. Both the centres in India will help Emerson spread globally, speed time-to-market for new products and assist its businesses in developing and tailoring its global products and solution platforms to meet the needs of customers. FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES LOOKING AT CHINA OPTION Dalian, September 10, 2007 MintFinancial Technologies (India) Ltd, Indias leading technology solutions provider for capital, commodities, forex and debt markets, is mulling at venturing into China. We are here to personally see and evaluate the Chinese market for our kind of mission-critical expertise, Chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies, Jignesh Shah told PTI on the sidelines of the Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions organizsed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the northeast Chinese port city. STORAGE DOMESTIC, GLOBAL COS EYE SOLAR CELL MARKET Sreekala G Appaji Reddem, Hyderabad, September 10, 2007 The Economic TimesAfter IT and pharma, India is on course to emerge as a solar hub. The Centres move to offer fiscal incentives to solar cell and photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers, coupled with surge in global demand for renewable energy sources, has triggered domestic and multinational companies to set up shop here. Leading the pack is home grown Moser Baer, followed by US-based Signet Solar and Solar Semiconductor. More are set to join. Moser Baer, a leading optical storage manufacturer, is in talks with the AP government to acquire 100 acres in the Fab City 8212 the chip-making hub. The company was among the first to set up a wholly owned subsidiary 8212 Moser Baer Photo Voltaic 8212 in 2005 to focus on the high-growth solar energy segment. It also plans to build a Rs 330-crore silicon PV manufacturing facility (near Delhi) and has tied up with Applied Materials for technology transfer. The US-based Signet Solar, on its part, has drawn up an ambitious 2 billion investment plan to set up three PV production facilities in the country. It is also looking at an RD base here. The company is already in talks with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up two manufacturing facilities here. Solar semiconductor 8212 another PV manufacturing company 8212 has lined up an initial 40 million investment to set up two production units. The company has already started building a 30MW per annum plant near Pochampalli. The second one 8212 with a capacity of 40 MW 8212 is being readied in the Fab city. We are looking at garnering another 330 million from private equity firms, said Solar Semiconductors CEO Hari Surapaneni. HARDWARE APPLE READY TO LAUNCH UPDATED IPODS NEXT WEEK Venkatesh Ganesh, Mumbai, September 10, 2007 Hindustan Times (Delhi edition)There is unlimited music and surfing in the offing for Indian consumers. California-based Apple is set to launch its touch screen iPod and upgraded version of its original iPod in India next week. The brand iPod Touch - iPhone minus the phone with a browser to surf - has been creating waves in the US ever since its launch last week. The upgraded brand iPod Classic can store as many as 40,000 songs. The new products are going to be available in Apples stores and through its authorised dealers from next week, said a source close to Apple. An Apple Asia spokesperson said that the price and availability of the products would be disclosed at the time of the launch. The pricing of the products in the Indian market is crucial since higher import duties are reportedly slowing sales of Apples existing line of iPods. If Apple follows the global pricing model, the iPod Classic will be available in the range of Rs 13,337 to Rs 18,745. INT/E-COMM QUALCOMM MAPPING OUT 4 RURAL CONNECTIVITY PROJECTS Thomas K. Thomas, New Delhi, September 10, 2007 The Hindu Business Line Technology major Qualcomm Inc is planning four new initiatives under its Wireless Reach programme to provide connectivity and applications to rural India. The company is in talks with service providers, non-government organisations, and financers to put together projects in various part of the country. The projects will use wireless technology to offer relevant services to the rural people. One of the new projects is being firmed up in association with the Azim Premji Foundation. These new initiatives will take the total number of India-specific rural communications projects from Qualcomm to eight. Qualcomms Wireless Reach initiative supports programmes and solutions that bring the benefits of connectivity to developing communities. The company had recently announced a project called Fisher Friend that provides real time information regarding weather and price to fishermen. The project has been launched as a pilot in Tamil Nadu. If it is successful, we hope to scale this up to fishermen communities in other parts of the country, said Parag Kar, Director (Government Affairs), Qualcomm India. The company has roped in M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Tata Teleservices, and Astute Systems Technologies for this project. Fisher Friend provides access to a menu of services on specifically designed mobile handsets uniquely focused on fishing communities such as sea wave heights and satellite scan data about fish shoals. The company had earlier announced an alliance with the Nasscom Foundation to provide CDMA-based wireless Internet connectivity solutions to 65 Village Resource Centres under Nasscoms Rural Knowledge Network Program. BSNL BROADBAND ON DEMAND Visakhapatnam, September 10, 2007 The HinduThe Visakhapatnam region of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) would completely remove the waiting list for the value added broadband connections in the city by this month-end. Besides it will provide another 3,500 such connections on demand as it has increased the capacity. Stating this to The Hindu, BSNL General Manager P. Nagaraju said that this was possible as the additional equipment for the triple play broadband service 8211 where customers could get voice, data and video -- had been added her e. The department had provided as many as 2,500 broadband connections in the last one-month taking the total of such connections in Vizag to 7,600. There was capacity to add another 5,000 connections. We hope to complete the job by October, he said. NETWORKING VIJAYA BANK TARGETS RS.1 LAKH CRORE BY 2010 T. Valliappan, Madurai, September 10, 2007 The HinduThe Bangalore-based Vijaya Bank has set a target of Rs.1 lakh crore by 2010, which will enable it to enter the big league of banks. About 475 banks had been connected through Core Banking Solution. This covered more than 80 percent of the banks business. By March 2009, all the branches would be covered. By March 2008, 90 percent of the banks business would take place in branches covered under Core Banking Solution, he said. We have already done the groundwork in most rural braches. To overcome power interruptions and lack of connectivity in remote locations, we are using Very Small Aperture Terminals (V SAT) connectivity and powering the branches through solar technology. We also have branches in the North Eastern States also, he said.