TODAY'S HEADLINES AUG 29, 2007

INDUSTRY
SIGNET SOLAR TO INVEST RS 3,000 CRORE IN ANDHRA
Appaji Reddem, Hyderabad
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)The state government's efforts to create a solar cluster within the 1,200-acre Fab City project seems to be yielding results. The US-based thin film silicon photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturer, Signet Solar, is all set to invest around Rs 3,000 crore for two facilities here. One will be housed in Hyderabad and the other in Chittoor. Independently, compact disc and storage device manufacturer Moser Baer is also in talks with the state to acquire 100 acres of land in the Fab City to set up a manufacturing facility for solar thin films. When contacted, a Moser Baer official said the company was exploring setting up facilities in states including Andhra Pradesh.

"Solar is at an advanced stage of negotiations with the Andhra Pradesh government and is looking at firming up its investment plan by mid-September. If approved, production is slated to start by June 2008,'' said a senior official.

It is looking at 50-acre facilities each in the Fab City near Hyderabad and Sri City SEZ in Chittoor. Thin film manufactured at the Chittor facility — which is close to the Chennai port — will be shipped out for exports.





GOVT TO TAKE UP GERMAN WORK PERMIT DELAYS WITH CHANCELLOR
Smita Aggarwal, New Delhi
The Indian ExpressWith Germany becoming a major hub for Indian information technology (IT) companies, the Government has decided to take up the controversial issue of delay in obtaining work permits with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Ambiguity in rules and red-tapism are the main reasons for delay in getting work permit for IT professionals.

Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys are among the IT majors which have offices in Germany. The commerce department will take up work permit and visa related concerns with its German counterpart during the coming visit of Angela Merkel in September, according to a commerce and industry ministry communiqué.

In Germany, Frankfurt has emerged as a major hub of Indian IT companies. Recently, German IT sector acquisitions by Indian companies have picked up after Tata Interactive bought German company Tertia Edusoft in January 2006 and Sonata Software took over majority share of TUI-InfoTec in September 2006. Indian IT companies are facing difficulties in obtaining work permits for their professionals in Germany, chiefly because of delays in processing of applications, which "results in undue hardship to the Indian companies and delays in project execution", states the communiqué.





RISING RE AND INDIA GROWTH STORY
Amit Kapoor
The Economic TimesThe appreciating rupee is posing a unique set of challenge for the Indian economy. The impact would not be limited to the macro-economy alone but moves down to the level of firms. To counter the challenges, the government needs to rework its economic policy and the firms, their business models and strategies for success. The appreciating rupee already seems to have had an impact on the profits of IT firms, which rely mostly on exports and lower wage costs. The country faces a similar challenge where it would have to redefine its existing model for growth. The initial success story of India was clearly built on labour arbitrage i.e., the ability of India to provide low-cost labour in comparison to other countries across the globe.

India is an interesting case in the light of the above reflections as it is fundamentally a factor-driven economy. A factor-driven economy is one whose competitiveness is primarily its low-cost labour and exports. One of the unique features of firms operating within factor-driven economies is that they produce products that are designed and conceptualised in advanced countries. The strategy at the generic level for firms is to compete globally to provide significant price advantages. In addition, the firms focus on labour-intensive manufacturing and processes. An economy at this stage of development is sensitive to global business cycles and most importantly exchange rate fluctuations.





GERMANY SEEKS INDIAN AID TO FACE HR CHALLENGES
Bangalore
Deccan HeraldIndian human resources in the IT and Engineering sectors could help Germany brace for the challenges of globalisation, Volker Kauder, Member of the German Parliament, said on Tuesday.

Delivering a lecture on 'Globalisation: Issues from a German point of view' organised by the Consul General of Germany, Kauder said experts from India were welcome in Germany, that was grappling with "too much immigration and too little intelligent jobs".

"I understand that in India, around five lakh students graduate from engineering colleges every year, while the figure is just 30,000 to 40,000 in Germany. We are looking at a situation wherein any student can work in Germany for three years, with no conditions attached. There are no no-go areas in Germany," he said.

Dispelling the contention that globalisation takes away jobs, Kauder pointed out that 4,000 IT jobs in India translated to 10,000 jobs in Germany.





IT PARKS/SEZ

KARNATAKA GOVT CLEARS 14 SEZS
Bangalore
The Economic Times Business StandardThe Karnataka government on Tuesday cleared 59 new industrial projects, including 14 SEZs, covering an estimated investment of Rs 63,561.24 crore, minister for Industries Katta Subramanya Naidu said.

Briefing reporters by the high-level committee chaired by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, he asserted that the government had informed investors while approving SEZs proposals that the onus of purchasing land directly from farmers wrested with them and not the state.

The HLC gave the nod for 16 IT/BT Parks, 10 IT/ITES SEZs, seven new sugar units, five steel plants, four tourism ventures, two software development units, two chemical units, one each of SEZ for electronic hardware, aviation, textile SEZ, FTW SEZ (Warehousing), Cement and BT SEZ, Naidu said.





VCF/PVT. EQUITY

GURUJI.COM EYES GLOBAL VCS FOR ROUND-2 FUNDS
Thanuja BM & Boby Kurian, Bangalore
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition) Canaan Partners and Sequoia Capital India, among others, may show interest as desi internet search engine company Guruji.com looks at raising fresh capital to meet its expansion needs, sources said.

The Bangalore-based company is said to be eyeing a second round of funding in the range of $10 million. When contacted, Anurag Dod, CEO of Guruji.com, said the company was looking to raise a second round of funding but hasn't finalised anything yet.

Sequoia has already committed to invest $7 million over time in Guruji.com in a 'Series A' round raised in October 2006. Sources said that the VC firm was not averse to investing again. Alok Mittal of Canaan Partners said the proposition was interesting though his firm hasn't been in touch with Guruji.com as yet. The local language search engines are likely to see traction with even global giants like Google stepping into the language domain.



DUBAI INVESTMENT GROUP PICKS 40% STAKE IN TIME BROADBAND
New Delhi
The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line Mint Hindustan Times (Delhi edition) The TribuneDubai Investment Group has bought 40 percent stake in Time Broadband Services Ltd, a new Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service provider in India, for an unspecified amount.
The investment, which has been routed through DIG's subsidiary Dubai Ventures, will help TBSL launch its IPTV-related services in India and abroad.

"We found an ideal partnership in TBSL which has a team of competent professionals having an in-depth knowledge of their specialized technology," DIG chief executive officer Abdulhakeem Kamkar said in a statement.

"We are impressed by the initiatives of the state-owned telecom firms, where they are heavily investing in the latest technology to upgrade their telecom networks to gear up for broadband play," he said.

Sujata Dev, Managing Director of TBSL, said with the expertise of DIG as a strategic partner, the company would "offer a true IPTV experience to Indian subscribers and possibly to a global audience in the near future".



M & A
ALLIED DIGITAL SERVICES TIES UP WITH US FIRM
Mumbai
The Economic TimesAllied Digital Services, a major systems integrator in India, has tied up with US-based LANDesk to provide IT infrastructure management and end-point security solution for the Kotak group. Hewlett-Packard, Novell and Bigfix were in the race for the project. The key objective of the Kotak group was to achieve manageability, security and total control of its 11,000 systems deployed across 600 locations across the country.



MOLD TEK APPROVES DEMERGER SCHEME
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business LineMold Tek Technologies Ltd has approved the scheme of arrangement between Teck Men Tools Pvt Ltd (transferor company) and Mold Tek Technologies Ltd (transferee company and the demerged company) and Moldtek Plastics Ltd (the resulting company).
This follows approval by the company board at its meeting on August 27.

With this arrangement, for every 100 equity shares, shareholders would get 28 shares in the demerged company — Mold Tek Technologies Ltd and 72 shares in the resultant company —Moldtek Plastics.

The IT (KPO) division would remain in Mold Tek Technologies and the plastics business demerged into Moldtek Plastics.

The merger of Teck Men into Mold Tek Technologies and demerger of plastics division of Mold Tek Technologies (demerged company) into Moldtek Plastics (resulting company) are effective October 1, 2006 and April 1, 2007 respectively.




NETTLINX SET TO BUY US FIRM
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business LineNettlinx Ltd, a Hyderabad-based technology company, is set to acquire Host Department Inc, a hosting services provider.

The board will meet on September 3 to finalise the acquisition, its Executive Director, Vijay Bhaskar Reddy said. However, he stated that the terms of the deal would be disclosed after the board meet. The company is also in the process of pursuing two more acquisitions. Alongside, Nettlinx has informed that it has approved de-listing of equity shares from Hyderabad and Calcutta stock exchanges.





SOFTWARE

IT BIGGIES GET A TASTE OF THEIR OWN MEDICINE
N Shivapriya & Ranjit Shinde, Mumbai
The Economic TimesAs the big five of Indian information technology sector eye bigger projects and share the battlefield with the likes of IBM and Accenture, their smaller rivals are moving in to capture a bigger slice of the smaller contracts.

Clients with not-so-big IT projects are also keen to hire mid-size Indian firms, because many feel they'll get the needed attention, flexibility and responsiveness from the smaller vendors, rather than the larger ones.

"One financial services client (that spends approximately $22 million with a top Indian provider) had a difficult time getting the new account manager and head of the financial services group to return calls," Forrester Research said in a recent report.

"The client's original account manager had left the company. The client finally asked Forrester to make some inquiries to get the provider's attention. We found this behaviour surprising, given the quality, prestige, spend and potential spend of the client as well the quality, prestige, and reputation of the provider."


QUALCOMM'S AUTHORISED CENTRES
Bangalore
The Hindu Business LineDelhi-based Phoneytunes.com and Rajasthan-based Apex Infosoft have been selected as authorised training centres for Qualcomm's development platform for mobile applications for CDMA phones - BREW.
Phoneytunes focuses on integrating mobile network technology and content for 3G CDMA2000 mobile devices while Apex Infosoft is a customised software solutions company. "The BREW community in India has shown tremendous growth, with an increasing number of developers choosing BREW to create and deliver high-end content to users not just in India, but across the globe. The BREW authorised training partner programme highlights Qualcomm's commitment to empowering developers to spread their knowledge of BREW in order to enable other members of the ecosystem to realise the benefits of this solution," said Rakesh Godhwani, Manager-Mobile Content and Applications, Qualcomm India and SAARC, in a release issued by the company.





TELEDATA MOVES INTO NEW FACILITY
Chennai
The HinduTeledata Informatics is moving into its new 60,000 sq. ft. facility in Velacherry, near here. It was inaugurated on Tuesday by T. S. Bhattacharya, Managing Director, State Bank of India.

Addressing a press conference here after the inauguration, K. Padmanabhan, Managing Director of the company, said the company's growth strategy was to consolidate its presence in education, networking and communications, energy and total business outsourcing space along with acquisitions in the key technology area. He said Teledata had identified three companies to acquire by this year-end.

The company's subsidiary, eSys Technologies, a technology distribution business provider and PC manufacturer, launched a new range of high performance PCs on the occasion.



HARDWARE
RECONNEX LAUNCH
Pune
The Indian ExpressReconnex Corporation USA, the leader in data loss prevention appliances, has started its India operations in Pune. The India centre will focus on developing innovative technology for the product line of the company for the worldwide market.

Anand Kekre, Country Manager, Reconnex, said that Reconnex's data loss prevention appliances are designed for any organisation — including enterprises, government agencies or educational institutions — that wants to protect its brand, maintain compliance or secure sensitive information. Data loss prevention is one of the fastest growing network security markets worldwide. Reconnex protects information for over one million users.

"The India operations will be beefed up within a year and we expect it to be a 40 plus organisation," Kekre added.

Reconnex's appliance delivers accurate detection while protecting an enterprise before, during, and after any threat to corporate privacy or intellectual property. Reconnex products have the ability to discover, capture, prevent and control all sensitive information entering or leaving the corporate network. This allows enterprises to protect vital information both at rest and in transit.



MICROSOFT HARDWARE CELEBRATES 25TH YEAR
Chennai
The HinduMicrosoft Hardware, which was established in 1982, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The company kicked off the year-long celebrations by unveiling a line-up of products including special gaming peripherals, keyboards and web cameras, says a release.




INT/E-COMM


ICSI IS ALL SET TO GO MOBILE
Gireesh Chandra Prasad, New Delhi
The Economic Times Students can now pursue the fast-growing secretarial profession even on their mobile phones. The profession's regulator, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), will soon introduce virtual classrooms, which could be accessed through Internet-enabled phones.

"With this facility, one could access the virtual classroom and interact with the faculty from anywhere using a mobile phone and a headset", ICSI president Priti Malhotra said. Students can enrol for the programme online.

However, one has to go to any of the 70 examination centres in the country for attending final test. Eventually, when online security systems become fool-proof, the institute will provide for attending the final exams too online. ICSI wants to reach out to potential students in far-flung areas using technology as the demand for professionals grow in a booming economy, she said. ICSI has tied up with 'gurukulonline', a firm specialising in e-learning, for software support.





DISTRICT INDUSTRY CENTRES GO ONLINE
Bhubaneswar
The Pioneer Good news for the entrepreneurs: The District Industry Centres (DICs) have gone online. Now, an entrepreneur need not visit the office of the DIC General Manager. He can sit in his office and register with the DIC.

This was announced by Minister Industries Biswabhusan Harichandan while addressing the first DIC GMs' conference here on Tuesday. For the first time, the State has initiated the facility for the micro, small and medium sector industries, said he. Secretary Industries Ashok Dalwai, who was instrumental in organising the conference, said this would go a long way in helping the SME sector, which needs supports.



NETWORKING
3 JAPANESE FIRMS TO BID FOR FLAG'S $1.5 BILLION CONTRACT
Rajesh S Kurup, Mumbai
Business StandardThree Japanese submarine cable construction companies have been short-listed by Flag Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications, for building its $1.5 billion (Rs 7,000 crore) next generation network (NGN).

The Anil Ambani group company is slated to announce the winner by the end of this week.

Futizsu Submarine Networks, NEC and KDD-SCS are the companies leading the race to build the sub-sea cable that will connect 5 billion people across 60 countries in the next three years.

The cable would become operational by December 2009, sources close to the development told Business Standard.

Global submarine cable construction majors Corning/Nord Deutche, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia were also in the fray. The project was announced in December 2006, but name of the vendors the company was in discussion with were not disclosed.





ERP


TVS WINS SAP ACE AWARD
Bangalore
The Hindu Business LineChennai-based TVS Motor Company has won the SAP ACE 2007 award for customer excellence in the Most Innovative Netweaver Category.

"This award is the result of several SAP implementations that we have put in place at TVS Motor Company to effectively manage the supply chain, which is a critical factor, especially for our new product introduction process", T G Dhandapani, CIO, TVS Motor Company said in a company release.




SAP ACE 2007 AWARDS FOR TWO IMPLEMENTATIONS OF PWC
New Delhi
MintConsultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today said two of its SAP implementations -- Kuoni Travels (India) Pvt Ltd and Indian Rayon -- have received SAP ACE awards for the year 2007.

Kuoni Travels was awarded in the best service providers sector implementation category while Aditya Birla Nuvo group company Indian Rayon won the award in the best chemical sector implementation category, PwC said in a release.

"The implementation featured several firsts in our group and SAP ACE 2007 is indeed a great recognition to the Indian Rayon and PricewaterhouseCoopers team," Indian Rayon President Finance D P Modani said in the release.

PwC implemented SAP in Kuoni to provide a centralised Finance and Accounts solution to get the data from the multitude front-end systems of Kuoni group companies, the release added.





SAP, ONGC TO SHARE EXPERTISE
New Delhi
The PioneerThe world's largest business software company SAP AG's Indian arm, SAP India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) have entered into a strategic partnership for sharing expertise.

ONGC and SAP signed a MoU on Tuesday to this effect in a simple ceremony at the corporate office of ONGC in Delhi. ONGC's Director (HR) AK Balyan signed the MoU on behalf of ONGC and president and CEO for SAP America's Asia Pacific and Japan (SAP AAPJ) region Bill McDermott inked the same for SAP. As per the agreement ONGC executives will be seconded to SAP.

The agreement, valid for an initial period of 2 years, enables the two organisations to collaborate for training and consultancy assignments in India and globally, on mutually agreed terms. ONGC has implemented one of the largest information technology (IT) projects for oil and gas operations using SAP solutions, which has given excellent results.



STOCKS
MEGASOFT EXTENDS CASH TENDER OFFER FOR BOSTON
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business LineIT services provider Megasoft Ltd has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Tea Party Acquisition Corp, has extended its previously announced tender offer for all outstanding shares of Boston Communications Group Inc at a price of $3.60 per share.

With the company acquiring close to 88 percent shares, including those tendered, it is set to complete the buy out later this week, according to. V. Balasubramanian, Chief Financial Officer of Megasoft.

Unless the tender offer is further extended, the offer was set to expire at 12:00 midnight, New York City time, on August 24.

The depositary for the tender offer has advised Megasoft that approximately 13,960,647 shares had been validly tendered and not withdrawn in the tender offer as of August 24, representing approximately 78 percent of Boston Communications Group Inc's outstanding shares.





SENSEX SOARS 77 POINTS ON FRESH FII BUYS
Mumbai
Business StandardFresh purchases by foreign funds pushed up the domestic stock market to their highest close in two weeks on Tuesday, but doubts about the US economy minimised gains.

Extending its gains from Monday, the benchmark Sensex rose 76.81 points, or 0.52 percent, to 14,919.19. The broader S&P CNX Nifty, which tracks 50 stocks, gained 18.10 points, or 0.42 percent, to 4,320.70 points.

The rise in the markets was led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries (up 2.58 percent to Rs 1,880.05) and IT stocks. Satyam Computers (up 2.48 percent to Rs 449.70) and Infosys Technologies (up 1.83 percent to Rs 1,882.50).

Outperforming the Sensex was the BSE small-cap Index, which was up by 1.07 percent, or 82.92 points, to 7,808.44. The BSE mid-cap gained 0.77 percent, or 48.98 points to close at 6,409.64 .

The index, which has risen 6.65 percent from a three-month closing low last Tuesday, is still 6 percent below the record of 15,868.85 set on July 24.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continue to remain net buyers on Tuesday. Their net purchases were to the tune of Rs 390.20 crore, against yesterday's net buying of Rs 695.35 crore.

After a long time, Indian institutions booked profit on Tuesday as they were net sellers to the tune of Rs. 79.32 crore.





EVENTS

BUSINESS 2.0: PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Mumbai
The Economic TimesGlobalisation brings with it complexities that require companies with global growth strategies to prepare for 24/7 operations. What will organisations look like in the future in the era of Business 2.0? Enterprise-wide concerns such as information security, business continuity and regulatory compliance are significant challenges for CIOs, who are largely responsible for managing these risks. CIOs must contend with threats from within and outside threats, including corporate espionage, disaster recovery and business continuity scenario planning must be ongoing.

Today's competitive business environment does not tolerate a few minutes of downtime. In such an environment, can your business afford a longer downtime or worse? The very survival of business rests on the ability to keep it up and running regardless of what your IT infrastructure is hit by, and ability to recover your data quickly.





FINANCIAL INCLUSION THROUGH WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
The Economic Times (Mumbai edition) One of the more popular seminars at the The Economic Times Banking Technology Conclave 2007 was titled "Banking Sector Next Frontier - Serving the Under Banked Profitably. Can technology, especially wireless enabled serve the un-served market?" The panel was a mix of technologists, bankers and a micro-financer with extensive experience at the rural level. The session was chaired by MBN Rao, the CMD of Canara Bank.

The direction of the discourse was set with a presentation made by Janmejaya Sinha, the managing director of Boston Consulting Group (India). He said, "I am going to talk about banking the middle of the pyramid. To cater to the bottom of the pyramid would need government assistance." Sinha referred to this broad segment as the 'The Next Billion' and presented a character sketch. He said that this category craves for banking inclusion but are hesitant to take the initiative to start banking as they are fearful of making mistakes with their money. What would drive them, he said, would be a consistent desire for a better future for the next generation.

According to Sinha there are only 180 million Indians with a bank account, in comparison with the 220 million people who have a cell phone. "We can't think about banking through PCs like in the rest of the world. We cannot follow the western model." Mobile banking could be the solution for India. Sinha pointed out that mobile operators can remind customers to settle a bill, or the fact that a mobile phone user's location can be tracked. And most importantly, he said that mobile banking allows inclusion for the group in the 'middle of the pyramid'. He ended on the note that, "we need to think of new business models and not try to craft old ones."