Flash-Headline :INDIAN COMPANIES EYE $100 MN CONTRACTS AT GITEX EXPO

INDUSTRY
NASSCOM FORMS EXPERT PANEL TO HELP ENTREPRENEURS
New Delhi
The Economic Times Business Standard Deccan Herald Nasscom on Wednesday announced forming a panel of experts to help budding entrepreneurs build strong software companies.

"In keeping with Nasscom’s overall agenda of continuously identifying new opportunity areas and creating an enabling environment for the growth of the industry, we announce the setting up of the Product Business Guidance Panel today," Nasscom President Kiran Karnik, said in a statement here.

The PGBP will function under Product Forum Special Interest Group. The panel would comprise a core group of industry representatives, with the objective of functioning as a sounding board for entrepreneurs, organisations who wish to be guided on the various aspects of setting up and running a software product company, the Nasscom release said.

The indigenous software product sector was still at an early stage of development and needs guidance from experts, irrespective of the fact that India has won global recognition as a software powerhouse, Karnik added.

"The objective is to aid the companies and entrepreneurs to build strong software product companies by helping them to overcome a multitude of challenges," Subhash Menon, who will chair the product forum, said.

The PGBP panel members includes, MD and CEO SubexAzureamong, Head of Accenture Technology Labs Lin Chase, mChek CEO Sanjay Swamy, Jumpstartup Fund Advisors MD Sanjay Anandaram, Verismo Networks VP and GM (Operations) Abhay Dubey, Compulink MD and CEO Vishwas Mahajan and Airtight Networks Vice President (Engineering) Samir Palnitkar.




GOVT STUDY TO SET UP IT INVESTMENT REGIONS
New Delhi
The Economic Times The government is conducting a study to set up IT investment regions, which would help attract global investments.

The IT investment regions would help the global companies identify suitable locations for their investments, IT and Communications Secretary Jainder Singh told PTI on the sidelines of Elcomp India 2007.

However, he refused to give any further details on this.

Earlier, while speaking at the event he said an eight-member Chinese delegation is visiting India today. The government would discuss with the visiting team ways to boost the manufacturing sector.

Singh said India still lags behind in the electronic hardware-manufacturing sector.

Globally, the electronic hardware design market would increase significantly to 155 billions dollar in the next 20-30 years from 43 billion dollar at present.




AP EXPECTS BIG INVESTMENTS FROM WEST ASIA
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business LineThe State Information Technology and Communication Minister, R. Damodar Reddy, today hinted at the possibility of investment of about Rs 6,000 crore from Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday after a trade delegation visit to Dubai, Reddy, without going into specific projects, said that these investments would be in the areas of IT, telecom and hardware.

Ras Al Kahiamah is host to over 3,500 companies, of which 41 percent are companies with Indian origin. He said Ras al Khaimah Free Trade Zone was interested in offering total business solutions, and offered incubator facilities to Indian companies and expressed interest in collaborating with the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Reddy said the Gitex Hyderabad held every year in January will not be held in January 2008 and instead an IT summit will be held in March. He said that during interaction with the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), the latter requested the State Government to continue collaboration.




DUE DATE FOR ADVANCE FRINGE BENEFIT TAX EXTENDED
New Delhi
The Hindu Business LineThe Finance Ministry on Wednesday said that the first and second installment of advance fringe benefit tax (FBT) on employee stock option plans (ESOPs) could be paid on or before December 15, which is the date of the third installment.

The move to give more time to pay these installments came in the wake of the absence of appropriate guidelines from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for determining the fair market value of such options or sweat equity shares.

An official release said that CBDT was currently in the “final stage” of finalising the method for determining the fair market value. The first installment of advance FBT was to be paid on June 15 and the second installment was due on September 15.




OPINION

‘TECHNOLOGY MAKES LIFE EASY’
Vishakha Talreja
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)When travelling by air he loves playing chess on his mobile phone, while his laptop is his companion on the road. Moninder Jain, director, India & South East Asia, Logitech (a computer peripherals company), is a tech savvy music buff too.

His preferred handphone is a Sony Ericsson W900i. “It’s one of those few phones which has a chess game and it’s many levels. I switch it to the flight mode when I am on-board and enjoy my chess game,” he says. He also uses a Motorola Razr V3i and a Dell laptop.

Jain is very fond of gadgets especially the ones which he uses in his living room. He has a streaming music system, which helps in transferring music from the PC to the home theatre system, wirelessly. “I listen to all sorts of music from ghazals to western classical to Bollywood songs. This gadget comes handy as I’m a big time music buff,” he said.

He also has an 80 GB video iPod and is looking forward to the recently launched iPod. “I have all iPod accessories such as speaker phones and wireless handsets. I am just waiting for the new upgraded iPod,” he says excitedly.




IT PARKS/SEZ

HDIL UNVEILS RS 2,000-CRORE IT PARK IN KOCHI
Bangalore
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) is the latest to join the race for setting up IT parks in Kerala. The company is unveiling Rs 2,000-crore IT Park at Kalamassery near Kochi, on 70 acres, which was acquired from HMT for around Rs 150 crore, sources said. HDIL’s project is estimated to be 7.9 million sq ft of which around 5.4 million will be set side for IT ventures in hardware, software, BPO and KPO sectors. HDIL, part of Wadhawan Group, has informed the Kerala government that the project could generate about 50,000 jobs, sources added.




VCF/PVT. EQUITY

NORWEST VENTURE PARTNERS OPENS OFFICE IN INDIA
Mumbai
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm, has opened office in India. The firm, led by Promod Haque, is best known for its technology investments. Its portfolio has 60 companies including 20 that are based in the US but have an Indian presence. Five of its investee companies are based in India. Norwest’s India operations will be based in Mumbai and managing director Niren Shah will be the India head. Unlike a few VC firms that have floated India specific funds, NVP makes all its investments from a global fund. The investments are across US, India and Israel.




AGILE LABS TO GET $2 M VC FUNDING
Thanuja BM, Bangalore
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)Former honcho of HP Digital, Mike Shaw is leading an investment of about $2 million into Bangalore-based IT product company Agile Labs. The deal is the latest in what is clearly a growing investor appetite for product driven IT start-ups. Agile Labs has developed a process engine — Profit5RM — in the enterprise applications domain.

According to sources, the investment is by Mike Shaw and a Mumbai-based group of private equity players. Mr Shaw will take a place on the board of the company. ET had earlier written that Agile was seeing lot of interest from VC firms and investors such as IDG Ventures, Vinod Khosla’s Norwest Venture Partners, Cognizant and Jerry Rao.

When contacted, Agile Labs CEO Raghunathan Perumal confirmed that his company has closed funding of about $1.5 million. “The funds will be used for new infrastructure, setting up of marketing offices in the US, Europe, Australia and Africa and recruitment of consultants,” he said.

The company, which already has over 300 Indian SME customers for the product, is targeting revenues of Rs 3 crore in FY08.

Profit5RM is a technology platform on which real time enterprise applications like SCM, CRM, and ERP can be built without writing software programmes. Because it does not contain code for any particular business process, the run time is just a 5MB application that will be able to render enterprise applications of any size.

This is a major differentiator from the existing framework based enterprise applications such as SAP and Siebel. The development of any application is also faster since mundane software programmes like GUI, transaction management, messaging are automated.




M&A

ALCATEL ARM EYES TECHNICAL TIE-UPS WITH TCS, RCOM
Rajesh Unnikrishnan, Melbourne
The Economic Times (Mumbai edition)Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, a subsidiary of French conglomerate Alcatel, is planning technological tie-ups with two of India’s leading technology firms, TCS and Reliance Communications. Speaking on the sidelines of G-Force 2007, Genesys Telecommunication Labs India managing director Sunny Rao said that they were in the process of finalising alliances with TCS and Reliance Communications. “We will announce both these alliances formally very shortly,” he said.

While TCS is planning to develop software applications for core banking and enterprise resource planning by using software applications developed by Genesys, the US firm will manage Reliance Communications’ call centres as well as the small-sized call centres managed by the latter.

Genesys, the leader in call centre technology, recently unveiled some key technologies that will impact the contact centre industry in the Asia Pacific region in the next 3-5 years.

At G-Force Melbourne, an event hosted by Genesys Telecom Labs USA recently in Melbourne, Australia, the entire global contact centre industry converged to discuss trends on technologies related to enhancing customer service and experience standards. Speaking at G-Force Melbourne, Genesys Telecom Laboratories CEO Wes Hayden said they are expanding operations in India. “We have already set up a research and development centre in Chennai,” he said, adding that the growth in internet and mobile platforms will usher in new challenges to customer-oriented organisations. IP technology across platforms will dominate customer service methodologies in the medium- to long-term, he said. “Our recently launched dynamic contact centre concept will be at the centre of this revolution and we foresee tremendous potential for traction and acceptance of these technologies in India and the APAC region,” he said.




TRIPLE POINT BUYS CORAL GRID
Pune
The Hindu Business LineTriple Point Technology, supplier of cross-industry software platforms for the supply, trading, marketing and movement of commodities, has announced that it has acquired Coral Grid Software (P) Ltd, a Chennai-based precious metal software provider. Anand Veerkar, President, Asia Operations, Triple Point Technology, and Krishnan Padmanabhan, Director - Marketing, Coral Grid, told presspersons that the acquisition was finalised in August-end while declining to comment on the financial details of the deal. The acquisition has been carried out through internal accruals. The company, however, is not looking for second round of funding in the immediate future. Anand said the acquisition would also offer cross-selling opportunities, as Coral Grid customers were primarily the financial institutions in Asia.




SFO TECH SCOUTING FOR ACQUISITIONS
Preeti Mehra
The Hindu Business LineRecently in Stockholm SFO Technologies, the $200-million US conglomerate of technology companies forming part of the NeST Group, is looking for acquisitions in India, to further augment its electronics and software optics business.

“We are looking to use Indian resources in electronics and software optics, with plans to go beyond contract manufacturing. For this we could go in for an acquisition in India,” said Dr David Darby, General Manager, Northlight Division of SFO Technologies, which is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The company was acquired by NeST Group in April last year.

Northlight designs, manufactures, markets and sells optical transmitters, receivers and fibre amplifiers for optical networks operating up to 10 Gbit/s.




SOFTWARE

NEW VERSION OF IBM SOFTWARE
Bangalore
The Hindu Business Line The Times of India The Economic TimesIBM has released the latest versions of its enterprise collaboration software, Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus Domino 8. Lotus Notes 8 brings together e-mail, calendar, instant messaging, office productivity tools and custom applications. It includes productivity tools enabling users to create open standards-based versions of spreadsheets, word processing documents and presentations, in addition to supporting many file formats from traditional stand-alone applications. It also supports multiple platforms, including Linux and Windows for clients and Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, AIX and IBM System i for servers.




DHANUS TECH TO EXPAND INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES
Mumbai/ Ahmedabad
Business StandardChennai-based Dhanus Technologies, which had pilot tested its vehicle tracking service called FleeTrac in June, is planning to expand its infrastructure support systems by purchasing network operating centre equipment for its ITES and FleeTrac business.

The company had received registration for setting up a vehicle tracking system using a vehicle mounted unit (VMU).

Company officials said the vehicle tracking service has found favour with major transportation and logistics players and close to 12,00,000 clients have been acquired during the pilot test itself. According to data from international surveys, vehicle tracking systems sales in India are expected to reach around $35 million between 2008-09.

To expand its infrastructural facilities, the company will be entering the capital markets on September 10 with a public issue of 38,35,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each through a 100 per cent book building process.

Dhanus operates in three verticals, including telecards (V-Tel global calling cards), teleservicesTESPO and software services (BPO services and software services and development) and telematics (FleeTrac vehicle tracking services). Close to 70 per cent of the company’s revenues come from the global calling card segment but the telematics vertical is now being looked upon as a major revenue earner in the coming years.

As part of its plans to grow in the other ITeS vertical the company started BPO operations in 2006. Currently its BPO operations consist of 85 seats and would be expanded to 500 seats by the end of 2007.

The division offers debt solutions and telemarketing services for the UK, US and Australia markets. All its servers are based in Santa Clara and Florida, US.




RUPEE-HIT IT EXPORTERS MAY GET SOME GOVT HELP
Niranjan Bharati, New Delhi
The Economic TimesThe government is planning fresh sops for software exporters who have been hit by the sharp appreciation in the value of rupee in the past few months. The main component of the package would be a reduction in bandwidth charges for companies doing business from Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), sources in the Department of Information Technology (DIT) said.

“To start with, we plan to reduce the bandwidth charges required for data export to a uniform level of Rs 7 lakh per two megabyte per second (mbps) from the present range of Rs 11-14 lakh per two mbps,” an official in the DIT said. The government, he added, was also considering giving incentives to the exporters in some other areas as well.

The move would come as a big relief for the comparatively small exporters who have been hit hard by the sharp appreciation in the value of the rupee versus the dollar during the past few months. The rupee has appreciated by about 12 percent against the dollar in the past eight months, eroding the profit margins of IT exporters, who have the majority of clients in the US. Presently, STPI has different bandwidth charges for software parks depending upon the city where they are located. The charges are on the up-side for a metro like Delhi or Bangalore, while they are on the lower side for tier-II or tier-III cities.

The move would, however, not put any burden on the government’s finances as bandwidth charges have come down sharply in the past couple of years, he said. The industry has been continuously demanding that the charges be reduced. STPI normally hires bandwidth from telecom biggies like Bharti and then lends it to smaller companies at comparatively economical rates.




QUSCIENT GETS RECOGNITION
Chennai
The HinduQuscient Technologies has been rated fourth worldwide in providing outsourced finance/accounting services to mid-market customers in the league tables published by the Black Book on Outsourcing. Quscient has three delivery centres in Chennai, says a release from the company.




HARDWARE

SUN LEADS SERVER MARKET IN INDIA
Bangalore
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)Sun Microsystems India announced that it has earned a leadership position in the non-x86/UNIX server market in the second quarter of 2007 in India, with 60.1% market share in unit terms and 46.6% market share in revenue terms. This is as per IDC’s Asia-Pacific Quarterly Enterprise Server Tracker, 2Q 2007, August 2007. Sun was also the ranked number one vendor across segments in the non-x86/Unix, high-end, mid-range and volume server segments in India, both in unit shipment terms as well as in revenue terms. Additionally, Sun continued to maintain its number three position in India in the overall server market in 2Q 2007 in terms of revenue.




SAMSUNG TUNES FOR BIGGER DIGITAL PLAY
Pritha Mitra Dasgupta, Mumbai
DNASamsung, known more for its TVs, refrigerators and air-conditioners, will now focus largely on digital media products like MP3 players and camcorders to tap the huge potential in the segment.

In the country’s MP3 market, which is infested mostly with by Chinese products, Samsung currently has a 12 percent share.

R Zutshi, deputy managing director, Samsung, said: “We see a huge potential in the MP3 business and, therefore, want to strengthen it further through variety and by concentrating on the retail channel. We already have an advantage thanks to design and features. After the reduction of duties last year, it became easier for us to make the pricing more competitive. We revised the prices last year following the budget and they are pretty much stable now.”

By October-November, Samsung will launch three new models of MP3 players. The flagship of the new range will be called YP-P2 Palm Theatre. The range of products boasts an array of functions, including music, video, FM radio and voice recording, portable file storage, etc.

The YP-P2 features up to 35 hours of music playback, 5 hours of movie playback and will be available with 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB NAND flash memory. While the existing range of products is priced in the range of Rs 3,980-Rs 9,000, the new range of products will be priced between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000.




INT/E-COMM

DOT SHARES AN IDEA TO BRING MORE RURAL AREAS UNDER NET
Rishi Raj, Vrishti Beniwal, New Delhi
The Financial Express DNAAfter witnessing a huge success in infrastructure sharing for mobile services in rural areas, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has now embarked upon a similar scheme to improve broadband connectivity in rural areas of the country.

Operators willing to share optic fibre network for broadband will get assistance from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) like they get in the case of mobile services.

At present, all operators contribute 5% of their adjusted gross revenue to the USOF. In a letter to all service providers DoT secretary DS Mathur wrote, “To proceed in this direction, there is a need to strengthen the OFC network in rural and remote areas and USOF is planning to introduce a new scheme for this”. Currently, several service providers have an optical fibre cable (OFC) network up to the district headquarters. However, backhaul capacity between district headquarters and block headquarters is deficient.

Considering this, public sector telecommunication consultancy and engineering company TCIL has been entrusted with the task of conducting a study and collecting information from service providers and organisations having OFC network in the rural areas, both in terms of fibre capacity and terminal equipment capacity.




HUDA RECORDS TO BE AVAILABLE ONLINE
Ravindra Nath Jha
Hindustan Times (Delhi edition)All the records of Haryana Urban Development Authority's (HUDA) plot owners will now be available online. The authority has decided to computerise all its offices in the state. HUDA has hired a private bank to execute this plan in the next six months.

"The step has been taken to ensure transparency in the working of the staff and curb corruption at the HUDA office," said T. C. Gupta, Chief Administrator, HUDA. The move will also help in keeping a check on property dealers who move in and around the HUDA office, misleading plot owners, added Gupta.

HUDA has taken various initiatives to check corruption in the department. Installation of close circuit television (CCTV), issuing of identity cards to all HUDA employees are some of them.




TIGER CAPITAL TO INVEST $12M IN MAKEMYTRIP
Boby Kurian & Urvashi Jha, Bangalore
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)US hedge fund Tiger Capital is expected to invest $10-12 million in India’s largest online travel company Makemytrip, sources said. The deal is the closing stages and comes even as the company has pushed back plans for an IPO in the near term.




NETWORKING

FLAG TELE BAGS CERN CONTRACT
Mumbai
The Hindu Business Line Deccan Chronicle Reliance Communications’ owned FLAG Telecom Group Limited (FLAG) has won a contract from CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, to provide Gigabit connectivity between the organisation’s research centre in Geneva and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

This announcement gels well with FLAG’s recent intentions of deploying a Next Generation Network (NGN), known as the Global Service Delivery Platform which can offer global, carrier-grade bandwidth, said a statement from Reliance Communications, which did not disclose the financial details of the deal.




E-GOVERNANCE

CENTRE PUTS E-AUCTION IN SPICES ON FAST TRACK
Bangalore
The Economic Times (Mumbai edition)The Union commerce ministry is betting big on electronic auctions (e-auctions) to provide a pricing-based information platform for growers, notably in the spices sector. Having launched e-auctions for tea, the ministry now hopes to take e-auction for cardamom national and make it available at all the 15 centres where the product is traded.




9,232 E-KIOSKS TO BE SET UP IN STATE: IT MINISTER
Bhopal
The PioneerIT Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya while addressing a meeting of the advisory committee of the department on Tuesday said that action to set up common service centres in the State would be initiated soon under the e-governance plan. These centres would help rendering fast services to the common man in the field of education, health, entertainment besides providing various data and high level videos.

He informed that as many as 9,232 common service centers (e-kiosks) would be set up in the State. Also, employment would be made available to 16 thousand individuals indirectly through this project.

Vijayvargiya said that a grant of Rs 1.30 crore has been sanctioned by the Union Government for Madhya Pradesh under the national e-governance plan. Moreover, e-governance road map and blueprint been approved by the State Government has been sent to the Union Government for its approval.




IT TRAINING

HCL INFOSYSTEMS TO OPEN 100 CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRES
Chandigarh
The Hindu Business Line The Economic Times Business Standard DNAIn an effort to bridge the gap in demand and supply of skilled professionals in IT sector, the $2.7-billion HCL Infosystems plans to open 100 more career development centres across the country within a year.

"We will be opening 100 more such centres in the country which will involve the enrolment of 60,000-70,000 students within next 12 months,'' HCL Infosystems Executive Vice President Rajendra Kumar told reporters here after launching its 31st centre. The company has enrolled 5,000-6,000 students in these centres.

"The students do not have the required capabilities on leading edge technologies which is quite critical to build IT, communication and telecom (ICT) infrastructure in the country. It is estimated that there is an annual demand of around 2 lakh networking professionals in the country while the supply is limited to about 60 percent of the demand,'' he added. By 2010, he said, there would be a demand for 2.3 million professionals in the country.




IT ENABLED SERVICES

SPANCO PLANS TO DEMERGE BPO VENTURES
N Shivapriya, Mumbai
The Economic TimesSpanco Telesystems and Solutions, which won the bid for setting up and running a nationwide contact centre network for the railways, is consolidating all its business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures under a 100 percent subsidiary, Spanco BPO Ventures. The new entity will also act as a holding company for all its joint ventures in the BPO business, including railways project Bharat BPO Services, in which it holds a 50 percent stake.

Spanco’s Middle East joint venture, in which it holds 51 percent, its call centre business in the UK and the international BPO business from Respondez will now come under Spanco BPO Ventures. With its non-compete agreement with Intelenet Global Services (now majority-owned by private equity firm Blackstone) having come to an end in May 2007, the firm will also pursue domestic BPO opportunities on its own. Spanco had demerged its domestic BPO business, Sparsh, and sold it to Intelenet in 2006.

Spanco’s BPO revenue was Rs 35 crore, or less than 10 percent of its total revenue of Rs 430 crore, in 2006-07. The BPO has a capacity of 730 seats but this may more than double. An analyst with a local stock broking firm said Spanco planned to ramp up its workforce to 2,000 by 2008-09. Following this capacity expansion, revenue from the BPO is likely to grow to Rs 82.9 crore in 2008-09, at 52 percent compounded annual rate. Core earnings margins, however, would fall in that year on account of a lower billing rate and higher employee costs, the analyst said.

Spanco’s Middle East joint venture, which became operational in December last, has no offshore component. But demand for call centre services in this region is high and per seat realisations could be higher, according to industry experts.

Spanco’s systems integration business, which includes network engineering, currently accounts for close to 90 percent of its revenues. The network engineering business includes setting up telecom towers and other network related infrastructure services for telecom operators. The company’s 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. “The process of transfer has been deferred by three months. There are no other changes,” 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 (F&A) 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 customer’s clientele.

Chandrasekaran said the company’s 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.

“We will have about five to six new platforms over the next three years with each platform delivering a business of $100 million plus,” 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.

“We may also look at partnerships in some cases to develop these platforms,” 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.




LAUNCHES

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.

“Security, 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,” 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 Infotech’s 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.

“Thunder, to be renamed under the Supernova brand, is Z RESEARCH’s 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).”




HCL SERVER
The TelegraphHCL Infosystems Ltd has launched Quad-socket high-end enterprise server IGL 4700 FC, which is based on Intel’s 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 Intel’s 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. “The 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,” Sahara Computers’ COO George Van Der Merwe said.




STOCKS

IGATE GLOBAL
The Hindu Business LineTARGET: RS 383

Spark Capital has reiterated its buy recommendation on iGate Global. “We 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,” says a Spark study.




RESULTS

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.




APPOINTMENTS

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.




EVENTS

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 Taiwan's 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 East's 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.




INTERNATIONAL

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 Disney's 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 Sony’s PlayStation and Bravia television brands to create new ranges of high-end handsets.

“Its an area of possible future activity,” 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.

Flash-Headline :WIPRO SET TO TRAIN 10K EXPERTS BY 2010

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 Teacher's 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 Intel's 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 company's 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 DDA's 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 Metro's 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.


M&A
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 company's 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 customer's 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 company's 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 latter's 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 Ltd's 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, Intellivision's Managing Director, S. Nair, told reporters here.


HARDWARE
INTEL TO RESPOND SHORTLY ON STMICRO DEAL
New Delhi
The Economic Times The TribuneIntel Corp, the world's 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 Intel's 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 Intel's 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 Group's 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 broker's 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 MTNL's 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 MTNL's 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 MTNL's move, BSNL's 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 doesn't 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.
India's 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 India's 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.

Flash-Headline :LAND FOR IT PARK ALLOTTED TO DLF AT CHEAP RATES: CONGRESS

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 Chandigarh's 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 India's 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 world's 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, Google's Research and Development Center, and some of the world's 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 department's 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, R&D 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 they'll 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 city's 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 sector's 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 — 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.
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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 'world's 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 India's 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 country's rural customers, not to Western markets.
Others, such as Grasim, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance, are shoring up the country's infrastructure at a furious pace.
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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.
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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.
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M&A
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.
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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 M&A," 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.
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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 India's 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.
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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.
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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.
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IBM OPENS BANGALORE CENTRE
Mumbai
Business Standard The Tribune The Hindu
IBM and UK-based Innovation Group — providing outsourcing services and software solutions to insurance companies — on Thursday launched a Global Insurance Center of Excellence in Bangalore. The new centre, based at IBM's campus, provides clients with systems integration services based on Innovation Group's 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 Semiconductor's 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.
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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.
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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 regulator's 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

Flash-Headline :HCL BULLISH ON RETAIL GROWTH

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 Blue's $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, India's 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 — 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 IBM's growth in the SMB segment, while China contributes 35 percent.
The company's 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 that's 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 Tomorrow's Global Company, initiated by the Tomorrow's 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 Reddy's, 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 market's 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 — with their scale, power, capabilities and experience — 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 world's 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 — 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.


M&A
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 Kerala's 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 Microsoft's largest customers in India are based in Kerala – 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 firm's 65 million subscribers in getting a single bill for all the services.
The company's 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 BSNL's vast network and changes in the company's 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 R&D 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, India's 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 Centre's 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 — the chip-making hub. The company was among the first to set up a wholly owned subsidiary — Moser Baer Photo Voltaic — 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 R&D base here. The company is already in talks with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up two manufacturing facilities here.
Solar semiconductor — another PV manufacturing company — 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 — with a capacity of 40 MW — is being readied in the Fab city. "We are looking at garnering another $330 million from private equity firms," said Solar Semiconductor's 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 Apple's 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 Apple's 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.
Qualcomm's 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 Nasscom's 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 – 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 bank's business. By March 2009, all the branches would be covered. By March 2008, 90 percent of the bank's 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.