IT News @ flash

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

2007-09-13T08:38:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-12T09:05:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-12T09:03:00.000-04:00

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.
Top
INDIAN FIRMS OUTSHINE OTHERS IN FORBES ASIA 'FABULOUS 50' LIST
Dalian (China)
The Hindu Business Line Mint The Financial Express DNA Deccan Herald The Hindu Mumbai MirrorChina may be the '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.
Top
IT PARKS/SEZ
LAND FOR IT PARK ALLOTTED TO DLF AT CHEAP RATES: CONGRESS
Gandhinagar
The Economic TimesDemanding inquiry against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Leader of Opposition Arjun Modivadia on Thursday alleged the state government of indulging in corruption while allotting land to real-estate developer DLF for construction of an IT Park SEZ here.
"The state government has given 25 acre land in Gandhinagar for constructing an Information Technology (IT) Park to DLF for just Rs 50 crore," Modhvadia said claiming the land was worth Rs 125 crore as per existing market rates.
"The state government is engaged in corruption. Prime land has been sold to DLF at throw away prices at the instance of the chief minister," he alleged.
"Even if the price of land is calculated as per existing government rules, the IT Park is worth Rs 90 crore", he claimed.
Top

KERALA GOVT TO FLOAT FIRM FOR IT PARK PROJECTS
Sanjeev Ramachandran, Chennai/ Thiruvananthapuram
Business Standard
The Kerala department of information technology has firmed up plans to float an IT infrastructure company soon.
According to N Radhakrishnan Nair, chief executive officer of Thiruvananthapuram Technopark and Kochi Infopark, the government will hold 51 percent in the new venture and the remaining will have private participation.
"The new company, which is yet to be named, will be an apex body that will undertake and monitor works relating to building IT parks across the state."
In each IT park project, the company will hold 26 percent and the remaining will be open to private participation.
District centres will house information technology parks, with the government already having lined up proposals for a hub-and-spoke model of IT infrastructure.
Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi would play the hubs. Special purpose vehicles (SPVs) will be formed to take up the projects in district centres. A study on this is currently being undertaken by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC).
The first such IT park has been proposed to come up in Kozhikode on 75 acres of land.
The project has been proposed to come up on 507 acres of land and is estimated to incur an investment of Rs 4,500 crore. It is being planned as a fully integrated IT city, complete with all infrastructure facilities and public amenities.
Top
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.
Top
MASTEK SETS SIGHTS ON BUYOUTS IN US, UK
Mumbai
The Economic Times Mint Business Standard
Indian software services provider Mastek, which recently got a makeover with a new management team, is pursuing acquisitions in the US and UK to help enhance its insurance software, Elixir.
The firm has begun talks with target companies and has sought shareholder approval to raise Rs 150 crore overseas.
Mastek Group chief financial officer (CFO) and finance director R S Desikan said the company had intentionally not added certain functionalities in Elixir and the acquisitions would fill those gaps. "We have a team in the US for 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.
Top
SOFTWARE
YOU TELECOM LAUNCHES SME SOLUTIONS
Mumbai
The Economic TimesYOU Telecom Thursday announced a partnership with Elitecore Technologies Ltd to provide security solutions to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the country.
YOU Telecom said it would provide the Cyberoam facility, an identity-based unified threat management appliance, to bring a strong and unique security solution to its leased line and SME customer base across the country.
The company, which is 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.
Top
HCL TO LAUNCH NEW MGMT OUTSOURCING MODEL AT GITEX IN DUBAI
New Delhi
The Economic Times The Hindu Business LineIT solution provider HCL Technologies on Thursday said it is planning a global launch of its new IT management outsourcing model at Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (Gitex), the largest IT expo in the Middle East, starting from September 8.
"With our participation in Gitex we plan to showcase our domain expertise, mature global delivery model, proven project management skills and domain expertise to customers in Middle East," HCL Technologies Country Manager Kiran Bhagwanani said in a statement.
The company, participating in the five-day event for the first time, would showcase its integrated IT services offerings along with a new IT management model for GCC.
HCL would build its stall on 'Explore and Transform' theme exhibiting a range of integrated IT solutions and services for business transformation covering the end-to-end of IT spectrum, it said.
Top
INTENSE TO SET UP SUBSIDIARY TO MARKET PRODUCTS
K Rajani Kanth, Chennai/ Hyderabad
Business Standard
With orders for conversion of paper documents into digital documents and the compliance requirements by the income tax department on the rise, software Products Company, Intense Technologies Limited has embarked on a product alignment strategy.
The Hyderabad-based company recently clubbed two of its products, eTaxFile and eDoc, into volume business and is in the process of establishing a separate division to market them. In volume business, the value of the licence will be low but the number of licences that the company offers to its customers will be more.
Top
IBM OPENS BANGALORE CENTRE
Mumbai
Business Standard The Tribune The Hindu
IBM and UK-based Innovation Group — 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.
Top
LOGITECH SET TO ENTER CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SPACE
Pallavi Jha, Mumbai
Business Standard
Logitech Electronics India, a subsidiary of the $2.2 billion Swiss-based Logitech, is set to enter the consumer electronics segment in the country with a new product range by the end of this month. The company will launch three new products, wireless DJ, a streaming music solution that can stream music from a PC to a music system (Squeexbox music system) and a universal remote.
The company has been catering to the PC peripheral markets till date with products such as keyboards, mouse, webcams and audio speakers.
"We are now concentrating on the consumer electronics segment in India. It is a fast-growing segment and a major focus area for us," said Moninder Jain, director, India and South East Asia, Logitech.
According to Jain, there is an increasing demand for non-IT peripherals in the home and personal entertainment space. "This new segment is like a parallel track for our company. It is a new but growing segment. 'We are well-established in the IT segment.' said Jain. Logitech is looking at leveraging its distribution network with modern retail format stores and consumer electronic stores to sell its products. "We have relationships with almost all the modern retail format stores and consumer electronic stores. Hence, we will be stocking our products there," said Jain. The company works with four distributors, Ingram, Rashi Peripherals, Neoteric and Savex.
Top
INT/E-COMM
IPTV RULES FOR TELCOS IRK CABLE OPERATORS
Sreejiraj Eluvangal
Mint The Economic Times The Pioneer
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday spelt out its position that the delivery of TV channels on local telecom networks using Internet protocol technology (IPTV) does not come under the definition of "cable TV".
The 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

2007-09-12T09:01:00.000-04:00

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.

Flash-Headline :L&T INFOTECH TO OPEN OFFICE IN DUBAI

2007-09-12T08:59:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY
L&T INFOTECH TO OPEN OFFICE IN DUBAI
Dubai
The Economic Times The Hindu Business LineL&T Infotech, a subsidiary of India's largest engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro, is entering the GCC with a commercial office in Dubai.
"We have already applied for a licence to set up our regional base in Dubai and, if approved, we will set up the business in few months time," Vijay K Magapu, chief executive of L&T Infotech and member of the L&T board, said.
"The IT services businesses in the Gulf is about $600 million annually and we'd like to achieve a $100 million annual turnover in three years," he was quoted as saying by the Gulf News.

MEXICO EYES $10 BN INVESTMENT FROM INDIA IN 5 YEARS
New Delhi
Mint The Asian AgeMexico is looking at $10 billion investments from India in the next five years, the head of a business delegation from the Latin American nation said.
"The government plans to increase the Indian investment in Mexico to $10 billion within 5 years," Indo-Mexico Business Board, Comce, Mexico, chairman Luis Wertman said.
Currently, Indian investment in the country stands at $3 billion "without any promotion", he said at an event 'India-Mexico: Opportunities for Business' jointly organised by industry bodies CII, FICCI and Assocham.
Mexico is looking at sectors like steel, automobile education, IT, pharmaceutical, tourism and infrastructure to draw investment, he said.

INDIA INC GETS READY TO CATER TO SOCIETY
Saubhadra Chatterji, New Delhi
Business Standard Over 80% corporates are involved in corporate social responsibility and the number is growing. There has been a 17 per cent jump in the last three years in the number of companies taking up corporate social responsibility (CSR) work. This trend is spearheaded by the MNCs who are now on a par with public sector undertakings (PSUs) in delivering to society.
The survey, done during 2000-2003, found that the highest involvement was from the textile sector (93 per cent), followed by infrastructure (89 per cent) and IT/media/telecom (88 per cent).
Corporates in the hospitality sector showed 79 per cent involvement in CSR. The sectors that showed relatively less commitment to CSR over the last three years include services, engineering, IT/media/telecom and finance.

OPINION
'CAPITALISM CAN SOLVE POVERTY'
New Delhi
The Times of India Infosys Technologies chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy says capitalism is the only resort for India to solve its problem of poverty, even as he finds "serious crisis of moral dimension" in most Indian leaders.
The non-executive chairman of one of India's largest and most admired software companies also advocates some radical economic reforms such as hire and fire policy, privatisation and foreign investment in retail trade industry.
"If India has to solve its problems of poverty, we have to embrace capitalism. I believe that is the only hope we have," Murthy told Karan Thapar's 'Devil's Advocate' programme.
"Capitalism is about providing equal opportunity for everybody and to make sure that people have incentives to perform better and better. It also thrives in an environment of competition," he said.

IT PARKS/SEZ
GIANT TECH SEZS ON THEIR WAY
Arun Kumar, New Delhi
Hindustan Times (Delhi edition)The government intends to provide fiscal benefits to developers involved in building infrastructure for setting up IT investment regions (ITIRs).
In an effort to promote integrated modern townships for sunrise industries including information technology and BPO - it has also proposed that fiscal incentives be provided to special economic zones (SEZs) or export oriented zones (EOU) located within the ITIR.
After the petrochemical and manufacturing investment regions, the IT sector is the third vertical where the government intends to develop dedicated townships.
The Ministry of Finance, according to sources, has agreed to extend the benefits of tax holidays to developers and co-developers of ITIRs, under section 80(I)(A) of the Income Tax Act for the development, operation and maintenance of infrastructure. Developers will get 100 percent tax deduction for 10 years for developing the ITIR.

RCOM GETS STATE NOD FOR SEZ
Mumbai
Business Standard Reliance Communications (RCom) has received approvals from Maharashtra and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) for its proposed 45-acre special economic zone (SEZ).
The company had earlier received the Board of Approvals' (BoA) nod for the SEZ.
Coming up at the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC), the SEZ would cater to the emerging information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) sectors.
The SEZ will host around 30-40 IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies at the SEZ that would be set up on 45 acres (18.6 hectares) at the DAKC.
The 135-acre campus of DAKC houses the Anil Ambani group's national headquarters.
Reliance Communications spokesperson refused to comment on the current status of the SEZ.
Earlier, the group's proposal to set up a multi-product SEZ in Uttar Pradesh was turned down by the state government, stating it was "not feasible".
The SEZ is coming up close to the elder sibling Mukesh Ambani's proposed SEZ at Kharghar, in Navi Mumbai.

VCF/PVT. EQUITY
NVP NAMES NIREN SHAH MD INDIA
New Delhi
The Economic TimesTechnology venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) on Monday announced appointment of Niren Shah as the Managing Director for its Indian operations. Based in Mumbai, he will focus on local investments in consumer Internet, digital media, next-generation services and mobile sectors.
Shah will bring 14 years of operational, finance, investment banking and entrepreneurial experience from companies like eBay, Baazee and KPMG, the company said in a statement.
"The Indian market continues to show great potential and in next several months, NVP India will aggressively hire senior investment professionals and invest in new high calibre to capitalise on this growth," NVP Managing Partner Pramod Haque said.
He said the company has already made direct investments in Adventy, Mobile2Win, Persistent Systems and Yatra. It has more than 20 'hybrid' or 'cross-border' portfolio companies.

'MOBILE INTERNET WILL BE BIGGER THAN BROADBAND'
Snigdha Sengupta and Namitha Jagadeesh
Mint Global venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners managing partner Promod Haquebet on India's technology companies in 2001, at a time when the country was vastly unknown to the majority of the US Silicon Valley's venture capital community.
Haque, along with members of his team, started visiting India two or three times a year to test the Palo Alto-based firm's initial investment thesis for this market—Indo-US cross border technology start-ups. The US market, at the time, was just going into a recession, and building start-ups in the Valley had become an expensive proposition. Haque saw the potential to leverage India's low-cost and skilled technology pool as back-end support for Silicon Valley start-ups. Since then, Norwest has invested $300 million (Rs 1,218 crore) in 22 cross-border technology companies and five pure Indian companies—Sulekha.com, Yatra.com, Mobile2win, Adventity and Persistent Systems.
About 10 percent of NVP's current portfolio of 60 companies are now in India and this will grow significantly, promises Haque, who spoke about how he wants to play round 2 in India.
Edited excerpts:
How much of NVP X has been deployed? How much will be invested here?
About $100 million has been deployed globally. The US is obviously very large. If you look at dollars, India is No. 2, Israel is pretty close. Between India and China, China is less so.
What sectors are you looking at?
We see three or four different kinds of opportunities in India. One is the consumer Internet space in general and includes mobile Internet. We have two or three bets in that space such as Yatra.com and Sulekha. The reason why it continues to be an interesting sector is the mobile aspect to it. Mobile Internet will be bigger here than broadband, PC-based Internet.
The second area of interest is what we call second-generation services companies, not basic IT-enabled services because we believe that space is taken. But companies that are more in the area of product development, such as Persistent Systems, and KPOs (knowledge process outsourcing). BPOs (business process outsourcing), we believe, are now commoditized and we're not interested. The revenue per employee is very low.
KPOs bring in fairly sophisticated talent to address basic outsourcing issues. The third area of interest, which we believe is fairly new, is the product area. We believe that product innovation is taking place and will accelerate over a period of time, but is still in its infancy. Those opportunities will predominantly be in the software and mobile space.
Less so, probably, in the core hardware space because India still lacks manufacturing capabilities.
Semiconductor deals naturally gravitate towards China. But, I think we'll see a lot of opportunities in wireless infrastructure and software. The fourth area, where we haven't done anything yet, is related to infrastructure. This is away from our core sectors, but interesting because of the growth of the economy here.

EPLANET SET FOR $12-M PLAY IN TRIVITRON
Boby Kurian & Savitha V, Bangalore
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)US-based venture capital fund ePlanet is in advanced talks to invest $12 million in Chennai-based medical technology company Trivitron, sources said. ePlanet will pick up a strategic minority stake in the Rs 150 crore company that straddles the entire technology spectrum of medical devices.
Sources said the deal could go through by this month end or early October. This could be ePlanet's first investment in India from the $500 million new global fund. ePlanet, which recently set up offices in Bangalore and New Delhi, is bullish on investments in India and China.
Sources said the decade-old Trivitron was raising capital for its aggressive expansion drive, which include a Rs 250 crore technology park planned on the lines of an SEZ. When contacted, Trivitron MD, GSK Velu, said no decision of funding has been taken as yet. He declined to comment further.
Trivitron operates in the field of medical equipment, medical devices, clinical diagnostic equipment, medical consumables and disposables, medical software and consultancy services. The company's product portfolio includes medical device solutions for imaging, cardiology, critical care, orthopaedics and radiology among others.

M&A
REDINGTON TO BE SUN'S DISTRIBUTOR IN INDIA
Bangalore
The Economic Times The Hindu Business LineSun Microsystems India on Monday announced it has appointed Redington (India) Ltd, a Chennai- based provider of IT products and support services, as a value-added distributor for India.
Having established and consolidated its presence in the growing Indian IT industry, Sun Microsystems, through this partnership, is now gearing up for the next phase in its market growth and expansion plans in the country, it said in a statement.
"Sun and Redington will now offer the opportunity to sell Sun products and solutions to partners across 450 cities in India targeting major growth industries in addition to a large base of small and medium business," it said.

INFOKALL ACQUIRES POINTSOFT
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business LineInfokall Enterprises Ltd, the Indian arm of Infokall Inc based in Santa Ana, California, has announced the acquisition of Pointsoft, an IT consulting company based in Hyderabad. "By joining with Infokall, we can grow our organisation, benefit our stakeholders and provide customers with new capabilities," Brij Mohan, CEO of PointSoft, said in a statement. However, details of the deal have not been disclosed.

NEST GROUP LOOKS AT ACQUISITIONS IN OPTOELECTRONIC SPACE
Utpal Bhaskar, Stockholm
Mint Global technology products and services conglomerate NeST Group plans to acquire companies in India in the optoelectronic sector through its subsidiary SFO Technologies Northlight Division. Optoelectronics uses light signals to operate electronic devices and has applications in optical fibre networks, solar (photovoltaic) cells and photoresistors.
"We are looking at a number of companies in the optoelectronic area with a revenue between $10 million (Rs40.6 crore) and $20 million (Rs81.2 crore)," David Darby, general manager, Northlight AB said.
He declined to elaborate on the plans, citing commercial reasons.
SFO Technologies is already present in India through its software development centres, research and development (R&D) and manufacturing facilities located in cities such as Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Bangalore.
The US is the company's main market and its customers include Lucent Technologies, ABB, Alstom, Motorola and Areva, among others.
SFO Technologies also plans to develop new products in India. It currently manufactures and markets optical transmitters, receivers and fibre amplifiers operating up to 10GB for high-speed LAN, metro and long-haul applications.

SOFTWARE
UKRAINIAN BANK IMPLEMENTS INFOSYS PRODUCT
Mumbai
The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line DNA The HinduIT major Infosys Technologies on Monday said Ukraine-based Nadra Bank has selected its flagship product 'Finacle Universal Banking Solution' to power its transformation initiative.
Finacle encompasses core banking, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), treasury, e-banking and would replace the bank's current in-house decentralised system, Infosys said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
"This win is of strategic importance to us. With an already established and fast growing client base for Finacle in Russia and CIS, the region is strategic to our growth plans," Infosys Technologies VP and Head (Worldwide Sales- Finacle) Sanat Rao said.

'WIPRO TO OPEN MORE CENTERS IN CHINA'
Bangalore
The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line Mint The Times of India Wipro is looking to open additional development centres in China as it ramps up operations there to cater to the growing customers' requirements, a senior official said.
"We are looking at setting up more centres in China. In the next one year or so, we definitely will have more centres in China", Chief Financial Officer of the Bangalore-based IT major, Suresh Senapaty, told PTI.
The New York Stock Exchange-listed company already has three centres in China. He said Wipro has not seen any impact on its outsourcing business from the US subprime mortgage crisis.
"Our exposure to clients which have lot of exposure to subprime is much much lower", Senapaty said. "We do not expect any adverse impact of that in our business."
Asked if Wipro has increased billing rates for customers following rising wages and appreciation of the rupee, he said, "it has always been Wipro's desire and intention to be wanting to take the billing rates up. In that direction, we have taken many steps. We have been getting a fairly encouraging response."

INDIAN IT EXPORTS TO MIDDLE EAST SET TO TOUCH $1BN BY 2010
Dubai
Mint The Economic Times The Pioneer India's IT export to the Middle East is likely to touch the $1billion mark in the next two-three years from $873 million in 2006, a top official of a trade promotion body has said.
Electronic and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), part of India's Communication and Information Technology Ministry, has formed a strategy to increase IT exports through SMEs, ESC Chairman Sanjay Narayan said in an interview.
As per the strategy, SMEs would target export markets with a focus on the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Currently, more than 65 percent of India's IT exports go to the US while 25 percent is targeted at Europe.
"Dubai can act as a hub for Indian IT exports to the whole region (the Middles East)," said Narayan, who was here to attend Gitex 2007 (Gulf Information Technology Exhibition), the largest IT show of its kind in the region.
"The SME sector has a huge cost advantage since they can develop tailor-made solutions for a particular sector," he added. India's total IT exports are growing at more than 30 percent annually and are expected to cross $50 billion in early 2008, the official said.
"IT exports from India to the Middle East, particularly to the UAE have increased substantially in recent years. We see huge potential for further growth," ESC regional director in Dubai Kamal Vachani said.

STORAGE
'OUR VISION IS TO BUILD CONTENT-AWARE STORAGE SOLUTION'
Preethi J., Bangalore
The Hindu Business Line Storage economics and what's coming up next in the storage arena: Adrian De Luca, Director, Storage Solutions, Asia Pacific, Hitachi Data Systems, shares his company's vision in an interview.
How has storage changed since the past five years?
Storage used to be predominantly adding more capacity to store more data. Then archival and the concepts of information lifecycle management entered. While consolidation is the first of the steps to a more efficient storage environment, it is not enough. Indian companies are successfully consolidating their resources. With virtualisation, smarter archiving methods and more flexible architectures, enterprises are able to function better.
What about innovation in hardware and storage architecture? Has that stopped?
Innovation has moved into software. It has been three years since virtualisation was invented. It helped the storage administrator get the maximum out of the storage hardware. Software is now becoming a critical component of any enterprise backbone. When a company undergoes a technology refresh cycle (about once in three years), the CIO approaches us to learn what innovations could help him control costs, minimise complexity and lower risk. Complexity is the increasing number of users, data and inbox sizes, space constraints etc. The company also does not want to re-architect its entire network while upgrading. That constitutes a risk. These are the factors that constantly challenge us to innovate.
What's after virtualisation?
Policy-based data management to classify documents and archive them intelligently is now being implemented. De-duplication, which ensures that only one copy of a duplicated file is stored, has also made a difference to many firms. Now application-aware storage management is being seen. HDS has decided to talk the language of application vendors. By interfacing with the application layer instead of the server layer, decisions on storage and transfer of data across a network can be made faster.
Services such as risk analysis and storage economics are also being offered. Our 60 consultants work across the APAC region, auditing the customer's current storage network, looking at server and application utilisation metrics, researching future needs and finally offering advise and best practices.
Our vision is to build a content-aware storage management solution. It will build on the application-awareness and policy-based archival. It will align to different applications, recognising email for example, to store them intelligently. This is what we will be working to realise.

HARDWARE
HP LAUNCHES PRINTER RANGE, EXTENDS REACH TO WEB SURFERS
Lijee Philip, New York
The Economic TimesHewlett-Packard (HP) has launched a range of printers and peripherals along with a $300-million marketing campaign as part of its plan to grab a bigger slice of the printing market share.
Speaking at the 'Print 2.0' strategy in New York recently, Vyomesh Joshi, EVP, imaging and printing group, said that HP wants to make printing from websites easier, which includes blogs and travel sites, and bring in new printing capabilities to online properties. "With Print 2.0, we are leveraging the power of the web as a gateway for our customers to communicate, collaborate and publish their content in ways they could not before," said Joshi.
He identified some key areas of focus for the Print 2.0 strategy; extend the company's digital content creation — for example, Snapfish and Logoworks — across customer segments spanning from consumers to enterprises; and deliver a digital printing platform that increases print speeds and lowers the cost of printing for high-volume commercial

HeadLine :SONATA TO BUILD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE IN HYDERABAD

2007-09-12T08:56:00.000-04:00

POLICY
POLICY ON IT INVESTMENT REGIONS SOON
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee, New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line In line with infotech industry's demand for creation of integrated modern townships in the country, Ministry of Communications and IT has prepared a draft policy on setting up of Information Technology Investment Regions (ITIRs).
According to sources, the Department of IT has already sought views of other ministries and departments including Urban Development, DIPP, Civil Aviation, as also the Planning Commission on the issue, and has received feedback from some of them. "We are waiting for other Ministries to respond, after which we will consider the feedback before preparing a cabinet note," sources said.
The ITIRs would be larger than IT SEZs in terms of format and include residential, office, commercial space in addition to schools and hospitals. Sources, however, pointed out that the Government is yet to finalise the policy.
"It is envisaged that the State Governments could propose the locations of ITIRs. At this stage the Ministry has not identified the places for setting up of integrated townships in the country," sources pointed out.
It may be recalled that the IT industry has been calling for strengthening of local infrastructure, with a Nasscom-McKinsey report in 2005 emphasising that India needed to deliver on both basic (power, public transport, international connectivity) as well as business infrastructure (office and retail space, security services).
"Between today (2005) and 2010 we estimate that the IT and BPO industries will have to employ an additional workforce of approximately one million workers near five Tier I cities (New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai), and about 600,000 workers across other towns in India," it had said.
The report had pointed out that IT and BPO sectors needed at least five new 'Gurgaon-plus' and five to seven new 'Pune-plus' integrated townships, and noted that the resulting burden on urban infrastructure was likely to be substantial.

INDUSTRY
MEXICO PRESIDENT TO VISIT INDIA'S TOP TECH FIRMS
New Delhi
The Economic Times Mexican President Felipe Calderon was expected to visit top technology companies in Bangalore on Tuesday, a day after he held talks with Indian leaders to strengthen ties between the two countries.
Calderon planned to tour the facilities of Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd., India's second and third largest software exporters, according to an advisory released by the Mexican Embassy. He is also scheduled to tour the laboratories of Biocon Ltd., India's top biotechnology company.
The visit to Bangalore is intended to help Calderon understand the success of Indian outsourcing companies and encourage them to invest more in Mexico. Several Bangalore-based information technology companies operate centers in Mexico to provide services to US-based clients.

MEXICO TO SET UP KNOWLEDGE COMMISSION
Chicago
The Economic Times Mexico City is taking a leaf out of India's National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and is taking the help of its chairman Sam Pitroda to turn the megapolis of 20 million people into "the knowledge capital of Latin America."
The initiative has come from Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard who recently hosted Pitroda in the first in a series of visits to help evolve a plan that is expected to be operationalised by the end of the year.
He said when former city Mayor Manuel Camacho visited New Delhi and Bangalore he came back convinced that Pitroda's "enormous" success in building India's information and communications technology sector in the 1980s as well as his work at the Knowledge Commission could be leveraged in Mexico City.
"We are well aware of the amount of work Sam Pitroda put in to turn India into an ICT powerhouse it is today. We are also aware of what he is trying to accomplish through the Knowledge Commission. His visit made a big impact in terms of the clarity and practicality of his vision," Camacho said.

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC TO SET UP MANUFACTURING PLANT IN HYDERABAD
Hyderabad
The Financial ExpressSchneider Electric is setting up its 10th manufacturing plant in Hyderabad with an investment of euro 5 million. The proposed plant will be used to manufacture high technology products used in electrical distribution, industrial control and automation for the global markets.
''We will further develop Schneider Electric India's global capabilities such as R&D, projects and services, software development. Besides, we leverage the capabilities in India to develop regional competency centres in projects and solutions,'' he said.

NOIDA SET TO GET GPS TECHNOLOGY FOR POLICE
Kapil Datta, Noida
Hindustan Times (Delhi edition)With the Noida authority sanctioning Rs 1.08 crore for a hi-tech police control room, Noida will probably become the second in India after Delhi to have Global Positioning System-based technology to track the patrolling vehicles and decrease response time.
Noida authority Additional Chief Executive Officer Y.K. Bahl said, "Noida Board on Monday approved the Noida Police project of hi-tech police command and sanctioned Rs1 crore. However police would be told to have tender process rather than giving it to HCL as proposed by them. HCL can also compete for the project. The company with the lowest price and better technology will be selected to implement the project."

IT PARKS/SEZ
NCCL BAGS RS 272-CR ORDERS
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business LineHyderabad-based Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd (NCCL) has announced that it has bagged new orders totalling Rs 272 crore. Out of this, the major orders comprise a project for construction of shell and core in the SEZ Infocity in Hyderabad for Satyam Computer, worth Rs 96 crore. The second contract entails construction of a mall for Market City Mumbai project in Mumbai for Offbeat Developers, worth Rs 60 crore, a company release said.

LAND ACQUISITION FOR TECHNOCITY BEGINS
Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu Business LineThe process of land acquisition for the proposed 'Technocity' project in Thiruvananthapuram has been initiated.
The Kerala Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, said in State Assembly on Tuesday that of the 507 acres of land identified for the project, draft declaration had been published for 205 acres and the work in respect of survey of the remaining 302 acres, after discussions with the land-owners was progressing at a brisk pace. The Technocity project is envisaged as the fourth phase of development of the existing Technopark.
Replying to questions, he said that Technocity would encompass projects that have huge development potential such as information technology, biotechnology and knowledge-based industries. Meanwhile, the acquisition of 100 acres of land for the third phase of development of Technopark is nearing completion.

VCF/PVT. EQUITY
FXLABS TO RAISE $5MN VC FUND
K Rajani Kanth, Chennai/ Hyderabad
Business Standard FXLabs Studios, a Hyderabad-based developer of game products for PCs and video game consoles, is in the process of raising $5 million (approximately Rs 20.5 crore) venture capital fund to steer its growth plans, including pitching in for more PC games based on popular Bollywood movies.
The company is a joint venture between Sashi Reddi, chairman and CEO of Philadelphia-based software testing firm AppLabs Technologies, and city-based Suresh Productions. Thus far, around $6 million (Rs 24.6 crore) has been infused into the company, with half of it invested by Reddi in his personal capacity.
"We have started negotiating with a few US-based venture capital firms, which have a proven track record in gaming, to add impetus to our plans. The fund-raising exercise should be completed in the next four to six months," Reddi, founder and chairman of FXLabs, told Business Standard.

M&A
ONMOBILE BUYS VOXMOBILI
Bangalore
The Hindu Business Line OnMobile, a telecom value added services (VAS) provider, has acquired the France-based Voxmobili for an undisclosed sum.
With this acquisition, OnMobile will strengthen its VAS data products offerings and accelerate its position within the global telecom VAS industry.
The acquisition of Voxmobili will add customers such as Orange, Cingular-AT&T, France Telecom, T-Mobile, Wanadoo and Turkcell to OnMobile's clientele. In addition, it will augment its current domain and technology competence due to the depth and breadth of Voxmobili's IP and cutting-edge proven data products.
Voxmobili's core products are centred on synchronised address book and advanced phone backup wherein mobile phone users can backup all their personal data including calendar and contacts onto a secure network-based server, and mobile paparazzi wherein mobile phone users can publish information, photographs and videos directly from their phones to Websites and mobile sites.

ZYLOG SYSTEMS EYES GLOBAL ACQUISITIONS
T.E. Raja Simhan & M. Ramesh, Chennai
The Hindu Business Line Zylog Systems Ltd will spend $10 million (Rs 41 crore) from the recent IPO to acquire two or three small companies in the US or Europe, the Chairman and CEO, Sudarshan Venkatraman, said.
The company had raised over Rs 575 crore through the IPO, issuing over 1.64 crore equity shares at Rs 350 each.
The Chennai-based IT company is looking at companies that specialise in providing software for the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) vertical, he said.
Venkatraman said the acquisitions should be completed before December. Zylog is looking at companies to enhance the domain competence in areas like BFSI and telecom; expand service lines; obtain access to new markets/verticals and enhance technology footprints.

GENESYS PLANS 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 GForce 2007, Sunny Rao, managing director, Genesys Telecommunication Labs India, said 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 new software applications for core banking and ERP by using software applications developed by Genesys, the US firm will manage Reliance's call centres as well as the small-sized call centres managed by Reliance Communications. Genesys, the leader in the call centre technology, recently unveiled some key technologies that could have an impact on 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 in 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, Wes Hayden, president & CEO, Genesys Telecom Laboratories, said they are expanding operations in India.

SOFTWARE
TECH MAHINDRA DEPLOYS SOLUTION FOR KUWAIT TELECOM FIRM
Mumbai
The Economic Times DNALeading software provider Tech Mahindra has successfully deployed the Adjunct Rating Solution (ARS) for telecom service provider Zain in Kuwait that would help it reduce operational costs and improve flexibility.
Zain Kuwait is the leading mobile telecommunications provider in the Middle East and Africa. The company operates under the Zain brand in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Sudan.
Tech Mahindra has used RateIntegration's PriceMaker Enterprise Pricing Server product, which has reduced operational costs, time-to-market for new services and improved the flexibility of the entire billing process for Zain in Kuwait, a company statement said here today.
This is Tech Mahindra's second installation of the Adjunct Rating Solution after a successful deployment at Zain in Jordan.

SONATA TO BUILD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE IN HYDERABAD
Bangalore
The Economic Times Deccan Herald Bangalore-headquartered Sonata Software Ltd, on Tuesday announced that it would set up its second development centre in Hyderabad as part of its growth strategy.
The company has been allotted seven acres of land in SEZ being set up by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, for setting up an IT campus, a company statement said. The land is located in the emerging IT hub at Kokapet, near Gachhi Bowli.
Sonata plans to invest Rs 100 crore to build the state-of-the-art campus, which will function as a dedicated facility for its global clients.
Sonata's present facility in Hyderabad has modern infrastructure, computing and working environment, the statement said.

RENAULT-NISSAN'S R&D CENTRE TO WORK ON CARS FOR GLOBAL MARKETS
S. Muralidhar, Chennai
The Hindu Business Line India's hopes of becoming the preferred global product development hub for small cars will receive another boost with the setting up of the Renault Nissan Technology and Business Centre India Pvt Ltd (RNTBCI).
Nissan's big plans for the centre include product development work for new vehicles that will be sold in other markets, in addition to developing India-specific vehicles. The Renault Nissan Technology and Business Centre India Pvt Ltd is a 50:50 joint venture between the French and Japanese automobile alliance partners.
Speaking exclusively to Business Line, Colin Dodge, Senior Vice-President, General Overseas Market (GOM) operations, Nissan, said that the new technology and business centre being set up here will play a key role in the Japanese automobile company's product development plans for many markets.
By 2010, when the RNTBCI unit will be fully staffed, it is expected to employ about 1,500 technicians, designers and information systems professionals. About 60 to 70 percent of the employees at the centre will be attached to the Nissan Technical Centre in Japan and will be involved in core product development activity, Dodge said. He added that at the initial stages, the RNTBCI would be providing basic CAD (computer-aided design) services, but will later scale up to cover the entire spectrum of product development work.
Design and development at the centre will also cover components that may be sourced from India for export and vehicles that are to be manufactured here for export to other countries.

SATYAM TO EXPAND PRESENCE IN ASIA-PACIFIC
V. Rishi Kumar, Hyderabad
The Hindu Business Line Mumbai Mirror IT services provider Satyam Computer Services Ltd today said that its business and revenues from Asia-Pacific are poised to grow with the company stepping up presence in Malaysia, China, Singapore and the region in particular.
From 85 per cent revenues few years ago from the US, the mix has changed to 20 per cent from Europe and 18 per cent from Asia-Pacific and this is likely to go up, B. Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam Computer, said.
Raju said that the company adopted 'follow the customer model' that suits their business requirements.
Earlier, Satyam announced 500-seat Global Solutions Centre (GSC) and expects to ramp this to about 2,000 people and has initiated work on the campus. The facility was inaugurated in the presence of Malaysian officials. The GSC with mostly Malaysian IT engineers, supports Satyam's ASEAN, West Asian, and American customers.
The GSC accelerates the consolidation of Satyam's Global Delivery Model 2.0, an integral part of the company's strategy to provide a distributed delivery capability for global customers. The GDM 2.0 calls for components of large-scale projects to be completed wherever it makes the most business sense, rather than having an entire programme in a single facility. This delivers cost reductions and in quality enhancements.

SYBASE TO TAP SMBS FOR POWERBUILDER 11.0
Vinay Umarji, Mumbai/ Ahmedabad
Business Standard The Indian subsidiary of one of the largest global enterprise software companies, Sybase Inc, intends to focus now on small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the country for its 4GL rapid application development (RAD) tool PowerBuilder 11.0.
The company initially set a target of promoting its newly-unveiled product in at least 5-6 tier-II cities including Ahmedabad, Kochi, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Dehradun and other cities.
PowerBuilder 11.0 is the latest version of one of the most popular products of Sybase's among application developers and enterprises across the world.
The tool enables developers to develop applications without incurring a significant cost or learning curve to understand new technologies. The RAD tool provides updated database support and support for Win32 and NET platform.
Post-launch, sales of licenses and upgrades have tripled for the company, informed Dave Fish, senior technical evangelist, Sybase Inc. He added that the company is eyeing a big growth for the market in its product, especially among the SMBs where the company sees a high potential for its usage.

IBS PLANS TWO CENTRES OUTSIDE KERALA
Thiruvananthapuram
The Pioneer IBS Software Services, a leading provider of new generation IT solutions to the global travel, transportation and logistics (TTL) industry, is planning to set-up shortly two new development centres outside Kerala, with the aim of growing into a Rs 1,000-crore company in three years, VK Mathews, chairman and managing director, IBS group, said.
Speaking at the tenth anniversary celebrations of the group here last week, Mathews said that IBS was now well equipped to seize the opportunities that the future will undoubtedly bring, in the dynamically expanding TTL domain, leading the company to the next level of growth, evolution and innovation.

HARDWARE
INDIAN INGENUITY FUELS HP'S PRINT 2.0 THRUST
Anand Parthasarathy, Singapore
The Hindu Business Line An online consumer photo storage and print service — a key element of global printer-leader Hewlett Packard's newly announced Web-enabled thrust — has a strong India connection: Snapfish, its hugely successful, Internet-based photo resource where registered users can store their family albums — and have them printed and delivered when required — is the brainchild of Indian Institute of Technology alumnus, Bala Parthasarathy who went on to co-found a US-based company of the same name in 2000.
By the time HP acquired the start-up in 2005, Snapfish had acquired 13 million customers who liked the way the free resource allowed them not just to put their pictures on line – but also to have them printed almost overnight when ever they needed prints.
This combo of secure storage and painless printing has seen the membership grow to 40 million today – using 4 peta bytes or 4 million gigabytes of storage, Parthasarathy Business Line, on the sidelines of HP's annual technology showcase here on Tuesday. Now the Vice-President of the printer major's Digital Imaging division, he added that Snapfish would soon be offered in an Indian edition — the planned launch is late 2007. While Indian members can already enjoy the online storage and album sharing features, HP is currently establishing links with printer players in as many Indian cities as possible before the 'desi' launch. "We will also Indianise much of the content like greeting card tools," Parthasarathy added.
Snapfish is one of the crucial ways HP is reinventing itself for what is being called Web 2.0 — the newly emerging 'Net-enabled' consumer era. Its own realisation is being called Print 2.0 – a mix of wireless printing, touch-based access technologies, kiosk-based printer services, and 'smart' solutions for printing content from the Web.

FISCAL SOPS IN NEW HARDWARE POLICY
Vrishti Beniwal, New Delhi
The Financial ExpressThe $35-billion hardware industry has a reason to cheer with the government all set to cut duties and taxes by almost half, bringing them on a par with the Asean level of 12-16%. At present, all the levies add up to about 30-32%.
The much-awaited hardware policy, which has been finalised by the department of information technology (DIT) and expected to be announced shortly, is likely to rationalise the taxes to give a fillip to the sector by encouraging competition, investments and employment.
"The hardware policy for the sector is almost ready and will be released shortly after consulting all the stakeholders. About 90% of the issues have been sorted out and it is in the final stages of formulation," a senior official in the department of information technology said. "To ensure that the domestic industry is not at a disadvantage, the policy will aim to bring taxation in India on a par with Asean."
The policy is also expected to address issues such as infrastructure and skill development besides specifying measures to leverage on research and development skills to make India a hardware hub.

SHARP LAUNCHES SOLAR BUSINESS IN INDIA
New Delhi
Business StandardJapanese firm Sharp today announced the launch of its solar business in India with an aim to take over 20 percent of the Rs 600 crore domestic market by 2010. "We hope to achieve Rs 100 crore turnover in the next three years from our solar business in India, but the company's internal targets are much higher," said Sunil K Sinha, managing director, Sharp Business Systems India. The solar energy business in India, estimated at Rs 400-500 crore, is expected to touch Rs 600 crore in three years and the company is eyeing a 20 percent share of this market. Sharp Business Systems India is one of the three subsidiaries of Sharp in India which sells multimedia projectors, facsimiles, electronic registers, LCD displays and electronic calculators in the country.

AMD LAUNCHES QUAD-CORE PROCESSOR
Bangalore
Business Standard The Economic Times (Delhi edition)Chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on Tuesday unveiled its quad-core microprocessor Opteron, code named Barcelona, for servers used by data centres and enterprises. It is aimed at delivering higher performance, power efficiency, enhanced virtualization and upgradation. AMD Director (Marketing & Sales) Michael O'Brien said, "The Opteron processor-based servers, rolled out by original equipment manufacturers and system integrators, has shown 50 percent increase in energy efficiency, enhanced virtualization performance, investment protection when upgrading from dual core using the same power to reduce IT infrastructure costs.

HEADLINES TODAY : PARAMOUNT TO ACQUIRE AEI CABLE

2007-08-31T22:24:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY
ACCEL BAGS JNU DEAL
Chennai
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has partnered with Accel Frontline, a Chennai-based IT services provider, to develop software-based solutions and applications for its e-governance cell. JNU's e-governance cell was set up during the 10th Plan with a Rs 50 lakh grant by the University Grants Commission.

NASSCOM TO TAP YOUTH POWER
Guwahati
The TelegraphSmart and suave with a flair for English — this is how the information technology industry perceives the youth of the Northeast.

The country's biggest IT body, Nasscom, today rolled out its plans to tap the youth power of the region, which has an abundant talent pool of English-speaking boys and girls.

Over 20,000 youth from the region will sit for the National Assessment of Competency (NAC) test by Nasscom, which is considered to be the first step towards employment in the BPO and IT-enabled services sectors.

The IT industry expects nearly three lakh graduates to appear for the NAC test by 2009.

The first of the series of tests will begin in the third week of September and continue till December. The tests will be held at different centres across the region.

IT PARKS/SEZ

NEW JERSEY-BASED SMES MULL IT PARK
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business LineA consortium of 60 New Jersey-based technology companies have come calling to India with a proposal to set up an integrated technology park which will see initial investment of about Rs 1,200 crore.

The Small and Medium Enterprise Consortium (SMEC) now has about 60 companies as members with a combined turnover of $3 billion. It hinted that about 300 companies evinced interest in being part of the proposed project planned near Hyderabad.

Upendra J. Chivakula, Deputy Speaker of New Jersey General Assembly, along with other members of the consortium, said that the objective of such an initiative was to step up outsourcing work, network and connect with local people, create jobs, and take up social work.

As a part of this initiative, the consortium expects to invest about Rs 120 crore in International Institute of Information Technology, and some model schools, each with an outlay of Rs 12 crore.

The Chairman of SMEC, Mahender Musuku, said that there are scores of technology companies playing a very strategic role in enterprises in the US with employee strength ranging from a couple of hundreds and upwards. All these companies either have outsourcing capability or are in the process of looking at developing such a capability.

TCS, COGNIZANT AMONG 20 SEZS CLEARED
New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line DNA Mint The Tribune The Pioneer The Hindu Tata Consultancy Services and Cognizant Solutions India Pvt Ltd, both in Andhra Pradesh, were among the 20 special economic zones for Information Technology (IT) and ITES cleared for formal approval on Thursday by the Board of Approval for SEZs.

The BoA, which met under the Chairmanship of the Commerce Secretary, Gopal K. Pillai, also gave in-principle nod to seven SEZs, including a multi-product SEZ being promoted by Gitanjali Gems Ltd in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and a 208-hectares textile SEZ in Bidar district, Karnataka, by Jade Holdings Pvt Ltd.

Pillai told reporters here that with today's 20 formal approvals, the number of SEZs with formal approvals has gone to 386 out of which 142 have been notified so far.

Among the notable formal approvals include multi-services SEZ by Gujarat Finance City Development Company Ltd in Gandhinagar, agro and food processing SEZ by Nagaland Industrial Development Corporation Ltd in Dimapur, two IT/ITES SEZs by Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd, and a polymer-based SEZ by Asia Pacific Corporation Ltd in Gujarat's Kutch district.

Among the four SEZs for conversion from in-principle to formal approval include Alok Infrastructure Pvt Ltd for a textile SEZ in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and a multi-product SEZ spread over 1,263 hectares by Sterling Erection and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.

Welspun Anjar SEZ for Engineering products and Gitanjali Gems Ltd for gems and jewellery SEZ in Aurangabad were the two important SEZs that were given in-principle nod by the BoA on Thursday.

Proposals of AEC Marketing for gems and jewellery SEZ in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Anant Raj Industries' 10-hectare IT SEZs were not considered by the BoA as the local authorities in the respective regions withheld permissions for these proposals.

IT PARK IN KADAPA SOON
Kadapa
Deccan ChronicleDistrict collector M.T. Krishna Babu said that steps were being taken to construct an IT Park in 50 acres of land near Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) on the outskirts of Kadapa city. Krishnababu inaugurated the regional information and public relations office that was shifted to the old Rims office here on Thursday. Speaking to newsmen, the collector said that Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy would inaugurate Rajiv Gruhakalpa housing complex constructed at a cost of Rs 12 crore here on September 5.

M&A

BT TO EXTEND XANSA DEAL
The Hindu Business LineXansa Plc, a UK provider of information-technology and business services, said BT Group Plc extended a contract valued at £128 million ($258 million) over six years. The contract "covers finance and accounting processing, accounts payable, cash, treasury, payroll, ledger and reporting services," Reading, England-based Xansa said in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service today.

PARAMOUNT TO ACQUIRE AEI CABLE
Kausik Datta, Mumbai
Business StandardNew Delhi-based Paramount Communications is close to acquiring Britley, UK-based AEI Cables. An announcement to this effect is expected to come shortly, if not tomorrow.

Sources close to the development said the deal size would be in the range of Rs 250-260 crore. UK-based investment banking firm Elara Capital is the adviser to Paramount. Sanjay Aggarwal, chairman and CEO, Paramount Communications, declined comments.

They added that the power cable maker Paramount would borrow for financing the deal, which would be around 80 percent of the company's sales last year. Paramount last year posted a net profit of Rs 37.5 crore over net sales of Rs 318 crore. Last year, it had raised $15 million (Rs 60 crore) through a GDR issue.

Paramount provides cabling solutions to power, telecom and IT, railways and petrochemical industries. It has a flexible manufacturing capacity to shift focus on manufacturing one type of cable to another.

SOFTWARE

SATNAV TECH SEWS UP $10-M EXPANSION PLAN
V.Rishi Kumar, Hyderabad
The Hindu Business Line Business StandardSatNav Technologies has embarked on plans to expand its domestic and international operations with an investment outlay of $10 million.

The Founder and Managing Director of SatNav, Amit Prasad, said that from a start-up a few years ago, the company has now moved on to the next phase of growth which is reflected in the performance of the company.

Prasad said that the company had consolidated its business in India and now planned to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region and West Asia with its flagship product 'a-mantra', a facilities management suite.

"Initially, the company was in pursuit of investments from private equity players. But now the strategy has changed. We plan to meet our expansion requirements through a combination of internal accruals and debt," he explained.

TCS BAGS $140-M BSNL CONTRACT
Mumbai
The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line The Times of India Business Standard Deccan Chronicle The Financial Express The Telegraph Deccan Herald The Hindu Software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has won a nine-year contract worth $140 million (Rs 574 crore) from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). The deal, covering the north and west of India, includes deploying operational support systems (OSS) and business support systems (BSS) components such as customer relationship management, billing, mediation and directory enquiry.

The first two years of the engagement will involve setting up the new systems in association with its partners and upgrading from the existing systems. The latter will involve operating and maintaining the systems. The revenue flowing in from the project in the first two years will be larger than in the rest of the years. The systems integration involves managing the overall engagement along with a large team of hardware, software and application partners. The $140 million is revenue that TCS will earn from the contract.

HCL Infosystems had won a similar deal of Rs 500 crore for the south and east regions from BSNL.

"The deal is comparable to any other global deal," said TCS head (global sales) N Chandrasekaran. He said it would also serve to showcase the company's capabilities in telecom. Some of the telecom contracts that are coming up globally are in systems integration, 3G, convergent billing and managed services. These are largely in Africa, Latin America and in the Asia Pacific. All these deals are fairly large size and range from $50 million to $200 million.

TCS gets around 9-10 percent of its revenues from the domestic market. "TCS is extremely focused on the domestic market. We will continue to bid for projects in India," Chandrasekaran said. The margins from the BSNL contract would be comparable to global margins, he added.

Earlier, TCS had won a large outsourcing contract for managing the IT infrastructure needs of Tata Teleservices. The agreement, signed in 2005, was valued at Rs 1,000 crore.

EMERSON SETS UP DESIGN ENGINEERING CENTRE IN MOHALI
Komal Amit Gera, New Delhi, Chandigarh
Business StandardEmerson Electric Company inaugurated its Design Engineering Centre at Quark city in Mohali today.

The move can be considered as the revival of the software business in Mohali after Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Tech Mahindra quit the place in the last few years.

The company has taken the premises on rent at Quark and would run under the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) umbrella.

According to sources, it expects export of Rs 45 crore in the first year and about Rs 400crore-Rs 500 crore after the completion of the project.

The company officials refused to disclose the investment figures but said that the amount would be substantial. This is the second corporate centre of Emerson in India, the first one was set in Pune.

According to Pradipta Sen, president (India region of Emerson Electric Company), "The facility at Pune was set up in year 2003 that now engages 456 people and 34 divisions and we want to replicate the same success in Mohali."

HARDWARE

FAB COMPANIES NOW DRIVE PC DESIGNS
PP Thimmaya, Bangalore
The Economic TimesThe PC market in India has taken the unconventional route with major chipmakers like Intel and AMD coming out with new designs for computers that appeal to masses both in terms of price and value. The conventional PC does not seem to be the preferred bet for those looking at increasing penetration of the Indian market as chip makers and hardware manufacturers are coming out with new form factors which suit Indian conditions.

If Intel has come out with its Classmate PC, which is more of a miniature form of notebook computer, then AMD has designed new form factor PCs where the central processing unit (CPU) has been shrunk to a minimal size. AMD's designed product is being manufactured and marketed by Wipro Infotech under the brand name Protos. AMD India MD Alok Ohrie says: "We are trying to facilitate a computing environment for the masses and thereby create a new market."

These new form factor PCs are not just about design itself, they are competitively priced too. The Protos is priced at Rs 14,000 at the entry level while Intel's Classmate PC comes with a bundled cost of around Rs 17,000.

However, Ashutosh Vaidya, V-P, Wipro personal computing, Wipro Infotech, says it is not just the price which will drive these PCs, but the value and functionality it generates. In case of Protos, it can be run on a 12-volt battery and can withstand extreme weather conditions and has all the features of a normal PC.

Vaidya says the company is looking at adding more applications on Protos and would like to make it a more solution-oriented machine. In the case of Classmate PC, Intel is targeting the education sector, especially schools since the machine is more attuned to children.

According to IDC, the installed PC base in the country recorded a compounded annual growth rate of 32.3 percent from 9.5 million in 2003 to cross 22 million in 2006, thereby more than doubling in a three-year time frame.

ENERGY-EFFICIENT HARD DRIVES FROM WESTERN DIGITAL
R. Savitha, Pune
The Hindu Business Line Western Digital has announced a new line of hard drives designed with energy efficiency in mind. These hard drives are estimated to consume almost 40 percent less power than normal drives.

According to WD, each of these drives will save about 13.8 kg of carbon dioxide per year. For a large data centre, such as a bank, savings could be around 248 tonnes of carbon a year. The first of these 3.5-inch hard drives, the 1TB Caviar GP, hit the global market in July, followed by the 1TB desk-to-pc channel shipment.

Sharad Srivastava, Director - Sales (India and South Asia), talks about the products and the strategy.

What is the potential for green drives in the Indian market? What is the sales target?

Green Power Hard Drives consume almost 40 percent less power than normal drives. In India where power is an issue in terms of demand and supply chain, these drives will conserve power and provide an increased life to power-generation equipment such as inverters and generators.

What is the marketing strategy for this?

Western Digital's market strategy consists of a distributor network. We have channel partners who are responsible for the distribution of our products across India. Additionally, we have an all-inclusive education campaign and service support set-up in India. We have also implemented a three-segment channel model, based on the customer profile and appointed strategic distributors, to address the market.

In an enhancement to its channel strategy recently, WD's volume distribution segment has been further divided into the regional and up-country markets to address resellers and small SI/assemblers. This distributor network is supported by our warranty replacement program – WD Express.

Where is the drive being manufactured?

The green drives are being manufactured in WD factory located in Malaysia and Thailand. For the domestic market too, the drives will be shipped from the manufacturing units in Malaysia and Thailand. As per our Q4 results, unit shipments have grown 32 percent from 73.3 million in the last fiscal year (FY06) to 96.5 million in FY07.

INT/E-COMM

ASSOCHAM: EARLY SPECTRUM ALLOCATION FOR BROADBAND
New Delhi
The Economic Times Assocham today suggested early allocation of spectrum for broadband wireless access.

"Spectrum finalisation has already taken a great deal of time and if further delayed it is going to jeopardize the prospects of broadband and telecom services," Assocham President Venugopal Dhoot said in a statement.

In a communiqué to the Department of Telecommunication, the chamber said the Indian broadband services market is still at a nascent stage in the country, as by end of 2006-07, the subscriber base had not exceeded beyond 2.5 million, with a household penetration being around one per cent only.

According to estimates made by the chamber, the gap between target and achievement in broadband penetration in India will touch 10 million by 2010, until the availability of personal computer at cheaper price with adequate infrastructure is made available in rural and semi urban areas.

The Department of Telecommunication has set a target of nine million subscribers by the end of current year and 20 million subscribers by 2020.

In order to make broadband available all across the country, service providers will have to look into various emerging technologies, mainly wireless, as it is difficult to connect the vast Indian population through wires, the chamber said.

Another major challenge in providing rural broadband connectivity is the non-availability of relevant content for the diversified Indian population, without which the success of broadband in rural areas is very unlikely, it added.

E-GOVERNANCE

COMAT SERVICE CENTRES IN NE
Bangalore
The Hindu Business LineComat Technologies has announced plans to set up common service centres across districts, tehsils and gram panchayats in the North East. The company, in association with 3i Infotech, has already set up around 800 ICT-enabled kiosks in Karnataka. In Haryana, out of the proposed 1,159 rural kiosks, it is close to setting up 292 kiosks (e-Disha Ekal Seva Kendras) in the state's first roll-out exercise in Rohtak division. Similarly, the company will set up 706 centres across Uttarakhand the Uttaranchal state benefiting 6.3 million population in its rural areas. It will soon extend its expertise to north-eastern states, where 140 and centres are going to be set up in Tripura and 45 in centres are going to be set up in Tripura and Sikkim.

IT TRAINING

ORACLE UNIVERSITY CERTIFICATION
Coimbatore
The Hindu Business LineOracle University has awarded certificates to over 42,000 professionals in India, since its inception in 1995. The university offers training and certification programmes by providing Oracle, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Retek and Siebel education. In a bid to reach out to the Indian students, it offers these as classroom programmes in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata. While such initiatives are aimed at bridging the IT skills gap, it has also designed the 'Workforce Development Programme' for working professionals through a wide education partner network. A release from the company said that over 90,000 Indian students passed the WDP last year June 2006 – May 2007.

IT ENABLED SERVICES

APOLLO HEALTH ACQUIRES ATLANTA BPO FOR $170 M
Chennai
The Economic Times Mint The Hindu Business Line DNA The Indian Express The Times of India The Tribune Business Standard Deccan Chronicle The Telegraph The Hindu Apollo Health Street (AHS), the BPO arm of Apollo Group of Hospitals, has acquired Zavata, an Atlanta-based BPO which operates in the same segment, for $170 million. This synergistic acquisition is not only expected to strengthen AHS' presence in the US market, but is also going to bring in specialised skill-sets, adding value to the company's existing portfolio.

Apollo Hospitals group executive chairman Prathap C Reddy told mediapersons in Chennai on Thursday that "this acquisition will make Apollo Health Street the largest global healthcare BPO company".

The acquisition is to be funded through a combination of debt and equity, broken into $120 million of debt and $50 million equity. Barclays Capital and Bank of India, the funding agencies for the acquisition, have offered an optional draw-out of $140 million (including $8 million refinancing portion of an earlier debt) to the company, including the debt component of this deal. The balance funding will come through internal accruals, Pratap Reddy said. Of $50 million equity, the Apollo Group will invest $25 million while private equity investors — JP Morgan's investment arm One Equity Partners and Temasek Holdings — will fund the rest.

According to AHS CEO Andrew DeVoe, the valuation of Zavata was put at 10 times its EBIDTA. Zavata, which is engaged in end-to-end back office services and emergency transport billing, is the fourth acquisition by AHS. A year ago, AHS had acquired another US-based company, Armanti Financial Services for $30 million, after which AHS' combined turnover touched $50 million.

Zavata has over 100 active customers and employs over 450 people in India and 500 plus in the US, DeVoe said. The combined entity is aiming for a revenue of Rs 400 crore by March 2008.

AHS MD Sangita Reddy said the BPO business has been growing organically at a CAGR of 70 percent. It has operations in Hyderabad and the US, and is building a new facility in Chennai. When completed, the Chennai facility will have 2,000 seats. The first phase — with 400 seats and an investment of Rs 20 crore — will be ready in a year's time, she said.

AHS serves the top three academic health systems and spans across 40 hospitals in the US. It is looking at several avenues for raising capital. On the possibilities of a future listing, Ms Reddy said, "we are working out the valuation". AHS, which started offering platform-based delivery solutions five years ago, has been ahead of the industry in its outcome-based pricing models. "We operate in the high-end business space. The value of each contract ranges from $1 million to $5 million," she said.

INDIAN TECHNOLOGY FIRMS FIND OFFSHORE MERIT IN SOUTH AFRICA
Regina Anthony, New Delhi
Mint A large labour pool with multi-lingual skills, proximity to the Middle East and Europe, and a deep cost advantage vis-à-vis the US and Europe are factors making countries such as South Africa attractive offshore destinations for Indian back office and tech service providers.

Companies that are eyeing or have presence in both countries include all the major players including HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd, Infosys Technologies Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

HCL, which had put together a team three months ago to assess the business process outsourcing climate in Africa, has already picked Cape Town and Johannesburg to set up back-office units, details of which will be finalized soon.

Wipro and Infosys declined to comment on their Africa plans, but an industry representative said both firms are exploring the possibility of setting up operations there.

"Representatives of Infosys and Wipro have visited South Africa to invest there, but the process is still at a very nascent stage. Wipro is looking at setting up a manufacturing facility there," said Shipra Tripathi, director, Africa desk, at business lobby Confederation of Indian Industry.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd, which serves six of the largest firms in Africa, already counts more than 120 workers at customer locations in offices at Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The Hyderabad-based firm said in July that it plans to strengthen its presence in South Africa over the next two to three years to leverage untapped business opportunities and local employees.

TCS already has operations in both Johannesburg and Cape Town with 100 employees, and is in the process of setting up a global delivery centre in Morocco. Other Indian tech and back-office companies are also speaking to government officials in African countries to understand the market there.

"Indian tech companies, such as Satyam and TCS, have approached us about possible investments... Other big outsourcing companies, such as Genpact and Convergys, have also been provided with information," said Ray Ngcobo, chief director of the industry development division at South Africa's department of trade and industry, in an email.

ERP

SAP: INDIA KEY TO GLOBAL GOAL OF 100,000 CLIENTS
Bangalore
The Economic Times The Times of India German software giant SAP said on Thursday that its Indian unit will be key to reaching its goal of more than doubling the number of global customers by 2010.

India is the third-biggest operation by headcount for SAP, which plans to invest one billion dollars by 2011 in the country, also its fastest growing market; chief executive officer Henning Kagermann said.

The local unit will play a critical role both as a source of "products and innovations" and as an expanding market as SAP seeks to increase its customer base worldwide from 41,000 to 100,000 by 2010, Kagermann said.

India, where the number of customers has doubled to 2,000 in one year, will be a "very big" market for SAP, reaching the scale of Britain and France, in five to 10 years, he said.

The entire 60-member executive board of Walldorf, Germany-based SAP have travelled to India with the CEO to meet customers and gauge the market as well as interact with local employees.

Kagermann opened a new 350,000-square-feet facility on the campus of SAP Labs in Bangalore that can house 2,000 employees, and announced tie-ups with two Indian technology institutions Thursday to nurture engineering talent.

The company has designated India as a strategic hub and plans to reinforce its global services and support centres in this southern Indian city and Gurgaon, a New Delhi suburb.

The Indian operation is SAP's largest research and development hub and support centre outside Germany.

HEADLINES TODAY : US-BASED SMEC TO INVEST RS 2,500 CRORE IN ANDHRA PRADESH

2007-08-31T22:22:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY
US-BASED SMEC TO INVEST RS 2,500 CRORE IN ANDHRA PRADESH
Hyderabad
The Economic TimesSmall & Medium Enterprise Consortium (SMEC), formed by a group of entrepreneurs from across the globe, will invest Rs 2,500 crore in Andhra Pradesh for providing thrust to SMEs, particularly IT, in the state.

The investment by SMEC, which promotes sustainable development of small and medium enterprises, would generate 25,000 jobs directly and over 80,000 indirectly in the state.

"There are several entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh operating start ups to consulting units to global outfits in USA, currently, and most of them have offices in Hyderabad," New Jersey-based entrepreneur and SMEC Chairman Mahendar Reddy Musuku said.

"Each office has five to 200 employees and thriving with an aggressive growth plan. We have hence decided to set up a consortium so that these small and medium entrepreneurs will come together, develop and avail common facilities for a better and faster growth," he added.

As for the reason for selecting Andhra Pradesh, Musuku said Hyderabad and information technology have become synonymous.

"The infotech revolution has brought Hyderabad on the centre-stage and the brightest pool of talent is coming from here," he said.

On Tuesday, an SMEC delegation met the state Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who appreciated their efforts and assured support and from the government, Musuku said, adding that, "we are confident our initiative will result in creating a major support tool for the IT industry in AP."

India's IT industry is said to be the world's 10th largest and is increasing rapidly.

According to consultancy group McKinsey estimates, by 2008 India's software, services and IT outsourcing industry would be worth $70 billion annually, employing four million people and contributing 7 percent to the Gross National Product.

M&M GETS AMITY HR AWARD
New Delhi
The Hindu Business LineHomegrown farm equipment-to-IT major Mahindra & Mahindra has won the HR Excellence Award presented by Amity Group, recognising it as one of the most admired companies across the globe. The company was presented the award at the recently held fourth Amity Global HR Summit 2007 in the Amity International Business School, Noida. "As a diversified global conglomerate, Mahindra's human capital is its principal asset. The organisation's innovative HR practices in today's dynamic environment help it attract and retain the best available talent," the M&M President (HR & Corporate Services), Rajeev Dubey, said in a statement.

IT PARKS/SEZ

TODAY'S BOA MEET TO DISCUSS 31 SEZ PROPOSALS
New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line The HinduThe board of approvals (BoA) will take up 31 SEZ proposals, including those by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Cognizant Technology, for clearance at its meeting on Thursday. IT and ITeS special economic zones (SEZ) dominate the list of proposals to be taken up by the BoA. Most of the new proposals for SEZs in IT and ITeS are from Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Interestingly, the SEZ promoters are taking IT and ITeS beyond the hubs of Gurgaon and Hyderabad. TCS proposes to set up a 30.35-hectare IT zone in Ranga Reddy District (Andhra Pradesh) where Cognizant Technology Solutions also plans to establish a 16-hectare IT zone.

WEST BENGAL ROLLS OUT RED CARPET FOR IT SECTOR
Pradeep Gooptu, Kolkata
Business Standard The government of West Bengal has launched a multi-pronged initiative to win the confidence of technology sector companies and grow the information technology (IT) and IT enabled services (ITES) in the state by at least 50 percent in this fiscal under a plan that has obtained the state cabinet's backing.

Spearheaded by the IT department of the state and its agencies like Webel Ltd., the initiative would create a pool of attractive real estate solutions of upto 20 lakh square feet at new destinations.

The real estate would be offered to investors to enable them to kick-start their operations in the state with minimum loss of time and at cost-competitive rates, more so as the real estate was being developed by established sector players like DLF and Shapoorji Pallonji, said top sources in the state It department.

Bengal's IT minister Debesh Das, who was managing this effort, would contact select IT and ITES companies directly with offers to start up operations in the state at rates that were upto 50 percent lower than established IT centres like Hyderabad or Pune.

"The IT department can offer space today at Rs 25 a square foot at Siliguri to all comers", said state IT and biotechnology secretary Siddharth.

The IT department would be using as incentive the numerous infrastructure projects that were being commissioned in the state to enhance its attractiveness to investors over and above its power-surplus situation and cost-competitive workforce

The IT department would offer realty at multiple IT hubs being developed under public private partnership (PPP) model, and the 20 lakh square feet being offered initially was expected to go up to 80 lakh square feet of built-up space accruing to the IT department as its share in PPP-based projects.

The first was the semi-conductor centre (SCC) being developed at Sector 5 at Salt Lake at an estimated cost of Rs 37 crore under ownership of WEBEL, the nodal agency of the IT department.

It would offer rent of between Rs 35 to Rs 40 per sq ft per month and the building would be specially designed for the semiconductor companies with expensive software equipment for research and training.

A second software technology park basically for SME companies was being developed using the PPP route on a 1.25 acre WEBEL plot in Salt Lake Sector 5.

Webel would leverage the free developed area it received from the PPP partner to handhold investors and populate this Rs 48 crore project with rentals around Rs 25 per. sq ft.

A third IT hub was being proposed at Jagadishpur close to Kolkata on 332 acres and developed once again through the PPP route. WEBEL's share of land would be 160 acres and this would be dedicated to companies with attached residential area for employees and facilities facilities like food court and entertainment zone at subsidized rentals.

The fourth was the special economic zone in the Bhangar-Rajarhat Development Authority (BRADA) area covering at least 200 acres, beyond a canal that currently marked the border of the Rajarhat township.

The fifth SEZ would come up at Nonadanga, also east of Kolkata, on around 75 acres of which 50 acres would be for the IT SEZ hub under a joint venture between the state IT ministry and a single party as developer.

Durgapur, the steel city where DLF recently announced its Rs 4000 crore housing project, would house a Shapoorji Pallonji built SEZ on 25 acres owned by the West Bengal government offering around 18 lakh sq. ft., making it the largest IT SEZ hub in the state, with the other partner being the Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA).

VCF/PVT. EQUITY

BAER PLANS $250 MN HEDGE FUND
Reena Zachariah, Mumbai
Business StandardPrivate equity player Baer Capital Partners plans to launch $ 250 million India-dedicated hedge fund by the year-end. Baer Capital is the first hedge fund to announce its India plans, after the recent proposal by the Securities and Exchange Board of India allowing direct entry of hedge funds.

The fund is likely to be called Beacon India Growth Fund. Baer Capital will have to register as a foreign institutional investor (FII).

The private equity firm which entered India last year will also be launching its second $250 million open-ended Beacon India Equity fund by the middle of next year.

The Beacon India Private Equity Fund has closed $ 7 1/2 million investment into an art auction company and will be closing three more deals in a power transmission company ($20 million), software services space ($12 million) and will be co-investing with 2-4 more investors into a North India-based real estate developer ($100 million).

The private equity firm has appointed Deepak Shahdapuri on the board of the art auction company and the software services company.

M&A

3I INFOTECH BUYS STAKE IN HCCA
Mumbai
The Hindu Business LineThe city-based 3i Infotech Ltd has acquired 51 percent stake in BPO services provider HCCA Business Services Pvt Ltd. The company has been acquired for its delivery capabilities in HR operations including large-scale payroll processing for clients in the BFSI (banking, financial, services and insurance) sector, said a news release from the company. Financial details of the transaction were however, not provided. The 3i scrip was up by 1.03 percent to close at Rs 136.7 on the BSE today.

SOFTWARE

MSIDC BEHIND MANY A MICROSOFT SUCCESS
Chiranjoy Sen, Bangalore
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)On June 27, 2007, when Microsoft released the beta 2 version of its Visual Studio 2008 software, it simply added one more feather to the cap of Microsoft India Development Centre (MSIDC) at Hyderabad. MSIDC, the largest development centre of the software giant outside Redmond, plays a crucial and integral role in the success of the Visual Studio system.

"The centre is responsible for collaborative development of the product, which basically enables developers to rapidly create connected applications for a better user experience," says Somasegar S, corporate vice-president of the developer division of Microsoft, who also oversees the India development centre.

And not just Visual Studio, MSIDC, which completed nine years this month, has focused on creating intellectual property from India with teams having end-to-end responsibility for more than 50 Microsoft products shipped for global markets. The centre began with 20 people in 1998 and has a headcount of 1,300 today, filing around 180 patents in the last three years. "India is an important market for Microsoft with a thriving developer community. International development teams working in partnership with the Redmond based development centre provide invaluable services for internationalisation of products, as well as extending our skill-set both locally and internationally. Microsoft works closely with over 6,50,000 developers in India, " says Somasegar.

He adds that Microsoft has a dedicated team which drives certain aspects of the Visual Studio product while the entire tooling work for Microsoft's software for mobile devices (read: Office Communicator Mobile, SQL Mobile, Office Mobile and Visual Studio for Devices) is carried out of Hyderabad. To boot, MSIDC also holds complete ownership for developing the Virtual PC 2007, which was released in March 2007.

KLG SYSTEL GETS ORDERS WORTH RS 67 CRORE
Mumbai
The Hindu Business Line Business Standard Engineering software services firm KLG Systel Ltd said on Wednesday that it received orders worth Rs 67 crore from Haryana and Rajasthan state governments for revenue management of power utilities. The projects will be completed by March 2008, it said in a statement.

IMPETUS TECH PLANS THIRD FACILITY IN NOIDA
L.N. Revathy, Coimbatore
The Hindu Business Line Impetus Technologies, an outsourced product engineering services provider, plans to establish its third facility in Noida by next year.

Based out of the US, the company has three development centres in Indore, two in Noida and one in Hyderabad.

It now plans to expand its Noida presence with an investment of close to $4 million.

Without quantifying the total investment made so far in India, Praveen Kankariya, CEO, said that the company would look at organic growth in Noida. He did not rule out inorganic growth, but that would happen "in other geographies."

The company offers outsourced software R&D, testing, quality assurance and support services, exclusively to software and technology-enabled companies across verticals such as telecommunications, financial services and insurance, healthcare, digital media and CRM.

Stating that the company helps customers design and build software products, Kankariya said that in the traditional model, one worked with an existing software company that had started to outsource a portion of their product.

SOFTWARE FOR RS TRANSLATORS
New Delhi
The TribuneRajya Sabha Chairman M H Ansari today inaugurated a software 'Mantra - Rajya Sabha' for translators of the Upper House.

According to an official spokesman, the software has been developed by a team consisting of officials of Rajya Sabha and C-DAC, Pune.

He said that papers laid on the table of House, list of business and Parliament bulletin Part I have been translated through 'Mantra' in the last few sessions and the results have been encouraging.

IBM ENTERS VIZAG
Visakhapatnam
The Times of India Business Standard IBM India today announced its operations in Vizag, as part of its expansion plans to enter 14 new cities in the country, in line with its strategy to make India a truly global hub.

This would enable IBM to strengthen its pan India foothold and cater specially to the unique requirements of the various clients across the city of Vizag and its neighboring markets.

IBM is slated to spread its wings in six additional cities including Nashik, Surat, Bhubaneswar, Jamshedpur, Jaipur and Madurai; with Chandigarh, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Goa, Lucknow and Bhopal already being operational. IBM envisions setting new standards of excellency through the newly opened centres which are state of the art.

Lingraju Sawkar, VP GSMB, IBM India/South Asia, said, "Our entry into Vizag is a reflection of IBM's continued commitment to working closely with the newer segments throughout India to empower them with world class technology; thus paving their way to success."

"Small and medium businesses play an integral role in sustaining India's growth story. Vizag, a fast-growing city will be an important market for IBM, and this initiative will further reinforce our commitment to deliver things faster and better to our customers," Lingraju added.

HARDWARE

LG, SAMSUNG & PHILIPS EYE IT PERIPHERALS BIZ
Sreeradha D Basu & Sushmita Mohapatra, Kolkata/Bangalore
The Economic TimesGlobal consumer electronics heavyweights like LG, Samsung and Philips are gung-ho about the IT accessories and computer peripherals business, which they expect to be a sizeable revenue-earner in the years to come.

South Korea's LG and Samsung are focusing on the growing monitor market in India while Philips' foray is primarily with products like DVD writers, mice & keyboards, multimedia speakers, webcams and external hard disk drives.

According to IDC, the IT accessories and computer peripherals market in India, which stood at Rs 6134 crore in 2005-06 grew 22 percent to Rs 7564 crore in 2006-07. Industry sources claim the market will continue to see 25-30 percent growth in the coming years.

Incidentally, Philips Electronics India, which made the most recent foray into this business, expects IT accessories and computer peripherals to bring in about Rs 100 crore in the next two years. The electronics major has entered into an exclusive tie-up with SES Technologies for a pan-India distribution of its products.

"In three years, we expect 5-7 percent of our revenues to come in from IT accessories. We have entered this segment as we see there is a huge market that can be tapped," said Gunjan Srivastava, director (entertainment solutions, consumer electronics), Philips Electronics India.

Broadly, the IT peripherals market can be divided into two categories - peripherals like monitors that are seen as building blocks and peripherals like mice and speakers that are seen as accessories.

LG Electronics India that has a significant presence in the monitor-upgrade market crossed sales of 1 million monitors in 2006. According to R Manikandan, LG's GM (sales and marketing, information technology products), "the monitor upgrade market has usually been around 10-15 percent of the PC market, but this has been consistently rising". Players like LG cater directly to customers in the monitor upgrade market.

"Our LCD monitors are seeing a growth of 110 percent in the open market. We plan to increase our range to suit users looking for fashionable monitors or bigger screens for gaming," added Manikandan.

Samsung too, is focusing in a big way on the LCD monitor and printer businesses. "We are targeting a 100 percent jump in our LCD monitor sales (by volume) and 50 percent jump in our printer sales this year. Monitors and printers are our key growth drivers in this year," said R. Zutshi, Samsung India Electronics' deputy managing director.

INT/E-COMM

RELIANCE TO AWARD FLAG CONTRACT THIS WEEK
Mumbai
MintReliance Communications will announce the winning bidder by the end of this week for building its $1.5 billion submarine cable network, a leading financial daily reported on 29 August.

The Indian telecom firm had short-listed three Japanese firms Fuzitsu Submarine Networks, NEC and KDD Submarine Cable Systems Inc for the project. A Reliance Communications spokesman declined comment.

The company had launched the Flag Next Generation Network in December last year, which would comprise 50,000-route km of submarine cables and would connect 60 countries.

DELHI POLICE UPGRADING CYBER CELL
New Delhi
The Times of IndiaWith incidents of Internet- related crime on the rise, Delhi Police is upgrading its Cyber Cell to tackle the "crimes of the future"

The Capital's police has decided to hold regular interactions with IT majors to upgrade its personnel's technical know-how in a bid to keep apace with the rapid technological advancement and the fast changing cyber crime scene.

"The fast changing technical environment throws up new challenges. Technical innovation leads to new modes of crime and we have to keep pace with technology to tackle it," city Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal said in an interview.

He said the force will hold interactions with IT companies to help increase the efficiency of the police personnel dealing with cases of cyber crime.

PASSENGERS CAN NOW TAKE CYBER EXPRESS TO TOUR THE VIRTUAL WORLD
Sameer Kumar Sharmam, Ludhiana
The Indian Express The Ludhiana railway station finally gets its much awaited cyber cafe, RailTel Cyber Express, launched by RailTel, the telecom arm of Indian Railways, in collaboration with Tata Indicom. Equipped with 10 computer stations with the Internet speed of 2 Mbps, the services have already been made available for the public, though a formal launch for the same has not been done yet.

NORTON GETS STRONGER VERSION
K.Venugopal
The Asian AgeSymantec has released a new version of its Norton anti-virus programme to deal with fresh threats lurking in the Web.

It contains an application named Identify Safe, which will prevent identity theft while online.

It also takes its own troubleshooting decisions during virus and malware attacks instead of interrupting users by asking unnecessary questions such as whether the Trojan should be quarantined or killed.

E-GOVERNANCE

RLA INTRODUCES HIGH SECURITY SMART CARDS
Chandigarh
Hindustan Times (Chandigarh edition)The Registering and Licensing Authority today introduced a redesigned and high security features-enabled smart card for issuance of driving licences and registration certificates in the city.

The light and dark green background combination has been replaced by a combination of lighter colours (beige, maroon, light brown), which is aesthetically pleasing and allows better legibility of textual data printed in black, along with providing a better contrast background for the photograph. In addition, the data on the smart card chip would now be available only in encrypted form, which will rule out the possibility of any kind of tampering.

Detailing the various initiatives taken by the RLA office recently, Deputy Commissioner R.K. Rao said the office had recently launched a 'Sarathi' software for learners' licences and a token system to cut down he queues at the office. Keeping in view the numerous frauds coming to light by misuse of technology, it was necessary to introduce high-security features in the card.

IT TRAINING

SAARC COUNCIL LAUNCHES TRAINING INITIATIVE FOR WOMEN
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business Line Women from the under privileged sections from rural Andhra Pradesh will get skill development training in specific areas of computers, health, nutrition and soft skills.

The initiative is being launched by the Southern Chapter of the SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC).

The initiative is aimed at empowering rural women with skill sets that would help them take up suitable jobs in the various corporates and BPOs , in addition to building confidence and communications skills, she said.

Satyam Foundation, Apollo Hospitals, Hamstech Institute of Fashion Technology and the Employment Generation and Marketing Mission (EGMM) of the Andhra Pradesh Government would be actively involved in the training programmes.

IT ENABLED SERVICES

FIRSTSOURCE SOLUTIONS BUYS MEDASSIST FOR $330 MILLION
Mumbai
The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line Mint The Indian Express The Times of India Business Standard The Telegraph Deccan Herald The Hindu The Financial ExpressIn the second-largest takeover of an overseas business process outsourcing (BPO) firm by an Indian company, Firstsource Solutions has announced the acquisition of US-based MedAssist for $330 million. This is the third acquisition for Firstsource in the US, and its seventh in all.

The news drove up Firstsource shares nearly 10 percent to Rs 79.40 on BSE on Wednesday.

With revenues of $99 million in 2006, Louisville, Kentucky-based MedAssist is among the largest firms providing revenue cycle management services to the healthcare sector in the US. The buyout will give Firstsource a footprint in the hospital side of the healthcare business.

The deal values MedAssist at 12.5 times its 2007 operating profit, Firstsource CFO Rajesh Subramaniam said. MedAssist's revenues have been growing at 7-10 percent annually, and its core earning margins are higher than most US firms at 22-24 percent. "We see significant opportunity to grow our business in the segment by cross-selling our services to MedAssist's customers," Firstsource managing director and CEO Ananda Mukerji said.

Firstsource already offers insurance claims processing for the healthcare sector, and acquired US-based BPM earlier this year. In 2004, it had bought Accounts Solutions Group, a third-party credit card collection firm. Its acquisitions outside the US include CustomerAsset, FirstRing, Pipal Research and RevIT. However, all these acquisitions were for less than $50 million each.

INDIAN MPOS WELL PLACED TO SERVE US LENDERS
Chennai
The Economic Times The Hindu Business LineThe US' sub-prime mortgage crisis, lending to borrowers with poor credit rating and the resultant defaults, is expected to increase offshoring of loan processing activities by American lending institutions, feel mortgage process outsourcing (MPO) industry officials.

Hit by the crisis, the US lending institutions will henceforth look at qualitative credit appraisal methods at a lower cost.

"This would result in increased offshoring of the backend work, loan processing, property title verification and other work. India is well placed to take advantage of the opportunity," Prashant Kothari, CEO and founder of String Real Estate Information Services, said.

The American home mortgage industry, the largest in the world, is worth $8 trillion and $5 trillion for commercial properties. That in turn involves back office and transaction processing work worth $100 billion annually.

Out of this, $10 billion worth of business could be outsourced whereas the actual business outsourced is just $200 million, Kothari said.

Despite the recent crisis projections for mortgage loan

TODAY'S HEADLINES AUG 29, 2007

2007-08-29T10:20:00.000-04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IT PARKS/SEZ

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

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

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

VCF/PVT. EQUITY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOFTWARE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

INT/E-COMM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ERP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EVENTS

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

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

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

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

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

TODAY'S HEADLINES AUG 28, 2007

2007-08-29T10:14:00.000-04:00

INDUSTRY
INDIAN EXECUTIVES GET BEHIND MNC WHEEL
Shreya Biswas, New Delhi
The Economic Times When it comes to headcount, Indian talent beats other geographies in numbers, quality and efficiency as well as technological prowess. Many MNCs have been hiring people aggressively in India and now have more than 50% of their workforce working out of this country.

The list includes Sapient, Xansa, Aricent, Cognizant. While the companies root for cost-efficiency, a fast-growing market, adaptable human resource and a great skill to upgrade, employees are gaining through vast exposure across businesses, increased attention from the management, driving changes in the organisation.

Companies, in order to grow faster, are reaching out to locations where they can get the best in terms of people quality and processes and cut down on cost. Something that happened in the manufacturing sector in the last 10-15 years.

"More and more companies would reach out to other countries to tap the parts of services value chain in a globalised economy," feels Bhaskar Das, vice-president, human resources, Cognizant. The company currently has 46,000 employees globally, of which 70-75%, or more than 35,000, are in India.

BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION - NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Ganesh Natarajan
Hindustan Times (Delhi edition)What do ITMG, Sankalp and Suschama have in common? They are all new business venture ideas focused at bringing the best of consulting and supply chain optimization to small and medium enterprises that have been created by students while still in college.

The enterprising students of the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) in Mumbai, supported by a visionary Professor, Dr T Prasad at the institute, have come up with this unique concept of 'Student Companies (SCs)', which can spawn a new generation of young entrepreneurs in the country. Each of the SCs is being evaluated on predetermined parameters at specific time intervals spreading over two years of MBA course.

Students' achievement on these parameters is incorporated into their academic achievement.

In the IT space, the prospect of a new legion of young entrepreneurs joining the developer community could not be timelier with most of the larger firms turning their attention to the domestic market opportunity as well as lower cost methods of collaboration to reach and service hitherto untapped customers.

HCL IS REWRITING ITS COMPANY CODE
Rabin Ghosh, Mumbai
DNAHCL Infosystems may look completely different in 3-5 years if Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO, has his way.

It is going to be a major overhaul for a hardware maker: services, and not products, would be the main focus area for the Rs 12,000 crore company.

In three years, the company expects to earn 50 percent of its revenues from computing, which is currently below 25 percent, with telecom and office automation contributing to the rest.

"We are looking at earning 50 percent from computing and 50 percent from distribution. Within these too, we are looking at a healthy balance among SI (system integration) and hardware (for computing), Nokia and others (for distribution)," Chowdhury told analysts on Monday.

Almost 90 percent of the Rs 9,000 crore the company earned last fiscal from distribution business came from selling Nokia GSM phones.

HCL is also the distributor of other digital lifestyle products from Kodak and Apple.

NASSCOM WANTS TAX HOLIDAY EXTENDED
Sandeep Joshi, New Delhi
The HinduWith countries like China and other developing nations making extra efforts to increase their market share in the global information technology arena, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), the body of Indian IT software and services industry, has asked the Union Government to start thinking seriously on extending the tax holiday to the high-potential sector beyond 2009.

The cause for concern among the industry leaders is the Government's failure in addressing the issues concerning the industry and the steady growth of the sector in countries like China and Brazil that can challenge India's leadership in the years to come.

"Experts from China have been coming to us and adopting progressive measures and policies, which our Government is abandoning, to boost their growth.

M & A

NIIT OPEN FOR STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Mumbai
The Economic TimesNIIT Technologies Ltd (NTL) on Monday said its parent company NIIT was open to bring in strategic partners into the company to help NTL with its next level of growth, but it has not reached any deal so far on this front.

"From the time of demerger in 2004, NIIT (through its wholly-owned subsidiary Scantech Evaluation Services Ltd) continues to hold 25 per cent stake in NTL, with a vision to attract strategic partners, if required, to help NTL with its next level of growth," NTL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"There is no change in that position and no specific transaction to report," it added.

KLG SYSTEL BUYS STAKE IN ATLANTIS
New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line Mint Hindustan Times (Mumbai edition)KLG Systel Ltd, a software company, today announced the acquisition of 51 percent stake in Atlantis Lab Pvt Ltd, a dedicated engineering software company with over 130 employees.

"Atlantis Labs will now form a subsidiary of KLG Systel Ltd, catering to the strong domestic market, while also tapping engineering services outsourcing opportunities from developed countries such as North America and Europe," a statement said here. Atlantis Lab portfolio includes product design, design automation, design simulation, tool design, design data migration, and product management software in automobile, aerospace, industrial machinery and heavy engineering.

"The relationship will also provide KLG Systel an opportunity to widen its reach to the three design hubs of the country — Chennai, Pune and Bangalore. Atlantis Lab already has a strong base in these cities." KLG Systel plans to hire 1,000 designers and analysts for Atlantis by 2008. The new subsidiary would focus on automotive, aerospace, industrial machinery, heavy engineering, ship building, power and process verticals where there is a strong demand for product management software and services.

SOFTWARE

SUBEX SWINGS DEALS FROM GVT FOR NIGERIA, CONGO
Banglaore
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition) The Hindu Business LineSubex Azure has announced that it has won a contract to provide fraud management and revenue assurance solutions for Global Vision Telecom (GVT), to be deployed at its Prestel and U-COM Congo CDMA networks in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) respectively. Prestel and U-COM Congo are owned by Global Vision Telecom. It specialises in telecommunications technology in developing countries. Subex will be deploying both its Nikira Fraud Management System and its Moneta Revenue Assurance System.

SATYAM LAUNCHES SOLUTIONS FOR BANKING, OIL & GAS INDUSTRY
Mumbai
The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line Business Standard The HinduSatyam Computer Services launched two niche composite solutions for the banking as well as the oil & gas industry. These solutions are certified by SAP and are powered by NetWeaver technology.

iDecisions is a banking solution software that enables efficient business management and iLubes is the solution for lube companies in the oil & gas segment.

The software package iDecisions is designed for banking industry that enables business management through the use of a central industry-standard data model.

iLubes, the solution for lube companies in the oil & gas segment– creates a mechanism to track performance of lubricants supplied to industrial customers in the utilities and steel industries, power plants and other process industry domains.

"These solutions are niche domain solutions, launched to address business processes in the Banking and Oil & Gas industries respectively which is directed towards delivering significant business value to our customers as well as the SAP product landscape," said Manish Mehta, Global Head, SAP & Testing Practices.

NASSCOM BODY LAUNCHES ONLINE DONOR SCHEME
New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line Metro Now The StatesmanNasscom Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of Nasscom, today joined hands with TechSoup, a San Francisco-based non-profit technology capacity building organisation, to launch a technology assistance programme for non-profit and non-governmental organisations in India.

The programme 'BiG Tech' would act as a platform to facilitate the distribution of software and solutions (donated by corporate partners) to various NGOs.

Software giant Microsoft has signed up as a partner for the programme in India to distribute its software to NGOs. The company is already a global partner in the programme, and donates a range of products including Office and server software. In India, however, only those NGOs, which have a FCRA clearance, would be able to apply for Microsoft's donations, Nasscom Foundation said.

The programme is already rolled-out across eight countries and the international partners include Microsoft and Adobe. With the India launch, it would now seek to rope in more partners for the country. "One of the barriers to technology for NGOs, is affordability of technology products. BiG Tech, NF's new online donation programme, is perfectly suited to address this issue of access to affordable technology," the Nasscom President, Kiran Karnik, said, adding NGOs seeking donations would have to adhere to the eligibility criteria and be subject to a due diligence.

XORA SOFTWARE PLANS EXPANSION IN B`LORE
Chennai/ Bangalore
Business StandardXora Software, which provides enterprise mobility solutions, plans to expand its product development centre in Bangalore over the next couple of years.

Founded in 1999, the US-based privately-held company has raised more than $11 million in venture capital with the leading partner being Dawntreader Ventures.

The Bangalore centre has over 125 engineers. "This centre contributes close to 95 per cent of the product development work with the rest happening in the US. We are banking on the Bangalore development centre for growth," Xora Software CEO Sanjay Shirole said.

The firm's technical support team also works in Bangalore. "We intend to double this team from the existing 65 members. There is a lot of scope for growth in the technical support segment here," he added.

The company derives 95 per cent of its revenue from the US. It has developed a product called, Xora GPS TimeTrack, which helps companies track and record start times and the location of their mobile employees.

Employees carry their GPS-enabled mobile phone with them throughout their office hours and their location is automatically tracked and recorded.

Xora recently forayed into Australia. It is also looking at India for growth. "India is a fast emerging market for us. We will concentrate on the Indian market in the coming days," Shirole stated.

HARDWARE

DELL LAUNCHES NEW DESKTOP
Deccan HeraldDell on Monday announced the launch of OptiPlex 755 with the most flexible approach to systems management, delivering on customer demands for business efficiency. The OptiPlex 755 is Energy Star 4.0 compliance. With the flexible systems management offerings in the industry, the OptiPlex 755 will help simplify IT by reducing number of desk side service visits required for system service and maintenance, claimed the company. Dell is also integrating Intel vPro technology with advanced remote management features that will make business efficient.

INT/E-COMM

'NEW NET POLICY WILL HAMPER BROADBAND GROWTH'
New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line The Times of IndiaThe Internet Service Providers Association of India on Monday said that the new policy for the Internet sector will hurt small size operators and will result in slow penetration of broadband services.

"The policy to discontinue Category C licence (district level) is a retrograde step which hurts small entrepreneurs and consumers who have risked considerable resources to create businesses in the face of aggressive competition from bigger players. There is hardly a single successful country in America, Europe or Australia which discourages small players from entering the Internet market," said Rajesh Chharia, President, ISPAI. More than 50 percent of the operational ISPs hold a category C licence.

The association also opposed the imposition of licence fee on ISPs for Internet Telephony. "If the Government is concerned about the slow penetration of broadband in India, then why are they putting burden on the Internet operators. If level playing field with other telecom operators is the issue, then ISPs should be allowed to interconnect with fixed line and mobile operators. This would at least give us additional revenue and then we can pay the licence fee," said Chharia.

NEW ISP RULES WILL ALLOW WIRELESS VOICE, IPTV
New Delhi
MintThe department of telecommunications has overhauled rules for Internet service providers (ISP), forcing out small, city-based players, but increasing the scope of services to be provided under the ISP license.
Under the new rules, ISP can provide wireless Internet access, including wireless voice among customers of various ISPs, and interactive television and video distribution services using Internet technology or IPTV.

Small, citywide ISPs-mainly cable operators-can upgrade to state-wide licenses by paying a one-time fee of Rs10 lakh.

The changes were brought about as the government believes that having nearly 400 licensed ISPs, most of whom are not operational, was a security threat. India has about nine million Internet subscribers, including 2.5 million broadband consumers

The department of telecommunications has overhauled rules for Internet service providers (ISP), forcing out small, city-based players, but increasing the scope of services to be provided under the ISP license. Under the new rules, ISP can provide wireless Internet access, including wireless voice among customers of various ISPs, and interactive television and video distribution services using Internet technology or IPTV. Small, citywide ISPs-mainly cable operators-can upgrade to statewide licenses by paying a one-time fee of Rs10 lakh. The changes were brought about as the government believes that having nearly 400 licensed ISPs, most of whom are not operational, was a security threat. India has about nine million Internet subscribers, including 2.5 million broadband consumers.

MOTOROLA GETS READY TO LAUNCH MOBILE WIMAX
Sreejiraj Eluvangal
MintStephen Bell is one of the few people who can justifiably claim to have seen the connected future. As head of Wimax device business unit of the US communication equipment maker Motorola Inc., Bell and his team, together with similar teams at Korean consumer electronics maker Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd and chip maker Intel Corp., will determine the time, shape and success of the next evolution in wireless personal communication: mobile Wimax.

Wimax is short for worldwide inter-operability for microwave access, a standard that is capable of data speeds of 10 megabits per second up to 2km away from a radio transmitter.

With such wide ranges, telecom design engineers believe that Wimax presents itself as not just a powerful alternative to the so-called third generation (or 3G) wireless telecom networks for data, but also as a cheap and efficient alternative to voice communications compared with current cellular networks. Bell and his team of engineers and researchers at Motorola's hand-held and chipset research centre in Florida are designing hand-held devices to be used on the first major Wimax initiative in the world—the $3 billion (Rs 12,300 crore) Sprint-Nextel network, expected to be operational towards the year-end.

NETWORKING

CISCO TARGETS 40 PERCENT GROWTH IN WIRELESS, MOBILITY BIZ IN 6 YRS
P P Thimmaya, Bangalore
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)Cisco, the networking products and solutions giant is expecting to record 40 percent growth in its wireless and mobility business division in India over the next 5-6 years. Currently, Cisco has 30 percent market share in the wireless and mobility space in India which is estimated to be around $70 million (Rs 280 crore). Paramjit Puri, business development manager - Advanced Technologies, Cisco India, said that it is expecting to raise its marketshare to 35 percent.

The $35-billion networking giant is looking at providing end-to-end networking capability all provided on the internet protocol which includes both hardware and software solutions. In this, mobility and wireless space forms an important part as it is providing connectivity sans wires. Cisco has been already engaged in large wireless projects in India which are largely initiatives of the government in providing broadband connectivity. Puri said it is already part of the unwired Pune project and is expecting to participate in similar initiatives in Bangalore, Jaipur, Kolkata and Chennai.

E-GOVERNANCE

NOIDA E-REGISTERS ' PROPERTY RECORDS
Lalit Kumar, Noida
The Times of India Metro NowIn what is regarded as a first among development authorities in UP and the national capital region, Noida has computerised the records of all its residential, commercial and industrial properties.

This means the property number, block, sector and area of the plot, the name of the allottee, the address and dates of allotment, lease deed and taking possession besides details of mortgages and transfers of 68,546 properties in Noida, are now available on the website, www.noidaauthorityonline.com.

Revealing this, NOIDA CEO Balvinder Singh said: ''We have the complete details of 27,176 residential and group housing plots, 27,873 houses including flats and 13,497 commercial, industrial and institutional properties. The details of the dues for about 7,000 plots, which have not been paid, will be put on the website within three days. The position of properties with 'no dues' will be on the website within 15 days.'' He said all the allottees have been given a registration ID to view their property's details.

Significantly, the allottees can now make online payments of their dues, to any branch of any of the 15 banks specified by Noida. Singh said: ''In the interests of transparency and preventing corruption, the current status of all ongoing Noida projects will be available on the website.''

IT TRAINING

APTECH LAUNCHES SSI JQ COURSE FOR PROFESSIONALS
The Economic Times Aptech Computer Education, the flagship brand of the global learning solutions company Aptech, announced the launch of SSi Job Quotient. The 5-month course is specifically designed for engineers, MCAs and M.Sc. (IT/ Computer Science), who are looking for comprehensive vendor-certified courses and a quick entry into the software development companies.

The course curriculum focuses on building a strong foundation in programing, followed by exposure to both .Net & Java technologies with Oracle and Linux bundled in.

The highlight of this curriculum is the inclusion of projects that would give the students an opportunity to put theory into practice. The course will be available only at select Aptech centres and would have stringent entry criteria. The original courseware is provided by Oracle India, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat Linux and Microsoft NET

BPOS FOCUS ON VOICE TRAINING OF EMPLOYEES
Chennai
Deccan Chronicle The Asian AgeIT, ITeS and BPO companies are investing between Rs 8,000 and Rs 13,000 per employee for voice and accent training for a period of three weeks. The training is provided as soon as an employee joins, under the guidance of trainers who are specialised in the British or American accent.

During the training the organisation monitors the employee on various aspects like listening skills, grammatical competency, pronunciation, fluency, conversational skills, telephone etiquette, etc. At the end of the training, the trainees are evaluated for their classroom participation. Their mid-assessment that happens on the seventh or eighth day of training.

Pradeep Narayanan, chief delivery officer, 24/7 Customer, said, "voice and accent training is one of the aspects that enhance customer experience. Any consumer is more comfortable and responds positively when he hears a language and accent that they are used to. It is important for our customer support executives to acquire enhanced accents and be completely knowledgeable about the nuances of a different accent," he said. Vrinda Walavalkar vice-president, corporate communications, Firstsource BPO, said, "it is not about learning to imitate the English accent. Having clear diction and enunciation helps improve service delivery levels so that customer and agent understand each other easily."

AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE, IDEA FOUNDATION TIE-UP FOR VOCATIONAL COURSES
Mumbai/Ahmedabad
Business StandardAhmedabad-based Idea Foundation's Smaran Vocational Institute will conduct vocational courses at its campuses in Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar in association with TAFE New South Wales (NSW) Hunter Institute, which functions under the NSW's department of education and training. This is TAFE NSW Hunter's first collaboration with an Indian institute.
TAFE, which stands for Technical and Further Education, is Australia's largest training provider and it will offer students advanced diplomas in hospitality management, business administration and Information technology, among others.

IT ENABLED SERVICES

MULITEX EYES 10 PERCENT STAKE IN EFFORT BPO
Mumbai
The Economic Times Hong Kong-based $400-million Mulitex Holdings plans to acquire a 10 percent equity stake in Mumbai-based Effort BPO.

Effort BPO director Rajnish Sarna has confirmed the deal at an undisclosed price. The boards of both companies are in discussion and the transaction is scheduled to be completed by the first week of September. Effort BPO is engaged in the business of setting up and operating call centre services in India.

CALL CENTRE REGISTRATION
New Delhi
The Hindu Business LineIn a move that would make it easier for call centres to get Government approvals, the Department of Telecom has decided to decentralise the registrations of call centres. Call centres and telemarketers can register in any of the 10 Circles, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana and Gujarat. Until now, call centres could get themselves only in Delhi. The move makes it easier for telemarketers to register under the do not call registry scheme. The registry is now activated and will be enforced from August 31. Unregistered telemarketers will be blacked out as far as connectivity is concerned. All fresh applications for registration under OSP category and telemarketing category shall be processed by the regional cells.

NORTHGATE SETS UP INDIA UNIT
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business LineNorthgate Technologies Ltd has informed the BSE that the company has carved out Social Media India Ltd, an India-based subsidiary company. Focus of Social Media will be to tap the online advertising and other Internet transaction services industry. Vishnu Vardhan Induri, Head of Bharatstudent.com, has been appointed as Managing Director of Social Media.

ERP

BAJAJ HINDUSTHAN ROPES IN AIRTEL, RAILTEL TO LINK UP UNITS
Mumbai
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)The Noida-based sugar manufacturer, Bajaj Hindusthan, has partnered with Bharti Airtel and Railtel to establish connectivity across all its sugar factories, distilleries and corporate offices. The company recently implemented SAP, an enterprise resource planning software, across all locations enabling it to get significant cost-savings because of efficient inventory management.

The ERP package was implemented across all locations simultaneously, rather than in a phased manner as most companies do. The company, together with its subsidiary Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar & Industries, has 14 sugar factories and five distilleries in India.

"The entire ERP installation was completed in six months. The benefits of implementing an IT initiative in one quantum leap forward are far more substantial," VK Bansal, company's chief information officer said. The implementation was started in August 2006 and completed on January 31, 2007. It was done in partnership with multinational systems integrator, IBM. Vendors like IBM are have become more aggressive than their Indian counterparts in the domestic market.

The ERP system allows for inventory to be optimally managed across all its warehouses thus reducing costs. For instance, if a certain type of inventory has fallen below the prescribed level at a warehouse or sugar mill, the inventory is moved there from a location where it is in excess. By allowing the inventory level to be monitored continuously, the ERP system makes this possible.