CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT TO BE AMENDED FURTHER: PAWAR

New Delhi
The Economic TimesThe government on Wednesday said it would bring further amendments to the Consumer Protection Act to make it more responsive to problems of consumers.

"The proposed amendments would make the Act even more dynamic, responsive and consumer-friendly," Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Sharad Paw said after inaugurating the Central Consumer Protection Council (CCPC) meeting in New Delhi.

The Consumer Protection Act has already been amended three times in the past. Informing that the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry have provided adequate budgetary allocation to strengthen the infrastructure of consumer fora, Pawar said computerisation of such fora is being executed on a priority basis by the National Informatics Centre.

Under this project, the National Commission, 34 State Commissions and 593 District fora have been provided with computer hardware and software. Funds to the tune of Rs 73.82 crore have been released to 21 states, in addition to the Rs 72 crore that had been given to the states under one-time grant, to prop up infrastructure of consumer fora, Pawar said.

SRI CITY ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF SEZ

SRI CITY ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF SEZ
Chennai
The Hindu Business Line The Financial Express

Sri City (P) Ltd formally announced the launch of a 5,000-acre multiproduct SEZ and domestic tariff area at Tada to the north of Chennai.

Announcing the project on which work is expected to start in August, the Sri City Chairman and Managing Director, Ravindra Sannareddy, said that the project coming up in a public private partnership mode with the Andhra Pradesh Government is a fully notified SEZ. It is expected to involve a development cost of over Rs 1,000 crore for the common industrial infrastructure.

When fully functional over the next five years, it will house over 300 industrial units with a total investment of over Rs 17,500 crore and generate over a lakh jobs directly, apart from 1.75 lakh indirect jobs. The SEZ area is about 3,800 acres and the DTA is about 1,200 acres. It will cater to a range of industries including auto ancillaries, light engineering, IT and ITES, logistics warehousing, gems and jewellery, food processing, biotechnology and other environment friendly industries.

Sannareddy said that with its location on the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border, about 55 km north of Chennai, the SEZ on NH 5, has the advantage of access to the Chennai international airport and Tirupati airport, apart from the major sea ports of Ennore and Chennai, and the Krishnapatnam Port.

The Andhra Pradesh Government is facilitating the project and the units will have the benefit of a single window clearance – a facility in which the State is a pioneer.

Over 10 international and domestic units have signed up to set up their facility in SEZ and work on these units is to start simultaneously with the work on the SEZ next month, he said.

The Andhra Pradesh Minister for Major Industries and Commerce, J. Geeta Reddy, said that the State Government has a balanced focus on knowledge-based industries and the manufacturing sector. In the last four years the State has emerged the second largest destination for investments – next only to Gujarat – with an investment of more than Rs 17,000 crore with an additional Rs 38,000 crore in the pipeline. It has applications representing over Rs 78,000 crore of industrial investments.

Sunil Mantri Realty signs pact for 2,000-acre city

Mumbai
The Hindu Business LineMumbai-based developer Sunil Mantri Realty Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Special Area Development Authority (SADA) of Gwalior to develop a hi-tech city on 2,000 acres there.

The deal was inked at an ‘investors meet’ organised by the Madhya Pradesh Government.

Mantri will pay for the land, which the Gwalior authority will acquire for it, and the development would include 25,000 residential units under public-private-partnership.

Total investment would be around Rs 2,000 crore spread over 8-10 years.

Phase I of the project is scheduled to begin in 2008.

According to the agreement, the land acquisition will done by SADA in accordance with the ‘ready-reckoner’ and Mantri will offer a premium over and above it.

Mantri will make the actual land cost, plus the premium it offered to the authorities for disbursement to the land owners.

Sunil Mantri, Chairman, Mantri Realty, said the cost of an acre would be in the range of Rs 50-60 lakh.

The company also has plans to develop an IT park, an SEZ and leisure area complete with swimming pool, theatres and health club of 100 acres each in the project.

Initial investment of about Rs 200-300 crore would be made through internal accruals and debt.

The Government has intentions of offering residential units of about 15 percent of the total residential component to people displaced by earlier land acquisitions in the project, he said.

Mantri Realty is already developing three projects in Gwalior comprising premium residential, mall cum multiplex and commercial space.

ITC TO PICK UP STAKES IN US-BASED FIRM

Kolkata
DNA The Hindu Business Line The Hindu

Tobacco-to-paper giant ITC Ltd plans to acquire a US-based Information Technology firm, said a top company official here on Wednesday.

"We are talking to a US company and hope the deal will be sealed soon," said YC Deveshwar, company chairman, on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the company.

He refused to discuss further details before the deal materialises. Regarding investment for the acquisition, he said it would be modest.

ITC already has a wholly owned IT subsidiary called ITC Infotech India Ltd, which has clients in sectors like financial services, retail, engineering, hospitality and media.

On the growth plan of the company in the current fiscal, Deveshwar said: "We are aggressively wanting to grow."

"We hope in the next few years all the cash surpluses, which we have got that gets used up. Our plans are aggressive enough to absorb all these cash into the future of the company," he added.

CAPGEMINI IN PACT TO BUY DUTCH FIRM

Pune
The Hindu Business LineCapgemini, player in consulting, IT services and outsourcing, has reached an in principle agreement with Getronics Pink Roccade (GPR) for the acquisition of Getronics Pink Roccade Business Application Services BV (BAS BV).

This division regroups GPR’s applications services activities (applications development, maintenance and management) in the Netherlands.

Through this acquisition, Capgemini will reinforce its leadership position in one of its key markets, while developing a stable portfolio of long-term applications management contracts in the public sector.

This acquisition amounts to an equity value of €255 million paid in cash on Capgemini own resources. The transaction should be finalised by the end of the year, subject to the approval of the European Commission and to the consultation of the relevant Workers Council. With a twenty-year presence in the Netherlands, Capgemini and its subsidiary Sogeti today have nearly 7,800 employees and in Benelux made €1,168 million in revenues in 2007.

INFY BPO’S F&A UNIT EYES GRIP ON SPECIALISATION

Bangalore
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)

The finance and accounting (F&A) business vertical of Infosys BPO is shifting gears to meet demand for complex, higher-value services with specialised offerings aimed at specific processes, a senior official said.

The firm has set up centres of excellence (CoE) around these specialised services in Europe, India and the Asia-Pacific, Gautam Thakkar, the head of the F&A unit said, observing that such services comprised a transformational element. The F&A segment accounts for 40 to 45% of the BPO’s revenue.

The company would be accelerating the process of building CoEs during the next three years, he said, adding that it has been seeing a the most demand for specialised, highvalue services from the hi-tech manufacturing, media and publishing sectors.

This drive by Infosys BPO will help it build on the nonlinearity model of operation where revenue growth will not necessarily be driven by headcount addition. This will result in the company coming out with an outcome-based pricing model where the revenue is to be based on the actual output.

ACK MEDIA MULLS ENTERTAINMENT CHANNEL LAUNCH

Madhumita Mookerji, Kolkata
DNAACK Media, the owner of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle comic brands, is planning to launch a general entertainment channel (GEC) as part of its gambit to turn itself into an integrated media company.

For funding this initiative, the company may announce an initial public offering (IPO) in the next 12-18 months. A project like this typically requires an investment of around Rs 100 crore.

Samir Patil, CEO and founder, ACK Media, said the positioning of ACK’s new channel will be different. “We will not compete with other general entertainment channels,” he said.

As a precursor to the GEC launch, the company is planning to develop television software for animation and non-fiction programmes. The content will be primarily derived from Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle. The idea is to be an independent content creator for TV and hold the intellectual property rights (IPRs) for these.

POLARIS EARMARKS RS 70 CRORE FOR CAPEX

T.E. Raja Simhan, Chennai
The Hindu Business LinePolaris Software Lab Ltd will spend Rs 70 crore in the current fiscal towards capital expenditure. This includes spending on infrastructure and on the BPO facility, according to the company’s chief financial officer R. Srikanth. The funds will be from the company’s internal accruals, he told analysts while discussing the company’s first quarter financial results.

In the first quarter, Citi group’s share of revenue to Polaris increased to 40.66 percent compared with 39.60 percent a year ago. Revenue for the June 2008 quarter was Rs 316.97 crore (Rs 257.45 crore) and net profit was Rs 27.01 crore (Rs 14.41 crore).

“Our focus is on profit growth. We have the visibility to maintain 10 percent quarter-on-quarter growth for next fourth quarters as well,” Arun Jain, Chairman and CEO, Polaris said.

There is no significant slowdown in the BFSI segment. In the last quarter, the US business for Polaris increased to 37.06 percent (34.78 percent). “We know that their projects are getting delayed and there will be uncertainty in coming quarters. But overall there is a good shift of the business to offshore,” he said.

PRODUCT INNOVATION MANIFESTO LAUNCHED

Shubhadeep Choudhury, Bangalore
The TribuneInfosys boss Nandan M Nilekani was pulled up right here today in his very own city Bangalore by Rajiv Narang, an entrepreneur, whose mantra is “show positive irreverence to giants”.

The occasion was launching of an “innovation manifesto” for which Narang’s Erehwon Innovation Consulting had collaborated with two other companies, namely Marico Industries and Altair Engineering Products India Pvt. Ltd.

Nilekani, according to Narang, was quoted in the New York Times as saying Indian IT companies would always work as backroom operators for US software companies.

Narang cited Nilekani’s comment as an illustration of a mindset that hinders the growth of innovation by Indian companies.

Narang calls Nilekani by his first name but he was unsparing in his criticism of the latter’s “mindset”.

“The comment probably stemmed from kind of business activity that Nandan’s company is engaged in”, he said.

The manifesto, released here today by Narang and his co-collaborators after doing research in the field for two years, identified deference to giants, deference to the developed world, gatekeeper mindset etc, as major hindrances for innovations by Indian companies.

Narang said while innovations were tried by Indian companies for improving business process and marketing, product innovation is an area which is almost inevitably ignored by Indian companies.

HP IN TALKS WITH TELCOS FOR 3G LAPTOP

Harsimran Singh,

New Delhi The Economic Times (Delhi edition)

As if to ensure that people don’t stop buying laptops, you will soon have notebooks that will incorporate a mobile phone! Indeed, laptops makers are getting their act together to compete with the all-powerful and ubiquitous mobile phone. Very soon, to make a phone call you may not have to reach out to a mobile phone. Your laptop may just do the same once 3G is launched.
Hewlett-Packard is planning to talk to Indian mobile operators for a tie-up to offer 3G laptops once the 3G mobile services are launched here. “The 3G laptop has worked well in foreign markets and we are keen to introduce it in India too,” Kevin Frost, vice-president and general manager, consumer notebooks business unit, personal systems group, said.
HP already has tie-ups with various service providers in different countries. For instance, in the US it’s AT&T, Sprint & Verizon, in Australia HP has tied up with Vodafone, in UK its Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile. The same may be replicated in India wherein a laptop cost may be subsidised by the operator if a subscriber takes the 3G service from him. “Globally, we are seeing laptops get smaller and compete increasingly with mobile and PDA phones. On the other hand, mobile phone makers are trying to outdo laptops by introducing more computer-like features. Mobile phone makers also want to have the sole control over offering mobile service to consumers,” he added.
However, in countries where 3Genabled laptops are available, it’s the broadband application which is marketed most, as mobile phone makers don’t want to lose control over mobile services to PC vendors.
HP said prices of its 3G-enabled laptops will depend on the changes on conformation to the standards of the operators once 3G is available in India. HP offers two types of broadband wireless modules–1xEV-DO and HSDPA. 1xEV-DO modules are currently offered only in the US.
With 3G broadband wireless notebooks, one can check e-mail or connect to the Internet from virtually anywhere in the country where the mobile operator offers coverage. Currently in India, users can access wireless Internet only through WiFi zones or WiFi cards. With 3G laptops, a user won’t need to rely on mobile phone to have seamless and hi-speed web connectivity.

MICROTUNE Q2 PROFIT TOPS MARKET VIEW

New York
The Economic Times

Chipmaker Microtune Inc reported a quarterly profit that edged past Wall Street targets, helped by a strong demand in their core cable and automotive markets. The second-quarter earnings were $1.7 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with earnings of $2.1 million, or 4 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

IBM TO BUY ILOG FOR ABOUT $340 MILLION

Financial Chronicle The Economic TimesInternational Business Machines Corp agreed to buy software company ILOG for about 215 mn euros ($340 mn), the companies said on Monday.

The cash tender offer will be at a price of 10 euros per ordinary share and the US dollar equivalent per American Depositary Share (ADS).

This represents a premium of about 56 percent compared to ILOG's one-month average closing share price prior to July 28, and a 37 percent premium to the closing price on Friday, July 25.

ILOG's board of directors has approved the transaction between the two companies, the companies said in a statement.

IT INDUSTRY TO CONSTITUTE 8 PERCENT OF INDIAN ECONOMY IN 8 YEARS

New Delhi
The Economic Times

Continuing its growth momentum, the Indian IT industry is projected to constitute over eight percent of the economy and employ the second largest number of professionals after the United States in the next eight years, says a study.

According to research and analytics firm Evalueserve, the booming IT industry is expected to account for 8.05 percent of the country's GDP by 2015-16, compared to 2.86 percent in 2007-08.

During the same period, the employee strength would be surging to 37.5 lakh, making India the place with the second largest number of IT professionals after the United States.

In 2007-08, the number of such people was at 13.16 lakh. "The industry is likely to employ 37,50,000 professionals and record USD 193.1 billion in revenue by 2015-16. Since India's GDP is growing annually at 8.5 percent in real terms and 14 percent in nominal terms, this GDP is likely to be USD 2,400 billion by 2015-16, and hence the IT industry is likely to constitute 8.05 percent of the total GDP," the study noted.

In the next eight years, the US is projected to employ about 1.25 to 1.33 times more IT professionals than those in India.

Further, in terms of revenues, the IT industry in the US is expected to generate USD 810 billion which would be about five times more than projected for the sector in India, the study added.

India's share in global service exports to rise to 6 percent by 2012

Mumbai
The Economic Times The Financial ExpressDespite a stagnant global trend, India's share in global service exports is set to more than double from 2.7 to 6 percent by 2012, an economic think-tank has said. "Currently, the country's share in worldwide service exports is 2.7 percent, and it would increase to six percent by 2012," the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) said in its latest macrotrack report.

The country's exports of services, powered by the booming software, consultancy, engineering and tourism sectors, was expected to touch $319 billion by 2011-12, the report said. The country's services exports, in the past-decade-and a-half, have increased fifteen-fold, from around $5 billion in 1990 to nearly $74 billion in 2006, the report said.

"Today, more than one-third of the country's aggregate exports are services, an exceptionally high share unmatched by any large developing country and only a handful of advanced countries," NCAER said in the report. Besides exports, the country's imports of services have also grown at an impressive rate, the report said.

"Against the world average of 10 percent, the country's services imports grew by a hefty 40 percent in 2006, while exports jumped by 34 percent," NCAER said. NCAER, in its report, further said that India needed to make tremendous efforts to maintain the growth trend in the services sector.

"For maintaining high growth of its service exports, India would need to push for effective market access for its service sectors, both under the bilateral and regional trading agreements and WTO framework," the NCAER report said.

Today, as industries have started feeling the shortage of skilled manpower, the country needs to pay attention to general and technical training, the report said. "India would also have to invest heavily on both general and technical education, and vocational training or otherwise it would lose the momentum in services sector growth," the NCAER report said.

OMAN FUND EYES 24.5 PERCENT STAKE IN ANSAL PROJECT

OMAN FUND EYES 24.5 PERCENT STAKE IN ANSAL PROJECT
Monica Behura, New Delhi
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)

Ansal API’s 2,500-acre township ‘Megapolis’ at Dadri, Greater Noida might see another round of stake dilution in the very first month of the project’s launch. According to sources, State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman is planning to pick a 24.5 percent stake in the upcoming township, which pegs the total value of the project at Rs 26,500 crore.

The total investment in the project was reported at Rs 13,000 crore, of which 8.5 percent was picked up by HDFC AMC for Rs 1,105 crore recently. Another 15 percent is reportedly being eyed by PE firm Warburg Pincus and Citigroup. Though sources involved in the discussions confirmed the deal, Ansal API president international marketing Kunal Banerji said: “Two years ago, SGRF wanted to make an investment in our SEZ project but nothing materialised. At present, we are not dealing with them for any new project.”

The investment for the 2,500-acre project is estimated to be Rs 13,000 crore but sources say Ansal has an option of expanding the project to around 9,000 acres depending on future demand. Within the Megapolis, the plan is to set up condominiums, schools, hospitals, villas, a film city, a biotech park, an IT park, educational institutions, a medicity and its very own electric surface transport system.

DELHI TO HAVE ITS OWN INFOTECH HUB

New Delhi
Business Standard The Times of India The PioneerWithin the next two years the national capital will have its own IT hub aiming to foster industry-institute partnership in the areas of advanced technology research in the city.

To be based on public private partnership (PPP) model, the park at Dwarka would be fully developed over a period of three-four years, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters here after a Cabinet meeting.

"The Nasscom (National Association of Software Service Companies) and its associated consultants have assessed over 20 potential areas of research for this park, which include bio-technology, information and communication technology etc," Dikshit said.

She said the park would include a research and development centre and an incubator to provide a platform to students and professors for testing their ideas and conducting further research, plug and play, conferencing facility and commercial space.

Dikshit said the park is envisaged to house research and development units of Indian and multi-national companies and to serve as a knowledge hub in the city.

"This platform would further act as a catalyst in the proposed mechanism for academia-industry interaction," she added.

THINKING BIG

The Economic Times

Manthan Systems is the fourth successful venture of Atul Jalan, managing director & CEO of Manthan Systems who believes that for him entrepreneurship is a way of life. “I need a lot of freedom and space which could not have been possible in a typical job kind of scenario. And also the thrill of taking an idea to reality and creating something made me an entrepreneur.”

MicroTrack, a software design and communications company, which pioneered anti-virus software was the first venture of Jalan. The success of MicroTrack inspired him to start another firm Cybertrek Technologies that specialised in the areas of intranet, extranet and digital communications was started in 1995.

Later, Jalan also founded Net Kraft, a provider of outsourced software development, systems integration and application maintenance services to businesses across globe.

Jalan says that though being a serial entrepreneur has its own sets of highs and lows, all you need is the ability to deal with ambiguities and should be ready to take risks. “Also, must have a strong belief in the value that one’s business proposition brings to the table,” he adds.

Out of his experience he says that the business assumptions, critical success factors, and other ingredients for success or failure are not easily or completely transferable from one venture to the next. So the primary challenge a serial entrepreneur must face is to grapple with the new reality. “Past successes and learnings seek to increase the comfort zone for the entrepreneur, which affects the entrepreneur’s susceptibility to new ideas, or acceptance of change.

PATNI OPENS GREEN IT-BPO FACILITY

New Delhi
The Economic Times The TribuneWith the aim to minimise adverse environment impact, IT services provider Patni Computer Systems today inaugurated a 3,500 seater IT-BPO facility here entailing an investment of Rs 175 crores.

Developed on Green Architecture, the centre is spread across five acres and has provisions for better utilisation of energy, water and natural resources and is likely to consume 45 percent less energy, Patni BPO Senior Vice- President and Head Sanjiv Kapur said.

The new facility would initially start operations with 500 employees and would add another 300 people by 2009, he added.

The facility is designed and constructed as per the guidelines of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) India Green Building Rating System for New Construction. The center is currently under certification process and is jointly audited by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and US Green Building (USCBC).

"The concept of green Buildings is still at a nascent stage in India, with only 26 certified green buildings and very few Platinum certified green buildings," IGBC Chairman P C Jain said.

Industry experts feel that environment friendly buildings not only save energy but also help in increasing employee productivity by upto 15 percent. The global firms, who are outsourcing work to India are also becoming more environment conscious and prefer to work with green companies.

"As we expand and diversify, the new centre will support our aggressive growth. Above all, the new knowledge centre will give our employees a healthier and environment friendly workplace, especially as BPO and KPO operations run on 24x7 basis." Kapur added.

NUCLEUS SOFTWARE BAGS CONTRACT FROM VIETNAM FIRM

Mumbai
The Hindu Business LineNucleus Software Exports Ltd on Monday announced that it has secured a contract from Prudential Plc’s consumer finance business in Vietnam.

Prudential Vietnam Finance Company is one of the leading financial services companies in Vietnam, Nucleus said in the press release to the BSE.

MINDLOGICX INFOTECH TO RAISE $10 MILLION

Mahesh Kulkarni, Chennai, Bangalore
Business StandardBangalore-based Mindlogicx Infotech Ltd, an R&D-based virtual knowledge management and delivery solutions company, is looking to raise $10 million to fund expansion.

The five-year-old company, which has completed the development of its core product platform, known as VEDAS (virtual education delivery and assessment system), is in the process of expanding its business.

The company aims to use the fresh funds to undertake brand building, scale up operations and marketing. It is in the process of appointing master franchisees across the country over the next one year.

Suresh Elangovan, CEO & MD, Mindlogicx, said, “We have completed the product development and are getting into the commercial mode. We have already signed up some key customers like Anna University, Delhi Public School, Punjab Technical University in the country and are looking at market overseas for expansion.”

Mindlogicx recently raised Rs 15 crore as debentures, which it is planning to convert into equity. “We need more money as we are set to expand overseas. We have started preliminary negotiations with a couple of private equity firms for raising additional funds,” he said.

The company is planning to set up offices in West Asia, South Africa and the US.

“We are in the final stages of negotiations with a university in Dubai and hope to sign a deal with them during the next few days. We are also in active talks with several other universities in South Africa and the US,” Elangovan said.

The company is also planning to increase its headcount from the present 120 to over 350 in the next two years at its development centre in Bangalore.

Mindlogicx also undertakes large turnkey projects for corporates for setting up virtual learning framework.

The company recently launched an online finishing school to train final year college students across several streams before they start looking for jobs. The programme targets students in science, commerce, engineering and management disciplines.

HP OPENS BIZ INTELLIGENCE CENTRE IN BANGALORE

Bangalore
The Economic Times Deccan HeraldUS technology giant HP on Monday announced the opening of its global competency centre for business intelligence here. The centre is designed to help customers make better real-time decisions across their organisations. Part of the company’s information management services portfolio, the HP Global Neoview Competency Centre’s capabilities include business intelligence, data warehousing, content and master data management services, Ben Barnes, VP & GM, Business Intelligence Software, said. Some 30 staff from Indian R&D contributed to the development of its Neoview enterprise data warehouse, he said.

SLUGGISH PC SALES

The Economic Times (Delhi edition)Inflation and the rise in price have impacted sales of personal computers in the last 12 months. Enterprise sales have remained flat. Total sales grew just 1 percent form 5.4 million units last year to 5.5 million units this year. Sales may continue to remain sluggish till December, after which we may see a rise in enterprise demand as offshoring picks up, says Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT), the hardware industry body.

Intel Capital invest $17 mn in three Indian firms

Business Standard, July 24 2008

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment arm, invested $17 million (around Rs 70 crore) in three Indian companies — Yatra.com, BuzzInTown.com, Emnet Samsara Media Pvt Ltd.

The funding will come from the $250 million Intel Capital India Technology fund.

Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel Executive Vice President said, "Intel Capital places a great deal of importance on encouraging entrepreneurship and technology innovation in India and our latest investments in Yatra.com, BuzzInTown.com and Emnet Samsara are proof of that."

Yatra is an online travel portal, BuzzInTown.com, an events-oriented social network extensible across web and mobile platforms and Emnet Samsara Media Pvt Ltd, an out-of-home (OOH) advertising company focusing on the Indian public transportation market.

"Intel Capital continues to demonstrate the stage-agnostic nature of our investing style by supporting any lucrative technology companies in various and any stages of their growth and examples of these are Yatra which is a late stage deal, BuzzInTown.com which is an early stage deal and Emnet Samsara which is in a strong position with product roll-out and increasing customer traction" said Sudheer Kuppam, Managing Director, Intel Capital, India, Japan, South East Asia and Australia.

Since starting in India in 1998, Intel Capital has invested in approximately 50 companies across eight cities.

Employees of IT firms wake up to their rights

The Hindu

Employers accused of violating several protocols

Firms enforcing rules such as notice period and surety bonds

BANGALORE: Pink slips and delayed appraisal cycles in an ailing IT industry grappling with the slowdown may have been in the news lately. However, its large unorganised workforce has been mute on issues that affect them — be it extra workload or loss of specialisation and skill.

Unites, a body representing workers from the IT and IT-enabled Services sector, has submitted a memorandum to the Labour Minister of Karnataka.

From lack of sexual harassment grievance cells to socially exclusive policies; this organisation, with a membership of more than 15,000 techies, voices their concerns and lists a set of reforms in the sector. Interestingly, the memorandum also pushes for declaration of national holiday on August 15.

Bangalore IT firms to get CISF protection

Home Minister Shivraj Patil has informed that amendments would be made to enable the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) to guard private IT companies. As of now, CISF can provide security only to public sector units.

"There was a demand that CISF personnel should be allowed to guard the IT parks, to which we have agreed. But the law allows CISF to guard only the public sector units. We have decided to provide CISF to the IT companies there, which have come up so well. We are likely to amend the law and provide the necessary security to them," he said.

The serial blasts that rocked Bangalore on JUly 25, have evoked strong response among people. IT companies have gone all out to reassure their employees.

An Infosys statement said: "All our employees are safe and there has been no impact on our business operations. We are in touch with the police department and will remain fully alert. We have increased security on our campus."

The Union for IT employees (UNITES) has begun an online signature campaign, to petition the government to form a special committee to monitor threats to the IT sector on a regular basis.

GREAT MINDS THINK (TOO MUCH) ALIKE

July 28, 2008
The Financial Express

Online databases of scientific journals have made life easier for scientists, as well as publishers. No more ambling down to the library, searching through the musty stacks and queuing up for the photocopier. Instead, a few clicks of a mouse can bring forth the desired papers and maybe others that the reader did not know of—the ‘long tail’ of information that the web makes available.

Well, that is how it is supposed to work, but does it? James Evans, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, decided to investigate. His conclusion, published recently in Science, is that the opposite is happening. He has found that as more journals become available online; fewer articles are being cited in the reference lists of the research papers published within them. Moreover, those articles that do get a mention tend to have been recently published themselves. Far from growing longer, the long tail is being docked.

Evans based his analysis on data from citation indexes compiled by Thomson Scientific (part of Thomson Reuters). In a world in which researchers must publish or perish, such indexes are the firing squads. They record how often one article is cited as a source by others, and thus measure a paper’s influence. Those used by Evans cover 6,000 of the most prominent academic journals, some going back to 1945.

By cross-referring these to a database called Fulltext Sources Online, he was able to work out when each of these journals became available on the web—and whether a journal had posted back-issues electronically as well. The result was a set of 34 million research papers, which he was able to mine in search of his answers.

For each research paper he looked at, Evans calculated the average age of the articles cited as references. He then calculated, for each of those cited articles, the number of back-issues of the journal it had been published in which were available on the web at the time when it was cited, and averaged that too. Finally, he looked for correlations between the two averages.

MSMES BECOME MORE COMPETITIVE WITH CII'S NEW TECHNOLOGY

Ravi Teja Sharma, Mumbai, July 28, 2008
The Economic Times

There is a need for the MSME segment in India to improve efficiency in order to be more competitive in the international and domestic markets. The way forward, says the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is the implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at the MSME level. At the moment, the penetration of ICT is between 17-20% in the MSME segment, the total size of which is estimated to be 35 million units spread across the country.

To help MSMEs enhance their competitiveness using IT in an environment where they are being attacked by imports, CII’s national committee on IT, ITES and e-commerce plans to start a programme to improve ICT penetration in the MSME segment.

The committee has prepared a report on the proposal, which was given to Dinesh Rai, secretary, ministry of MSME, who was present at the committee meeting. The timing of CII’s report seems to be apt. The secretary informed that his ministry is finalising a budget of Rs 200 crore for launching a scheme on ICT improvement in MSMEs in the next month or so.

The CII, at present, is working with around 300 MSME clusters across India on various issues. The plan is to select 10 clusters from among these (each with 10-12 companies) and run a pilot with them on showcase ICT intervention and its impacts on these companies.

“We will start by defining their needs and then implementing ICT in their setups,” says Ajai Chowdhry, chairman, CII National Committee for IT. Over the years, larger companies in India in all sectors have effectively used information technology to enhance their productivity and competitiveness. “Why can’t our MSMEs replicate this feat? We can help them cut costs using ICT,” says Chowdhry.

But there are issues, which have to be addressed if ICT penetration is to improve. Praveen Toshniwal, chairman of Nivo Controls and also a member of the committee, says low awareness is the biggest concern. Also these firms then have to be given proper IT support and they need to understand how to utilise it best. The training programme with the 10 initial clusters hopes to do just that.

The biggest hurdle, feels Sarita Nagpal, deputy director general, CII, is that of cost. For a small firm, spending Rs 2 lakh on buying IT equipment is a big deal. “They ask us what is the RoI on this investment. These are the answers that we need to give. Automating processes will help improve their efficiency,” she says.

In a cluster there are many systems that MSMEs can share, for example, HR and accounting systems. “We will look at providing such systems as well as localising others to guide them on IT solutions as well as the right equipment to buy,” explains Chowdhry.

LOCAL LANGUAGE SKILLS, TECH TO CHALLENGE OFFSHORE BIZ

Rachana Khanzode, July 28, 2008
The Financial ExpressIn an era of globalisation, where offshore services are an important part of the business done by Indian IT companies, experts say that there is an increasing demand for local presence in non-English speaking countries with local resources.

According to analysts, Indian IT companies could lose their pie of offshoring business to other countries if they lacked in giving a local language support.

Allie Young, research vice president, IT services and consulting, Gartner, says, “As the market in Europe is becoming more mature and these clients are opening up to Indian companies due to the cost-competitive factor, it becomes important for Indian IT companies to bring in local language support like French, German and Spanish with local presence.”

The next big challenge that IT companies could face over a period of next 15-18 months, is the technology landscape space. Partha Iyengar, vice president, distinguished analyst, regional research director, Gartner India, says, “Service-oriented paradigm shift led by technology could challenge the traditional services model. The shift from hardware to software and now to cloud computing could weaken the services company because then the location becomes insignificant.”

Besides this, Indian IT companies continue to face challenges in terms of the average revenue per employee. Iyengar says, “The average revenue per employee for the global players is $140 to $160 while for Indian companies it is about $40.”

The market for Indian IT companies is undergoing a transition phase where companies need to be more productive and bring core competitiveness. He adds that Indian companies need to improve their efficiency because if the average revenue goes back to the stage of $8-10, the stage where these companies started at, it could dent overall revenue.

MANESAR IT PARK REACHES TOWERING HEIGHTS

Mukesh Bhardwaj, Chandigarh, July 28, 2008
The Indian Express

Permission to firms to develop 15-storey buildings

Before skyscrapers dot the skyline of Gurgaon following the recent policy that permits buildings of unlimited height in Haryana, 11 towering structures would come up in one campus of the technology park at Manesar. The Haryana Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation had granted permission to a dozen companies to raise 15-storey buildings and 11 out of these 12 have taken up construction to keep the deadline. One company is running a dispute and hence is yet to take up construction. The pace of construction at the park, said senior officials at Chandigarh, is on at a satisfactory speed, but would take time to complete.

The corporation had formed a high-level monitoring committee to overview the progress of work at the campus. The project, after completion, would bring investment worth Rs 3,600 crore to the state. Each company had been allowed to raise 15 floors and the campus would stand high among the comparatively short height of other buildings at the IMT. All the other buildings in the IMT had been allowed up to four floors only.

The 140-acre sprawling park would host a dozen big IT companies of international repute, with each securing equal space of 10 acres. The corporation is expecting to generate 50,000 jobs from the park. In view of creating pollution-free industries at the IMT, the corporation has focused on inviting industries dealing in information technology, biotechnology, neotechnology and robotic technology. Each company had been allotted land at a price of Rs 17 crore.

INTERNAP LIKELY TO ENTER INDIA VIA RELIANCE GLOBALCOM

Rachana Khanzode, July 28, 2008
The Financial Express

US-based Internap Network Services Corporation, an Internet solutions provider, is expected to start its operations in India through an alliance with Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Reliance Globalcom. Internap intends to target the Indian enterprises with its Content and Application Delivery Network (CDN) services. According to Tier1 Research report, the estimated spend on these services in Asia Pacific is projected to grow to Rs 1,163 crore ($270 million) by 2010.

According to sources, the duo is believed to be targeting revenues of Rs 200 crore to Rs 250 crore a year.

“Reliance Globalcom has about 850 corporate clients for enterprise solutions and with this alliance, the duo will target these existing clients in India,” the source adds.

The alliance will allow the duo to provide managed services and content delivery network services to add graphics, audio, streaming video and live events to Internet applications.

Internap has its global delivery infrastructure across Australia, China, Singapore, Japan, the US, the UK and the Netherlands. It is also likely that Internap would extend its alliance with Reliance Globalcom to widen the services to other countries.

Internap is expected to bring in its patented MIRO (managed internet routing optimiser) and ADN (application delivery network) technologies.

MIRO monitors the performance of Internet backbones and automatically selects the best path to global destinations, thus providing faster content delivery.

SOFTWARE EXPORTS TO CROSS $40 BILLION IN 2007-08: GOVT

New Delhi, July 28, 2008
Mint Financial Chronicle Deccan Herald

Department of Information Technology has projected over 28% rise (in dollar terms) in the total value of software and services exports in 2007-08.

In 2007-08, the software and services industry continues to show a robust growth and the total value of software and services exports are estimated at Rs 163,000 crore ($40.3 billion) compared to Rs 141,000 crore ($31.4 billion) in 2006-07, an increase of 15.6% in rupee terms and 28.3% in dollar terms, DIT said in its estimate.

The electronics and IT exports are estimated to be Rs 1,75,700 crore compared to Rs 1,53,500 crore in 2006-07, showing a growth of a 14.5%, it said.

Industry body Nasscom had announced earlier that the country’s software and services exports grew 29% in 2007-08 to cloak a revenue of $40.4 billion, up from $31.4 billion in the previous year.

The overall IT-BPO industry, including the domestic market, recorded a 28% growth to touch $52 billion revenue in 2007-08, Nasscom had said.

The IT industry body had said the software and services revenue is expected to grow between 21% and 24% in the current fiscal, with the export segment forecast to reach $50 billion.

Giving an indication of strong performance this fiscal country’s top four software exporters-- Tata Consultancy Service, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam --have posted good quarterly results although fears of delay in decision making by the top clients of these companies loomed large due the slowdown in the US economy.

INDIAN ANIMATION INDUSTRY SET TO GROW TO RS 42 BILLION BY FY09

Mumbai, July 28, 2008
Financial Chronicle Business StandardThe Rs 12 billion animation industry in India is set to grow to Rs 42 billion by 2009 with its revenues projected to double up to almost $1.5 billion by 2010.

"The Indian animation market is only one percent of the global market of the $1,125 billion but growth is expected to be around 35 percent in the next few years. India is fast emerging as a destination for outsourcing assignments from international studios like Walt Disney Pictures and Cartoon Network." Prime Focus, Vice-President, Aijaz Rashid said at 'MAAC SRIJAN 2008,' a seminar for students and professionals seeking a career in the animation industry.

"India will become the global headquarters of animation world. At present, India has a Ferrari by the way of technology, software and amenities. What we need now is a Michael Schumacher to help us win the race. We need the artist, imagination and content to help us to lead the industry," Rashid said.

Animation in India is currently riding on two key factors-a large base of highly skilled labour and low production cost," Rhythm & Hues, Manager, Subhojit Sarkar said.

India definitely has advantages over other players. In that there are little government regulations so the industry is free of complexities. Potential exists and it must be borne in mind that training, big investments and providing original and compelling content will be critical to growth, he added.

Rashid explains, 'Drawing, sketching, shadows, rendering are the qualifications one needs for the animation industry.

The encouraging news is that while the primary work coming to India is via animation outsourcing, the industry is moving up to the next level with co-production assignments also trickling in. Given the growing demand, there is tremendous scope for Indian animation industry and for India to become an animation hub in the years to come.

According to Jasmeet Singh Director (Academics) Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematic (MAAC), currently there are about 30,000 professionals working in this techno-creative field but by the end of next year the requirement would be an additional 15,000-trained people to fill the gap.

By 2012 it is expected that the industry would have room to accommodate three lakh professionals. Work needs to be done to overcome the problems of getting skilled personnel and specialised training institutes.

Apart from a few government-run colleges with an animation curriculum, there are about 500 private animation-training institutes in India. MAAC is the academic and training division of Maya Entertainment Ltd (MEL), a leading computer animation and visual effects studio for film and television.

MAAC already has more than 30,000 students undergoing training in animation and 3D animation and visual effects at its 60 centres in India, Nepal and the Middle East.

TATAS’ SUPERCOMPUTER EKA TO FOCUS ON NEWER AREAS

Pune, July 27, 2008
The Hindu Business Line

Having achieved high speeds, Eka, the supercomputer designed by the Tata Group, is now expanding its focus on developing and delivering high performance applications for global customers in various areas that include weather modelling, aerospace, automotive engineering, drug design and nanotechnology.

S. Ramadorai, Chairman, CRL (Computational Research Laboratories), told newspersons that work was on to create meaningful applications that can solve tomorrow’s challenges in the areas of engineering, nanotechnology and drug design that are of interest to society, the country and global customers.

The performance has been upgraded from 117.9 teraflops to 132.8 teraflops through software enhancements and tuning, he said.

Eka would also enter the areas of seismic signal processing and animation and rendering, he said.

Eka is a Hewlett Packard based system with about 14,400 processors connected by a 45-km long cable. It can be scaled up horizontally or vertically and the patent for the design is expected to be filed soon.

Eka was developed with an investment of $30 million and is funded entirely by Tata Sons.

CANON EYES 40% RISE IN INDIA REVENUE

New Delhi, July 28, 2008
MintAs the digital camera and copier sales set to zoom in the country, Japanese imaging company Canon said it expects a 40% rise in its revenue from India at over Rs 700 crore by the end of this year.

“Canon intends to achieve a 40% increase in revenue by the end of this year at Rs 700 crore,” Canon India President and CEO Kensaku Konishi said, adding the company hopes higher sales in its camera business. Canon has printers, camera and camcorders, IT peripherals, copiers and software solutions.

The company reported a 38% growth in 2007 to achieve a turnover of Rs 510 crore.

It expects 30% of its revenues from the sales of cameras, 20% from printer and IT peripherals business, 10% from software service and 40% from the copier business.

To boost its business, Canon had already set up four exclusive retail outlets for the consumer and business segment entailing an investment of Rs 8 crore.

“This is a new concept and the first of its kind in India, the first showroom was set up in Gurgaon. We will come up with another two stores in Mumbai by the end of this year,” Konishi said.

Canon had opened two retail showrooms in south India offering wide range of products like printers, camera, camcoders, scanners, projectors and the all-in-one printers all under one roof.

AMARA RAJA TO SPEND RS 200 CRORE ON CAPACITY EXPANSION THIS YEAR

G Balachandar, Chennai, July 28, 2008
Financial ChronicleIndustrial and automotive battery maker Amara Raja Batteries, which saw its net sales crossing Rs 1,000 crore mark for the financial year 2008, expects to invest about Rs 200 crore during the current fiscal in three projects to ramp-up its production capacity on the back of increase in demand for batteries.

Buoyed by the growth in demand, driven by telecom and uninterrupted power service (UPS) sectors, in the industrial battery segment, the company plans to boost the production capacity of industrial batteries at its plant near Tirupathi with a fresh investment of Rs 52 crore this fiscal.

In the industrial segment, telecom and UPS sub-segments are the major revenue contributors accounting for about 80 percent of the topline.

With several telecom companies embarking on infrastructure expansion and growth of information technology (IT) and information technology enabled services (ITeS) segments, Amara Raja expects the robust demand in telecom and UPS segment to continue in the coming years as well, K Suresh, chief financial officer, Amara Raja Batteries said.

The company is also expanding the capacity of large VRLA (valve-regulated lead-acid batteries) batteries, meant for telecom applications, to 900 million Ah from 400 million Ah. The project is expected to be completed by September this year.

BENQ'S V2400W

July 27, 2008
The Financial Express

BenQ's just launched V2400W is targeted at the sophisticated and stylish consumer.

Suggested to be the world's slimmest 24" wide screen, this LCD monitor is a blend of dynamic energy, kinetic beauty and unconventional art.

BenQ's newly evolved 'Kinergy' helps one express persona taste, social identity and lifestyle. The monitor is also positioned as a premium luxury-lifestyle product. It performs accordingly.

HDMI with HDCP DVI-D and VGA inputs offer future-proof high definition connectivity, as well as compatibility. BenQ's proprietary Senseye+photo™ Human Vision Technology provides vividly realistic, true-to-life colours. Five preset modes - Dynamic, Photo, Standard, Movie and sRGB simplify optimised viewing at the touch of a button.

Available at BenQ IT Zones and through BenQ dealers at Rs 25,000.

Intel processors

The Financial ExpressIntel recently unveiled its Centrino® 2 Processor Technology products for laptops, powered by five new Intel® Core™2 Duo processors. Close to 250 innovative consumer and business notebook PC designs are on the way - including those equipped with the right combination of powerful processors, graphics and battery life to enjoy stunning High Definition videos and myriad other computer and Internet activities. The company also introduced the world's highest performing dual-core mobile processor, the Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor running at a brisk 3.06 GHz.

Rounding out a mobile-focussed summer for the company, Intel said it also plans to unveil eight new processors within 90 days that will include first-ever mobile quad-core products and second-generation products for ultra thin and light notebooks. In total, Intel will bring 14 diverse new processors into the marketplace as laptop sales continue to outpace desktop PCs.

MICROSOFT TO BUY APPLIANCE MAKER DATALLEGRO

Boston
The Economic Times

Microsoft Corp plans to buy DATAllegro, the two companies said on Thursday. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed in their statement.

DATAllegro is a privately held maker of computers loaded with software that help companies analyze complex sets of data. DATAllegro competes with Teradata Corp and Netezza Corp.

CHINA'S ALIBABA SAYS IT HAS EXPANDED INTO TAIWAN

Beijing
The Economic TimesChina's business-to-business website Alibaba said on Thursday that it had opened an office in Taiwan.

The office, Alibaba's fourth outside mainland China, will be able to better serve its 40,000 members on the island, the company said in a statement.

It will also enable more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan, who have been struggling with the saturation and slowing of Taiwan's domestic market, to grow through e-commerce, the statement said.

"The launch of our Taipei office signifies our strong commitment to invest more resources to develop the Taiwan market and help local SMEs with global trade," said David Wei, Alibaba.com's chief executive officer.

"Alibaba.com can provide Taiwan's 220,000 export-oriented SMEs with the right tools to connect with a huge pool of active international buyers and increase their competitiveness."

He said the Alibaba, which is partly owned by US Internet giant Yahoo, was also open to forming partnerships with local companies in Taiwan in the future.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, but bilateral ties have been warming after Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang won a landslide victory in Taiwan's presidential election in March.

The two sides launched regular direct flights for the first time in nearly six decades earlier this month.

Intel to make smarter chips for range of devices

The Economic TimesU.S. technology bellwether Intel Corp on Thursday unveiled plans to build small, Internet savvy computer chips to be used in a variety of ways ranging from industrial robotics to small consumer devices.

The California-based company said it will make "smarter" System on Chip (SoC) designs that offer better performance and energy efficiency than traditional SoCs. Target areas for the new chips are Intel's computing businesses, consumer electronics, mobile Internet devices and embedded markets, it said.

The company earlier this year debuted its low-power, tiny microprocessor family called Atom, which is built on Intel Architecture (IA) -- a fundamental semiconductor platform the company is eager to use in its new chips too. More than 15 SoC projects are planned, Intel said, many of which will be based on Atom.

POLYCOM BRACING FOR INDIA OPS EXPANSION

Peerzada Abrar, Bangalore
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)

US-based Polycom is entering into tie-ups in the retail, healthcare and education sectors for its videoconferencing products as it aims for a tenth of its targeted global 2008 revenues of $2 billion (Rs 8,600 crore) from India.

Polycom, which set up India operations in 2003, will spend $25 million by 2010 to expand its infrastructure and boost staff strength, including in its R&D centre, from 110 to 150, global education market director Russell G Colbert Jr. said. He declined to reveal the company’s current revenues from India. For 2007, the company had sales revenue to the tune of $929.9 million worldwide.

Tie-ups with universities and educational institutions, including IITs in Kharagpur and Kanpur, and partnerships with gem and jewellery merchants are part of the initiatives by Polycom to boost its market presence in India. Colbert said the company has an over 60 percent share of the video-conferencing endpoint market in India.

“Our CAGR in India is 50 percent year-on-year and demand is growing tremendously in content area, besides tools and training,” Colbert said. “The opportunity for us is very ment through 300 Reliance Web stores across India,” the sales head for the government vertical in India and Saarc countries Deepak Satapathy said. Polycom is also investing efforts in the telepresence market for next-generation video-conferencing solutions. The company launched its RealPresence Experience High Definition telepresence solution last year.

Large in India. The country has a teacher-student ratio of 1:75, which is the largest in the world. Our goal is to provide affordable access to technology that allows people to have the best education possible.” Polycom, which derives a major chunk of its business from the government sector, also provides ‘telejustice’ solutions for prison departments to connect jails with courts to cut travel costs.

The company has been working with Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab on SWAN (State Wide Area Network) e-governance project and has bid for similar orders from Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

“The government vertical contributes 30 percent-35 percent to Polycom’s India revenue. We are also targeting Web stores across India where people can interact with each other through video conferencing.

TN, CHENNAI MOST PREFERRED IT DESTINATIONS

Chennai
The Economic TimesTamil Nadu in general and Chennai in particular was turning out to be the most preferred global industrial destinations, thanks to the aggressive marketing by its officials, a top IT official said here on Thursday.

Asit K Barma, Vice President, Marketing and Alliances Manufacturing and Automotive, Satyam Computers Limited, told PTI on the sidelines of a launch of certificate programmes in Computers at the Women's Christian College here that the state had some of the best officials.

"The way they sell Tier-II and Tier-III cities of the state is no less than any salesman working for a multinational corporation," he said.

In fact, branding of Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai, in the automotive industry would soon help it achieve its ambitions of becoming the automotive hub of Asia, Barma said.

"The state's concept of inclusive or equitable growth has led to distribution of growth across the state. The expansion of IT industry to cities like Coimbatore and Madurai is an example in this regard," he said.

"The tier-II and Tier-III cities have a great talent pool though they lack in soft skills which is now being addressed by the educational institutions," Barma said adding IT firms also had programmes to develop soft skills of such candidates.

To a query on the ongoing power shortage in the state, he said the situation was "much better" in Tamil Nadu and said the citizens, as well the industry have accepted the government's measures to handle the shortage.

Powercuts for houses and industrial units and staggered holidays for the latter has come into force since July 21. The IT industry was not facing any shortage since it managed with backup power and managed consumption, he said.

GOVT SPENDS MERE 47 MN ON NANO-TECH RESEARCH: ASSOCHAM

New Delhi
The Economic TimesGovernment funding for the research and development in the nano technology sector is mere 7 million dollars even while smaller countries such South Korea is spending around 233.5 million dollars, a study by industry body Assocham said.

According to a study, South Korea spends 233.5 million dollars and Taiwan spends 102.4 million dollars in caring out research work in nano technology.

The figures appear dismal as compared to that of the developed countries such as Germany that spends 395.5 million dollars, France 301.1 million dollars and UK 180 million dollars on nano-technology.

"India is also lagging behind in the global nanotech based scientific publications, despite the growth it is witnessing in its nano-technology sector", Assocham President Sajjan Jindal said in a statement.

EMBASSY SIGNS DEAL TO BUILD IT PARK IN SERBIA

Bangalore
The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)

City-based property developer Embassy Group has signed a contract to build an IT park in Serbia, according to media reports in the Balkan nation. The deal with the local government in the northern town of Indija envisages an investment of about Rs 400 crore and the creation of 2,500 jobs, the state-run news agency Tanjug reported.

Construction would begin around September and companies would begin occupying the IT park from the mid-2009, the report quoted Indija’s municipal president as saying. The Indija municipality has given the Embassy Group a free 50-hectare parcel of land while the central government has committed to providing the necessary infrastructure. Embassy signed an MoU for the project with Serbia in 2007.

Investment in the IT park would increase to $600 million (Rs 2,570 crore) over the next five years, covering 220 hectares and employing 25,000.

EDUCOMP BUYS STAKE IN A-PLUS EDUCATION SOLUTIONS

Shreerupa Mitra, Bangalore
Financial Chronicle The Hindu Business Line

Educomp Solutions, an e-learning educational solutions firm, has acquired a strategic stake in A-Plus Education Solutions. The educational firm will invest Rs 10.75 crore over the next two years to acquire a 76 percent shareholding in A-Plus.

Operating under the brand name of 'Purple Leap', A-Plus looks at improving the employability of the college students. The company strives to bridge the skill gap in the nation and has tied up with over 18 government vocational training institutes. Educomp will also work with domain experts in management, engineering, retail and other disciplines to bring about an appropriate blend of pedagogical and industry practices to these colleges.

Moreover, Educomp plans to leverage the acquisition's existing customer base to provide different types of educational services to 10 million students across the nation by 2009-2010. "We seek to mitigate the current skill and competency gap across various vocations and disciplines by leveraging technology-enabled best practices in education. Our recent step in this direction is our eTEN system, which will use telecom and satellite technology to bring best teaching talents to remote students," Sharad Agarwal, president of Educomp Vocational Business said.

Currently, there is a shortage of workplace-ready students and high cost of training. This results in a high turnover of the new recruits and also a large cost for the recruiting companies. The EduLeap (known as Purple Leap so far) career centers in the colleges will have facilities for assessment and testing, impartation of training and have strong placement partnerships with corporates, the company said.

BFL IMPLEMENTS 1KEY AGILE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOLUTION

Pune
The Economic Times (Mumbai edition)

Bharat Forge Limited (BFL), the world’s second largest forgings manufacturer, has implemented the 1Key Agile business intelligence application on its servers. The solution will eliminate redundant work, better manage its business and take timely decisions in line with market fluctuations. BFL has implemented the 1Key Agile solution of the Mumbai-based MAIA Intelligence. MAIA CEO Sanjay Mehta said, “1Key provided BFL better functionalities at almost one fifth the price of any international

GRADATIM LAUNCHES INDIA'S FIRST MICROINSURANCE PLATFORM

Mumbai
The Economic Times Financial Chronicle DNAGradatim IT Ventures, a leading micro-finance player, on Thursday announced the launch of its on-demand micro-insurance technology platform called MF-Insure.

It combines IT infrastructure and back-office services, and delivered as a business process utility on a pay-per-use pricing model, a press release issued here stated.

MF-Insure is proficient in handling products for all lines of insurance business such as life, health, non-life and pension, the release said.

Gradatim's CEO, C V Prakash, said that "at Gradatim, it is our constant endeavour to develop innovative and user-friendly IT platforms in order to simplify insurance operations. MF-Insure is a pioneer platform and is expected to play a very critical role by simplifying and consolidating business operations, reducing cost, improving turn-around times, and other operational advantages, thus enabling insurance providers to offer affordable insurance services to low-income groups."

The platform caters to insurance companies, agents, insurance brokers, MFIs, banks, NBFCs and other institutions offering micro-insurance and guarantees standardisation of processes, transaction and collaborative infrastructure and reduced cost due to multi-tenant operations, the release said.

Gradatim is a privately-held IT company with operations in India, Australia and Singapore.

INFOTECH PARTNERS ALTEN FORGE

Chennai/ Hyderabad
Business StandardHyderabad-based technology solutions provider Infotech Enterprises Limited (IEL) and Paris-based engineering consulting company Alten Group SA have entered into a strategic partnership to provide engineering solutions to EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company), the parent company of Airbus. The two organisations have signed an agreement to this effect.

"The tie up with Alten will be of strategic advantage to both the companies in offering one-stop solution in aerospace engineering design and avionics. This will enable us to enhance our domain expertise in the aerospace industry and provide EADS a unique solution," IEL chairman and managing director, BV Mohan Reddy, stated in a press release.

According to Alten Group chairman and chief executive officer Simon Azoulay, the combined talents of both the companies would provide EADS a cost-effective global delivery solution.

The tie-up enables high degree of scalability and quick response time to enable EADS to significantly improve time to market and decrease cost

QLIKTECH OPENS OFFICE IN INDIA, EYES TO GROW BUSINESS

Bangalore
The Economic Times MintQlikTech, named the world's fastest growing business intelligence (BI) software company by International Data Corporation (IDC), on Thursday announced the opening of an office here, the country's technology hub, to support existing customers and grow through channel partners.

The privately held company, which has clocked annual growth rate of 80 percent in the last four years, appointed Raghunathan Rangarajan as its Regional Manager for India and South Asia.

Peter McQuade, Vice-President, International Markets for QlikTech, said the company has 140 customers in India, including Reliance Life, Reliance Capital, L G Electronics, Dainik Jagran and Parley.

Rangarajan said the company is also pursuing business opportunities in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Company officials said its business analysis solution QlikView can be deployed quickly and cost-effectively, adding, it delivers "powerful and intuitive" business analysis dashboards and reports based on patented association technology.

McQuade said: "We have 8,484 customers in 86 countries. We add 13 new customers every day. We have around 400,000 live users".

Rangarajan said the company would open an additional office in Mumbai in the next few months. The company's partners in India are: Team Computers, Sonata Software, IRT, Computer Solutions & Blue-chip Solutions.

According to IDC's "India BI Software Market Report,", June 2007, India's business intelligence software market is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 35.9 percent through 2011.

ASUS LAUNCHES INDIA'S FIRST NOTEBOOK

Mumbai
The Economic Times

With an aim to woo user segments like housewives, senior citizens, travelers and social networking enthusiasts, ASUS in association with Intel and Microsoft on Thursday launched Eee PC 1000H.

Along with the Eee PC 1000H, ASUS has also launched Eee PC 904 H featuring an 8.9" screen, 1024X600 resolution display and super hybrid engine for longer battery lifespan upto 4.5 hours.

Benson Lin, General Manager, APAC, Middle East and Africa, ASUS, said," With the introduction of Eee PC 904 H and 1000 H, ASUS brings to India a new segment of notebooks for today's new age customers who have an innate desire to be connected all the time and see personalised, mobile technology as the way to meet the need."

Product Manager, Notebooks and Eee PC, ASUS (India), Stanley Wu, said, "ASUS for the first time introduced the Eee PC segment to the world. The worldwide acceptance of Eee PC range of notebooks is symbolic of its simplicity, robust build quality and user-friendliness...we are proud to introduce ASUS Eee PC 904 H and 1000 H, offering complete mobility and accessibility to the generation of highly mobile customers."

Eee PC 1000H features large 10" display, longer battery lifespan of upto five hours, Dolby Sound Room, built-in bluetooth and a 95 percent size of generic notebooks facilitating easier typing and relaxed usage.

The notebook has a 1.3 mega pixel webcam with its wireless internet connection capabalities for web conferences.

CIVIC BODIES NEED AUTHORITY FOR E-WASTE MANAGEMENT

Mumbai
The Indian ExpressA training on e-waste for members of several urban municipal corporations from the western region on Thursday turned into a brainstorming session of sorts when the civic officials highlighted their difficulties in handling not just electronic wastes but also bio-medical wastes in their cities due to absence of proper regulation.

The training programme, which brought together civic officials from cities of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa, with experts and consultants on e-waste management, revealed that most urban local bodies echoed the same view on the issue. “It’s time we stopped being an instrument and become an implementing authority of solid-waste management,” said Sidhartha Choure, sanitary officer of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation.

Putting in perspective the opinions of nearly 50 percent officials present there, Choure said, “An amendment is needed in the Environmental Protection Act which names the pollution control board as the competent authority for solid waste, bio-medical waste and hazardous waste management. However, the local body is the one accountable for cleaning up wastes. In such a case, the local bodies should be given the authority to implement e-waste disposal rules.”