Largest commercial satellite for cellphones launched

Los Angeles: A new satellite designed to allow the convergence of cellphones and satellite phones throughout the US was successfully launched Thursday, mobile communications provider TerreStar announced.

Weighing 6,910 kg, TerreStar-1 is the largest commercial satellite ever and was launched by Arianespace from Kourou, French Guiana Tuesday.

The satellite will deliver voice, data and video services to the entire US. Its 20-metre antennae are large enough to beam satellite signals to mobile phones, which TerreStar hopes to launch later this year. The satellite component will allow users to use voice, email and data communications all over the US, even when there is no

cellphone coverage.

"With the successful launch of TerreStar-1, we are redefining the mobile communications landscape," said Dennis Matheson, chief technology officer of TerreStar. "We are creating a new paradigm in mobile broadband network services to enable true ubiquity and reliability - anywhere in the United States and Canada."

The world's first solar powered airplane

Silicon India
Bangalore: Bertrand Picard and his team is all set to fly an airplane of solar impulse. The initial version of the solar plane spans 61 metres, but weighs about 1500 Kilogram (Kg). It will undergo trials providing evidence that it can fly at night.

Picard wanted to demonstrate the potential of renewable energies. "I love this type of vision where you set the goal and then you try to find a way to reach it, because this is challenging," he told BBC News.

This solar powered is called the HB-SIA is a part of a 70 million pound project, which will fly using 12,000 solar cells, rechargeable lithium batteries and four electric motors. The aeroplane integrates composite materials to keep it extremely light. Picard has decided to make five long trips sharing flying duties with the Project Partner, Andre Borschberg.

"The real success for Solar Impulse would be to have enough millions of people following the project and being enthusiastic about it," said Picard.

Indian IT firms to rake in on smartcard projects

Bangalore: The ongoing migration of Indian citizens from paper cards to smart cards is throwing up a multibillion dollar business opportunity for domestic technology players.

The citizen ID card program proposed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be supported by a vast eco-system, comprising data collectors or managers, delivery channels, chip designers, smart card manufacturers, application and software providers, system integrators, networking analysts and print companies. The entire ID card project in India is estimated to be around Rs. 10,000 crore, with the first phase covering ultra-urban, urban, and semi-urban population offering Rs. 6,500 crore business opportunities.

IT companies like TCS and Infosys have confirmed that they would actively bid for the project. "The entire process including the bidding process, deal negotiations and business evaluation, are expected to be transparent. There will not be any conflict of interest for us and therefore, we will participate in the bid,'' said a Senior Official at Infosys Technologies.

TCS has already been working with the government on projects like e-passport, Gujarat police and the Defence Ministry. "Since it is going to be an open bidding process, we will be bidding for it,'' said a Senior Official at TCS.

Around 27 large e-governance projects worth Rs. 40,000 crore are currently in the pipeline. Having been badly hit by the economic recession, many technology leaders have been urging the government to accelerate these projects to induce economic buoyancy. The UIDAI comes as a quick response to the industry's call.

Som Mittal, the President of IT industry body Nasscom, told Times of India, "This is a transformational project for the country as it will overlay many underlying projects, creating huge efficiencies for the country leading to enhanced governance and reduced costs."

The global shipment of smart card surpassed an estimated five billion units in 2008 and this figure is projected to surge at CAGR of nearly 11 percent through 2012, according to "Smart Card Market Forecast to 2012", a recent market research report.

Smart cards replace driving licenses in Karnataka

Bangalore: Karnataka's transport department turned tech savvy Thursday by launching 16-kb microchip embedded 'smart cards' to replace driving licenses and vehicle registration booklets.
Driving license holders and vehicle owners will have to change over to the smart cards within two years.

The smart card, costing Rs.200, would prevent forgery in licenses and registration booklets, Transport Minister R. Ashok said at a function at which Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa launched the microchip embedded plastic card.

The chip stores the details of the driver/owner and can keep record of traffic violations, conviction and details of road accidents involving the driver and the vehicle.

Five regional transport offices in Bangalore began issuing the smart cards Thursday. By September, the remaining 50 regional transport offices in other parts of Karnataka will also start issuing these cards.

IT: Rupee bonanza

Mumbai
Business Standard

A weaker rupee is good news for tech firms.

A one per cent depreciation of the rupee against the dollar typically helps push up operating margins for IT firms by around 25-30 basis points. With the rupee having hit a near two-year low on Thursday’s at Rs 45.53, the Indian IT sector, has reason to cheer.

The rupee has now depreciated significantly by around 8 per cent over the past one month and by about 5 per cent since the start of July when it was Rs 43.33. So, if it stays at these levels till the end of FY09, IT firms could turn in an earnings growth, on average, of between 17-18 per cent.

The weaker rupee will be a relief for tech firms that have been grappling with a slowdown in the US economy, one of their biggest markets. In particular, the crisis in the financial space, resulting from the sub-prime crisis, has meant less business from that segment and vendors such as TCS have been particularly hurt.

The growth in volumes for tech firms was muted in the June 2008 quarter, a trend that is unlikely to change with IT almost certain to be lower this year, though offshoring could pick up later in the year. Besides, vendors are unlikely to be able to realise better prices in a difficult environment.

While the falling rupee will help all players, Infosys and Satyam, which use a mark-to-market hedge accounting policy, should gain more. Infosys also tends to hedge a lower portion of its forex exposure. TCS and Wipro, which follow a policy by which they hedge their cash flows, may not gain as much.

The BSE IT index has outperformed the market,since January 2008 falling just 11 per cent compared with a 30 per cent fall in the Sensex. At Rs 1749, Infosys appears to be attractive valued at 17 times its estimated price earnings for FY09.

At Rs 836, TCS trades at 14 times its FY09 estimates and is understandably cheaper because of its larger exposure to the financial services space. Possibly because of its poor performance in the June quarter, Satyam commands a price-earnings multiple of just under 13 times forward while Wipro trades at just over 15 times

Satyam Computers to axe 4,500 employees

Economics Times

HYDERABAD: Satyam Computers, which has just started giving pink slips to its employees, could potentially downsize its workforce by a whopping 4,500 employees.

This translates to a little less than 9% of the 51,000 employees that the company employs. Company sources say 1,500 employees have been put under the performance improvement plan (PIP), euphemism for employees put on watch list and asked to shape up or ship out.

Apart from this, 3,000 others have not been given any increment in the last appraisal cycle, thereby indicating that their services are dispensable.

"This 1,500 plus 3,000 equals 4,500, which indicates the total number of persons who could be eased out of the company," the source said.

On Friday, all employees received an e-mail from the company chief Ramalinga Raju warning them, especially the ones on the bench, to not bunk office and be in their best dress code, failing which they may face strict disciplinary action.
Last week, some 400 employees from across different locations were given the pink slip.

Sources also indicated that after getting the message many among the 3,000 have also started leaving jobs. But an estimate of the employees who have left is not known.


A Satyam spokesperson said: "The bottom 5% of those who have got a bad appraisal are put under PIP and given dummy projects to prove themselves. If they fail they will be shown the door. But some of them marked for PIP said they have been given very little time to come up as winners."

However, even as it downsizes, Satyam continues to hire new employees in thousands. Over 40% of them are fresh blood just passing out of college.

The spectre of retrenchment is creating panic among employees of the company. "Of the 12 people working in my project, five were suddenly asked to resign, failing which, the company warned, it would fire us. Everything came without warning," said a techie pleading anonymity.

TiVo chooses Wipro’s DVB-T middleware to build HD DVRs

Financial Express, India

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited announced that TiVo, the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders, has adopted Wipro’s DVB-T and Common Interface software stacks for its solutions targeting Australian and European markets. TiVo has recently launched its HD DVR in Australia with Wipro’s Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial middleware stack. The solution supports the free-to-air television networks’ digital channels available across Australia with most of TiVo’s popular features. “TiVo continues to expand its global footprint through strategic alliances that bring a DVR solution to international pay TV and broadcasting companies while providing the best television entertainment experience to consumers around the world,” said Joshua Danovitz, Vice President and GM of International at TiVo Inc. “Licensing Wipro’s DVB-T stack provided easy integration with the TiVo platform, saving a considerable amount of development time and helping to ensure a successful launch in Australia. We are pleased with the results and the support provided by the Wipro team.” “TiVo has been an innovation leader since its inception. It has changed the whole TV viewing experience through their innovative DVR solutions over the years. We are excited about the fact that Wipro’s multi-country compliant DVB-T stack, along with DVB-CI stack, has been adopted by TiVo for their DVR solutions.” Said Nagamani Murthy, Vice President, Mobile Consumer Electronics & Automotive Group,Wipro Technologies. Wipro with its wide spectrum of competencies in the Consumer Electronics domain has more than twenty five licensees for its Digital TV middleware stacks such as ATSC, OpenCable, DVB-T/C/S/CI, MHEG-5 and ISDB-T/S. These stacks can be found in multiple product segments including HDTV, High-end Hybrid set-top box, DVR and In-Car TVs. With proven and off-the-shelf Digital TV middleware, Wipro helps its customer focus on product differentiation through rich applications.

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.