China eyes Indian outsourcing cos for software solutions

As top Chinese enterprises such as Bank of China and China Telecom seek to globalise their operations, they are increasingly turning to multinational and Indian outsourcing firms, including IBM and TCS, for deploying and maintaining standard software solutions, giving them an edge over local service providers.

In many ways, Chinese customers’ shift towards global and Indian vendors is reminiscent of how top Indian customers such as Bharti Airtel preferred an IBM over domestic suppliers around two decades ago for modernising their IT and business systems.

While state-owned and local Chinese software services suppliers, such as Digital China Holdings and Neusoft, continue to work with the country’s large customers, IBM along with TCS and others are being preferred for large, complex outsourcing contracts by customers such as China Telecom and Bank of China.

“A fragmented local vendor landscape and a domestic market dominated by wholly foreign-owned enterprise customers means that it will be the major western and Indian outsourcing vendors that will reap the rewards,” said Patrick O’Brien, senior analyst at the UK-based research firm Ovum. “Apart from scale, local service providers also lack experience in handling large outsourcing contracts, something global and Indian firms are really good at,” he added.

While IBM earned nearly $690 million from China’s almost $10-billion IT services market last year, both TCS and Wipro have started making progress as well. TCS on its part, has recently won several large contracts beating local Chinese rivals, including over $100-million deal for implementing a core banking at Bank of China.

Modi invites Maruti to set up plant in state

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday invited Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) to set up a car manufacturing facility in Gujarat. Modi, after inaugurating the AGIDTR set up by the state government and MSIL here, said he wanted to give a business advice to Maruti. “Gujarat has General Motors and Nano, why not Maruti?” Modi said, pointing out that MSIL manufactures cars at Haryana which are then brought to Gujarat’s Mundra port for exports. “Would any Gujarati make such a mistake? They (cars) should be manufactured and exported from here.” He added that with the construction of Mumbai-Delhi Industrial Corridor with active participation of Japan and arrival of a number of Japanese companies with a view to invest in Gujarat, MSIL should also establish their car unit in Gujarat. MSIL’s managing director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi on his part said that MSIL is expecting export business to further grow this year. “Last year, we had exported 70,000 units whereas this year we hope to exceed one lakh units,” said Nakanishi.

Blast outside Peshawar judicial complex kills 15, injures 22

At least 15 were reportedly killed and 22 others injured in a powerful explosion outside a court building in Peshawar on Thursday morning.

According to security officials, the blast occurred near the main entrance of the judicial complex, which is situated on Khyber Road.

Police have cordoned-off the area and injured have been admitted to the Lady Reading Hospital here.

Eyewitnesses said the blast occurred in a car parked adjacent to the building. However, unconfirmed reports said it was a suicide attack.

A large number of lawyers were present inside the complex at the time of the explosion.

Television footage showed the mangled remains of several vehicles parked nearby.

Fire tenders and other emergency services were pressed into service immediately after the blast.

Security officials have cordoned-off the area and launched a massive search and combing operation.

VISION AND MISSION OF RELIANCE ENERGY

VISION
To be amongst the most admired and most trusted integrated utility companies in the world,delivering reliable and quality products and services to all customers at competitive costs,with international standards of customer care -thereby creating superior value for all stakeholders.

To set new benchmarks in standards of corporate performance and governance through the pursuit of operational and financial excellence,responsible citizenship and profitable growth.

MISSION: Excellence in Infrastructure

To attain global best practices and become a world-class utility.

To create world-class assets and infrastructure to provide the platform for faster, consistent growth for India to become a major world economic power.

To achieve excellence in service, quality, reliability, safety and customer care.

To earn the trust and confidence of all customers and stakeholders and by exceeding their expectations, make the company a respected household name.

To work with vigour,dedication and innovation,with total customer satisfaction as the ultimate goal.

To consistently achieve high growth with the highest levels of productivity.

To be a technology driven, efficient and financially sound organization.

To be a responsible corporate citizen, nurturing human values and concern for society, the environment and above all, people.

To contribute towards community development and nation building.

To promote a work culture that fosters individual growth, team spirit and creativity to overcome challenges and attain goals.

To encourage ideas, talent and value systems.

To uphold the guiding principles of trust, integrity and transparency in all aspects of interactions and dealings.

Mahindra Satyam rejects Rs 1,230-cr claims

Mahindra Satyam on Tuesday rejected claims worth Rs 1,230 crore made by 37 companies linked to the company’s former promoter B Ramalinga Raju in a filing to the stock exchange. The company said the claims were legally untenable. Satyam received letters from these 37 companies reclaiming the money a day after Raju confessed to the Rs 7,000-crore fraud.

Raju, in his confession statement, said he owed Rs 1,230 crore to some of the privately-owned companies of the Raju family who had loaned out money to the IT firm. He said the amount was an understated liability and was not stated in the books of the firm that were dressed for seven years.

A Satyam spokesperson said the companies sent legal notices to Satyam two weeks ago. The notices claim the money back to allegedly repay their creditors, some of whom include Maytas Properties and Maytas Infra.

However, the information pack given to the bidders has listed this only as a claim and not a liability since there are no entries in the company’s books.

After Raju’s disclosure about financial wrongdoings, the Indian government had superseded the company’s board appointing its nominees to monitor the fraud-struck firm’s bidding process. Tech Mahindra emerged as the highest bidder and acquired control of Satyam in April this year.

BHEL to set up power plant in central India

Top Indian power-equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals said on Wednesday it has signed a joint-venture pact to build a 1,600 megawatt (MW) thermal power plant in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

The power plant at Khandwa will be equipped with supercritical technology, which helps lower coal consumption and leads to lower emissions. State utility Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Co Ltd and BHEL will initially have an equal share in the joint venture.

Their stakes will later be diluted to 26 percent each, with the rest held by financial institutions and other partners, BHEL said. BHEL has been promoting joint ventures with state utilities to set up and operate supercritical thermal power plants.

It has set up joint ventures with the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Earlier this month, leading Indian power producer NTPC said it would set up a 2,640 megawatt (MW) thermal power plant under a pact with the Madhya Pradesh state government and the MP Power Trading Co.

Accentia to add 2K jobs at techno-lodges

The Kerala IT department’s decision to roll out techno-lodges, making IT infrastructure available at the panchayat level, has drawn instant interest from the industry, with Accentia Technologies announcing that it intends to add 2,000 jobs to be based out of these techno-lodges. Accentia CEO Pradeep Viswambharan said his company planned to create these jobs across the villages of Kerala where the IT department and the local panchayats would develop requisite infrastructure for the IT industry. Healthcare receivables cycle management (HRCM) major Accentia, based at the Technopark here, had recently commenced operations from the UK, with the objective of tapping potential markets in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland. The first two of the techno-lodges in Kerala, both located in Kollam district, have been fully taken up by Accentia Technologies. Mr Viswambharan said the company would base its production centers at these lodges and that all openings generated in these centers would be given to graduates from the respective villages. He said the company was willing to take up more space at the upcoming techno-lodges, and that the political leadership had promised an environment free of hartals in these villages. Accentia has a presence in Oregon and New Jersey, US and in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE besides over half a dozen cities in India.

IMI Delhi launches Bhubaneshwar campus

Commemorating its 30th anniversary during 2010-2011, the International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi, has announced the launch of its second campus at Bhubaneshwar in Orissa. Located at the IDCO Institutional area in Gothapatna, Bhubaneshwar, adjacent to IIIT, Bhubaneshwar and NALCO Research Centre, the new campus is spread over 16 acres of land. Speaking on the occasion, C.S. Venkata Ratnam, director, IMI New Delhi, said, “Subject to getting approval from AICTE, we will commence the first PGDM program in July-Aug 2010.” The campus will be fully residential and function as an autonomous business school. “Besides PGDM programs, IMI Bhubaneshwar will also have centers for research and executive education,” he further added. The IMI board has distinguished persons from industry, government and academics headed by Industrialist R.P.Goenka, chairman-emeritus, RPG Enterprises. “The Bhubaneshwar campus will take cognizance of the growing criticism against B-schools in India and abroad and suitably re-engineer its curriculum to meet the emerging and future needs of corporate in grooming business leaders for sustainable business,” said Captain S Vasudeva Member, board of governors, IMI.

IMI Delhi launches Bhubaneshwar campus

Commemorating its 30th anniversary during 2010-2011, the International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi, has announced the launch of its second campus at Bhubaneshwar in Orissa. Located at the IDCO Institutional area in Gothapatna, Bhubaneshwar, adjacent to IIIT, Bhubaneshwar and NALCO Research Centre, the new campus is spread over 16 acres of land. Speaking on the occasion, C.S. Venkata Ratnam, director, IMI New Delhi, said, “Subject to getting approval from AICTE, we will commence the first PGDM program in July-Aug 2010.” The campus will be fully residential and function as an autonomous business school. “Besides PGDM programs, IMI Bhubaneshwar will also have centers for research and executive education,” he further added. The IMI board has distinguished persons from industry, government and academics headed by Industrialist R.P.Goenka, chairman-emeritus, RPG Enterprises. “The Bhubaneshwar campus will take cognizance of the growing criticism against B-schools in India and abroad and suitably re-engineer its curriculum to meet the emerging and future needs of corporate in grooming business leaders for sustainable business,” said Captain S Vasudeva Member, board of governors, IMI.

Gold prices soften as dollar recovers

Gold softened a touch in Europe on Tuesday as the dollar index recovered from the 15-month low it hit in the previous session, but remained near record highs as traders bet the currency's recovery would be temporary. Spot gold was bid at $1,101.40 an ounce at 1007 GMT, against $1,103.85 late in New York on Monday. US gold futures for December delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange firmed 70 cents to $1,102.10 an ounce. The precious metal hit an all-time high of $1,110.85 an ounce on Monday as the dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency's performance against a basket of six others, plummeted to its lowest since August 2008. "My feeling is we will actually see the dollar break down further in the next few weeks, and that will help take gold up to new levels," said Standard Chartered analyst Daniel Smith. "We think $1,200 is quite a realistic target before the end of the year." He said trade was likely to be choppy going into the new year, however, with jewellery demand still weak as high prices put off buyers, and interest in exchange-traded funds static. "Underlying demand needs to play a bit of catch-up with where prices are," he said. The dollar edged up on Tuesday, reversing some of its recent losses but staying close to a 15-month low against a currency basket. Weakness in the US unit boosts gold's appeal as an alternative asset and makes dollar-priced commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies. Other commodities also weakened, with sector bellwether oil and base metals such as copper declining. Gold tends to track crude prices, as the metal can be bought as a hedge against oil-led inflation.

MNCs now eye local IT services

The domestic information technology (IT) services market is no more a lowprofit option and entry of global players in this segment is a testimony to its growing maturity and lucrativeness. Earlier, the domestic IT services market was characterised as ‘where you would pay for the hardware but get the services for free’. This has changed over the last few years with the profit margins in some segments comparable to the developed markets. Says Seepij Gupta, analyst, software and services research, IDC India: “In some segments of the domestic IT services markets — application management and managed services, for example — the profit margins range between 25-30 % and 16-32 %, respectively. This kind of profitability makes the India market almost at par with the developed economies.” Rising profits also reveal the growing maturity of the local market where corporates and governments are willing to spend a larger amount on technology. Sudip Saha, analyst, services research, Springboard Research, says the maturity curve is getting sharper in the domestic market reflected in the larger size of IT outsourcing deals as well as longer-term contracts. “Corporates are realising that having internal IT departments is expensive and it better to outsource,” he added. European IT services majors like Capgemini, Logica, Groupe Steria and Atos Origin have already planned their local market moves. Segment-specific players like AT&T and BT too have made their foray into the telecom technology services market in India.

Four Indians among 20 charged in largest hedge fund scam

The FBI has charged a further 14 people, including two Indians and Wall Street professionals, in a widening $53 million insider trading scam,largest ever such case in the United States.

The latest action brings the number of people who have been charged in the case to 20, including four Indians.

The scam came to light last month with the arrest of Sri Lankan Tamil-origin billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group founder and hedge fund operator, and five others, two of whom were Indians.

Deep Shah, a former analyst at the Moody's Investor Service, and Gautham Shankar, a former proprietary trader at Schottenfeld Group in New York, were charged yesterday. Shankar has pleaded guilty, while Shah is still at large.

Anil Kumar and Rajiv Goel (both 51) are the two other Indians who were were arrested last month for allegedly committing the fraud.
The people charged included hedge fund managers and trading firm executives, lawyers and corporate insiders, the prosecutor and FBI officer said in a statement.

Bank profits to be under pressure in next 6 months

The top 10 Indian banks made more than Rs 6,000 crore collectively from treasury operations in the first half of FY10 (Apr-Mar) against only Rs 220 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. This was possible because bond yields were declining and bond prices were moving up. However, a further softening of yields is unlikely. “RBI’s latest quarterly review of monetary policy indicates that we are at the bottom of a soft interest-rate regime. Thus, high treasury income earned in the first-half from government securities’ (G-sec) portfolio may not recur in coming quarters,” said Ravi Mehta, research analyst, Indsec Securities & Finance. The central bank restored the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) to 25% from 24%, in a bid to reduce the liquidity in the banking system and send out a signal that a further softening of rates is ruled out.

AT&T Declares Color War on Verizon

AT&T, the giant company with $124 billion in annual sales, has filed a federal lawsuit against its rival, Verizon. The issue: coloring, of the sort that you do in kindergarten.

Specifically, AT&T charges that the “There’s a map for that” commercials from Verizon Wireless are misleading. These plucky ads, which poke fun at the “There’s an app for that” campaign for AT&T’s hottest handset, the iPhone from Apple, display a map with most of the country in red, representing the area covered by Verizon’s fastest 3G data service. This is compared with another map, which has much less geography marked in blue, with the caption “AT&T 3G coverage.”

AT&T’s suit, filed in the Northern District of Georgia (site of its wireless headquarters) says the script and captions of Verizon’s commercial are correct and the map accurately describes where AT&T’s 3G network is available. The problem, it says, is what is on the rest of the map: white.
In any case, AT&T suggests that this implies that it doesn’t offer service of any sort in the white areas, when in fact it does offer slower service.

The first version of Verizon’s ads in fact said that customers who weren’t in the 3G area were “out of touch.” When AT&T complained, that language was changed, and the words “Voice and data service available outside 3G coverage area” were superimposed on the screen.

AT&T argues that even the modified ads are misleading.

AT&T Declares Color War on Verizon

AT&T, the giant company with $124 billion in annual sales, has filed a federal lawsuit against its rival, Verizon. The issue: coloring, of the sort that you do in kindergarten.

Specifically, AT&T charges that the “There’s a map for that” commercials from Verizon Wireless are misleading. These plucky ads, which poke fun at the “There’s an app for that” campaign for AT&T’s hottest handset, the iPhone from Apple, display a map with most of the country in red, representing the area covered by Verizon’s fastest 3G data service. This is compared with another map, which has much less geography marked in blue, with the caption “AT&T 3G coverage.”

AT&T’s suit, filed in the Northern District of Georgia (site of its wireless headquarters) says the script and captions of Verizon’s commercial are correct and the map accurately describes where AT&T’s 3G network is available. The problem, it says, is what is on the rest of the map: white.
In any case, AT&T suggests that this implies that it doesn’t offer service of any sort in the white areas, when in fact it does offer slower service.

The first version of Verizon’s ads in fact said that customers who weren’t in the 3G area were “out of touch.” When AT&T complained, that language was changed, and the words “Voice and data service available outside 3G coverage area” were superimposed on the screen.

AT&T argues that even the modified ads are misleading.

States Are Pondering Fraud Suits Against Banks

The attorneys general of several states hit hard by the housing collapse are exploring consumer fraud suits against major mortgage lenders.
Frustrated by the banks’ inability or unwillingness to stop an avalanche of foreclosures, the states are considering lawsuits over the creation and marketing of millions of bad loans as well as the dismal pace of mortgage modifications.

Such cases would have been impossible until recently, because federal regulators had exclusive oversight of national banks. But a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision in June allowed the states to exercise their own supervision, giving them significant leverage.