A Newer version of Cyberabad Times is now available.
Editor's Key Strokes
Satyam Chairman is NASSCOM Vice-Chairman
MAHB shortlisted
The project is expected to be completed in 2007 and operational in 2008. MAHB currently operates 39 airports comprising five international, 16 domestic and 18 short take-off airports.
IT exports growth may top 35%
Exports growth may exceed 35 percent as opposed to the 30-32 percent projected earlier in the year, which was considered stiff then given the outsourcing backlash concerns and the impending U.S. elections. "With most of the numbers for 2004-2005 in place, we believe that the software exports would possibly go past the 35-percent mark," the Nasscom president, Kiran Karnik said. He reiterated that the targeted $50 billion in software exports was on track.
In 2003-04, the Indian software and services industry registered revenues of about $15.9 billion, including domestic revenues of $3.4 billion. Earlier exports were expected to grow to $16.3 billion from $12.8 billion. The IT-enabled service (ITeS) segment is growing rapidly and trends indicate the companies are scaling up the value chain. Given the business trends, Nasscom has projected that the Indian software and services revenues would grow to about $20.5 billion in 2004-2005, including domestic market revenues of $4.2 billion.
AI flys to Chicago and London Direct
The passengers would be able to travel direct to Chicago without change of aircraft en route. Earlier, passengers were required to disembark at Mumbai and board another aircraft to fly to Chicago. With the new service being introduced, transit time at Mumbai had been effectively reduced from three to four hours to one-and-a-half hours.
The services, which were being introduced effective today, would be operated with Boeing 747-400 aircraft with First Class (Flat Beds), Executive Class (Slumberettes) and Economy Class.
India's first cargo airline
Matrix pick up 60% in Chinese firm
While the first MoU, signed on Feb 6, 2005, broadly provided for a joint venture relationship between the two companies, the revised MoU will facilitate Matrix to acquire 60 per cent of the ownership interest in MCHEM Pharma Group and its four other associate companies. The consideration for the acquisition of the ownership interest will either be in cash or in kind or a combination of both, subject to the detailed due diligence and all the requisite approvals.
The decision to enter into China is part of the overall long-term strategy of Matrix Laboratories to become an end-to-end player and thus integrate both forward and backward. In line with this strategy, Matrix acquired a finished dosage facility in Nasik in January 2005. Now, this joint venture is an initiative of Matrix Laboratories to backward integrate and further strengthen the supply chain, a press release said.
Satyam partner with Zycus Inc.
IA to fly Hyderabad-Singapore
The airline would also be offering more seats between Chennai and Bangkok, an IA release said here on Tuesday. On the Hyderabad-Singapore and return sector, a thrice a week direct Airbus A320 service would be operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The flight would leave Hyderabad at 5.30 a.m. and reach Singapore 12.50PM (local time). The return flight would leave Singapore at 1.50PM (local time), arriving in Hyderabad at 4.00 PM.
A twice a week non-stop Airbus A320 service would be operated on Hyderabad-Bangkok-Hyderabad sectors on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The flight would leave Hyderabad at 1.55 PM and reaching Bangkok at 6.45 PM (local time). In the return direction, the flight would leave Bangkok at 11.20AM (local time) reaching Hyderabad at 1.20PM, the release said.
On the Bangalore-Bangkok-Bangalore sectors, the flights would be operated on Mondays and Thursdays and would leave Bangalore at 1.45PM and reach Bangkok at 6.45 PM (local time). The flight in the return direction would leave Bangkok at 11.20 AM (local time) and arrive in Bangalore at 1.15 PM, the release said.
Google to expand operations in India
InMage opens product development
Air Deccan expands fleet
New sectors being launched are Hyderabad- Kolkata, Kolkata-Delhi, Delhi-Kolkata, and Kolkata-Hyderabad. With this, Air Deccan - the country's first no-frills airline - will also add flights in the existing sectors of Delhi-Bangalore, Bangalore-Mumbai, Mumbai-Delhi, Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Bangalore, and Bangalore-Delhi.
Manugistics opens GDC
Addressing a press conference here on Monday to announce the product development centre, Jeffrey L Kissling, chief technology officer and senior vice-president, Manugistics Group, said that unlike other companies, the US parent will transfer ownership of all the products to the Indian product development centre (DC) to enable it to have its own intellectual property and help produce new products for the global markets.
Metrail proposes hybrid monorail system
Later speaking to mediapersons, Mr Saifullah said that the company will mobilise finances to set up the most sophisticated mass transport system. “We do not require government finances nor do we need to acquire land to set up the system,” he said.
Metrail managing director P C Sen said that the company proposes to build the 49-km rail network with 38 stations. “The system also does not require grid power to run the train. They will run on solar power, batteries and hybrid generators,” Mr Sen explained. It is cheaper than any other rail system in the world, he added.
According to him, the system will be operational within 18-24 months once the company enters into an agreement with the government. The system will initially transport about 20,000 pphpd (people per peak hour per direction), increase to 50,000 pphpd by the year 2045. The company proposes to undertake the project on a BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) mode for a period of 40 years. The government has already appointed a committee of secretaries to evaluate the Metrail and metro rail systems and come out with a decision.
Recently, the Delhi Metro Rail company also made a presentation to the government with a similar investment plan and suggested utilising the funds earmarked in the Union Budget. According to government sources, the committee is expected to meet on March 23-24 for discussion and proposed to make a recommendation on March 25 to the chief minister. “The final decision will be taken before the end of March,” the sources said.
Oman Air introduces direct flights
Busaidy, reviewing the last year performance of the carrier, said 2004 began with a lot of optimism that the airline industry will finally return to profitability following the losses the industry suffered in the previous three years.
Hotel Leela venture
Now, with the demand in several cities outstripping supply, Hotel Leela is likely to be more aggressive in its expansion plans. The hotel has only three properties now and plans to foray into Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Udaipur. It is already in the midst of renovating its Mumbai property and adding more rooms to Leela Kempinski, Bangalore. The Udaipur project is already underway, and is likely to be commissioned in 2006. Meanwhile, it has decided to set up a five-star deluxe hotel in Chennai.
These cities are rapidly emerging as key tourist and business destinations. While many hotels are now expanding aggressively, additional supply in these cities is likely to be absorbed by the growing demand for rooms.
Expansion to other cities would allow the hotel to capitalise on the boom in these markets and expand its revenue base.
Ram Informatics wins e-Gov deals
Visaka to foray into garments
Hyderabad airport ahead of schedule
According to Rao, the funding of the project will have a debt:equity ratio of approximately 1:1.5 with around Rs 700 crore to be raised from banks and financial institutions. While IDFC and ICICI have been acting as lead financiers for the project, a consortium with a dozen banks and financial institutions, has already been formed to fund the project. The state government has agreed to arrange Rs 315 crore as interest-free loan beside giving Rs 107 crore subsidy as advance development fee.
While the Andhra Pradesh government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) hold 13 per cent equity each, the remaining 74 per cent equity is held by the GMR Group-led GMR-Malaysian Airport Holdings Berhad consortium. Within the private consortium, the Malaysian company holds about 11 per cent stake. The first phase of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport project is designed to handle 5 million passengers. The project, which has many firsts to its credit, will feature the longest runway in the country with a length of 4.26 km and cat-1 lighting system on both ends. It will have 24 aircraft parking stands including 10 aero bridges. The project is being developed in an area of 5,500 acres.
Metros with heaps of white collar jobs
Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore have emerged as the top three Indian cities in terms of generating white-collar jobs with the financial capital of the country alone accounting for 28% of the new employment opportunities. On the other end of the scale, measured by the AEP, Chennai and Kolkata with 6% and 2% of jobs creation, respectively, were the worst performers amongst the four metros in generating employment opportunities. “Mumbai lived up to its name of being the financial capital creating the maximum job opportunities. The annual budget places emphasis on making Mumbai as the regional hub for finance. Such initiative will give further impetus towards job creation,” Assocham president Mahendra K Sanghi said while releasing the AEP study recently.
Delhi was the runner-up in terms of job creation; 25% of job placements were accounted for by this city while Bangalore emerged as the third best with 24% of the positions advertised. The city-wise analysis showed that the other two cities contributing to employment generation include Hyderabad and Pune which created 11% and 3% of the total jobs, respectively . In absolute terms, of the total 7,558 job positions tracked by AEP, Mumbai accounted for 2,147 of the job advertisements while Delhi/NCR provided 1,901 job opportunities and Bangalore created 1,790 job positions. The other contributors were Hyderabad with 807 insertions, Chennai (426), Pune (214) and Kolkata (135). The sector-wise analysis shows that IT and IT-enabled services contributed maximum to the employment market creating 45% of the white collar jobs tracked in the last two months.
Farmers oppose IT park
Most of these lands belong to tribals. The government, Naik said, cannot exercise its power to acquire the land for the benefit of multi-national companies (MNCs) at the cost of poor tribals particularly when government land was available. The government can even consider developing IT park at alternative sites adjacent to companies like Wipro, Infosys and Microsoft at Manikonda village. Developing IT park and related activities near these companies would make sense and lead to further expansion of IT industry. "The government should explain the rationale behind choosing a place which is 6 km away from already developed place," said Ramulu Naik, a farmer.
The government is acquiring lands in the name of developing golf courses and hardware parks. But, the companies which have been allotted lands are now trying to convert them into real estate, association vice-president Somla Naik said. "We fear Gopannapalli land acquisition would also go in the same manner," Naik added. "Payment of compensation amount for the land acquired is not a substitute for the deprivation of land. The government should bear in mind that we all are dependent on agriculture," said P Gagabai, a farmer.
The farmers apprehend that the government would pay compensation based on registration value which would be peanuts, while the market value of the land per acre would be around Rs 1 crore. The aggrieved farmers have moved the High Court in this regard.
Sierra Atlantic plans Dubai centre
Reddy said, "Over the last 12 quarters, we have achieved sequential growth and continue to perform well. Three new offices were opened while we strengthened the Chicago office. Toronto, Dallas, Atlanta have been added to the footprint and we expect to open Dubai and Paris offices in the next quarter. The acquisition of Sceptre Consultants has given us presence in the Boston area and we have recently struck a big deal with Oracle."
Reddy said Sierra is counted as one of the fastest growing companies in the US, quoting an endorsement by the Neo IT study, which has rated it among top 10 application development companies and AMR Research. "Our composition is like that of Cognizant with operations all over but major development work is handled out of India. The Indian operations have grown to 1,000 plus people and we continue to expand here organically but are constantly on the look out for possible acquisitions, which can truly add value in terms of technology offerings," he said.
With regard to expansion here, Reddy said, "We have added a new facility here and are in the process of initiating work on the technology campus in Hyderabad. This would enable us to have a capacity to host about 1,500 people."
ISRO develops AWS
"AWS can continuously record weather data like temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, rainfall, relative humidity and solar radiation," the Bangalore-headquartered space agency said in a statement. ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation today signed an agreement with Hyderabad-based Astra Microwave Products Limited, which would manufacture and deploy AWS in the country based on the requirement of user agencies.
ISRO said the data from a large number of AWS located across the country could be collected through data relay transponders on board its INSAT satellites. AWS features include easy programming of sensors, front panel display, archival of one-year data and communication options -- via INSAT, telephone, modem and cellular telephone. A GPS integrated with AWS provides accurate time for transmission of data, the statement said. "With data collection from local levels and remote and inaccessible areas through AWS, weather forecasts and services can be improved significantly," it said.
Entrance test for BPO jobs
Time for night tours
"With the onset of summer, our bookings are going full, we take people around for a four hour trip in the evening," says Partha Sarathy, a tour operator. Prabhakar, an official at the tourism department says, "The night tours have gotten an impetus because, as part of a tourism department project, all the monuments were lit up at a cost of about Rs 25 crore." Earlier, summers were a sluggish time for tourism, but of late, even the heat doesn't deter tourists, and such tours offer the perfect sight seeing solution. For those who come to the city with a strait-jacketed time schedule, it doesn't matter if they even just drive past some landmarks. "It is a boon for people like us who have little time to do touristy things," says Rajendra Sharma, an IT consultant from Gurgaon who has come for a conference.
The city tour conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Corporation in the evening takes only two hours and takes visitors on a whirlwind drive around some of the historical places and monuments. Even locals are using this to catch the essence of the city. Like Suresh Reddy, who took his new bride Uma on such a tour. He says, "We can go at leisure later, but this way she'll feel comfortable with the city." "We use a 36-seater bus to take the passengers to places like Charminar, Salar Jung Museum, Hussain Sagar, etc. Most of the days the bookings are full," says Prabhakar. And since the tour happens in airconditioned comfort, even after the summer enters in full force, they can continue. Such quickie tours follow the example set by cities like Paris and Milan, which offer such packages. But the question remains whether one can be satisfied with a partial glimpse of a city where almost every stone boasts of a rich historical past.
More Development globally
Hyderabad-based Satyam is India’s fourth largest IT services firm. Mr Raju said the company was already present in 46 countries and planned to grow in terms of development centres as well as sales and marketing support. “We hope to expand on both accounts,” he added.
However, he refused to divulge details of the geographies the company was planning to tap in the next round of expansion. Satyam currently has development centers in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, the UAE, Canada, Hungary, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan and Australia.
Satyam offers onsite, offsite as well as offshore IT services, employing 17,600 professionals. During the quarter ended December 31, 2004, revenue from software services at Rs 891.26 crore was up 34.5 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. The company has said it expects to post revenue in the range of Rs 3,429 crore to Rs 3,433 crore in the current fiscal, an annual growth of 34.9 per cent to 35.1 per cent.
Xilinx to expand operations in India
The President and Chief Executive Officer of Xilinx, Willem Roelandts, said, "We placed a bet on India being an integral part of our global R&D ecosystem and we won, thanks to the high-end development team and collaboration with CMC Ltd. Encouraged by our achievements in the first year at India Development Centre (IDC), we plan to invest in this strategic resource centre of IP cores." "IP cores are off the shelf, pre-defined hardware design modules that Xilinx customers can use to reduce their design efforts, lower total cost of ownership and experience increase in performance. We have taken to development approach with a difference that is non-traditional and radically distinct from the ASIC (application specific integrated circuits) which is solutions-specific. Though the market today is dominated by ASIC, we expect that programmable chips would become the order of the day," Roelandts, a man with over 40 years of technology expertise, predicts.
Addressing a press conference along with Xilinx India management team, and the Managing Director of CMC, Ramanathan Ramanan, Roelandts said, "Though we would not like to comment on the investment, we expect to see the team strength to go up to 300. This is big number as they are not mere code writers." "Xilinx as a corporation spends 17 per cent of all of its revenues for R&D. We believe in being present where the market is growing. The Asia-Pacific market has emerged as one of the fastest growing with 37 per cent after the US, which accounts for about 42 per cent of total business, followed by Europe with 21 per cent. Therefore, the expansion is strategic for Xilinx," he explained.
Adlabs Films plans to invest Rs45cr
MedLink VPN & Apollo to develop EHR
Biological E. Ltd going global
Biological E. will be Intercell's strategic partner for marketing and selling the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine in certain Asian countries. Under the terms of the agreement, Biological E. will manufacture the product in India for the Asian endemic market. Intercell AG and Biological E anticipate that they will broaden their strategic alliance by collaborating on the development of future vaccines by combining the strength of Intercell’s Antigen
Identification Program in identifying new, protective antigens with Biological E’s experience as a leading Asian vaccine manufacturer. "A safe and effective high-standard Japanese Encephalitis vaccine for adults and in particular children in the endemic areas throughout Asia will meet a high medical need", states Gerd Zettlmeissl, Chief Operating Officer of Intercell AG.
"This agreement with a leading Asian vaccine manufacturer leverages the commercialization of our Japanese Encephalitis vaccine and will be another step in our efforts to continue to develop and commercialize our broad portfolio of vaccine candidates and technologies". Dr. Vijay Kumar Datla, Chairman and Managing Director of Biological E. Limited added: "We are excited about this partnership with Intercell that enables us to offer a novel and safe vaccine to combat Japanese Encephalitis. There is an urgent need to respond to this epidemic throughout India and Asia where large-scale immunization is critical. Our partnership furthers the aim of ensuring a sustainable supply at the earliest."
US PAC comes to India
The US-based Professional Aptitude Council (PAC) has entered India to conduct globally accepted tests for Indian jobseekers in the IT industry.
In association with industry leaders, academic partners and its own global testing advisory group, the US-based provider of pre-employment aptitude tests for IT professionals has designed an examination to assist engineering graduates secure software or hardware (product) related jobs internationally. PAC India country manager Guhesh Ramanathan told reporters here Wednesday: "The PAC exam helps job-seeking freshers to assess their capabilities in the three areas the industry considers critical - applied technical skills, technical aptitude and personality constructs.
"Since the exam is focused on the attributes that IT firms look for, it levels the playing field for all students with an equal chance to excel. The exam prepares candidates for the industry's pre-interview hiring process." Over the last two years, the San Francisco-founded PAC helped about 15,000 graduates in the US to qualify for jobs by going through its aptitude test. Launching its operations in four major Indian IT cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi - PAC plans to hold the first exam in May-June through 150 campuses in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
"We propose to hold the exam offline as well as online, for which the eligible students will have to register with us for a fee of $43 (Rs.1,849) at our offices or through our web site (proaptitude.com). The exam will be held twice a year," Ramanathan said. For the IT industry, PAC offers the advantage of a globally standardised technical aptitude exam for screening and indicating the potential success of a candidate. PAC is also in touch with leading IT companies, including Infosys, for conducting its exam even for recently hired employees. Though PAC does not guarantee a job, it enables students to take one exam instead of multiple exams to qualify for jobs. It allows them to compete with the best in a global market instead of restricting their prospects to campus recruitment.
With over 400,000 students passing out of about 1,800 engineering colleges every year in India, PAC plans to target freshers from at least 1,300 institutions across the country in the next 12-18 months. Foraying into the Asia-Pacific region through India, PAC plans to expand its presence in China later this year and then across Australia, Japan and Europe in 2006. "Our mission is to assist students find great jobs and help companies get the right people. India with its large pool of talented students was our natural choice to introduce the PAC exam in the sub-continent," said PAC chairman and CEO Christopher Markesky.
A new era beacons
Courtesy: The Times of India
We're getting better: Kanda
NIN for better living
Help for BPO professionals
CBPOP, an affiliate of the Geneva-based Union Network International, was started six months back in Hyderabad, and has opened its second office in Bangalore. It has so far enrolled about 1,000 members in Hyderabad and Bangalore, and will soon have a full-fledged office in Chennai. S M Govindarajan, director of CBPOP, said: "Though BPO and call centre business is growing in India, other countries like China, Philippines, Malaysia and Canada are also competing with us to grab a share in outsourced business.
"If these countries offer better quality services at cheaper rates, jobs might move to these countries. So, what is the job security for our professionals," he wondered. "Besides addressing psychological ailments and health problems, CBPOP will focus on helping professionals maintain their employability and adaptability, cope with volatile market requirements and update their skills to meet future requirements," he added.
Infinite to hire 5,000
”Infinite is expecting revenues of $90 million this year, up from $70 million clocked last year. For the first time since it started operations in Bangalore in 1997, the company is also considering other cities for expansion. “We are looking at Hyderabad and Pune, and this time we’ll have our campus from the start,” said Mr Zutshi.
Foreign banks bank on ISB IIM XLRI
Others like French financial giant BNP Paribas, Dutch heavyweight ABN Amro, and Citibank are not far behind in picking up finance grads. Investment banking giants like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital are also important players. Ajit Rangnekar, deputy dean of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, says that most of the recruits have been for the financial analysts’ posts. “The next challenge for India will be to cater to the financial associates’ position”.
These global financial players are not only recruiting Indians in hordes, they are also offering the best compensation. For instance, the cost to company (CTC) in case of a Standard Chartered recruit placed in India would be around Rs 7.5 lakh a year. StanChart has so far recruited 30 graduates for positions in India. “The graduate associate (GA) programme is a global programme where career tracking is done at a global level. The GA programme involves extensive overseas exposure in a structured manner,” a StanChart spokesperson said in reply to an FE query. In fact, the first overseas visit for the entire batch could be within six months of joining, the spokesperson said.
BNP Paribas, on the other hand, recruited six first-year MBA candidates from IIM-Bangalore (summer placements) and two candidates from IIM-Calcutta on Day Zero — the very first day of the final placements — for overseas destinations like London, New York and Tokyo. This is the first time the French giant is hiring from India for its global fixed income desk. “We have the best of talent,” ABN Amro’s head-HR for India Raj Katra puts in simply. His bank has taken two for its Dubai operation. ABN Amro global operation is also likely to come to India for recruitment.
Pradhan of XLRI says: “Mathematical skills and knowledge of English always puts Indians at an advantage. Now, with outsourcing in banking sector gaining momentum, it is only normal that these financial institutions have turned their attention to India”.
Unibic launches cookies
IVRCL forms JV with Spain firm for chennai
Airports gearing up for Super Jumbos
Three parking bays have been identified at the Mumbai Airport, two at Delhi Airport and one parking bay at the Chennai Airport to handle A-380 type of aircrafts. The work of identifying parking bay at Kolkata is at the preliminary stage. The proposed new International Airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad would also have the facilities for handling A-380 aircraft. Studies have already been carried out for adequacy of Runway Length, Taxiway Width, Turning Raddi and apron parking positions at these airports.
Promantra to invest $ 6 m in Hyd
MTAR Tech hands over grid plate
Terming it a "truly world-class achievement", the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Dr Anil Kakodkar, said: "We are now charting territories which nobody had charted before. Hence, there is no need to worry about embargoes because nobody has anything to offer us in this regard."
Receiving the technology at a function organised on the premises of MTAR, Dr Kakodkar said that latest development had demonstrated the country's ability to translate research into technology and technology into product.
Stating that AEC's endeavour in the competitive world was to do things at minimum cost and in minimum time, he said that all the nuclear power projects including the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam were being executed ahead of schedule and less than the stipulated cost.
Hyderabad international airport update
The airport, named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, is coming up on 5,400 acres of land.
The Rs.14.18 billion ($320 million) airport, being built by a consortium of construction major GMR Infrastructure Ltd and Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB), is to be operational by mid-2008 with a capacity of 3.7 million passengers per annum.
This is expected to go up to about five million by 2012, seven million by 2017 and nine million by 2021. The ultimate projected capacity of the airport will be 20 million passengers per annum by 2029.
The airport is expected to serve as a transit hub for the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It is also likely to become an operational hub of several airlines.
The decks for the mega public-private project were cleared when the concession agreement between the government of India and Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (HAIL), the company formed by the consortium, was signed in December.
An official of GMR said a boundary wall spanning 24.5 km around the 5,000 acres of land has been constructed.
The airport would have one of the longest runways of 4,260 metres, 10 boarding bridges and 60 check-in counters and it would handle Airbus 380 and other wide-bodied aircraft.
The proposed airport would have several unique features including `Airport Village,' which will boast of shopping malls both for travellers and for people based in the city, sound-proof terminal building and disabled-friendly features.
Air Sahara has already launched its hub in Hyderabad. The promoters are holding talks with other airlines to make the city their primary or secondary hubs.
Once the new airport becomes operational, the existing airport at Begumpet in the heart of the city would be shut down. The present airport handles 2.2 million passengers a year.
Helix licenses bio software tool
BOS is the first of its kind among existing biological software and is unique because of its user-friendly object-oriented Biological Programming Environment (O2-BPE). With this software, the bio-researcher will be equipped with an extensive and user-friendly software environment enabling timely and efficient implementation of research projects. The licence has been extended to cover all the research labs at the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, facilitating in building long-term research collaboration with HGPL delivering better and faster computational solutions, HGPL chief executive officer Mohan RK Nimmagadda said.
Meanwhile, BOS has been extensively validated for more than 1,500 man-hours on its modules and applications using in-house and contract research projects from Europe and India. Projects include solving biological data redundancy problems in public databases, creation of unique databases of repeat sequences, restriction enzymes and oncologically significant novel genes. With BOS, one can expect, on an average, about 60-75% savings on researcher time and similar equivalents on the research costs, Mr Nimmagadda added.
Hyderabad airport-II to get Rajiv’s name
Sonia is likely to visit Hyderabad on Wednesday.
The Civil Aviation Ministry was of the view that naming the airport after Rajiv was only appropriate, given the former PM’s avid interest in the sector. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight. The Cabinet had, on December 15 last year, approved the concession agreement for construction of the new airport at Shamsabad, 20 km from the existing airport.
Within a week of the approval, the agreement was signed between the Centre and Hyderabad International Airport Limited (HIAL) to facilitate the construction of the airport at an approximate Rs 1,385 crore. The major stakeholder is the private consortium comprising GMR Infrastructure Ltd and Malaysia Airports Holdings, Berhad.
Big Bang of IT ideas goes off today
In what promises to be a massive churning of ideas to be kicked off by chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, captains of IT industry and academe will lay out the route map for Hyderabad's quest to be top of the IT pile.
Ideas will be tossed up, concepts debated. But this will only be the big bang that'll give birth to a universe of opinions. Among those who'll address Tuesday's session will be Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. Raju, an icon in the field of IT will deliver the keynote address. His address begins around 9.35 am.
Expect some scintillating speeches from B V Naidu, head of the Software Technology Park of India (Hyderabad/Bangalore), Bob Hoekstra, MD, Philips Software, Subroto Bagchi, COO, MindTree, and Romi Malhotra, MD, Dell International Services. IT majors that they are, they'll speak on how Hyderabad can be put on the fast track to progress.
And then, look forward to the Debate of the Day, in which a panel of speakers will slug it out over whether our city is yet a true blue IT destination. Among those who are participating are Dr Santanu Paul, general manager, Virtusa (India), and secretary Ajay Sawhney. The debate will be anchored by Arnab Goswami, vice-president and editor of the TV news division of The Times of India. This one promises to be a major draw and out of the heated debate will emerge the guide map to a bright future.
Two sessions on unleashing Hyderabad's IT potential follow thereafter. The first one will revolve around the question of human resource and infrastructure, where the panelists — J C Mohanty, principal secretary, IT, Srini Koppolu of Microsoft, Ninad Karpe, MD, Computer Associates, and Srikant Sunderrajan, CTO, Cognizant — will seek ways of building further from where we've reached thus far.
The second part of the panel discussion unfolds thereafter. Given the concerns expressed by the industry on the quality of manpower we churn out in Andhra Pradesh, a panel of eminent academics will discuss the issue threadbare. The panelists for this session are Sabyasachi Mitra of ISB, Prof. Sadagopan of IIIT Bangalore, Prof. Govindarajulu of IIIT Hyderabad and G Subba Rao, who heads the Institute of eGovernance. Former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu will deliver the valedictory address.
US joins up to boost India's Open Skies policy
Robert Blake, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the United States in New Delhi, told mediapersons here over the weekend that New Delhi and Washington would be signing an Open Sky Treaty in April, which would replace a 50-year old aviation policy between the two countries.
The new pact is likely to benefit airline passengers and cargo services in both countries, according to Indian and American aviation officials. Under this treaty,new routes, reciprocal airlines services, better passengers facilities between the two nations would be taken up. Apart from Delhi and Mumbai, now people would be able to fly directly from new destinations like Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.With more direct flights, both governments expect at least two million passengers to travel to and from between the two countries.
Oracle plans integration
In his first interaction with the media after taking over as the Managing Director of Oracle India, Krishan Dhawan said: "India continues to be one of the two highest growth markets for Oracle globally. While it is a high growth market, it is also one of the critical R&D hubs for Oracle."
The company is banking on sectors like government, telecom, banking and manufacturing to take Oracle India to the next level. On development side, it has already rolled out expansion plans in its development facilities in Hyderabad where a new facility is already coming up. "We are also looking at acquiring more space in Bangalore to beef up our development facility there," according to Oracle Asia Pacific Senior vice president Keith Budge.
ATI Acquires CuTe Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
With CuTe™s expertise in audio, our customers can look to ATI for the industry™s best integrated multimedia solutions, said Adrian Hartog, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Business Unit, ATI Technologies Inc.
We are pleased to have the CuTe team join ATI. CuTe™s offices in Hyderabad will also form the basis of ATI™s new research and development centre in India, ATI Technologies India Private Limited. ATI will retain CuTe™s staff and plans to hire additional engineering resources. We are delighted to join the ATI team, said Dasaradha Gude, Managing Director, ATI Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. ATI has demonstrated its strength in graphics and video and is partnered with the best consumer electronics and PC companies in the world. CuTe will strengthen ATI™s offerings even more.
Supersonic plane in the making
Its unmanned variant could carry weighty warheads for the armed forces, double up for surveillance operations or zoom into space with satellites, dramatically lowering the cost of each voyage.
At first glance, this hypersonic jet would pass off as a blend of an aircraft and a missile. “We are working on the design with a seed money of Rs 15 crore. This is one of the biggest challenges ever in aeronautics. We have identified the team and are networking to build a database on hypersonic systems,” said Prahlada, the director of DRDO’s Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad.
The scientists are looking at early 2007 for the first major milestone: the flight of a technology demonstrator for 20 seconds. A successful flight would prompt requests for more money: at least Rs 200 crore to enhance the design and development facilities and Rs 500 crore for a prototype. “We plan to hoist this 7-metre vehicle into the skies with the help of a rocket and turn on its engine for hypersonic flight. The engine will scoop in air (oxygen) to burn the fuel during the flight and so we have advantages in terms of weight of the vehicle (because of reduced fuel) and intake of oxygen from the atmosphere. The challenge is to generate the thrust at very high speeds,” Prahlada said.
As chairman of the Hypersonic Technology Demonstration Vehicle, Prahlada is keen to expand his team. “We have 100 scientists, but we need at least 500 of them. In principle, we at DRDO, Isro and some academic institutions have agreed to set up a hypersonic technology centre. We will put together about Rs 50 crore for this facility where experts will pool in all data on complex technologies involved,” he said. Aerospace experts from DRDL, Isro, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and a couple of IITs form the core group for the craft. “The momentum is picking up. My colleagues in Isro are keen to reduce the cost of launching satellites and have given us inputs on the design. We are trying to draw Indian engineers working abroad into the team,” Prahlada said.
So far, only two groups worldwide have reported success with such high-speed vehicles. Nasa’s X-43 unmanned aircraft hit a record 6,600 mph on November 16, 2004, during its 10-second flight. Carried by a modified B-52 bomber, the 12-ft-long wedge-shaped craft was released off the California coast and then propelled to an altitude of 110,000 ft by a Pegasus space booster. The X-43 fired its experimental engine for about 10 seconds, travelling at speeds approaching 10 times the speed of sound. The flight, Nasa’s third try with an X-43 unmanned craft, was part of its $230-million programme to develop such hypersonic craft. The first X-43, in June 2001, was blown up over the Pacific Ocean by a self-destruction mechanism when the Pegasus booster rocket carrying it went out of control.
Park based on Suwon city model
NFC gets a break in reactor technology
US gives India more access
There has been a significant jump in the US approval rate on licenses sought by Indian entities to trade in dual use items which involve sensitive technology that can be used for military purposes. By the time the first phase of the NSSP was completed in September last year, the trade of dual use items was worth $90 million between both countries. This was a significant increase from $57 million at the end of 2003 financial year.
But more importantly, Indian entities are now getting faster approvals on importing high-end dual use technology items. In the financial year 2004, Indian entities got as many as 912 approvals for a little over 1,000 applications that were submitted. This was an increase of nearly 300 from the previous year. The signing of NSSP-I means that a huge chunk of dual use trade, largely associated with low-end technology items, no longer require licenses. According to reliable sources, nearly 30 per cent of items for Indian entities which earlier needed license have been deregulated since October 1 last year.
In the high-end technology segment, for which the US has strict licensing requirements for almost every country, the progress has been very encouraging from an Indian standpoint. Of the 185 applications submitted between October last year and January, 176 were cleared. Department of Space was the main beneficiary with 32 approvals. All this has had a very positive impact on overall Indian imports from the US which grew by $1 billion in 2004 financial year, laying a strong foundation for intensifying trade in dual use items between both countries. India, on its part, is also planning to introduce stricter export regulations for dual use items that will go a long way in building mutual trust.
The Rice visit comes at a time when both sides are looking to align their trade mechanisms to achieve goals laid out by the NSSP. In this context, a high-level team was in Washington and Baltimore earlier this month to firm up New Delhi’s participation in the US-led Container Security Initiative (CSI). It’s learnt that Nhava Sheva near Mumbai is among top 10 ports from where US receives maximum containers. With New Delhi keen on joining the programme, sources said, Washington is now moving quickly to finalise an agreement. Once operational, there will be greater transparency in trade as both countries will be able to station their Customs officials at identified ports in each other’s country. A team from Pentagon was here recently to brief the ministries of Defence and External Affairs on the Patriot PAC-2 missile system which was followed by meetings in Hyderabad where both sides agreed on holding joint workshops on missile defence.
Broadband prices to fall further
With the regulator all set to announce a revised leased circuit tariff structure for domestic bandwidth within a week, industrial analysts share the view that the combination of international and domestic broadband tariff reduction would eventually see the average monthly tariff fall to Rs 350. According to data compiled by the regulator, the average broadband tariff was as high as Rs 1,800 in January 2004. From Rs 1,000 in September 2004, the average tariffs witnessed a 100 per cent fall over the last five months. The entry of state-owned players Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd into the broadband market in January and the ongoing price war has only accelerated the fall. In addition to slashing tariffs for home users by over 40 per cent to match those offered by the two PSUs, private players like Bharti, Sify and Hathway are combining a slew of freebies to lure new customers and retain existing ones.
While Trai's figures show a 65 per cent growth in the number of broadband users from June to December 2004, with the country having 650,000 broadband users, industry analysts estimate over 200,000 new users have been added in the last two months. In a statement, Trai said, "The growth in demand induced by the lower prices mandated by the Authority will itself act as a demand stimulant, leading to higher utilisation of capacities, that would have secondary effects in pushing down the price levels." BSNL executives said the company had installed over 15,000 connections based on the ADSL 2 Plus platform since the launch of its "DataOne" services on January 14. The company has set a target of 1 million broadband subscribers by December 2005.
"Most of these connections are in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. We have a waiting list of over 160,000. Currently, our services are available only in 14 cities, against our target of 200. We are, however, confident of meeting the one million target by the year-end," said a senior BSNL executive. According to MTNL Chairman and Managing Director RSP Sinha, the company had provided 3,500 connections so far, and had a waiting list of over 20,000 (Delhi and Mumbai together). "We are still in the process of rolling out our services. Our subscriber base will cross the stipulated target of 500,000 by December-end," he said.
First indigenous grid plate
The development purchase order for the grid plate, which is designed for a prototype 500 MWe sodium cooled FBR, was placed by the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in May 2001. The order was worth over Rs 7 crore. The company has also received an order for the fabrication of a grid plate for the 540 mw Fast Breeder nuclear reactor to be built at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu worth over Rs 31 crore.
While the weight of the grid plate for technology development is 25 tonnes, the piece that is supposed to be fabricated for BKalpakkam plant will weigh 80 tonnes.
According to S K Jain, chairman and managing director of the Nuclear Power Corporation, over Rs 70 crore worth equipment meant for nuclear power reactors is being fabricated in the facilities of MTAR at Hyderabad.
Fabrication of another Rs 80 crore worth equipment would be entrusted to the company. It may be noted that for the Fast Breeder Test Reactor which was built in 1976, the grid plate was the only component that was made in France, due to the critical technology involved in its manufacture. According to company officials, MTAR has specially constructed a large workshop and also established the requisite facilities including a large-sized heat treatment furnace and a nuclear clean hall among others.
The OMPLAS of Chennai was associated for hard facing technology required for the job.
DoT to sort out AP Broadband issue
The proposed Rs 400-crore Andhra Pradesh Broadband Network, which seeks to connect all Mandal headquarters and villages in the state and is expected to be operational by 2007, "is not in conformity with the laws of the land," according to a Departmental Order sent by Misra to Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh Mohan Kanda. "Telecommunications in the country is governed by Indian Telegraph Act, Indian Wireless Act, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act and various other guidelines," Misra said in the DO, dated January six, 2005.
"The project gives rise to several issues and implications," it stated. It also quotes an earlier DO dated (sent by Misra on October 19, 2004), stating that telecom services can be provided only by service providers licensed for this purpose. "Even creating a telecom network for captive use of government using own media and resources requires licence or permission from DoT," it stated. Misra said "there are certain minor issues, which needs to be looked into".
Hyderabad's Forbes Millionares
B Ramalinga Raju
$495 million / Hyderabad
49. Married. 2 Children.
Branched out from family construction business in 1987 to start a software shop. His NYSE listed Satyam Computer is now one of India's top infotech companies.
Rank 35 in India
K Anji Reddy
$350 million / Hyderabad
63. Married.
A farmer's son, founded Dr. Reddy's Laboratories in 1984. Now India's second-largest maker of generic drugs. Runs company with son and son-in-law.
India's Top 40 Richest People
Forbes's List of top 40 richest Indians is listed below:
1 $11,200(mil) Lakshmi Mittal 54 London
2 $10,000(mil) Azim Premji 59 Bangalore
3 $6,400(mil) Mukesh & Anil Ambani -- Mumbai
4 $3,500(mil) Kumar Mangalam Birla 37 Mumbai
5 $2,900(mil) Pallonji Mistry 75 Mumbai
6 $2,600(mil) Sunil Mittal 47 Delhi
7 $2,300(mil) Shiv Nadar 59 Delhi
8 $1,900(mil) Adi Godrej 62 Mumbai
9 $1,500(mil) Dilip Shanghvi 49 Mumbai
9 $1,500(mil) Malvinder & Shivinder Mohan Singh -- Delhi
11 $1,200(mil) Anil Agarwal 51 London/Mumbai
12 $1,100(mil) Shashi & Ravi Ruia -- Mumbai
13 $1,000(mil) Om Prakash Jindal 74 Delhi
14 $850(mil) Rahul Bajaj 66 Pune
15 $825(mil) N R Narayana Murthy 58 Bangalore
16 $760(mil) Subhash Chandra 54 Mumbai
16 $760(mil) Yusuf Hamied 68 Mumbai
16 $760(mil) Brijmohan Lall Munjal 81 Delhi
19 $630(mil) Habil Khorakiwala 62 Mumbai
20 $600(mil) Vivek Burman 64 Delhi
21 $570(mil) Nandan Nilekani 49 Bangalore
22 $555(mil) S Gopalakrishnan 50 Bangalore
23 $550(mil) N S Raghavan 59 Bangalore
24 $530(mil) Narendra Patni 62 Boston/Mumbai
24 $530(mil) Ajay Piramal 49 Mumbai
26 $510(mil) Vijay Mallya 49 Bangalore
26 $510(mil) Pankaj Patel 53 Ahmedabad
28 $500(mil) Baba Kalyani 55 Pune
29 $495(mil) B Ramalinga Raju 49 Hyderabad
30 $455(mil) Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw 51 Bangalore
31 $435(mil) Karsanbhai Patel 60 Ahmedabad
32 $410(mil) K Dinesh 50 Bangalore
33 $380(mil) Uday Kotak 45 Mumbai
34 $370(mil) S D Shibulal 49 Boston
35 $350(mil) K Anji Reddy 63 Hyderabad
35 $350(mil) Narotam Sekhsaria 55 Mumbai
37 $340(mil) Jaiprakash Gaur 73 Delhi
38 $315(mil) Shyam & Hari Bhartia -- Delhi
38 $315(mil) Keshub Mahindra 81 Mumbai
40 $305(mil) Desh Bandhu Gupta 67 Mumbai
20 Airports undergoing development
Fund allocated and fund released upto January 2005 in crores of rupees for the airports are: Hyderabad (69.69, 34.00), Vishakhapatnam (159.00, 55.37), Dibrugarh (14.00, 0.00), Gaya (44.52, 23.94), Ahmedabad (46.09, 18.96), Porbandar (8.72, 3.04), Surat (17.73, 2.33), Vadodara (24.75, 3.73), Srinagar (565.57, 2.79), Mangalore (40.60, 9.48), Bangalore (27.89, 1.40), Calicut (48.45, 3.58), Agatti (5.90, 0.00), Khajuraho (21.78, 16.29), Mumbai (112.81, 12.72), Amritsar (79.27, 55.11), Coimbatore (20.84, 8.67), Trichy (25.93, 2.08), Madurai (35.25, 0.00) and Kolkata (14.58, 8.50) respectively.
BT Infonet Continues Expansion
Eighteen months after establishing operations in the country, and based on robust demand for BT Infonet's global communications services, BT Infonet India (a partnership between BT Infonet and i2i Enterprise, a leading provider of communications services to major businesses in India) has expanded its presence to include these two important cities. BT Infonet now offers five full service nodes, in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. With these new additional points of presence, multinationals will now be able to access BT Infonet's suite of communications services, including IP VPN Secure, IP VPN Internet, IP Voice and IP Video VPN services, and Call Center solutions. Multinationals in India will also benefit from greater network density and reduced local access costs, via direct connections to these new points of presence. BT Infonet India's investment in this additional infrastructure and bandwidth provides its customers with improved access diversity as well as support for an increased range of services and protocols. BT Infonet currently provides services to large numbers of multinational corporations operating in India, including Wipro Technologies, one of the world's leading offshore IT service providers operating out of India. In addition, BT Infonet has seen strong demand for its business-grade Internet and MPLS services from companies such as Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an Indian Government enterprise that facilitates the growth of India's burgeoning IT industry.
Hyderabad and nano technology
Aiming to make the country a world leader in the field in five years, the Defence Research and Development Organisation is developing Nanotechnology- based devices for health and industrial applications. DRDO, which has realised carbon nano tube, has drawn up an action plan and making efforts to develop various applications, the organisation's chief controller (R and D) Dr A Sivathanu Pillai told reporters here today. Thirtytwo specialised institutions across the country were being involved in the research in the field, he said adding DRDO was working out on the investment requirement to enter into device-making in a big way, by which India would become one of the world leaders in the field within five years.
Defence Research Development Establishment at Gwalior has developed a kit, by which one can identify typhoid within three minutes, the fastest in the world, Pillai said, adding talks were on for its large scale commercial production.
AP to learn from Africa
The government is thinking of sending agricultural experts and leaders of various farmers’ organisations to Kenya and Uganda to study the cultivation methods practised there and explore the possibility of the state’s farmers working there. Agriculture minister Mr Raghuveera Reddy disclosed this in the Assembly recently. He also addressed the concern over sending farmers to Africa given that the political situation there was “not good”.
TDP legislators, opposed the government’s move. Mr P Keshav said the law and order situation in African countries, most of which are under the purview of the UN, was bad. He warned about the possible exploitation of the agricultural labourers by countries having a large number of sugar distilleries. CPI-M leader Mr N Narasimhaiah urged the government to be cautious. The agriculture minister said no decision had been taken.
Mr CC Reddy, advisor to the government on foreign investments, had visited the countries in October 2004 and submitted a report. He conceded to the CPI-M’s demand to place the report in the House. The government would send another team comprising experts from the NG Ranga Agriculture University and leaders of farmers’ organisations affiliated to different parties to study the cultivation practices there.
BHEL R&D initiatives start to pay of
BHEL has taken up the power plant project in Libya on a turnkey basis. The Hardwar unit is doing the hardware part. The team has already demonstrated Power Pack to them, S. Balagurunathan, Executive Director, told Business Line. "Since there is big business potential for the software product, developed jointly with TCS, we have initiated moves to firm up an agreement," he said.
BHEL recently bagged another order for implementing the software for the hydroelectric project coming up at Parbati, Himachal Pradesh, Balagurunathan said. Another area where the marketing initiative was yielding dividend was in the renewable energy-based solar geysers. The 100 litres per day (lpd), compact design gadget is getting repeat orders from Applied Electricals of Hyderabad, which in turn markets it to bulk customers. More than 100 units were sold last year and a higher number this year.
Encouraged by this response, the Corporate R&D is designing a bigger 250-lpd geyser for industrial use, as well as hotels, resorts and large houses. An economy version with improved features is also expected to be marketed by the same firm. In fuel cells, the Corporate R&D has successfully developed control and instrumentation for compact packs of 5 kV, under a consortia project. SPIC Science Foundation, Chennai; the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and Kirloskar Oil Engines are the other members of the project being funded by the New Millennium India Technology Leadership Initiative.
Another project for developing 3 kV packs is also underway. "We are closely working with the Indian Oil Corporation and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation for tapping hydrogen as a potential fuel," the Executive Director said.
Kiran Karnik on Hyderabad
Source: The Times of India
To be frank, when the new government came to power in AP, there were concerns about the continuation of the policy framework that had been so encouraging to IT. But we are very happy today that the industry continues to get the required support from the government.
It is gratifying to see that Hyderabad has learnt lessons from cities like Bangalore. The city should continue to progress along the learning curve avoiding the pitfalls being encountered by the other cities. For instance, Bangalore is already having a hard time dealing with its traffic problem. Driving on Bangalore roads has become extremely difficult. Hyderabad is fortunate that it still has the time to plan for such contingencies and can get into shape for such challenges.
When something goes wrong, it can’t be rectified overnight. So, instead of tackling problems when they arise, Hyderabad should plan its infrastructure to support the IT industry. The new airport is going to considerably boost Hyderabad’s potential. I hope the airport will be ready in time, unlike Bangalore where the project has been delayed.
The policy support being extended by the government to the IT industry in Hyderabad is very encouraging. But we can’t depend on the government for everything. The industry should also play its role too. The only issue of major concern for Hyderabad is the quality of engineering graduates that are available to the IT industry. This is an area for improvement. The quality of some of the engineering colleges needs immediate improvement. I am not sure how many of their graduates meet international standards.
The model of business the IT industry in Hyderabad has chosen is alright. People talk about moving up the value chain. Instead, I think it is the pyramid analogy that holds good in this case. While making software products adds a lot of value to what we are doing, the services model including ITeS operations are creating a lot of jobs, which is very important for society today. While reaching the top of the pyramid is important, the industry should also focus on the base of the pyramid.
As part of the effort to move up the value chain, it is important to patent ideas and protect intellectual property. The AP government, for instance, can on its own create a fund to support and protect ideas. The state need not wait for the Centre to act on this. From Nasscom’s side, we have already initiated a dialogue with the Centre to create such a fund.
Story of leaps and bounds
Hyderabad’s IT profile is dominated by ITeS. While application software, enterprise resource planning and IT consultancy services contribute significant muscle to the frame, ITeS is the main prop. Experts say this is not necessarily bad; it will serve as a base for the future pyramid.
Hyderabad’s IT figures tell the story of a boom town on the make. It would go something like this: Counting 860 operating units, another 200 in gestation and about 460 delisted IT units, there are a whopping 1,520 IT and ITeS units in AP, most of them in its capital, Hyderabad. Powered by a favourable policy regime, these figures are all set to scale up enormously, according to industry experts.
Bangalore and the National Capital Region (NCR) may at present be miles ahead of Hyderabad in terms of software capacities and outsourcing opportunities. Hyderabad has always been aware of the factors that took those cities to where they are. For well over 10 years, it has been hard at work acquiring those very synergies for itself and today it is on the verge of attaining critical mass. Software exports from AP as a whole were a mere Rs 60 crore in 1995-96. They soared to Rs 5,025 crore by last year. Since 1995 the growth rate has been more than 100% for eight consecutive years. The number of professionals engaged in software export has grown to 76,820. Another 10,000 support staff are involved in running these IT companies. In 2003-04, the state saw a capital investment of Rs 684 crore from foreign and outstation companies, about 80% of it sown in Hyderabad. Of the total outsourcing pie in Hyderabad, ITeS companies share a major slice of 46.70%, while application software, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and IT consultancy services take 10.50%, 9.37% and 4.25% respectively.
In spite of the depressed market conditions during 2000-2003, Hyderabad-based IT companies clocked a growth rate of 81% in 2000-2001, 42% in 2001-2002, and 26% in 2002-2003. Last year, 2003-2004, the growth rate was 37%, still well above the national average.
Talk about global reach? Currently international fibre optic/satellite links are available from Hyderabad to the USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Japan.
The city is high on exploring new opportunities, technology upgradation and value-added services too. With big names in IT and a number of outstation Indian companies setting up shop in the city and many more MNCs evincing interest in doing so, critical mass is just a click away.
GSLV Mark III could carry astronauts
However, India was not considering a manned space mission for the present because of the high cost involved and "not due to any technological weakness", Nair said here yesterday after receiving the Y Nayudamma memorial award from set up in memory of the former chairman of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. The cost involved in training astronauts for aspace mission and creating the infrastructure was huge and not commensurate with the expected benefits, he said.
Nair said geostationary satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) Mark-III would be ready in two years and capable of carrying astronauts into space. The vehicle could carry a payload of ten tonnes into low earth orbit, he said. A recoverable space capsule that would be tested next year would help in the design of modules to bring astronauts back, he said.
The currently available expendable launch vehicles like PSLV and GSLV, along with GSLV Mark-III would help India become "totally self- reliant" in launching remote-sensing satellites in low earth orbit and communication satellites of up to four tonnes in geostationary orbit, Nair added. The proposed Chandrayaan moon mission would form one major stepping stone in ISRO's efforts for planetary exploration, he said. PTI
IT: Hyderabad all set for take off
The Times of India
Imagine. Filing an FIR online. A call centre for distressed farmers. A medical practitioner prescribing a drug online. Sit back and imagine. Truth is, information technology (IT) makes all this happen. But for fantasy (as the cynics would invariably label these ideas) to become reality, there’s need for a roadmap.
For this IT aircraft to takeoff, the runway ought to be clear. The flight path demarcated. For the meaningless box to become a meaningful tool, a social revolution needs to happen. The Times of India, over the next few days, would endeavour to do just this. Through our campaign titled My Hyderabad My Destiny, we’ll bring you myriad ideas. And, ideas touch off revolutions.
Hyderabad has acquired critical mass today. Even the man with a jaundiced eye would tell you this. Now’s the time to dig in and forge ahead. It’s a relentless pursuit. But it can be done. On March 15, we’ll attempt one such exercise. Billed as an enormous churning of ideas, The Times of India and Virtusa will bring you an IT summit—a meeting of eminent minds. Here, captains of industry and scholars will speak on how our city can be put on top of the charts. Not just in industry terms, but also as a phenomenon that enables everyone to feel and touch technology.
When we began talking IT, we felt the need for institutions to train engineers. Now that we have these colleges, we increasingly feel the need to tweak the syllabi to produce better-equipped brains. We have coffee pubs a dime a dozen around Hi-Tec City, but few of them are nurseries of path-breaking concepts. Reason: We are still seeking ways of harnessing the abundance of trapped energy. The campaign will seek a way for the tryst with destiny.
Cafe coffee day brews global plans
8 more in Twin cities
Cafe Coffee Day, a division of the Rs 300-crore Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Limited, plans to set up 50 retail cafe outlets in five international cities including Dubai, Vienna, Beijing and Shanghai by the end of 2006.
Speaking to Business Standard, Sudipta Sen Gupta, head (marketing) of Cafe Coffee Day, said, “During the Dubai Shopping Festival last year, we had a makeshift cafe and the number of footfalls that we received exceeded our expectations. Encouraged by this, we plan to set up at least five stores initially.” Looking exclusively at the market in China, she said that talks are underway for setting up outlets on the campuses of Wipro and Infosys there. “Before the Beijing Olympics in 2008 we want to have a sizeable presence in China with at least 100 outlets,” Gupta said.
The company is also looking at increasing the number of outlets in the country from the present 214 to around 500 by 2007. “An investment of Rs 18-25 lakh would be required to set up each outlet which would be raised from internal accruals,” she said. On the company’s plans for Andhra Pradesh, she said that the target is to reach around 20 outlets from the present 12 in Hyderabad.
Cafe Coffee Day also has one outlet each in Vijayawada and Guntur. This apart, the company is also looking at having an outlet in Visakhapatnam by April this year. Cafe Coffee Day expects to close the current financial year with a turnover of Rs 100 crore. “We have been doubling our revenue with the addition of new outlets over the last couple of years and we expect to maintain the trend in the coming years too,” she said.
Bharat Biotech makes inroads into Korea
Regulated market
Korea is only one of very few regulated pharma markets in the world other than US, Europe, Japan and Australia. And this is the first time a vaccine is moving from a developing country to a regulated market. "It tremendously increases the confidence and capability of Indian industry at large. We are going towards a scenario where it is all about globalisation. Companies across continents are going to be working together in various scenarios. This is an opportunity to raise to that level," said Suchitra Ella, Bharat Biotech. While this will fetch Bharat Biotech business of upto US$ 2 million, it could also open up possibilities for more contract manufacturing to be sourced from India.
Looking ahead
Industry observers say there are not too many middle-sized biotech manufacturers in the world that can compete in terms of time factor, cost, skills and resources. "We are very keen to strengthen the biotechnology industry. We have already taken several initiatives and in future also we will take all possible steps," said Raghuveer Reddy, Agriculture Minister, Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad is emerging as the biotech hub of the country. To meet the challenge of the post GATT agreement, several south Asian countries are in fact coming together to mobilize resources and forge new alliances.
Applied Materials expand services
Splinter said “The Company has grown in India with strategic partners such as Satyam Computer, Wipro, Mindtek and TCS. The company, which has operations in Bangalore is opening a new facility in wherein all the resources would be pooled. Ours is a low capital intensive company and we would invest all that is required to further consolidate our Indian operations.” “The Indian technology industry is buoyant and the time is just right for setting up semiconductor companies. India has significant advantages right from large international technology community; fab engineering capability, strong currency and IP is protected. There is no reason for this sector not to grow if the right investments take place” he said.
Paytaxes or hear music
"They put up a spectacle outside the houses of defaulters, draw them out and explain their dues to them and the need to clear it at the earliest," said T.S.R. Anjaneyulu, municipal commissioner of Rajahmundry city. "They don't stop until people agree to clear the dues."
The city, owed a total of 50 million rupees, had been at its wits' end after sops like waiving interest and penalties had failed to recover the arrears. The new method seems to be working, though. One week of incessant drumming has cleared 18 percent of the backlog.
Medical Tourism Growing
The tie-ups the city hospitals have made with government agencies and hospitals abroad are working to their advantage. "Patients either come on their own or are referred by the US surgeons for bypass surgery, ENT or angioplasty," says Rajendra Kumar, general manager (CS), Care Hospital. "This is in addition to the regular inflow of patients from the Gulf and Africa," he adds. While all this happens on the domestic front, paradoxically, our politicians and cine stars make a beeline for the West seeking 'advanced' medical facilities. In fact, many people admit that they are apprehensive of our medical facilities. But actor Madala Ravi, who has an MD in Medicine from Russia, stands out from the crowd when he strikes a different note. He says, "Our hospitals are on par with those across the globe. Considering our cost effective nature, more and more European patients are likely to come here for treatment. I only wish our celebrities and politicians realise it and start making use of the facilities here."
Mumbai tops white collar job market
The four metros, along with Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, still account for over 98% of all job advertisements.
On the other hand, a large number of big cities, including Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Guwahati, Raipur, Kanpur, Jaipur, Jammu, Rourkee and Shillong, contribute negligibly to the job market.
Northgate eyes Rs 45 crore turnover
Addressing a press conference, Venkat S Meenavalli, managing director of Northgate BPO Services Limited, said, “Till now the telecom business of the company contributed around 80 per cent of our revenue. Moving ahead, we expect 60 per cent of the revenue to come from the online advertising business and the rest from the telecom business.” According to him, the company expects to maintain a growth rate of around 60 per cent in the next two fiscals. Meenavalli said that the company is looking at launching the beta version of the Globe7 (G7) SIP Phone by the end of this month.
“We are looking at the commercial launch of the final product in the global market during the first quarter of the next financial year,” he added.
Paying Cash to Fix Sex Ratio
The southern state of Andhra Pradesh has a sex ratio of 943 females to 1,000 males. Sex determination tests and female feticide are common in small towns and rural areas of the largely farming state. "I consider it a shame that in our country we ascertain the sex of the baby before it enters the world," Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhar Reddy said at a function on the empowerment of woman in the state capital, Hyderabad.
In India, where millions of couples still hanker for a male child, the overall sex ratio is 927 females to 1,000 males, down from 945-to-1,000 more than a decade ago. It has one of the lowest female-to-male ratios in the world. Many couples see the boy as growing up to be a bread-winner and providing for them in their old age, unlike a daughter who will be married off and become part of her husband's family.
India has banned pre-natal sex testing through an act of parliament but non-government agencies say the law is basically toothless and sex determination tests are common. The Andhra Pradesh government has also appointed India's leading woman tennis player Sania Mirza -- who is from Andhra Pradesh -- as "state ambassador of the girl child" as part of its campaign to protect the female child.
Eighteen-year-old Mirza, the first Indian woman to get into the third round of a Grand Slam, will feature on billboards with the caption: "Your daughter may be the next champion."
Bush's Cousin in Hyderabad
The Bush are an illustrious political family and apart from having a cousin ruling the country, his uncle (George Bush Sr) was the US President too, while grandfather Prescott Bush was a US senator. Ask the Harvard business school graduate whether he has any political ambitions and he states, "I've just been a supporting actor in politics -- I helped my cousin run for office and campaigned for my uncle. But we've had way too many Bush presidents, I promise I'm not the next in line."
Jonathan recollects fond childhood memories of cousin Dubya: "I grew up in New York while George lived in Texas. But we are a close family -- we would all go to Maine during summers and were close to our grandmother." He quips, "And we have an advantage as a family -- apart from weddings and funerals, we even get to see each other during inaugurals and events!"
His cousin is not aware that he is in India, as the last time he met him was at the inaugural ball. "Bush had just enough time to enquire about my children. We were much closer as kids. Now he's this distant older brother who's busy being President and taking care of his family," says Jonathan. But he undoubtedly loves his President cousin -- "We are a loving and supportive family, made more so because of the intense viewing from outside. When you get next to George you realise he's just a regular guy. Spend 20 minutes with him and you'd forget that he's President. Beyond the flash photography and security, he's a humble human being with a great sense of humour."
Apart from work, you'll find Jonathan chilling with wife Sarah and his five kids, and eating Indian khana . "When my wife and I go on a date, we head to an Indian restaurant. We love Indian food." With work wrapped up, his mission is to buy Hyderabadi pearls for his wife.
Rains to improve wheat output
"So long as there are no hailstorms or rains after the harvest next month, we can expect around one million tonnes more wheat output," Rai said Thursday on the sidelines of a press conference organised by the Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Wheat production in 2004-05 crop year was estimated at 73 million tones - a million tonnes more than last year.
Overall, India has estimated the food production in 2004-05 season to be 206.4 million tonnes, six million tonnes lower than last year mainly due to a dip in coarse grain production. The shortfall in the summer monsoon last year had impacted on the kharif (summer) rice production, which is expected to be made up by a higher rabi (winter) crop output taking the total to 87.7 million tonnes -- nearly one million tonnes more than last year.
"The heavier snowfall this year has also improved the prospects for fruits in the northern region, while other crops are expected to benefit from greater availability of water due to snow melting," said Rai. Rai is optimistic of a significant improvement in the output of most crops provided there are no heavy winds or rains once the harvest begins by middle of next month. The only crop that could be damaged by heavy rains at this time is mustard, which is ripening and is due for harvesting soon, the agriculture scientist said.
AP company to launch MP3 phone
A patent for the 'Soft Phone' had been filed and an evaluation version is likely to be launched by the end of March 2005 as a prelude to its launch in the U S market about two months later, Company's Managing Director Venkat S Meenavalli told reporters here today. The company having 100 per cent subsidiaries in USA and Singapore, managed all its web properties--Axill.com, Hunt7.com, Globalfreecalling.com--with the current team size of around 80.
By the end of third quarter, Northgate had achieved a turnover of Rs 30 crore with a net profit of Rs.3.69 crore, of which around 80 per cent was contributed from the telecom segment from US and Singapore and remaining from the online advertising.
Northgate was looking towards achieving around 70 per cent growth rate with 100 per cent jump in the net profit for the next two years of which 70 per cent revenues were expected from online advertising and 30 per cent from the telecom segment.
Satyam is 'Preferred SAP partner'
It assessed the business scenario and began by successfully implementing SAP and migrating legacy data of five years into SAP. 'Following this Satyam was able to deliver business value through IT solutions by making use of new technologies such as SAP Enterprise Portals. This implementation had a positive impact across Inmarsat's value chain and business performance.' The resulting benefits were substantial reduction of cycle-time from creation of Purchase Requisition to creation of Purchase Order and tighter controls over payroll costs.
The business value offering also enabled the global locations of Inmarsat in UK, Italy, France, USA, Dubai and Singapore to come online into the SAP system processes, resulting in lower lead times and reduction in duplication of effort. Prior to this, the offices were operating their own procurement processes and these were manually updated into SAP, the release added.
Renault explores Andhra option
“We are also pursuing options in Maharashtra and Uttaranchal, where the Mahindras are already present. We will decide soon depending on the government’s reaction,” he said. State industry minister Botsa Satyanarayana said, “We are ready to provide all support within the ambit of resources and legal provisions.” The concessions sought by the Mahindras included sales tax deferment, rebates in excise duties, extension of rail link up to the factory in Zaheerabad and easy and cheap power, water and other urban utilities. “We will pursue the excise and rail-link issues with the Centre. We are agreeable to the other issues now,” said the industry minister.
Going for 7000
Dealers said the stock market opened for the day on a positive note and breached the crucial 6,900-level as investors rushed towards the trading ring to pick up new and old economy stocks.
Land titles to get insurance cover
Research on high energy mooted
The base HEM could be petrol, liquid gas, nuclear fuel or their improvised forms. In the defence sector, the HEM are used in ammunition, rockets and missiles. The objective of the cooperation between the DRDO and the HCU is to discover new materials that can provide greater thrusts of energy. The research will also focus on the possibility of reducing use of the quantities of the existing materials while improving upon their propelling power.
The DRDO has agreed to fund the five-year project to be taken up at a cost of Rs 35 crore under which its scientists will work with the faculty and the HCU students to explore new sources of energy. For this purpose the HCU has decided to set up the Centre for Research in High Energy Materials at its campus. Though it would take ab-out a year for the new centre to start its operation, the work is expected to begin within six months, the VC said.
A DRDO scientist based in Pune Dr Subhananda Rao said that the project would also work to develop theories for new models, combustion, de-tonators and quantum mechanics. There are fertile brains out there in the universities and other institutions. They should be encouraged to select areas for their research which are beneficial to the society as well as the defence requir-ements of the country. The DRDO has begun to identify and work with such institutions to supplement and enr-ich the work going on at the DRDO laboratories and esta-blishments. The memorandum of collaboration is first such formal understanding,” M Natarajan, Advisor to the Minister of Defence, said.
Virinchi bags Saudi Telecom project
Virinchi in a press release said that the automated vendor management solution is intended to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the procurement process in general and vendor management process in particular. The company’s vendor management solution, a member of the Virinchi enterprise e-Business product portfolio, automates collaboration and purchasing information exchange between STC and its vendors and provides for creation and management of tools to manage vendors more effectively.
STMicro launches one-chip FM tuner
The FM tuner operates from a low-voltage, low-current source: 2.4 to 3.2V dc at 12mA and comes in a 5 by 5mm TFBGA40 chip-scale package having two rows of 300-micron diameter balls on 500-micron centers. In addition, the chip cuts the external component count, and therefore cost, by eschewing IF (Intermediate Frequency) filters, ceramic capacitors, and varicaps.
Key function blocks integrated into the chip include a phase-locked loop with automatic search function, low-noise amplifier with image rejection mixer, and FM demodulator with adjustment-free decoder. A subsequent version being planned will include an RDS (radio data system) decoder with group and block synchronization. Among the noteworthy performance specifications of the single-chip tuner are a 60dB maximum S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio, 3dB/microvolt usable sensitivity at 30dB S/N ratio; 40dB selectivity at ±300kHz, 30dB stereo separation, and 0.5 percent THD (total harmonic distortion). The TDA7701 single-chip FM tuner sells for $2.50 each in quantities of 1,000, and is available now in production volumes quantities. An evaluation kit, including a hardware platform and software with API (application programming interface) functions and a friendly graphics user interface for demonstration, development, and validation is also available.
Worst Pollution HotSpot
An October 2004 report - based on a health survey commissioned by the Greenpeace and conducted by independent doctors and researchers - shows alarming results. The largest study conducted so far in the region, this health survey covered over 10,000 people in nine affected and four unaffected villages (used as control group for comparison). It has found that the incidence of diseases related to nervous, circulatory, respiratory, digestive and endocrine systems was one to four times higher in affected villages as compared to the control group.
Many cases of congenital deformity and chromosomal abnormalities were also reported, in addition to 11 cases of different kinds of cancer. Skin disorders are also rampant. The researchers conducted tests as well as examined the medical records of people.The fact is that the manufacturing units have not disclosed the nature of hazardous chemicals they are handling or storing, and the effluents they are discharging. This means that the local medical fraternity is not equipped to diagnose and treat problems caused by exposure to various toxic chemicals.“The community’s right to know what chemicals they are exposed to has been violated drastically,” says Mr Bidhan Chandra Singh of Greenpeace India.
The crisis in Patancheru has led to the socio-economic degradation of the people. An advisor associated with the Greenpeace report, Dr Thelma Narayan (from the Community Health Cell, Bangalore), says, “This is a gross denial of citizens right to life, which includes the right to health. It is important for state and central governments and the industry to act and provide compensation, treatmentand rehabilitation as well as ensure strict enforcement of regulatory and safety measures.”
Natco bags European patent
The company is also registering the patent in Canada, US and Japan, it added. With its unique features, the innovation is expected to be the preferred option for all benzamidazole derivatives especially omeprazole, and lansaprazole in soft gel form, it said. With several drugs going off patent in the coming years, the invention is expected to provide several opportunities to the company to commercially exploit the invention, it added. Natco is now ensured exclusive use of the delivery system specified in the patent, it said. The company is also exploring the possibility of tie-ups for commercial exploitation of the patent, it added.
An Interated Bus Terminal?
All bus terminals in Secunderabad will be brought together at the 13-acre site. The integrated terminus will have underground parking and a shopping complex in the upper storey. The road leading to the site will be widened to 150 ft and the displaced shop-keepers appeased with shops in the complex, a senior MCH official said. "The integrated terminal is the answer to all traffic problems in Secunderabad," MCH city planner P A S M Laxman Rao told The Times of India. The government has reportedly—in principle—agreed to hand over the land to the MCH with a view to bringing order to the traffic chaos around the Secunderabad Railway Stations caused by the scattered bus stops.
The RTC operates hundreds of services from these bus stops. There are currently four bus stops around the railway station. Buses from Koti, Mehdipatnam disgorge commuters at the bus stop opposite the station; buses going to Bowenpally, Bollaram take off from the Gurudwara; buses going to Kachiguda, Ameerpet and other places start from the Rathifile bus stand; and buses going to Uppal, Cherlapalli, Nacharam start from the Uppal bus stand near the Mother Teresa statue. All this puts the railway station area in a ceaseless turmoil. When the Gandhi Hospital was shifted to a new complex at Musheerabad in June, the MCH saw an opportunity to solve Secunderabad’s traffic problems. The railway and the RTC too are coveting the land.
Times of India
Accor coming to Hyderabad
The companies say they aim to position Ibis hotels as the preferred 'best value international hotels' across the region. In India, development activity for Ibis hotels is already underway in Bangalore and Gurgaon. Sites have also been identified in Pune and Jaipur. Target cities for future development are Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Accor is also pursuing management opportunities in the sub-continent and actively negotiating the management of two purpose-built 300-room Novotel properties at Gurgaon and Hyderabad. Accor is also in discussion to manage Novotels at Chennai, Mumbai and Pune. Accor said it expected to introduce its other major brands - Sofitel and Mercure - when appropriate projects became available.
Hyderabad grapes, a hit in Europe
"We are sending grapes to two destinations, UK and Europe. For UK, the specifications we normally follow are size, which should be above 17 mm, and sugar levels should be balanced and the colour should be milky white. For Europe destination, the size should be at least 16 mm, and the colour should be light amber," he said. Earlier the Indian grapes were granted food safety assurance certificate by the European Retail Parties Good Agricultural Practices (EUREGAP). The certificate was recently granted by the American Quality Assessors, a EUREGAP accredited agency in India that carries out the inspection.
Besides the strict standards on fruit size and content, the export obligations include rigid minimum standards of exposure to chemicals and fertilisers. Local grape growers have advocated lower prices in the domestic markets prompted them to look for opportunities in the export market. In local markets, grapes sell anywhere around 15 to 20 rupees a kilogram. Almost 90 percent of India's exports of grapes are from Maharashtra, followed by seven percent from Andhra Pradesh and three percent from neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Out of 370 million tonnes of fruit production in the world, India accounts for 30 million tonnes. India's share of the global fruit trade is eight percent.
AP to constitute agri tech mission
AP being a major producer of rice, pulses, cotton, groundnut, chillies, sugarcane and a quite number of horticultural crops, the growth rate of aggregate agricultural output declined from 3.4% per annum in the 1980s to 2.3% in 1990s. Yields too have declined substantially. Yield growth of rice declined from 3.1% in the 1980s to 1.3% in the 1990s. Similarly, cotton yield rates have dwindled from 3.4% to 1.4% correspondingly, according to the state’s Economic Survey 2004-05. Further, the government is forming a group of three agriculture scientists in assembly constituencies to support the extension wing to provide quick remedial measures in improving production. These nucleus groups are expected to monitor cropping patterns and other problems being faced by the farmers from time to time. As per estimates in the Economic Survey 2004-05, the area sowed under the foodgrains has fallen to 38.91 lakh hectares, as against 43.03 lakh hectares in 2003-04. Also, foodgrains production has dipped in 2004-05 to 77.80 lakh tonnes as against 86.49 lakh tones in 2003-04.
The fall in the agriculture production is largely attributed to the low rainfall and depleting ground water levels. Accordingly, the government has initiated an ‘artificial rain’ project (through cloud seeding) and decided to continue the project, as it had shown some concrete results. Further, the government has also decided to regulate the crops depending upon the water resources and market conditions. “We have heavy crop in one season (like that of chillies now) or crop failure in the other. This instability in the corps must be minimised to maximise the return on the investment,” says a senior agriculture official. The government is now contemplating maximising the research benefits to farmers by forming Crop Resource Groups (CRGs). These groups will self regulate the crops, train farmers, popularise best practices and techniques aiming at increasing productivity.
To achieve this, the government has provided a fund of Rs 5 crore to the Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University (ANGRAU) to improve and generate technologies in agriculture and allied sectors. In a bid to sharpen focus for effective management of resources, the state has been divided into seven agro climatic zones and researches initiated on various crops including bio-fuel, sweet sorghum and black jaggery etc. Besides, the university is now on the verge of setting up of research station in each district of the state.
Satyam announces web-based GIS
Malaysia's IJM Wins contracts
The Silicon Hyderabad
Although the foundry won’t produce the latest in semiconductor technology, it will be sufficient for the industries it’s targeting, including wireless communications, consumer electronics, computers, and cars. As such, it could upset chip-production dynamics in Asia, bringing India one step closer to becoming an important player in the global semiconductor market.
“India has gone from nowhere to becoming a world-class player in high-level semiconductor design,” says Rajat Gupta, a Bangalore-based semiconductor industry veteran. “Now, the next stage is starting—innovating for the domestic market and in new global sectors such as bioinformatics. The potential is huge.”
Naidu off Z category security
Interestingly, the threat perception in the case of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has increased, say police officials. On the other hand, Mr Naidu does not figure high on the threat perception. Moreover, there is no need to monitor the movements of Mr Naidu now, the officials felt. A senior police officer said that they are following the rule book prepared by the Naidu government itself. However, except ASL, all other security protocol will be as before for Mr Naidu. Five identical bulletproof Ambassador cars, an explosives jammer vehicle and a contingent of 173 security staff cover Mr Naidu round the clock. “The government is spending annually Rs 3 crore on Mr Naidu’s security,” sources said.
Google Hyd setting trend
And then, you can regulate the working hours of the employees as well, he chuckles. “In fact, this seems to be a good benefit to offer our other employees elsewhere too,” Gilbert adds. Unlike other global companies that have their operations in India, Google India employees are required to work only during the day. “Most of the work done in Hyderabad is email-based and not voice-based. So we do not need to work at night,” Gilbert says. Google provides stock options to its employees as well. Ask Gilbert about the employee profile that the online search engine has and you get an answer that leaves you slightly dazed. “Globally, we have employees ranging from an Olympic athlete to a nuclear engineer. We do not really look at the educational background while employing people for our online sales operations,” he reveals.
Google also has an R&D centre in Bangalore that is involved in product development and research for its search tool. Although Gilbert refuses to divulge information on their employee numbers in India, he adds, “we will be growing in terms of business and employee numbers in India as this country contributes significantly to our global operations.”
Satyam partners with Compuware
AP govt to develop Tier-II airports
While Vijayawada airport currently has small aircrafts connecting the city with Hyderabad, the other two have remained non-operational for want of minimum facilities.
The roads, buildings and transport department, which oversees the state aviation sector, has entrusted L&T Ramboll to submit a feasibility report on the development of the three airports as a single package. The consultancy firm submitted its report on the overall development of the state aviation sector in 2002. All the three airports are owned by the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
The state government, which is keen on developing smaller airports to improve the air connectivity across the state, has in the first stage identified the three places as the potential air-travel areas.
SriLankan Air ups flights
“We are also adding additional frequencies to Kochi from 6 to 12, Kozikode from 6 to 9, Tiruchirapally from 7 to 10, Thiruvananthapuram from 9 to 11 and Hyderabad from 5 to 7 services per week. Also, our Pakistan flights will operate from Colombo to Karachi via Mumbai, three times per week,” said Peter Hill, chief executive officer, SriLankan Airlines.
According to Hill, the company has decided to add additional capacity as it has seen an increased demand to fly daily services to most of the destinations it serves. SriLankan Airline has also announced attractive promotional fares and packages to encourage Indian travelers to fly to the island nation and beyond.
SriLankan Airlines now operates 71 flights a week from 10 Indian destinations, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gaya and major cities in Kerala. The carrier is also commencing a daily return service from Colombo to New York on March 27.
TCS bags its first Drug project
TCS code for drug discovery
The initiative, which falls under TCS’ Advanced Technology Practice based in Hyderabad, is led by M Vidyasagar, executive vice-president, TCS, and a former colleague of the President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam.
In life sciences and healthcare, TCS developed the Tata Bio-suite, a portable, versatile software package, in collaboration with some of India’s leading academic institutes through the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative, a programme sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The council also funded this initiative. TCS will license the bio-suite for Rs 49,990 to the CSIR, while charging pharmaceutical companies much larger sums. TCS currently has 40 people working at its research and development centre in Hyderabad. “The intellectual property rights of Tata Bio-suite remain with us and we can commercialise it both in India and abroad,” Rajagopal added. It is estimated that the worldwide market for software and IT services related to bioinformatics will touch $2.6 billion by 2007. The Indian market for this is currently worth around Rs 40 crore.
ISB Accelerated Management Program
Ananth Iyer - Purdue University,
Atul Nerkar - Columbia University,
Amitava Chattopadhyay - INSEAD,
S. Ramnarayan & Bhagwan Chowdhry - UCLA,
Suren Mansingka - HKUST,
Ramayya Krishnan - Carnegie Mellon University
April 21 - May 06, 2005 at ISB Campus
Fee: INR 2,98,000 or US $ Equivalent
Overview: The programme is designed to facilitate the transition of senior functional executives into highly effective general managers. It develops a broad understanding of how to integrate across functions, optimise manpower and resources to get work done more efficiently and with superior results.
Who should attend: Senior functional managers moving into a position where firm wide multi-functional perspectives are required.
Apply online at www.isb.edu/execed
You will need to complete and return the application form to the Manager, Marketing Services. Please include the cheque/ draft toward the programme fee along with your application. You can download an application form in PDF format or request to get a brochure.
For more information, contact:
Marketing Services,
Centre for Executive Education, Indian School of Businss,
ISB campus, Gachibowli, Hyderabad - 500 019.
Email: execed@isb.edu
Call: +91 40 2300 7041/42
Check: http://www.isb.edu/execed
Refer: CoolAvenues.com MDP Alert
ING Vysya to support school adoption
The project is being funded through a donation of Rs 13 lakh from the IVF, chief representative of ING Insurance International India Naren Joshi told reporters. The IVF had signed an agreement with the Association for Rural Development and Action (Ardar) to support the projects, he said.
"As a financial services provider, ING is committed to being a good corporate citizen in each of the communities in which it operates. The IVF was established as a platform for the ING entities in India to contribute to local communities. We have identified primary education for children as one of the key focus areas", Joshi said. Ardar director Dr V V Ramana said, the association has a history of promoting and empowering the poorer sections of society.
Matrix fire mishap claims 3
The release said that the company has decided to pay an ex-gratia of Rs 6 lakh each to the families of those died in the accident. This is in addition to the statutory benefits and insurance coverage available under group insurance scheme provided by the company to all the employees. It was also decided to extend all possible help to the kith and kin of the deceased employees through Matrix Employees Welfare Trust (MEWA), the release added.
While Matrix Laboratories has been following stringent safety norms and procedures, and as such there is no precedence of any accident, the exact cause for the accident is being investigated, the press release stated.
Wildlife likes Hyderabad!
Red-faced monkeys are not the only wildlife visitors to the state’s 200-odd towns and cities, according to wildlife department officials. Leopards, bears, bisons, fox and wild boars, too, have been sighted over the past few weeks, making residents jittery about safety, claim municipal officials. The monkeys are the most troublesome, stealing coconuts, milk packets and food, especially from infants and the aged.
One of them plundered the milk packets and vegetables that vendors had left outside the door of Rukmini Rao, a 28-year-old housewife of Chikkadapally here. “What will I do if this keeps repeating every day?” she asked. Gowri Kumari, a 14-year-old of Basheerbagh, was in tears after another ran away with her lunch box. Municipal corporation official Prabhakar Reddy of Begumpet said he has been chasing monkeys for the last 10 days. “I have been running from rooftops of temples and shopping complexes to that of schools to catch these animals.” “We catch at least 2,000 monkeys a day and leave them 50 km away. But they are back in 48 hours,” an urban administration official said. The worst hit are joggers and walkers as almost all of Hyderabad’s 126 lakes and water tanks have become watering holes for the primates.
For India's Yemenis, Hyderabad is home
"I am very much an Indian. I always think from an Indian perspective. I am a pure Indian. We don't have any connection with Yemen but yes, we belong to Yemen. Our ancestral property is still in Yemen," said Ahmed Abdullah, a Yemeni whose forefathers came to Hyderabad in the 18th century. Intrestingly, the present generation is blissfully ignorant about their roots. "My forefathers are from Yemen. But I have no idea where it is. I want to be an accountant," said Salim Abdullah, a Yemeni student.
The Barkas locality in the Old City has particularly been inhabited by Yemenis. Many of them preserve the photographs of dignitaries from their erstwhile land who visit the city every now and then.
Satyam member of Symbian
With this achievement, Satyam will extend their Mobile Platform Service Offerings to the Symbian OS ecosystem. Symbian develops and licenses Symbian OS, the leading operating system that powers the world's most popular smartphones. To date, almost 20 million phones based on Symbian OS have shipped worldwide.
"This partnership reflects our commitment to the mobile solutions market and our intent to build upon our mobile strategy," said Mr. TR Anand, Director & Senior Vice President, Satyam. "By becoming a Symbian Platinum Partner, we can further expand our offerings in this space and strengthen our relationships with users, application developers, smart phone manufacturers and network operators. This will also ensure the close integration of our solutions with smartphones based on Symbian OS."
To this effect, Satyam has already setup a state-of-the-art competency center resulting in an increase of its outsourcing business and is coordinating with its Japanese customers and working on its Symbian OS expertise. "Besides expertise in Migration and porting, Satyam also has an innovative solution framework for Symbian OS. Satyam will certainly be proud to provide quality Symbian OS-based services to its customers in the Japanese market", Mr. Norihisa Ando, Vice President & Country Head, Satyam- Japan said.
Austrian President to visit city
Fischer, who will be accompanied by his wife Margi and a high-level delegation, including Minister for Economc Affairs and Labour and senior officials, will paticipate in a business forum organised jointly by FICCI and CII. He will also visit Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mysore and Mumbai, he said.
Asian rowing meet
Office, Jersey,Front office, Hyderabad
Welcome to the world of offshoring. Outsourcing of business processes, offshoring of IT services and solutions from the United States to India have been going on for several years, but of late the trend appears to be looping in a host of other services as well, if Fusion Technologies' offshoring is any indication. "We decided to offshore our front office functions to Hyderabad because of two factors: The cost, of course, and the high attrition rate," says Richard Napoli, CEO of Fusion Technologies, in a video conference meeting from Edison.
"It's an interesting job, and there are two of us to handle the front office work from 5.30 pm to about 4 am on weekdays," says Ms Budhiraju, between chatting up with a visitor in New Jersey in real-time, asking him whether he wanted a cup of coffee.
"Front office is not the only thing we do offshore. The model is used to create work groups between our offices in the US and in Hyderabad, organise demos of new software for clients. It helps our engineers to rectify glitches in real-time," says Mr Napoli, who has been an evangelist for offshoring for years. "While IT services and call centres are big offshoring and outsourcing opportunities, there is a trend to offshore other work as well, like recruitment," says Sarath Sura, managing director of Sierra Atlantic, an application integration company with offices in Hyderabad and the US. "We have started recruitment of people in the US by recruiters working out of our Hyderabad facilities," says Mr Sura. "When the offshore recruitment started, we had two recruiters in the US. Now we have only one, with two recruiters in Hyderabad."
Mr Napoli claims that offshoring work had led to the creation of more jobs at Fusion Technologies in the US. "Earlier, we had about 40 people in the US, paying them American salaries. After we began offshoring work like software code writing, we had let go some people in the US. We have begun hiring more marketing people in the US now, as more and more work is being offshored to India," says Mr Napoli. "Offshoring of IT jobs is no longer an issue in the US," he adds.
Suwon, Hyderabad ink pact
The 20-member Korean delegation comprising officials like Kim Yong-seo, mayor of Suwon, businessmen from companies like Samsung Electronics and representatives from organisations like Rotary Club was in the city on a two-day visit. The delegation has also evinced interest in investmenting in the IT sector in Hyderabad. Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has assured to extend all the necessary help to the Korean investors, a press release said.
Nandan attracts European investors
Several Indian companies, like the bio-diesel project of Hyderabad-based Nandan Bio Matrix, have already well-established business models in place, offering consultancy to farmers, cultivation support, research and development (R&D) of clonal technology, processing and extraction, value addition, manufacturing and marketing, of the product. Nandan is taking up jatropha cultivation on 5,000 acres with prompt buy-back assurance and crop insurance, backed up by a refinery and extraction unit, C S Jadhav, director-marketing of Nandan, told Business Standard. Nandan also grows medicinal plants on 10,000 acres. Jatropha grows in all environments and has 35 per cent oil content in its seed.
Nandan has tied up with D1 Oils of UK, a leading bio-diesel company with worldwide operations and starv performer on European exchanges. The D1 joint venture is setting up a state of the art R&D facility for jatropha. The export opportunity is huge and the European Union market alone is estimated to be worth $2.7 billion by 2010. A European Union Directive demands that 2 per cent of all diesel consumed in the bloc must be bio-degradable by 2005, rising to 5.75 per cent by 2010.
Nandan’s R&D effort is also directed towards development of medicinal applications using the de-oiled cake of jatropha seed and leaves. While biofuel source rapeseed oil was being sold for 380 pounds a tonne, the cost of oil produced from jatropha plantations was half of that, said D1. D1 Oils aims to export bio-diesel to “premium” markets such as Europe and Japan. Jadhav said India had wasteland of 175 million hectares, which was suitable for jatropha.
Referring to the Planning Commission’s demonstration project involving planting of jatropha over 400,000 hectacres at a cost of over $200 million, the UK company said, “D1 is committed to working with the Planning Commission, regional governments and private industry in India to further the cultivation of jatropha and the production and supply of biodiesel refined from jatropha oil throughout India.”
Jadhav said the effort to develop the agro-processing sector was being supported by the Synergy Foundation, another UK-based body, which was backing the initiative for its anti-poverty angle and despite the three-year time period it takes for a jatropha plant to reach full maturity. D1 has accelerated planting targets for jatropha in India and has a joint venture company, D1 Mohan Bio Oils besides several third party off-take agreements in India for the supply of crude jatropha oil through to 2015.
D1 is aiming at a 20-fold increase in the targeted planting of jatropha in India in 2005, with a medium term to plant on 5 million hectares, and option to export up to 25 per cent of the oil produced, said sources. Additional jatropha oil supply contracts have been signed for exports totaling 10,000 tonnes in 2006, rising to 50,000 tonnes annually by 2009.
A planting of 100,000 hectares of jatropha is expected to yield 250,000-300,000 tonnes of crude jatropha oil per annum. The initial 100,000 hectare jatropha farm would yield revenues of $100m per annum, said D1. Each hectare could produce around 3,000 litres, which can be blended with conventional diesel to reduce harmful emissions.
SAP begins crackdown
Hyderabad impresses Iranian speaker
Cabinet gives a big push to IT
Govt sending team to lure Volkswagen
Source: The Times of India
Indo-US meet on missile defence
Last year, after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Manmohan Singh took charge in May, the Indo-US Defence Policy Group, the highest policy making body that coordinated defence ties between the two countries - held a meeting to review and expand the Indo-US defence cooperation. The defence ministry has acknowledged "a dramatic improvement in Indo-US military-to-military relations during the past few years." India and the US held joint naval exercises three years ago and have also signed a mutual secrecy protection agreement.
Knowledge Corridor to be set up
The government has approved a proposal to set up a Hyderabad Knowledge Corridor consisting of IT and ITeS companies covering over 20,000 acres in Ranga Reddy district. Work on the project will commence in about six months time, official sources told The Times of India. The initial cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs 5,000 crore. The government’s investment will be of the order of Rs 100 crore. It will be developed with complete private participation. The government will float a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to execute the project. The corridor begins from the area adjacent to the Indian School of Business (ISB) and extend to the proposed Outer Ring Road, sources said. The idea is to build a self-contained, ultra-modern satellite city having a eight-lane trunk road and six-lane interior roads, high security, 24-hour water supply and uninterrupted power. Describing it as a dream project, a senior government official said this would be completed in about 5-7 years time. Non-polluting knowledge centric industries would be located in the proposed corridor. Working and living place, entertainment, education, health facilities etc would be provided to those who opt to stay in the corridor. The government will notify the land required for the purpose and bring the land owners and the developers face to face for acquiring the land. The second option before the administration is to make the land owners profit sharing partners in the venture. The government wants to provide facilities like drinking water to the local villagers, which fall under the Corridor. The officials are confident that during a period of four years, the Corridor would employ 3 lakh people, who are estimated to contribute about Rs 450 crore per annum to the state’s exchequer.
City develops wine airs
MindTree Opens Bangalore Campus
Genetic 'horoscopes' for tigers
Govt nod
With their work on zoo tigers, scientists have already perfected how to electro ejaculate sperm, tranquilise big cats and use scats or excreta for DNA typing. Sperm samples for example can tell how virile a tiger is. Now the institute has applied for government approval to begin the exercise for animals in the wild. Six-month-old Jaguar cub Shankar was born in the zoo after careful selection of his parents. Already, the DNA mapping of all the big cats in the zoo, including the 19 tigers here, has been done.
Sophisticated tool
Using genetic profiles will be a more sophisticated tool to choose mating partners and ensure longevity for the cat family. "It may be useful after a decade or so when things may go from bad to worse. Frozen semen, embryos may be useful certainly. When there is an opportunity, why not probe into that,'' says Srinivas Rao, Curator, Nehru Zoological Park. Wildlife experts, however, believe that while an extinct species like the Indian cheetah can be revived in this manner, it is no alternative to conventional conservation efforts. "Alright for preserving species but can't create species that can adapt to an environment. Tailormade species cannot fit into environment and can't rehabilitate into nature,'' says Dr Kamal Naidu, conservation expert. Though no wildlife lover would want a situation where a majestic species like the Indian tiger needs to be recreated in the laboratory, the big cats frozen in time is hope kept alive for the future.
Indian cities to get a face lift
“If our cities are not renewed, they will die. The National Urban Renewal Mission is designed to meet this challenge,” the Finance Minister, Mr P Chidambaram said in his budget speech on February 28, taking a page out of Dr Manmohan Singh’s concerns. “The Centre is expected to contribute over a third of the investment, while the rest is expected to be generated by concerned states, as also from local bodies and financial institutions,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
Hyderabad to host Suminfra 2005
Volkswagen keeps Vizag folks waiting
Three private carriers by May
THREE new private airlines will be entering the skies this summer. Kingfisher Airlines, Go Airlines and Royal Airways are all set to begin their operations by May. The Funliners, as Kingfisher calls its aircraft, is scheduled to operate daily flights to Mumbai and Delhi and begin services from May 7, say airport officials who added that all the three private players will be operating low-frill airlines. After eight years in the hangar, Royal Airways has come out of the cold. The new avatar of the erstwhile Modiluft Airlines which was grounded in 1996, Royal Airways will be operating six flights daily to various destinations in the country. The airline is owned by the Kusagar family based in London. We plan to start our services from mid-April and have scheduled daily flights to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore from Ahmedabad, said an official of Royal Airways. While, most private airline companies use Mumbai as their base, Go Airlines, promoted by the Bombay Dyeing group, has opted for Ahmedabad. The traffic situation in Mumbai was a problem so we could not be accommodated. Hence, we decided to use Ahmedabad as our base, said an official of Go Airlines, adding that DGCA had given the nod for this.
Cyberabad looks to the riches of brainpower
Click here for the article.
DIC to setup Hyderabad campus
US visa fee to be hiked from March 8
CCMB eyes on creating cornea in-vitro
Source: The Times of India
Huda to raise funds for ORR
The state government, instead of extending funds, suggested that Huda develop and sell land along the ORR to generate funds. Huda is now contemplating selling as much land as possible to private realtors, industries and the public. The urban body will get about 5,000 acres of land along the proposed ORR, of which it can sell at least 1,500 acres of land to real estate developers, vice-chairman and managing director of Huda Asok Kumar told The Times of India. Huda needs more than Rs 1,300 crore for the project and more than 50 per cent of this amount will be spent on acquiring land. In case the Centre does not provide Rs 700 crore sought by Huda, it will have to approach various banks and agencies including the World Bank. "We have no problem in availing funds from private agencies on suitable agreements. Collection of toll, advertisement hoarding along the ORR, maintenance of ORR and development of lands are a few options that are attracting private agencies to extend funds," Asok Kumar said. Work will begin shortly, he added.
SEI signs agreement with Mauritius company
Delhi cops off to Hyderabad
Satyam in strategic tie-up with ECG
The alliance would entail having a healthy blend of both Arabic resources which Satyam plans to invest in along with the resources from ECG. As a first step towards this, Satyam has already brought on board Arabic nationals on existing projects. The key objective of this drive is to reduce the reliance on Indian nationals in key program management and customer interface roles. In another related recent development, auditors from BVQI (UK) were particularly impressed with Satyam's commitment to information security, the 'world-class' awareness campaigns and the level of maturity of ISMS and BCMS, which resulted in Satyam being re-certified for BS- 7799 standards and the continuation of ISO-9001certification. “A country's real growth and progress is measured by the skills and capacity of its workforce. We recognise the potential in this region and believe we have a responsibility to develop local talent. One of our priorities is to initiate and support programmes that enable youngsters to realise their potential in environments that encourage maximum development.” “The knowledge transfer programme with ECG announced will involve classroom training and on-the-job training on processes and methodologies followed by Satyam,” B Rama Raju, managing director of Satyam Computer Services Limited, said in a release.
TIME plans to open 20 more Centres
According to Daruvala, the total investment required for the expansion would be around Rs 1 crore, which would be raised from internal accruals.
The company is also considering having a centre in China by March 2006. “From the information we have, China offers huge training potential for GRE and English courses. But we have to go there and do the ground work before we open the office,” he said. TIME, known for several entrance and qualifying exams including CAT, ICET in Andhra Pradesh, CET in Maharashtra, GRE, TOFEL, MCA entrances and AICEE (South), is also planning to introduce training for qualifying exams required for different engineering, medical colleges, IIT-JEE and AIIMS.
“We have already introduced the courses in Kerala as a soft launch and want to launch it across the country during the year,” Daruvala said. The company, which currently has over 400 employees on its rolls, is looking at adding another 150 people for the new courses. The institute for the first three quarters of the current financial year posted a turnover of Rs 31 crore, representing a growth of 45 per cent. According to Daruvala, the institute expects a 35 per cent increase in its turnover to Rs 35 crore during the current financial year as compared to Rs 26 crore last year. TIME by the end of March 2008 expects its revenues to touch the Rs 100-crore mark. Responding to a question, Daruvala said that the company, at present, has no plans of going in for an initial public offer (IPO) but is open to it if the need arises.
Mirza Stuns Kuznetsova
Reuters
"My ankle was killing me," said Mirza. "It was the third time it has happened in the last three weeks. I was actually crying because I was in so much pain.
"But I took a pain killer and I think it took a couple of games for me to get used to the taping, and the pain killers started working 15 or 20 minutes after that."
The match turned dramatically, however, when Mirza banished her nerves and began to hit the ball sweetly from all angles.
Krishan Dhawan Takes Over As MD, Oracle India
Speaking on his appointment Dhawan said, “The power of information that Oracle brings to corporations and Governments has firmly established the company as a key partner to India's rapid growth and development. I am excited to be part of such a dynamic and progressive organization, and I look forward to furthering Oracle’s upward growth trajectory through strong partnerships with our customers and the Government.” Oracle has been operating in India for more than a decade. It has its offices in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, & Gurgaon, and an extensive network of more than 200 channel and alliance partners under the Oracle Partner Network.
Satyam to set up new centre in Chennai
Andhra industry hails budget
Anil Kumar V. Epur, director, VST Distribution Storage and Leasing Company Limited, welcomed the measures to boost the agriculture sector. Epur, past chairman, CII, southern region, also hailed the initiatives for diversification of the sector, the support given to the sugar industry and the plan to employ 10 million people in irrigation schemes.
D.V. Manohar, chairman, Shakthi Gas, welcomed the measures announced for tourism and the oil and gas sector. He said while the finance minister was not able to touch subsidies on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene, he removed customs duties. "This is something we have been fighting for, for the last 10 years," he said.
While hailing the Special Purpose Vehicle announced for tourism, he said the sector needed special focus, as it was the largest producer of jobs. He felt that Rs.150 billion outlay was not enough. He said the finance minister had done nothing to give tax relief to the sector. Manohar felt that the allocation for defence should be cut to ensure more spending on priority sectors. "I am a patriot but I am also concerned over the growing allocation for defence. We should see how it can be cut down," he said. He also found fault with the special grants announced for Bihar. "Are we giving incentives for non-performance," he asked. Y. Harish Chandra Prasad, managing director, Lanco, said the budget was not "electrifying" for the electricity sector. He said the issues facing the sector were not addressed. He underlined the need to give top priority to the transmission sector to ensure that power deficient states get electricity from coal-rich states. Chidambaram's proposal to tax every cash withdrawal of Rs.10,000 in a day evoked strong opposition. "The proposal is discouraging," said CII member K. Narayan Rao. "This will discourage people from depositing their money in banks." Another member J.N. Rao said the move would not help in controlling black money transactions. "Many account holders draw Rs.30,000 to Rs.40,000 in the beginning of the month to meet their household expenses," said J.N. Rao. "The black money transactions generally take place in real estate and construction and it can't be checked by this measure," he added.
Airline Industry on cloud 9
Since leasing has been the favourite tool of new gen carriers the suspension of the tax will give them a “fresh lease of life,” said Air Deccan’s chief executive GR Gopinath. “The new players have actually challenged the status quo and forced air fares down and the FM’s decision will help in keeping costs under control by making leasing viable,” he added. The incidence of lease tax for instance would have forced the operator to shell out nearly $440,000 to $450,000 on a mid-size plane which would have otherwise attracted a monthly lease rental of $300,000. In ’04-05, Air India saved about $8.6m in tax liability on the lease of 13 aircraft — lease rental is treated as royalty. It may make similar savings in the coming year because of the budgetary announcement, says the airline’s MD, V Thulsidas. Keeping the tax on hold will help the airline, especially its low cost initiative, AI Express, to stay on the high-growth path, Mr Thulsidas added.
According to Jet Airways’ executive director Saroj Dutta, apart from preventing the leasing costs from escalating, the absence of the tax will help in keeping the process of leasing relatively simple. When the tax was first announced last year, the industry had talked of structuring the lease through companies located in zero-tax zones, which can be avoided now. Mr Chidambaram has also enhanced allocation to the civil aviation ministry by about 62%, from Rs 1,473.1 crore in the current fiscal to Rs 2,379.3 crore in the coming year. It includes a much needed breather to Indian Airlines by way of Rs 325 crore infusion towards margin money to buy aircraft.
The FM has removed hurdles in the initial financing of big ticket infrastructure projects like airports by earmarking a Rs 10,000 crore fund to be made available through a financial special purpose vehicle in ’05-06. New ventures like the international airport initiatives in Bangalore and Hyderabad can be the gainers. The projects will be appraised by an inter-institutional group of banks and financial institutions. The SPV will lend, especially long-term debt, to the eligible projects to supplement other loans from banks. Mr Chidambaram has also created a Rs 1,500 crore “viability gap” fund to take the project through its formative stages.
Retail Industry is where the money is
After IT and biotech, if there's another boom that's hit Hyderabad, it's got to be the shopping malls. In the recent months, we've seen new malls coming up, and many more are in the offing. The Indian retail segment is one of the largest in the world; and a joint report by McKinsey and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has pegged its growth at $180 billion. CII predicts that 1,000-1,500 stores will be coming up in each of the metros in the next one year. Thanks to this, retail management is now one of the fastest growing career options. Apart from students, even working professionals are shifting gears to tap this sector. "I found my work in the IT sector becoming monotonous. This is when I contemplated a shift in career. So, I quit my job and joined a retail management course in Delhi, after which I joined a retail giant for an attractive package," recounts Rahul Mukherjee, an MCA.
Same is the case with Aditya Vikram, an MBA (sales and marketing), who shifted from handling clients at an industrial automation company, to work at a supermarket chain. "The pay is on par with the other sectors, and in some cases even better. It's just a matter of time and everything from pay to other amenities will double," he explains. Head hunters point out that the retail sector is on the look out for personnel armed with the right qualification and skill sets. Says Chandra Ponappa, practice head, staffing, at a recruitment agency, "Right now, there aren't many skilled personnel. Companies don't mind paying a good amount for the right person. For instance, floor managers get around Rs 2.5 lakh per annum. And it only gets better from here." Professionals apart, the boom is also attracting those who are yet to make a mark. M Sridhar, an engineering graduate, for example, was all set to join an IT company, but then chose to study retail management instead. "The need for manpower is high, and if you have the qualification, you are in demand," he sums up.
Budget Quote
"Health, wealth, produce, the happiness that is the result, and security These five, the learned say, are the ornaments of a polity" - Saint Tiruvalluvar
Hussain Sagar receive Japan aid
The polluted and shrinking Hussainsagar lake will be restored to its old glory with Rs 316 crore financial assistance from the Japanese International Co-operation Agency. The State government is expecting the funds for the restoration project to arrive in July. This was informed by Municipal Administration Minister Koneru Ranga Rao in the Assembly on Monday. He was replying to a question raised by Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao and N Am-aranatha Reddy.
Le Méridien Hyderabad, India
Headlines
- InfoStep sets up centre in Hyderabad
- Chinese film bags Golden Elephant award
- DRDO plan to export missiles
- Pravasi Bharatiya Divas' 06 at Hyderabad
- British Airways to spread wings
- 3COM to double headcount
- VLSI design conference
- Bombardier, Reliance in talks for metro project
- Air Deccan daily flights to Puttaparthi
- 20 Kashmiri children for Hyderabad film festival
© 2007-2008 The Cyberabad Times
Disclaimer:
The Cyberabad Times is a non-profit, ad-free, News aggregation service for all things about Hyderabad, India.
