Infosys to replicate rural BPO model globally

Bangalore: Buoyed by the response to its rural BPO activities in India — like the recently launched rural BPO in Kaup and its upcoming plan to launch a rural BPO in Bagepally — Infosys BPO has decided to set up rural centres in Tier II and Tier III towns in foreign countries, a senior official said. “It is tough to put a timeframe on something like this, but we should be doing this over the next four to five years,” Mr Rajiv Raghunandan, Associate Vice-President, Strategic Business Practice and Head - HR Services, Infosys BPO Ltd, told Business Line. Infosys BPO has five centres in India and seven centres internationally in countries such as Poland, China and the Philippines, which typically operate from large cities. For instance, four years ago, the company established an office in Lodz, the third-largest city in Poland. Now, as per the plan that Mr Raghunandan has outlined, the company wants to target rural areas in such countries. Partnership model The model may be similar to what the company is doing in India. Explaining this, Mr Raghunandan said, “We operate directly in Tier I and Tier II cities, but tie up with partners for Tier III and Tier IV cities.” For example, Infosys BPO launched the Kaup unit in Karnataka's Udupi district with Desicrew, while the Bagepally centre in Andhra Pradesh's Nizamabad district, which will be operational in a few months, will be launched with RuralShores. Infosys BPO embarked on its plans for rural BPOs around 18 months back and wanted to help people get jobs and more flexibility for itself. “If there is a spike in workload and we want people to work for two more hours, it is easy in a rural BPO, but in a Tier I city, you have to contend with various issues such as transport, overtime, etc. Also, the ability to retain talent is higher in rural areas,” said Mr Raghunandan.

Wabco India targets 8-fold export growth by 2015

Chennai: Commercial vehicle parts supplier Wabco India is seeing an eight-fold jump in exports to Rs 1,000 crore in 2015, from Rs 118 crore now, according to a research report. "Management guided export revenues growth from Rs 1.18bn in FY11 to Rs 10bn in FY15," said a Spark Capital Report, after an investor-management meet. "The management was positive on the export momentum due to the cost advantage enjoyed by India, and the entire range of Wabco's products becoming available with Wabco taking majority control," the report said. It can be recalled that this is coming post Wabco taking majority control of its Indian arm, after the TVS Group sold its stake in what originally was a joint venture called Wabco-TVS. The key driver for Wabco's export growth story is likely to be the South American business. Wabco India had revenues of Rs 889 crore in 2011.

Uttarakhand to focus on industry in hills

Dehradun: About 11 new industrial hubs will be developed with modern infrastructure. After heavy industrialisation in the plains, the Uttarakhand government has shifted its entire focus to the hills, amending the existing policy to attract small manufacturing units there. A total of 11 new industrial hubs will be developed, with the government promising modern infrastructure complete with a slew of sops under the 2008 hill industrial policy. Besides, the government has also decided to bring four new areas – Sahaspur and Raipur in Dehradun district and Ramnagar and Haldwani in Nainital district – under the policy, despite their being in the plains. Chief Minister B C Khanduri wants the hill policy to focus more on the development of the backward hill region, stating that the government would prefer the growth of small industries to large ones. “We have enough industries in the plains, now we want to shift our focus entirely to the hills,” Khanduri said. Uttarakhand is currently witnessing sluggishness in the industrial sector after the expiry of the hill-based excise exemption under the concessional industrial package (CIP) expired on March 31, 2010. Besides big industries, the CIP was responsible for healthy growth of the SME sector during the past six to seven years. Since 2009, industries have not been showing any enthusiasm towards the hill state, with the government repeatedly urging the Centre to renew the tax incentives for a few more years. Though Uttarakhand has able to attract an investment of Rs 218 crore in the hills, manufacturing industry has maintained a distance from the backward areas, mainly due to poor connectivity and lack of infrastructure in the hills. “We will be releasing a large budget to promote industries in the hills,” said Principal Secretary, Industries, Rakesh Sharma. The government is offering a series sops under the Special Integrated Industrial Promotion Policy-2008 for the hilly and remote areas of Uttarakhand. These sops include stamp duty exemption on land purchase, industrial estates on two acres for private developers, and reimbursement of 50 per cent of the cost of infrastructure development (up to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh). The capital investment subsidy has been doubled to Rs 60 lakh. The government will also offer six per cent interest subsidy up to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh, a subsidy in electricity bills up to 75 per cent and reimbursement of VAT. It is also offering viability gap funding. The government has amended the hill industrial development policy after obtaining suggestions from industrial associations. The Indian Industries Association (IAU), a key body of SMEs in the hill state, has welcomed the amendments in the hill policy, saying it would promote new investments. “We want the government to focus on the preservation of handicrafts, handlooms and khadi by infusing modern techniques to devise new products,” said Pankaj Gupta, president of IAU. The IAU said the khadi and handicrafts sector needs to be leveraged for use in the fashion and interior design industry by creating linkages with top fashion designers through aggressive marketing. It said cluster development needs to be encouraged in the state, particularly in new industrial areas, and that this can be done by creating dedicated industrial parks. CII has called for the creation of a SME renewable fund for technology upgradation. It has also called for creation of a common marketing and branding fund for MSMEs and asked the government to set up a MSME facilitation council to facilitate the resolution of problems, said Dr S Farooq, chairman of the CII’s state council.

Intelenet sets up centre in Patna for BSNL users

BPO firm Intelenet Global Services announced the launch of a new delivery centre in Patna as part of a strategic arrangement with state-owned telecom operator BSNL. Intelenet will service BSNL's base of prepaid, postpaid and 3G cellular subscribers in the telecom circles of Bihar and Jharkhand, Intelenet said in a statement. The delivery centre will provide services in English, Hindi and other local regional languages to deliver customer support -- product inquiries, complaints, requests for new services and so on. "Intelenet recognises Patna as an emerging business destination. The capacity built in Patna is based entirely on client requirements and also blends with our business strategy of providing multi-location delivery capability to our clients," Intelenet Global Services CEO (Domestic Operations) Bhupender Singh said. Intelenet has a workforce of over 27,000 employees and 32 delivery centres across 18 cities.

Facebook will IPO as Early as April 2012

Facebook will make its long-anticipated move to go public between April and June 2012, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Monday. The report, which cites “people familiar with the matter,” says that Facebook is considering raising $10 billion in an IPO that could value it at more than $100 billion. This is consistent with a report in June that used the same eye-popping number of zeros to describe Facebook’s expected valuation. If realized, the valuation would make Facebook’s IPO one of the largest in history — more than four times as big as Google’s $23 billion IPO in 2004, and likely one of the 10 largest IPOs of all time. While the first rumors of Facebook’s impending IPO predicted that the company would go public during the first quarter of 2012, recent reports had suggested that the offering had been pushed back to “September or later.” The Wall Street Journal‘s sources cautioned that Facebook has not made any final decisions in its internal discussions about the timing of its filing — and that market conditions will ultimately determine how much money the company seeks and the value of the company.

'Hiring in e-commerce sector to grow 50%'

With rapid expansion of the e-commerce industry, there are thousands of new job openings in the sector, especially at the mid and higher levels, and the hiring is expected to grow by 45-50 per cent next year, said Elixir Consulting. "This trend of manpower movement to the E-commerce and online retail areas began in the early 2009, when most of the large global online retailers set up shops and gained a substantial consumer-base," the recruitment process outsourcing firm's Manager (Leadership Hiring) Prateek Srivastava told PTI here. It has grown substantially compared to last year and the overall hiring for this year is at least 150 per cent more than what these companies hired last year, fuelled mostly by substantial customer acquisition by consumer Internet companies and funding by private equity players or venture capitalists, he said adding, "In 2012, hiring is expected to grow by 45-50 per cent". Srivastava also said, these talents are also getting a decent hikes on being hired. "Salary offered in the sector is also very competitive. People at leadership levels typically get a 40-60 per cent hike and very lucrative stock option plans." Most of the people moving in are at a leadership level as it is an evolving vertical in terms of job opportunity and has the potential of higher growth, similar to that of IT services, which was witnessed a decade back, he pointed out. Mainly, leaders from the IT services industries are moving towards the E-commerce, as both the industries require similar skills, he said. These mid-to-senior-level employees are usually from top B-schools, with exceptional sales skills handling business development, sales and strong technology and product engineering are high in demand in the sector, Srivastava said. However, most of the sales talent are being hired from the FMCG and telecom sector, he added.

Tata Capital-IFC JV to tap clean energy sector

New Delhi: Tata Capital Ltd, a Tata Sons subsidiary, has set up a joint venture company with International Finance Corporation (IFC) to explore business opportunities in the climate change space. The company, Tata Cleantech Capital Ltd (TCCL), would provide funding and advisory services to small and mid-sized enterprises developing renewable energy projects in India. “The company has been incorporated with an initial capital of $20 million, in which 80 per cent stake is held by Tata Capital,” said Praveen P Kadle, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tata Capital. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, would hold the remaining 20 per cent stake. Through TCCL, Tata Capital plans to finance around 200 renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects over the next five years. “Based on the current market opportunities, we estimate $750-million business over the next four-five years,” Kadle said. Tata Capital and IFC are hopeful of expanding the capital base of the Mumbai-headquartered TCCL to $120 million by 2016. The two partners indicated a third international partner would soon be roped into TCCL. Tata capital would, however, continue to hold 80 per cent in the venture. “By helping establish this green finance company, we would reach small and mid-sized companies that are committed to promoting clean technology,” said IFC executive vice-president and chief executive, Lars H Thunell. Apart from energy efficiency and renewable power generation projects for small and medium enterprises, the joint venture would also focus on water management initiatives. Thunell said the company would soon start looking at sustainable agriculture and smart-grid projects, besides clean transportation and pollution control. TCCL would utilise Tata Capital's network and huge corporate customer base. “IFC's experience and expertise in offering lending and advisory services in clean tech sectors would be an added asset to the new company,” Kadle said

Selco Solar in pact with Applied Materials to electrify 1,000 households, 10 schools

Bangalore: Selco Solar Pvt Ltd, a provider of energy services to underserved households, has tied up with Applied Materials Foundation (AMF) to electrify 1,000 households and 10 schools in Karnataka using solar lighting systems. AMF, an arm of Applied Materials - a provider of semiconductor, flat panel display and solar photovoltaic equipment, has contributed $1.7 lakh for the project. Selco will provide lighting systems to schools and houses in villages across Karnataka and the project, which started in May this year, is expected to be completed in March 2012. The project has already been implemented in 204 households and four schools across the State. The project will impact 10,000 individuals and 279 kWh of energy. Selco plans to implement the project across 5,000 households. Innovative buying Selco, promoted by Ramon Magsasay award winner, Mr Harish Hande, will execute the project in its model of “not donating the products as charity” but by selling it to the households through an innovative model where the users will have to pay a part of the cost of setting up the solar system and the rest of the cost will be borne by AMF. The users will have to pay for the products in EMIs through banks that Selco has partnered with. “Many people in rural areas are able to pay for solar- equalling what they were paying for kerosene for lamps and mobile phone charging, but what happens is they don't have enough assets to prove to banks that they can repay loans,” Mr Harish Hande, Managing Director, Selco Solar, said. So we are leveraging money given by AMF to help people get bank loans, he explained. The household solar lighting project is one where individuals will have to buy solar lights from Selco, and bear about 90 per cent of the costs and the remaining- the ‘down payment' would be taken care of by AMF's funding. The school lighting project is one where a solar system is installed at the schools, 20 per cent of the costs of which are borne by the school; and students of the school are given battery-powered LED lamps which can be charged at the system installed at school. Typically, people in villages will have to pay an average of Rs 140 a month for their kerosene/candle needs and Rs 40 a month to charge their mobile phones at nearby shops. But with Selco's project, the person would have to pay an EMI of Rs 150 a month for the solar-powered system till the entire loan is paid off and then turns the owner of the solar-powered system which can be used for free- but for a maintenance fee of Rs 150 a year. The idea of the project “is to show that people do repay loans and that you don't necessarily need coal or nuclear to electrify villages, and also make an impact on government policies” Mr Hande said.

Lupin to make second acquisition in Japan

Mumbai: Mumbai-based Lupin Ltd will acquire Tokyo-based I’rom Pharmaceuticals (IP) for an undisclosed amount to expand its footprint in the country. The transaction would be done through Lupin's Japanese subsidiary Kyowa Pharmaceutical Industry Co, Ltd (Kyowa), which it had acquired in 2007.. IP, subsidiary of I’rom Holdings Co, is a speciality injectable drug maker and its annual sales for the year ended March 2011 was ¤5.36 billion ($69.7 million). It has a significant presence in the DPC (diagnosis procedure combination) hospitals within Japan. Injectable products enjoy a significant usage in the DPC Hospital segment, and the generic injectable penetration is slated to grow significantly. There are currently over 1,400 DPC hospitals in Japan, covering 35 per cent of all hospital beds nationwide, and a market size of $11-billion. Earlier, Business Standard had reported Lupin's plan for a second acquisition in Japan for $50-100 million. The $75-billion market is the second largest in the world after the US. Though the Japanese government is taking initiatives to support generic drugs, the segment is only five per cent of the total in value terms and 19 per cent in volume terms. The government has also introduced a series of reforms to expand generic drug penetration to 30 per cent by 2012. Vinod Dhawan, president (Asia Pacific, West Asia, Africa and Latin America) at Lupin said, “Japan is a growth market of strategic focus for Lupin. IP’s strong presence in the DPC hospital segment, through its line of injectable products, is an ideal fit with our existing oral business portfolio in the country. The acquisition will not only strengthen our presence in Japan, but also provide for a stronger footprint in this priority market.”

Dabur's Burmans buy stake in Espirito Santo's India unit

Mumbai: The Burman family, promoter of Dabur India, has picked up a stake in Portuguese company Espírito Santo’s Indian unit, marking its entry into the investment banking and stock broking businesses. Espirito Santo Investment Bank said on Tuesday it had entered into a joint venture (JV) with the Burman family, which would operate under its unit, Espírito Santo Securities. The JV will incorporate Espirito Santo’s Indian team, which provides equity research to asset management institutions investing in the country. “With the Burman Family, a broader, stronger business can be developed, extending the brokerage capability initially, and extending the investment banking proposition for clients over time,” Espirito Santo said in a statement. The Burmans picked up less than 26 per cent in Espírito Santo Securities (India), according to two persons familiar with the development. “We look forward to building a great business together,” said Mohit Burman, director at Dabur India, in a statement. The Burman family owns 68 per cent in consumer products maker Dabur India. Mohit Burman holds a 74 per cent stake in his individual capacity in Aviva Life, while the rest is held by the UK’s Aviva. He also holds a 10 per cent stake in Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. He had also acquired nearly 14 per cent in Punjab Tractors. Lisbon-based Espirito Santo is the investment banking arm of Banco Espirito Santo SA, Portugal’s largest publicly traded bank. The firm is a strong player in its home markets of Iberia and the UK. “Espírito Santo is delighted to work alongside such a highly respected local promoter family as the Burmans, with shared values and long-term commitment to India, and to building a successful investment banking business here,” Jose Maria Espirito Santo Ricciardi, CEO of Espirito Santo Investment Bank, said in a statement. Last year, Espirito Santo had bought a majority stake in UK Securities firm Execution Noble, which had set up shop in India in May 2008. The Portuguese firm has a team of 30 employees in India.

Titan acquires Swiss brand Favre Leuba

Bangalore: Titan Industries Ltd has acquired global rights to the trademarks of Swiss watch brand Favre Leuba. Mr Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Industries Ltd, told Business Line, that the “high end of the watch market was growing in India and this acquisition will give us an opportunity to tap that market.” The Indian watch giant has, in a filing to the BSE, said that the company signed a binding offer on November 16, 2011, with Valfamily S. L., Spain and Maison Favre Leuba, S.A Switzerland, for the acquisition of brand Favre Leuba. This acquisition is being pursued on an asset purchase mode, for a sum under €2 million (Rs 13.8 crore), the BSE notification said. “The strategic rationale behind the above acquisition is to complement and strengthen the existing watches brand portfolio of the company with a Swiss heritage brand,” according to the company. Favre Leuba was created in Switzerland in 1737. The Swiss brand will straddle both the Titan and Xylys brands. The latter is a ‘Swiss-made' brand from the Titan portfolio. Premium watch category A Titan official said the premium watch category has been growing the fastest at 25-30 per cent annually and is around 15 per cent of the Rs 4,000 crore organised watch market. Favre Leuba will allow Titan to have a premium offering now in the high-end watch market. While it can parlay the brand in the Indian market, it will also look at re-launching the brand in other markets as Titan has acquired the global rights for the Favre Leuba brand. The acquisition will give it access to technology to make high-end mechanical watches which are in vogue now. Titan had entered the European market in the late '90s under its own brand but the foray was not successful. Revenues Titan Industries reported revenues of Rs 6,533 crore, while PAT stood at Rs 433 crore in FY11. The scrip gained 2.9 per cent to close at Rs 211.90 on the BSE. Trading volumes surged to 6.57 lakh shares against a two-week average of 4.12 lakh shares

Tractor ancillaries upbeat about growth prospects

Chandigarh: Will expand capacity on the back of robust demand in the domestic market. Over 300 tractor ancillaries situated in the northern region (comprising Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh) are upbeat, because the robust demand for tractors in the domestic market is translating into growing demand for the components that they supply to tractor makers. The tractor industry, which is witnessing double-digit growth, is expanding capacity. This has provided an opportunity for the region’s tractor component suppliers, which are mostly SMEs, to cash in on the growing demand. Domestic tractor sales, which totalled around 480,000 units in 2010-11, are expected to grow by 18 per cent to around 565,000 units in the current fiscal year. In the first half of the current year, the industry grew 20 per cent over the year-ago period, selling 265,000 tractors in the domestic market. The northern region houses tractor makers such as International Tractors Ltd (ITL), Mahindra & Mahindra, Indo Farm Tractors, HMT, Escorts and Ace. In order to meet the robust demand, Punjab-based ITL, makers of the Sonalika brand of tractors and the flagship of the Rs 5,000 crore Sonalika group, is planning to ramp up capacity from 60,000 units a year to 100,000 units in the next two years. Similarly, Mahindra & Mahindra’s Mohali plant is expanding capacity to 84,000 units by next year, from 72,000 at present. Gaman Manga, director of Jalandhar-based G D International Private Limited, said, “We are supplying casting items to HMT Tractors. In the past we have also worked with Eicher. Considering the growing demand for tractors, we are also planning to work with Mahindra & Mahindra, and we have plans to expand our casting capacity.” “This is going to be a gateway for rapid growth for our sector,” added a spokeperson of Rayat Spring Ltd, a vendor. A spokesperson of Preet Forging, Manpreet Singh, said, “We are also growing in line with the industry. The current demand has boosted the ancillaries and we have plans to diversify into other products.” Further, in order to attract and help MSMEs, ITL has announced that the company had plans to set up a vendor development park near its plant in Hoshiarpur. It will also provide assistance in terms of technology and technical know-how. The proposed vendor park is likely to benefit key vendors making alloy steel and forging components, fabrication and sheet metal components. Infrastructure development and the mechanisation of agriculture have provided a boost to sales of tractors. Tractor manufacturers are highly dependent on ancillaries for components such as casting components, steering assemblies, gearboxes and brake assemblies.

Employment grew by 2.15 lakh in April-June

New Delhi: Overall employment grew by 2.15 lakh during the April-June 2011 quarter, with most sectors showing an increase except textiles, including apparels, and transport. “An upward trend in employment has been continuously observed since July 2009,” according to the Labour Bureau's quarterly quick estimates to assess the impact of the post-2008 economic slowdown on employment in the country. IT/BPO Sectors Lead The information technology and BPO sectors generated the maximum number of jobs at 1.64 lakh during June over March 2011, followed by 0.53 lakh in metals, 0.18 lakh in automobiles, 0.13 lakh in gems and jewellery, 0.01 lakh in leather and 0.01 lakh in handloom and powerloom sectors. “The maximum increase in overall employment by 1.90 lakh was seen in the direct category of workers as compared to 0.25 lakh in the contract category,” states a Ministry release. In export-oriented units, employment at the overall level rose by 0.67 lakh, while in non-exporting units, it increased by 1.48 lakh during June 2011 over March. However, compared with the last four quarterly surveys during 2010-11 (June 2011 over June 2010), overall employment increased by 10.31 lakh, with highest rise in IT/BPO (7 lakh) followed by 1.31 lakh in textiles, including apparels, 0.96 lakh in metals, 0.78 lakh in automobiles, 0.16 lakh in transport and 0.13 lakh in leather. The Labour Bureau surveyed 2,289 units and establishments spread across 11 States and Union Territories.

India IT spending will grow 9.1% next year: Gartner

Mumbai: Despite the global economic challenges, IT spending in India by enterprises will increase by 9.1 per cent in 2012, according to a report from research firm Gartner. IT spending in India is projected to total $79.8 billion in 2012, against $73.1 billion in 2011. And this is being attributed to the fast paced growth in India's burgeoning telecommunications space and the growing adoption of devices such as smart-phones and tablet computers, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, a Gartner analyst said. “A lot of new IT infrastructure is being bought in tier-2 and tier-3 cities both in the enterprise and retail segments…moreover, the 2G spectrum scam has not had any sizeable impact on IT spending in the space,” he added. Largest segment The telecommunications market is the largest IT segment in India with IT spending forecast to reach $54.7 billion in 2012, followed by the IT services market with spending of $11.1 billion. The computing hardware market in India is projected to reach $10.7 billion in 2012, while software spending will total $3.2 billion, Gartner said. It may be recalled that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has pegged India's mobile teledensity at 72.12 per cent or 86.57 crore wireless subscribers as of August. According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending will reach nearly $3.7 trillion by current year end. Of this, emerging economies such as India, China, Brazil and others will account for $1.013 trillion. Speaking at the inaugural Gartner Symposium here in Mumbai, Mr Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice-President at Gartner, said two-thirds of Chief Executive Officers surveyed by Gartner believe that IT's contribution to their industry in the next 10 years will be greater than in any prior decades. “IT is a primary driver of business growth. For example, this year 350 companies will each invest more than $1 billion in IT. They are doing this because IT impacts their business performance,” said Mr Sondergaard. Three ‘forces' Going forward, Gartner has identified three ‘forces', namely cloud computing, social media computing and information explosion that will change the way businesses will be conducted going forward. “The impact of these forces will make architectures of the last 20 years obsolete… Together, they force the issue – they drive us to create the post-modern business, drive simplicity and force creative destruction,” Mr Sondergaard said.

Footwear industry doubles to Rs 20,000 crore in 5 years as Indians go on a shopping spree

Bangalore/Kolkata: Madhu Malhotra could not believe her luck when she chanced upon a pink and white pair of heels that had an uncanny resemblance to her pinkembroidered white kurta at DB Mall in Bhopal last Thursday. The missionary school teacher also scooped up a pair of maroon flats that day to go with her jeans on weekends, increasing her shoe count to 35 pairs. "People have a tendency to buy only on Diwali, but I buy through the year," the 58-year-old giggles, having bought a pair of gladiator flats on a recent holiday to Mumbai. She is not an exception. Many Indian consumers now spend as much on footwear as on apparel and change their shoes for different occasions, helping expand footwear range from formals, casuals and home wear to weddings, monsoons, clubwear, sportswear, adventure, beachwear and lounge wear. They have also helped the footwear industry almost double in the past five years to an estimated Rs 20,000 crore and prompted retailers to widen their footprint with some urgency. Here is an industry where everybody is in a rush and nobody talks slowdown, which is being felt in most areas of the economy. Harkirat Singh, managing director of the Rs 600-crore Woodland, says the industry is not feeling any impact of slowdown due to a number of external triggers that include more women joining the workforce, an increasing desire to look good and rise in consumers' aspiration levels. "All these are pushing shoe retailing to newer heights," says Singh. Big retailers such as Bata, Liberty and Reliance Footprint are adding nearly two stores a week and opening large-format outlets in smaller cities. Footwear Shopping Has Increased The country's largest shoe retailer Bata India's group MD Rajeev Gopalakrishnan says increasing competition is forcing the companies to refresh their collection at a faster rate than before. Industry insiders say the frequency of footwear shopping has increased dramatically. While men buy a pair of shoes every quarter, women do it faster, every two months. "With fast-changing fashion, customers prefer to update shoes and accessories whenever they update their wardrobe with new apparel," says Kabir Lumba, MD of department store chain Lifestyle International, which has reported 50% year-onyear growth in the footwear segment since 2008. While women may labour over design, colour and heel sizes ranging from ballerina flats to kitten heels, wedges and stilettos, men sweat over anti-skid, biodegradable and waterproof materials. And a lot of customers are now more concerned about the looks than comfort and durability, says Jacob John, brand head of apparel brand Louis Philippe, which entered the footwear market last year. Footwear accounts for 10% of Louis Philippe's revenues. The fashion brand owned by Madura Fashion & Lifestyle recently opened a pure play men's footwear store in Pune. Anupam Bansal, MD of Liberty Retail Revolutions, says Indians now spend 8-10% of their income on footwear and accessories. Shailen Amin, CEO of multi-brand shoe portal Be Stylish, says young professionals crossing over from the unorganised segment to branded footwear are driving the growth. Luxury On Foot The organised footwear market is estimated at Rs 17,500-20,000 crore, growing at 10-15% a year, although top companies independently claim to be growing at 25-30%. The men's segment accounts for nearly 60% of the market, with leather products dominating. But women and children's segments are growing faster, making many retailers step into this market. Demand is growing in smaller cities such as Sangli, Dehradun, Bathinda and Patiala. The luxury segment too is growing rapidly. Luxury brand Jimmy Choo, popular for its Swarovski-encrusted heels retailing at over Rs 1 lakh, grew 30% year-onyear in 2010-11 and has opened five stores in the past three years. "Earlier, new, aspirational consumers entered the designer segment through handbags. But in many cases, shoes are becoming an entry point today," says Deepika Gehani, creative head of Genesis Luxury, which has brought Jimmy Choo to India. Anand Ramanathan, associate director at management consultancy KPMG, says that although it's driven by fashion trends, the footwear industry is comparatively less risky than the apparel business. "Not only is the ticket size of footwear much higher per sq ft but the exposure to market changes is also lower because the product does not expire as fast," he says. While Reliance Footprint and Liberty say sports and casual wear are the fastest growing, a loyal franchise for men's office wear brand Hush Puppies has prompted Bata to open 11 standalone outlets for the brand. Retailers are highly sensitive to regional preferences too. "If twoinch heels click in Kolkata, women in Bangalore prefer three-inch heels," says Rafique Malik, MD of Metro Shoes, which also owns the brand Mochi. "While vibrant colours must be stocked in Punjab, Tamil Nadu is the only market where white men's shoes sell through the year," he says.

Cabinet approves 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail

New Delhi: The Cabinet finally paved way for the entry of global retail majors like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour to open independent multi-brand retail outlets in India. The Cabinet has permitted foreign direct investment (FDI) of up to 51 per cent in multi-brand retail. Simultaneously, the Cabinet also gave the nod for raising the FDI limit in single-brand retail ventures to 100 per cent. The policy will allow multi-brand foreign retailers to open outlets only in cities which have a population of more than 1,000,000 as per the 2011 Census. At present, there are 55 such cities which would help big retail chains to move beyond the metros to smaller cities. The clearance comes with several conditions attached to it. Foreign investors will be required to invest up 50 per cent of total FDI in back-end infrastructure. Such infrastructure will include capital expenditure on all activities, excluding that on front-end units. Expenditure on land cost and rentals will not be counted for purpose of back-end infrastructure. Moreover, retailers will need to source at least 30 per cent of manufactured/processed products from small industries. However, there will not be any obligation on the part of retailers to source agricultural produce such as fruits and vegetables. The Government of India has also retained the first right on sourcing agricultural produce. It makes 30 per cent sourcing from small and medium enterprises mandatory, as soon as the FDI limit exceeds 51 per cent. Opening up of FDI in multi-brand retail trade and further liberalisation of single-brand retail trade, as per the Government, will facilitate greater FDI inflows besides additional and quality employment.

Commerce Ministry approves proposals for packaging sector

Hyderabad: The $23-billion Indian packaging industry is expected to get a significant boost, with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry giving an in-principle approval to take up the 10 proposals submitted by the Indian Institute of Packaging to enhance industry standards. The 10 proposals, entailing an investment of about Rs 60 crore, include setting up of food packaging laboratory, flexible intermediate bulk container testing laboratory at Chennai and an international packaging centre in Mumbai. The proposals will also involve construction of a new education complex in Mumbai for B.Tech course on packaging, besides establishment of new centres in Guwahati and Ahmedabad. “We have just given our (Ministry's) approval, which will be submitted to the Ministry of Finance to decide on funding patterns. All the proposals will be completed during the 12 {+t} {+h} Plan Period,” Mr J.K. Dadoo, Joint Secretary to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, told media persons on the sidelines of the Indipack 2011 event here. The domestic packaging sector, which has registered a 15 per cent growth, is expected to grow at 18 per cent in the next few years to touch $40 billion by 2015. Currently, it accounts for 10 per cent of the global market, constituting nearly 400 billion containers in terms of unit volumes. India imports about $125 million worth packaging machinery from Germany, Italy, Korea and China, with some 600-700 machinery manufacturers operating locally. Mr Dadoo said food consumption in India was expected to touch $240 billion by 2013, necessitating innovative packaging solutions, especially in the area of “heat and eat” food products. India's per capita packaging consumption is less than $15, against the world average of $100, he added. On the wastage of perishable food items due to inadequate packaging and transportation, he said the proposal to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retailing may reduce this wastage, as the foreign retailers will largely depend on primary producers for farm produces. They are expected to bring in better packaging and supply chain solutions. The three-day Indipack, which includes technical conferences and an exhibition, was inaugurated by the AP Minister for Civil Supplies and Food, Mr Sridhar Babu.

Cabinet approves Companies Bill

New Delhi: Seven years after it was first proposed, the cabinet on Thursday approved the Companies Bill 2011, a draft law to comprehensively amend the 55-year-old Companies Act 1956. It will be tabled in Parliament during the current session. The Bill aims at the modernisation of corporate regulation. It will herald an era of e-governance, enhanced accountability, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) among companies registered in the country. Several corporate governance and disclosure norms were included in the Bill to avoid recurrence of corporate scandals such as the alleged accounting fraud by the promoters of the erstwhile Satyam Computer in 2009. Additional disclosure norms for companies, mandatory rotation of auditors and audit firms, regulation of related-party transactions, protection of minority shareholders, provision for class action suits, enhancement of penalties and a mandatory slot for a woman director on company boards are all new proposals included in the Bill. Among other things, it also proposes to tighten the laws for raising money from the public. The Bill seeks to prohibit insider trading by company directors or key managerial personnel by treating such activities as a criminal offence. Further, it has proposed companies earmark two per cent of the average profit of the preceding three years for CSR activities and make a disclosure to shareholders about the policy adopted in the process. Class action suits will empower investors to sue a company for oppression and mismanagement, and claim damages. The Bill, referred to the cabinet a few weeks ago, was not cleared earlier due to some technical differences between the ministries of finance and corporate affairs over the delegation of powers to stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India. The differences were later resolved by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and corporate affairs minister Veerappa Moily. Apparently, it has been decided Sebi's view will be upheld in cases of conflicting jurisdictions. The United Progressive Alliance government had introduced the Companies Bill, 2008 during its previous tenure, though it lapsed with the dissolution of the 14th Lok Sabha. It was re-introduced in August 2009 and was vetted by a parliamentary standing committee on finance. The 2011 Bill incorporates most of the changes recommended by the parliamentary panel. Industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) welcomed the decision. “CII is very hopeful the cabinet has kept the concerns of the industry in mind while clearing this important legislation,” said CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee.

Aakash to get more features, prices may go down 1 day ago

If the Rs 3,000 tablet Aakash by Datawind was not enough, the company feels that it would be able to lower the price still further and also add more features or applications every six months. CEO, Datawind, Suneet Singh Tuli who launched the worlds cheapest tablet a few weeks back said on Friday that the Aakash tablet would be available in the market from January onwards. It is being currently rolled out by the government to targeted students across the country at a subsidised price of about Rs 1,500. Tuli said that while Aakash has been called a pathbreaking product and the cheapest tablet in the world at Rs 3,000, they were hopeful of reducing the cost a little lower as sales ramp up over the next year. He said that the tablet could become a little cheaper in the coming year and more features can be added to it every six months. "Processing power, battery life many such things can be increased over a period of time and we hope that every six months there would be something new in the Aakash tablet" said Suneet Singh Tuli. Aakash has already received 3 lakh pre launch bookings and Datawind has entered into a manufacturing agreement with companies at two more places in Cochin and Noida for meeting the demand. It is currently being manufactured near Hyderabad but with sales expected to hit 50 lakh units by end 2012, the company has entered into fresh manufacturing contracts to meet the huge demand. Suneet Singh Tuli said that to spur entrepreneurship among the youth and also to identify useful apps for their tablet they have started a national contest for students to submit their innovative software applications for collaboration with Datawind. "We hope to create entrepreneurial instincts among the student community. Several money-spinners like Facebook etc were started by students still in college. Students think unconventionally unlike large corporates. If they design a useful application which is selected by the jury it would be pre-burned in millions of tablets to be shipped out by us" said Tuli. He said that while it could be a money spinner for the student who will get a royalty from the usage of application on Aakash tablet, they would also gain by offering a useful application to their users. Tuli was here to attend the Entrepreneurial Summit organized by the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.

Indian IT companies like Cognizant, Infosys play down gains from rupee free fall

A sharp decline in the rupee means Indian IT services exporters are getting more bang for their buck, but most top executives are wary of the sudden dip as it adds to the current uncertainty. The rupee -- Asia's worst-performing currency this year -- has skidded nearly 17 percent from a 2011 high reached in late July as risk-averse investors flee emerging markets. It rebounded as much as 1.7 percent on Wednesday, a day after it touched an all-time low of 52.73. "If the change is gradual we can manage, but if the change happens at the end of the quarter, either way, we will have a big shift. We will not have the time to adjust," Infosys Ltd's Chief Executive S.D. Shibulal said at the Reuters India Investment Summit in Bangalore on Wednesday. Indian IT companies may also not reap the full benefits of a strong dollar as many of them hedge their positions against forex fluctuations. "By the end of September, we had $3 billion hedges in rupee expenses. About 60 percent of our rupee expenses were hedged," a Cognizant executive told Reuters. India's biggest listed biotechnology company Biocon , which receives licensing revenue from its partners Mylan and Pfizer, is not upbeat on the falling rupee either, as gains will be offset by imports getting dearer. "The Reserve Bank of India and the regulators have to rein in the free falling rupee because if you don't do that your imports are just going to cripple the economy," Biocon founder and Chairman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said. The rapidly falling rupee is also putting pressure on sectors like autos, infrastructure and realty at a time when high interest rates have already made borrowing more expensive.

Suzlon eyes $1-billion worth of new orders every quarter

MUMBAI: Wind power major Suzlon Energy, which recently took complete control of its German subsidiary REpower, has said it will focus on value engineering to remain competitive and has set a target of bagging USD 1 billion worth of new orders every quarter for the next few years. "We are working on value engineering by introducing new products like the S9X series of turbines that will not only enable us reduce cost, but also give us a competitive advantage in the market. With the new technology, we aim to bag orders worth USD 1 billion every quarter, every year," Suzlon Energy chairman and managing director Tulsi R Tanti told PTI in an interview here. Currently, the Pune-based world's fifth largest wind turbine maker's order-book stands at USD 7 billion and has a topline of USD 5 billion. The company has created the S9X suite of low wind speed turbines - S95 and 7, with a 2.1 MW rating for all markets, which is an advancement over the successful S88 wind turbines. "The smart S9X innovation and comprehensive design increases energy yield by 14-19 per cent, improves service ability and ease of maintenance," Tanti said. The 2 MW-class turbines come in two variants of 90-m and 100-m hub heights and the rotor diameter of 95 m and 97 m. "The wind industry is rapidly evolving. The center of gravity has shifted to emerging markets, which are re-shaping the renwable energy sector. This shift is also dictating the direction of technology development, as more moderate and low wind sites become available in these new markets. The S9X suite of turbines has been developed to take advantage of these emerging opportunities," Tanti said, adding Suzlon has already received orders for 800 MW for its this new turbine. Suzlon has also started working on manufacturing products in the 9X suite, with a capacity of 3 MW and 6 MW. While the 2 MW turbines are designed for developing markets, the 3 MW will cater to the developed markets and the 6 MW for the offshore markets, he said. "By brining in these new technologies, we expect to bring down material consumption in all the three platforms by 10 per cent each. The S9X product suite is designed to provide higher return on investment for our customers through higher generation, greater efficiency and improved technology," the company chairman said. "We are working on bringing down further the cost per energy through the technology. We expect to reduce the cost per energy by 25 per cent over the next two years through technology," Tanti said. On its USD 1.28-billion order from Britain's Caparo Group to generate 1000 MW, he said, "500 MW worth of capacity will be commissioned in this fiscal, while another 500 MW will be commissioned within the following year." Suzlon to save Tanti has also said with REpower coming fully under its control, Suzlon expects to shave off 200 million euros from its overall cost structure next fiscal, which primarily involves sourcing more components from India and China. "Nearly 65 per cent of our spends are on components, a majority of which comes from Europe. But given the current scenario, we plan to concentrate on the domestic market as well as China for components. This will help in reducing our material cost by nearly 100 million euros in FY13 and another similar amount from other heads," Tanti said. The cost-saving will be on the back of acquisition of the REepower. "With the successful acquisition of the complete stake in REpower, we see ourselves well-placed in the market. We will be focusing on market positioning, joint procurement and joint technology development for all our current and future projects. REpower, which was otherwise buying components from Europe will now import it mostly from India," Tanti added. Suzlon, present in 32 markets with an installed capacity of 18,000 MW (7000 MW in the country), recently bagged USD 6.5-billion worth orders for the next three years, making it the biggest order in the area. It can be noted that Suzlon stocks fell nearly 40 per cent in the past one week. Capping lack of investor confidence was the report that promoters sold 2 per cent stake to address margin calls to bankers. When asked about this, Tanti said, the current debt of nearly Rs 9,000 crore is not a problem, considering our healthy order-book of USD 6.5 billion. "With a USD 7 billion order-book and USD 5 billion topline, USD 2 billion in debt is not a big deal." On whether the company will be in a position to pay back the USD 550 million FCB redemption due for next June and September, he said "Of course. I am not seeking any extension." The company has Rs 10,000 crore debt, out of which, around Rs 6000 crore is working a capital loan, and Rs 4000 crore is a long-term debt, which is to be re-paid over 5-7 years. Over the next 12 months, it has a repayment obligation is USD 750 million. Tanti said, "As of the September quarter, the net debt to equity ratio is 1.6 times, which we want to bring down to 1.4 by the end of the year and by March 2013, it will be be at 1:1, and that too, without raising any equity."

Indian tea to come under one brand

JORHAT: The Tea Board has decided to on focus Indian tea under one brand and launch aggressive marketing in five big markets to increase sale. "We talk of Assam, Darjeeling and Nilgiri teas but as a whole Indian tea is not focused. Its high time we focus Indian tea under one umbrella as one brand," Tea Board Deputy Chairperson Roshni Sen said here today. Speaking on the concluding day of the three-day World Tea Science Congress, Sen said the Tea Board's main focus in the 12th Plan was to brand Indian tea under one umbrella and one logo. "We will give permission for the premium teas to use the logo." As the country was losing out major markets due to inadequate promotions, she said, an aggressive programme called "555" would be introduced five focus countries for five years and for five identified activities. "The five countries are Russia, Kazakhstan, USA, Iraq and Egypt which are the biggest buyers of Indian tea. We want to build up a Brand India image there because though they are buying tea from India but branding of our tea has really not happened," she said. Dan Bolton, a tea expert from the USA, said the movement for popularising Indian tea needed more investments and stress should be on quality for the retailers to tell their customers about the quality of tea they were selling. Assam Chief Sectary Naba Kumar Das, speaking as the chief guest at the closing function, said, small tea growers needed to be given special attention for quality control. He called upon the traditional tea growing countries to share their experiences with the small tea growers.

Vodafone, HDFC Bank launch mobile banking in Rajasthan

CHOMU (RAJASTHAN): Leading telecom service provider Vodafone India and private lender HDFC Bank Saturday launched "m-paisa", a mobile banking service in Rajasthan to enable millions of unbanked Indians perform basic banking transactions on their mobile phone. "It is a great oppotunity for a country like India to improve financial inclusion through mobile banking. It is a pioneering initiative modeled on the lines of Vodafone's m-pesa product running in three different countries of Africa, offering to more than 17 million people basic financial services beyond the reach of traditional banking," said Sunil Sood, director, business operations, Vodafone India. "With our reach and ability to connect customers, we expect many million people to come into the banking fold through this service," he added. This initiative will allow Vodafone's select retailers to act as HDFC's sub-agents through which customers can deposit and withdraw cash through their mobile phone without having to go to bank branches. In Rajasthan where this national partnership has been implemented, over 2,200 retailers across 320 villages and 54 towns are operational in opening HDFC Bank mobile bank accounts with Vodafone m-paisa. "There are 6,00,000 habitations but only about 89,000 bank branches in the country, making access to banking services difficult in remote areas. We feel that Vodafone's significant distribution reach will provide customers the security of financial transaction offered by bank," said Rahul Bhagat, country head, retail liabilities, marketing and direct banking channels, HDFC Bank. The companies will expand the service pan-India in a phased manner by March-April next year and also have plans to deliver it in all the major languages gradually. Currently it is available only in English. In order to open an account, a customer will have fill in a KYC (know your customer) form and submit it to the retail outlet authorised by Vodafone and then start availing service on fulfilment of the bank's formalities by dialing *135#. Speaking about the security of the service, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor K.C. Chakrabarty, who launched the service, said: "We will be supervising HDFC Bank ... we have issued mobile banking guidelines. We want to ensure that efficient use of mobile technology takes place in financial inclusion."

Global retail firms may face hurdle in 28 of 53 cities opened for FDI

NEW DELHI: With BJP, JD(U), AIADMK, BSP and Trinamool Congress strongly opposing FDI in multi-brand retail, global chains may face problems in opening stores in 28 of the 53 cities which have been thrown open to retailers like Walmart and Carrefour. The parties and alliances ruling in 11 major states have strongly opposed the decision of the Central government to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail which is dominated by small traders. According to 2011 Census, there are 28 cities in 11 states ruled by the parties opposed to the decision. These include big cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Patna, Allahabad and Bhopal which have over one million population, the threshold set by Cabinet while approving FDI in retail on November 24. Excluding Punjab, BJP and NDA rule in eight states, including Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh. BJP indicated that states where the party is in power may not permit foreign stores. Besides, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has already stated that no foreign retailers would be allowed in her state. The final authority for granting the trade licence rests with the states under their respective shops and establishment Acts. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday vehemently opposed the decision to allow 51 per cent FDI in retail saying "It will ruin the retailers and lead to a point of unemployment".

Cyrus Mistry to succeed Tata

Mumbai: The suspense is finally over. Mr Cyrus P. Mistry will take over from Mr Ratan Tata as Chairman of the Tata Group when he retires in December 2012. He was appointed Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons at the company's board meeting here on Wednesday and will work with Mr Tata over the next year. “This is as per the unanimous recommendation of the selection committee,” a press release said. The release quoted Mr Tata as saying, “The appointment of Mr Cyrus P. Mistry as Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons is a good and far-sighted choice. He has been on the Board of Tata Sons since August 2006 and I have been impressed with the quality and calibre of his participation, his astute observations and his humility. “He is intelligent and qualified to take on the responsibility being offered and I will be committed to working with him over the next year to give him the exposure, the involvement and the operating experience to equip him to undertake the full responsibility of the Group on my retirement.” Age has been a major factor that led to the selection of Mr Mistry, a person closely associated with the selection committee said. The 43-year-old son of Mr Pallonji Mistry, the largest single shareholder in Tata Sons with an 18 per cent stake, is a civil engineering graduate from Imperial College, London. He also has a Master of Science in Management from the London Business School. ‘Deeply honoured' Mr Mistry is currently Managing Director, Shapoorji Pallonji Group. “I feel deeply honoured by this appointment. I am aware that an enormous responsibility, with a great legacy, has been entrusted to me. I look forward to Mr Tata's guidance in the year ahead in meeting the expectations of the Group. “I take this responsibility very seriously, and in keeping with the values and ethics of the Tata Group I will undertake to legally disassociate myself from the management of my family businesses to avoid any issue of conflict of interest,” he said in a statement. Television crews had parked themselves outside Bombay House, the headquarters of the Tata Group in the busy Fort area, for hours. When Mr R. K. Krishna Kumar, Director of Tata Sons, emerged after the meeting, he quickly said, “This is great news and a great moment,” before getting into his car and driving off. Another Tata company official told Business Line that Mr Mistry's age would hold the Group in good stead for the future. “This is keeping in line with the current trend where a whole lot of top-level managers are in their 40s,” he added. Within industry circles, the appointment of Mr Mistry has come as a surprise especially when it seemed a near certainty that the other Tata, Noel, would take over the mantleThe five-member panel which had been on this exercise for more than a year had a tough task on hand, especially when it meant finding a successor to fill Mr Tata's boots. It had to be a person with the kind of global perspective that would take the Group into the next level of growth. Speculation was rife that an expatriate would also be considered and some of the names doing the rounds included Ms Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, and Mr Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan. “All this was complete conjecture,” an industry source said. Ratan’s letter to executives Mr Ratan Tata in a letter to executives said: "I am looking forward to working with Mr Mistry in the coming months and sharing with him the complexity, the challenges and the future vision of our group, and trust that you will extend the same wholehearted support to him as you have to me."

Indian Oil, BP in pact to set up 1 mt acetic acid plant

New Delhi: BP and Indian Oil Corporation are planning to set up a 50:50 joint venture acetic acid plant in Gujarat. The two companies entered a memorandum of understanding to invest in a one-million-tonne a year acetic acid plant with associated gasification facilities for production of synthesis gas. Acetic acid is used in petrochemicals and paints, apart from other products. A joint feasibility study is currently under way to confirm the exact configuration of the project, which is expected to be commissioned in 2015, separate statements issued by the two companies said. The proposed plant would employ BP's latest Cativa XL technology, whilst the gasification facilities would utilise petroleum coke feedstock from Indian Oil. On whether BP-Reliance Industries agreement will have any impact on this understanding, official sources said, “The BP-Reliance Industries agreement does not include venture into acetic acid business.” Sources said, currently, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers Company (GNFC) is producing acetic acid. GNFC's plant is unable to meet the entire domestic demand. GNFC capacity is 1.6 lakh tonnes a year. The current supply-demand gap is about six lakh tonnes, the official said, adding that the gap is met through imports. “By the time the joint venture plant is proposed to come up (in 2015), the gap would be about one million tonnes, which is the proposed capacity of this plant.” Indian Oil has recently commissioned a coker unit with one million tonne petcoke capacity at Gujarat Refinery. The acetic acid will be a good opportunity for enhanced value addition besides providing window for import substitution, the official said.

Nokia Siemens cuts 17,000 jobs

Nokia Siemens Networks, the unprofitable telephone-equipment venture of Nokia Oyj and Siemens AG, will eliminate 17,000 jobs worldwide in its biggest cull to narrow the gap with market leader Ericsson AB. The reduction, equivalent to about 23 per cent of its workforce, will be completed by the end of 2013, when Nokia Siemens aims to cut 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in annual operating expenses and production costs. Nokia Siemens will focus on mobile broadband and services, and aims to divest or "manage for value" units that aren't central to its plans, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said. Nokia Siemens received a cash injection of 1 billion euros from its parent companies in September as Jesper Ovesen, the former chief financial officer of TDC A/S, was named to oversee the restructuring as executive chairman. The venture, set up in April 2007 to compete against Ericsson and Chinese rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co, has fallen behind and has been unprofitable in all but one quarter. "If you look at the last two to three years, it's become clear that Ericsson and Huawei are quite a long way ahead of the competition," said Mark Newman, chief research officer at London-based Informa Telecoms & Media. "NSN has struggled to remain competitive. It's gone through periods of being extremely aggressive in terms of pitching for new business because it realized it needed to win new contracts." Lost revenue Siemens fell 1.7 per cent to 68 euros in Frankfurt trading. Nokia fell 2.3 per cent to 4.09 euros in Helsinki. "I think this will be enough," Sami Sarkamies, a Helsinki-based analyst with Nordea Bank, said in an interview. "It was probably more than people expected. The big question is how much will be divestments versus cost savings, which affects how much revenue they are going to lose. With these efforts they should be able to get above 5 per cent margins for earnings before interest and taxes by late 2012 or 2013." Siemens and Nokia abandoned talks with private-equity companies in July after the buyout firms failed to come up with a compelling offer. The companies said in September that Nokia Siemens would "become a more independent entity." Motorola units Nokia Siemens had a 13.2 per cent market share in 2010, tied with Alcatel-Lucent for third place in the mobile infrastructure market, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Ericsson was first with 34.1 per cent and Huawei second at 15.6 per cent. The company is "a very strong number two" in managed services, Frankfurt- based Gartner analyst Bettina Tratz-Ryan said in an interview. "They have a 'me-too' strategy and they need to provide more in order to become successful," Tratz-Ryan said. Nokia Siemens employed almost 75,000 people as of September 30. The company generated sales of about $254,000 per employee last year, 19 per cent less than larger rival Ericsson, based on numbers from the companies' financial reports. The figure for both manufacturers is sinking as prices for equipment such as base stations and packet-switching networks decline. Nokia Siemens said it plans to simplify its organization, consolidate sites and functions, and strip out more jobs from the integration of Motorola Solutions Inc units acquired this year. 'Takeover candidate' The company announced in August that it planned to cut as many as 1,500 positions from the Motorola units, which added workers in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The company also has large units in Espoo, Finland, and Munich, Germany. It makes equipment at locations including Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou in China; Bruchsal, Germany; Chennai, India; and Oulu, Finland, according to a Nokia filing. "They are turning themselves into a takeover candidate," Georg Nassauer, head of the German works council at Nokia Siemens, said by telephone. "NSN needs new management. They have proved they aren't up to the job." Nokia Siemens hasn't decided how many jobs will be cut per country, spokeswoman Jozefa Terloo said from Munich. Negotiations with worker representatives will start immediately, she said. In Germany, the venture has about 10,000 employees. "We need to take the necessary steps to maintain long-term competitiveness and improve profitability in a challenging telecommunications market," Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Suri said in a statement. Assets that are peripheral to the new strategy include "a lot of wireline areas" as well as a unit that sells IPTV services to carriers, Suri said in an interview, adding that he doesn't anticipate announcements on a possible share sale or change of ownership in the near future. "We got a billion euros of equity committed by parents in September to support new strategy," Suri said. "We have a new executive chairman that sort of paves the way for independence. Apart from that, nothing else is on the horizon."

Indian IT: Freshers number up, salary stagnant

Right in the middle of the placement season in 2010, at one of the popular Tier 2 engineering colleges in Mumbai, Rohith, 21, decided not to sit for any placement tests. In 2008, when his sister passed out of the same college, she was recruited by one of the top IT services companies and was offered an annual package of Rs 3 lakh. Three years down the line, Rohith and other aspiring software engineers of his batch were offered the same package to be part of what they considered the most exciting industry. India's IT firms recruits an increasing number of fresh graduates every year and is one of the largest white-collar employers. But the packages offered to campus hires at most Tier 2 engineering colleges have remained unchanged since the 2008-09 downturn, stagnating between Rs 3 and Rs 3.5 lakh. While the demand for IT and IT-enabled jobs remain high, placement coordinators and students say more Indian IT firms have refused to hike fresher salaries. And the clear reason for this: growing availability of good talent and a spurt in engineering colleges in the past three years. India has the largest technical and scientific manpower globally and total graduate outturn - the number coming out of colleges - across sectors has doubled over the last decade enabling greater scalability for customers. The outturn of technical graduates and post graduates increased to over 7 lakh in FY11 compared to a little over 5.5 lakh in FY10, says Nasscom in a report earlier in the year. Enrolment in technology colleges in the same period increased sharply from 12 lakh to 16 lakh. "Being able to work for one of the top 5 IT companies is a big thing among students. The entry-level salary in most of the IT companies such as Infosys, Wipro , TCS and Cognizant have remained between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3.25 lakh since 2008. Even if they offer the same package in future, demand for these jobs is not going to come down" , says Varkey Philip, who heads the placements committee at the Rajagiri Institute of Engineering and Technology at Kochi. He says IT is still the most preferred for most engineering graduates. At RV College of Engineering in Bangalore too, entry-level salaries are stagnant at the pre-2008 recession level. While companies like Oracle and Microsoft offer between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 8 lakh to freshers, Indian IT companies, which recruit more, offer Rs 3.5 lakh on an average. NS Narasimhan, director of placements and training at RV College, says colleges are only worried about getting all the students placed, and not about the level of their salaries. "Most of the graduates work for a year or two and make the most out of your new job and experience. Colleges are only worried about getting them the job. Companies are not going to witness a supply shortage and hence they are not compelled to raise salary packages", he said. Low entry level salaries are the biggest leverage for Indian IT firms to keep costs low. Most maintain a 60:40 ratio of freshers versus laterals. Most Indian IT firms also have to invest significant amount in training freshers to get them job ready. At Infosys for one, freshers go through an average of 3-6 months of training before becoming billable. Nasscom pegs training spends per employee in IT-BPO among the highest in the organised services sector. At iGate, which would offer annual packages of between Rs 3.1 and 3.25 lakh to campus recruits this year, salaries have gone up marginally over the past three years. Srinivas Kandula, Head of HR operations, says that the entry-level salary remains stagnant because companies cannot afford to increase the cost. "It is a cost to the company. We invest on the freshers," he said. "In fact, fresher salaries have gone up marginally, probably by 5%. Companies invest heavily on training and upgrading talent. Raising entry-level salary can have a cascading effect. Unless there's a significant change in demand-supply, this trend is likely to continue," says P Thiruvengadam senior director at Deloitte India. There has also been an increase in supply of good quality talent cited as major concern by IT firms for over a decade. Three years back, Anna University in Chennai was the only place where IT firms made 1,000-plus offers every year. But now, there are at least six such universities where companies have made offers to over 1,000 students in a year. TCS at Sastra University, Cognizant at VIT and Amrita University, Infosys at Amrita University and Accenture at Amity are top examples. "In the last few years, the quality of engineering graduates passing out of premier institutions across India has gone up significantly. We believe that this is because of a variety of reasons: stronger industry-academia linkage programmes, greater student connect with their predecessors through social networks, increased number of seats in reputable institutions, increase in the number of colleges especially those run by corporate houses, and so on," Shankar Srinivasan, Chief People Officer of Cognizant said. HR experts say Indian IT has lost the power to increase prices as costs have risen and the industry has matured. This too is causing salaries to stay flat.

IBM opens three new offices in India

IBM has announced the opening of three regional offices in India as part of the company's on-going geographic expansion in the country. The new offices in Dehradun, Guwahati and Raipur provide IBM with a footprint of 18 branch offices across India to date. IBM is currently focused on increasing its presence in smaller, rapidly developing Indian cities as part of its plan to establish a presence in 40 Indian cities by 2013. The company is witnessing demand for information management, security, cloud computing and business analytics solutions as businesses and government organizations turn to IT to reduce costs and gain competitive advantage. The company is also investing in the education system in these regions with a number of partnerships and academic initiatives especially to support the growth of Open Source technologies. IBM has partnered with Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT) in Guwahati. "These are dynamic times for Indian regional development and there is tremendous market potential in these cities that we are expanding into," said Nipun Mehrotra, Vice President, General Business, Geographic Expansion, IBM India/South Asia.

Cognizant deploys merchandise platform for Dubai firm

Nasdaq-listed IT firm Cognizant today announced the deployment of a comprehensive merchandise planning platform for the Redtag Group, a Dubai-based chain of value fashion and home stores. The platform will help Redtag respond faster and more efficiently to the dynamic fashion retail market by making better informed purchase and pricing decisions based on detailed and executable merchandise plans, Cognizant said in a press release here. By leveraging sophisticated analytical capabilities to deliver accurate forecasts linking market events and sales results, the platform would enable Redtag to eliminate plan discrepancies, optimise inventories, reduce markdowns and drive process consistency across its 77 value fashion and home stores, it said. "As we expand our geographical footprint, this platform will foster rapid decision-making aligned closely with our aggressive growth targets, enhance operational agility in a highly competitive and fast-moving market, optimise capital and operational costs and scale easily to effectively meet customer needs," Redtag Group CEO Ernest Hosking said. "We are pleased to have successfully deployed an advanced planning platform for Redtag to create informed estimates of future business opportunities, infuse inventory movement decisions with customer insight and realise optimal returns on inventory investment," R Chandrasekaran, President and Managing Director for Global Delivery at Cognizant, said.

Omnia invests Rs 7 crore in early-stage education firms

Bangalore: Omnia Investments, the venture fund set up by the promoters of Spice Mobility, has made its maiden investment in two earlystage startups. The fund has invested Rs 7 crore in candidate assessment venture Single Stop and in higher education firm Sunstone for a significant minority stake. Omnia Investments was launched less than a year ago by Dilip Modi, Managing Director of the $2-billion (Rs 10,000 crore) mobility product and retail conglomerate Spice Mobility, with an initial corpus of Rs 20 crore. The fund will focus on education and technology. It is not part of the Spice Mobility group. "Corporates have long viewed education through the corporate social responsibility lens," said Modi, who is also the president of industry body Assocham. "But education provides a large business opportunity as well." India's rapidly growing education sector has attracted considerable risk capital in recent months. The education market in the country is projected to cross $50 billion (Rs 2.5 lakh crore) by 2015, said a study by Assocham. Last month, CLSA Capital invested over $20 million in test preparation company Resonance Eduventures. Venture fund Helion Advisors made a $3.5 million investment in affordable education provider Vienova Education in September. The same month, two other venture investments were made in education firms: Online education start-up Eduora Technologies got funding from early-stage fund Seeders and learning technology startup Sparsha raised money from Blume Ventures and Tempus Capital. A recent KPMG report said the test assessment market is poised for rapid growth. Govind Wakhlu and Prashant Pitti, founders of six-month old Single Stop, believe that companies will increasingly outsource the initial candidate assessment process to third-party vendors. Single Stop provides assessment tests for fresh graduates who are targeting entrylevel jobs in sales, backend operations and other support functions. The firm administers the Common Job Test, which is a standardised exam to understand a candidate's areas of strength, and sends out the scores to partner companies. "There is a huge gap in the entry-level job segment. Companies are not getting the right candidate and job seekers are not getting the right jobs," said Wakhlu, an Illinois Technology Institute graduate who returned to India in 2010. The test was launched last month and around 300 candidates have taken it so far. Omnia's other investment, Sunstone, provides a one-year MBA programme solely for techies. It was launched last year by Rajul Garg, the former co-founder of offshore R&D venture GlobalLogic. "With the growth of the IT industry, we need leaders who have a background in IT to run companies," said Garg. "Our aim is to create tech CEOs." The course is for working professionals and the first batch started five months ago. Spice Mobility's Modi said they expect to close more investments in two months. Modi has also launched a social fund, Ek Soch Mission, which will provide grants to entrepreneurs who want to set up ventures in mobile value-added services (VAS), education and clean energy.

Ashok Leyland, US company John Deere enter into joint venture to retail construction equipment

Chennai: Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland has entered the construction equipment business, along with American company John Deere, with the launch of the 435 backhoe loader. Priced at Rs 23.5 lakh (ex-Tamil Nadu), the backhoe loader is the first product to roll out of the 50:50 joint venture, Ashok Leyland John Deere Construction Equipment Company. “The joint venture marks a marriage of experience with expertise, global vision with local relevance. The backhoe loader has been designed for the Indian market conditions and the requirements of Indian customers,” said Dr V. Sumantran, Chairman of the joint venture company. Around Rs 200 crore has been invested in the first phase of the 435 backhoe loader. Branding The product will be sold under the ‘Leyland Deere' branding and manufactured at a Greenfield facility in Gummidipoondi, near Chennai. It addresses the critical considerations of lower operating cost, fuel economy and low maintenance and repair costs, said Mr Douglas Meyer, Director – Construction and Engineering, John Deere. The 435 is powered by an Ashok Leyland engine from the H-series platform and promises features such as power shift transmission, large cabin space, higher visibility, higher breakout forces and greater dig depths. The product will be initially launched in the southern states, before being rolled out nationally. The company has tied up with partners such as TVS Logistics for distribution. “For now we will focus only on the domestic market,” said Dr Sumantran. Two more products are being developed by the joint venture company. The second product from the joint venture – a wheel loader – will be rolled out in 2013. Mr P. Ravi Shankar, CEO, Ashok Leyland John Deere Construction Equipment Company said the company is looking at a capacity of 10,000 units by 2016-17, across the three product categories – the backhoe will account for 8800 units. The backhoe category in the country is at 20,000 units a year, growing at 30-35 per cent. JCB is the market leader in this segment with a 75 per cent share.

Mobile device sales to grow 8.5% next year: Gartner

Mumbai: The sale of mobile devices in India will grow 8.5 per cent in 2012 to 231 million units from 213 million units last year, according to a research report from Gartner. The research firm says that the Indian mobile handset market is expected to show steady growth through 2015 when end-user sales will surpass 322 million units. The Indian mobile device market is very competitive with more than 150 manufacturers. “The big global brands will continue to face competition from local and Chinese brands as some of these brands are building capabilities to compete at a larger level, covering broader consumer segments,” said Mr Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. Moreover, mobile manufacturers are also competing against many brands in the black markets that are being sold without invoices, according to a press statement from Gartner. Smartphone sales in India made up 6 per cent of device sales in the first three quarters of 2011, and this share is expected to increase to 8 per cent in 2012. The Indian mobile device market is driven by the lowest call rates in the world and dominated by low-cost devices, which account for 75 per cent of sales in India in 2011, the statement said.

Canon to open 300 outlets across India

Japanese imaging major Canon's Indian arm aims to triple its business to Rs 4,500 crore ($1 billion) in four years by opening 300 exclusive outlets, many of them in tier-III and IV cities, the head of its operations here says. "We hope to close this year at Rs 1,600 crore. By 2015, we hope to take this to Rs 4,500 crore. In the process, we will be increasing our exclusive retail brand stores from 95 by the end of this year to 300," Canon India president and CEO Kensaku Konishi told IANS in an interivew. "We are growing not only in the big cities but in the tier II and III cities too. Presently, if you live in these towns, you would have to go to a big city. Now, we are going to our customers with exactly the same kind of exclusive retail outlet that you would find in a big city," he said. Toward this end, the company already opened 38 outlets in tier-II and III cities. Incorporated in 1997, Canon India Pvt Ltd is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Canon Singapore Pte Ltd. Canon today has offices spread across seven cities in India with an employee strength of over 840 people and markets a comprehensive range of 160 sophisticated and contemporary digital imaging products in the country. These include digital copiers, multi-functional peripherals, fax-machines, inkjet and laser printers, scanners, all-in-ones, digital cameras, digital camcorders, dye sub photo printers, card printers & cable ID printers. Apart from the Canon Image Square exclusive outlets, the company also has around 380 primary channel partners, 13 national retail chain partners, seven level-IV Master Service Centres, over 100 authorized service centres, over 4,000 secondary retail points, including 270 national retail chain store partners and 33 Canon Care Centers. Canon products are made available in over 400 towns in India and overall, Konishi said, the company's products are available at over 5,000 outlets. "We had acquired a customer base of over three million by the end of 2010. We hope to double this to six million by 2015," Konishi said. And, considering that 60 percent of its India revenues come from products other than cameras, Canon has opened a Business Solution Lounge in Mumbai, Bangalore and Gurgaon for B2B customers "to showcase business applications with seminar rooms for business workshops", the official said. That's not all. "As part of our promise to enhance digital experience for consumers, a Canon Image Lounge each has been launched in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore for customers to get a touch and feel of Canon products. "Entry is by invitation only. The lounges provide a comprehensive display of Canon's vast range of offerings and display over 101 consumer imaging products for consumers to simply look, feel and experience without the compulsion on buying," Konishi said. Special photography workshops and other customer engagement programmes are being held in these lounges, he added. Speaking about Canon's green initiatives, Konishi said it "takes pride in not only bringing quality products to the market but also contributes to minimising environmental burden through effective application of environmental technologies". "Canon focusses on the development of resource-conserving products that are smaller, lighter and easy to recycle. In India, Canon takes responsibility to dispose of end of life Canon products and other e-waste by sending such waste to government approved recycling agency," Konishi added

Sabeer Bhatia launches free SMS app Jaxtr

Sabeer Bhatia, the founder of Hotmail.com, on Tuesday launched JaxtrSMS, a mobile application that lets users send unlimited free text messages to any other phone anywhere in the world. He claimed JaxtrSMS is the world's first mobile-based application for sending SMS that is completely open as the recipients do not need to have the app installed It is already available as a free download for all major mobile operating systems - iOS, Android, Blackberry and J2ME. In fact, users in 197 countries have already downloaded the app within a few weeks since the soft launch, said Bhatia, who is CEO & co-founded Jaxtr with Yogesh Patel in US. JaxtrSMS is unique in that a mobile user can send a text SMS to any mobile phone in the world without requiring the receiver to have the JaxtrSMS application installed on her phone. This "open" facet of JaxtrSMS distinguishes it from other free mobile messaging applications such as Whatsapp where messages can only be sent within a closed network to people who also have the same app installed. JaxtrSMS retains the number of the user and no new number is required while signing up for the JaxtrSMS service. "15 years ago, we gave you Hotmail.com, the world's first webmail service that freed up e-mail from the confines of the desktop and aided the creation of a global communications network which was completely open and free for users. Today, we present JaxtrSMS which does to SMS what Hotmail did for e-mail. Now, mobile users can leverage our free and open application to send messages to their contacts anywhere across the world without having to pay anything," said Bhatia. "JaxtrSMS was completely developed in India. I am proud to showcase this as an example of Indian innovation and ingenuity," said Yogesh Patel, president & co-founder

Gujarat govt approves $2 billion theme park in Surat

Ahmedabad: Mumbai-based Atlanta Infrastructure Development and Real Estate has received in principle approval from Gujarat government to set up a $ 2 billion theme park in Gujarat. The Gujarat Industrial Development Board and Gujarat Tourism Board has already cleared the project and state cabinet is expected to give a final nod in a few weeks, official sources associated with the project told ET. Development of various components has been envisaged in the four phases. The first phase of the project will start in April 2012. The project will be spread across 13 square kilo-meters, the proposed leisure and one stop entertainment city near Surat. The site identified at Suvali Beach, which has a 3.3 km stretch along the Arabian Sea coast, is located around 20 km from Surat will have five theme parks like nature park, amusement park, water park, beach park, ice skating and skiing dome, restaurants, hotels, studios, forest villas, beach villas, studio lagoon and apartments and villas among others. The initial investment in the theme park will be about $2-billion, which comprises of land development cost, building facilities, transport, technologies, design and planning. The project cost also includes interest during construction. Market research and financial model is being done by Ernst & Young. The conceptual plan is done by Morphogenesis. The project will be financed by a mix of equity and debt. The fund would be constituted by infusion from promoters and debt from financial institutions, advances and deposits received from franchises of hotels, commercials, residential, food plazas and revenues from villas and apartments.

India IT spending will grow 9.1% next year: Gartner

Mumbai: Despite the global economic challenges, IT spending in India by enterprises will increase by 9.1 per cent in 2012, according to a report from research firm Gartner. IT spending in India is projected to total $79.8 billion in 2012, against $73.1 billion in 2011. And this is being attributed to the fast paced growth in India's burgeoning telecommunications space and the growing adoption of devices such as smart-phones and tablet computers, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, a Gartner analyst said. “A lot of new IT infrastructure is being bought in tier-2 and tier-3 cities both in the enterprise and retail segments…moreover, the 2G spectrum scam has not had any sizeable impact on IT spending in the space,” he added. Largest segment The telecommunications market is the largest IT segment in India with IT spending forecast to reach $54.7 billion in 2012, followed by the IT services market with spending of $11.1 billion. The computing hardware market in India is projected to reach $10.7 billion in 2012, while software spending will total $3.2 billion, Gartner said. It may be recalled that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has pegged India's mobile teledensity at 72.12 per cent or 86.57 crore wireless subscribers as of August. According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending will reach nearly $3.7 trillion by current year end. Of this, emerging economies such as India, China, Brazil and others will account for $1.013 trillion. Speaking at the inaugural Gartner Symposium here in Mumbai, Mr Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice-President at Gartner, said two-thirds of Chief Executive Officers surveyed by Gartner believe that IT's contribution to their industry in the next 10 years will be greater than in any prior decades. “IT is a primary driver of business growth. For example, this year 350 companies will each invest more than $1 billion in IT. They are doing this because IT impacts their business performance,” said Mr Sondergaard. Three ‘forces' Going forward, Gartner has identified three ‘forces', namely cloud computing, social media computing and information explosion that will change the way businesses will be conducted going forward. “The impact of these forces will make architectures of the last 20 years obsolete… Together, they force the issue – they drive us to create the post-modern business, drive simplicity and force creative destruction,” Mr Sondergaard said.

RBI allows banks, NBFCs to set up infra debt funds

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday issued guidelines to allow banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to sponsor infrastructure debt funds (IDFs), to support long-term finance in infrastructure. The same are based on the parameters RBI had issued in September. IDFs may be set up either as mutual funds or NBFCs. According to the guidelines, NBFCs trying to set up IDFs should have been operational for at least five years, should have minimum net owned funds of Rs 300 crore and a capital adequacy ratio of 15 per cent. Besides, its net non-performing assets should be less than three per cent of net advances. It should also have earned profits for the last three years, RBI said in a release. Investors would be primarily domestic and off-shore institutional investors, especially insurance and pension funds with long-term resources. IDFs set up as MFs would be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, while those set up as NBFCs would be regulated by RBI. “Sponsor infrastructure financing companies would be allowed to contribute up to 49 per cent to the equity of the IDF-NBFC, with minimum equity holding of 30 per cent of the equity of the IDF-NBFC,” RBI said. Banks acting as sponsors would be subject to their prudential limits on investments in financial services companies and limits on capital market exposure, RBI said. "Investment in a bank’s equity in subsidiary companies, financial services firms, financial institutions, stock and other exchanges, put together, should not exceed 20 per cent of the bank’s paid-up share capital and reserves and this limit would also cover the bank’s investments in IDFs as sponsors. Banks’ exposures to IDFs (MFs and NBFCs) by way of contribution to paid-up capital as sponsors would form part of their capital market exposure and should be within the regulatory limits specified,” it said. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in the Budget speech for 2011-12, had announced the setting up of IDFs to source long-term debt, both from foreign, as well as domestic investors. Taxation rules were also eased to make IDFs more attractive to off-shore funds.

Google Chromebook prices to fall

Google Inc said the price of some Chromebook laptops will drop by as much as 30 per cent, to $299, part of a push to get users to choose its software over products made by such rivals as Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp. The price cut affects machines made by Samsung Electronics Co, which formerly cost about $429, and Acer Inc, which cost about $349, Mountain View, California-based Google said in an e- mailed statement. Both devices feature Wi-Fi wireless access and are available through Amazon.com Inc and Best Buy Co, the company said on a blog. Google devised Chrome to be a faster, more internet-focused operating system to challenge Microsoft's Windows and Apple's Mac software. Google announced Chrome OS in 2009, and manufacturers began offering the devices in June. "We've also been working closely with our partners to continually improve the overall Chromebook experience while making them even more affordable," Venkat Rapaka, a senior product manager, said in the blog posting. Microsoft's Windows is the most widely used computer operating system, while Google is the most popular Web search engine.

Zynga's CastleVille Storms Facebook With 5 Million Users Less Than a Week

Zynga‘s latest addition to the “-Ville” franchise, CastleVille, has had a solid opening. In just under a week, the game has garnered 5 million daily active users — meaning it’s growing faster than any other Zynga game did at this stage. Castleville crossed the 5 million active user threshold Sunday night, just six days after its release. By hitting that milestone, CastleVille‘s growth has outshined other recent introductions from the company, including FrontierVille, which got 2.6 million DAUs in its first six days and CityVille, which received 3.2 million. The 5 million figure isn’t the only stat to come out of CastleVille so far. Others include: 135,176,035 quests completed 4,594,750 expansions into the Gloom 23,845,983 beasties banished from the kingdom 182,360 Bubbly Grogs crafted 8,262,768 baby cows raised CastleVille still has its work cut out for it, though. CityVille, which launched last November, hit 100 million users within 40 days. CityVille is still the most popular game on Facebook with 51 million daily

Infosys hints at revenue slowdown

Infosys has raised a warning sign about the deteriorating economic environment which has the potential to adversely affect revenue growth in the coming months. V Balakrishnan, the Bangalorebased company's chief financial officer, said the company will not miss its revenue growth forecast for the October-December quarter or the financial year ending in March. But he said India's second-largest software exporter, which has earned a reputation as a company that exceeds its guidance regularly, cannot confirm that sales growth will be at the upper end of the forecast. "The world is in a terrible mess and things are deteriorating. We will be somewhere in the range. We don't know whether it will be at the lower end or the upper end," Balakrishnan told ET on Monday. Earlier in the day, Dow Jones newswire quoted Balakrishnan as saying Infosys may miss the upper end of its sales growth forecast of 3-5% for the December quarter and 17.1-19.1% for the financial year, or $7.08-7.2 billion. Infosys is regarded as a bellwether for the software industry and any comment by the company is closely watched for signals about what it portends for the rest. Infosys' language on its prospects has been cautious from the beginning of the financial year

Yamaha to ramp up production capacity by four lakh units

NEW DELHI: Two-wheeler maker India Yamaha Motor today said it will expand its production capacity by 4 lakh units next year with an investment of about Rs 50 crore. "We are targeting to increase our production and sales as we are witnessing very good demand for our products. We target to increase the capacity to 10 lakh units per annum from 6 lakh units at present," India Yamaha Motor National Business Head Roy Kurian told PTI. The company will enhance the capacity of its Surajpur plant in Uttar Pradesh, he added. Asked about the investment for this, Kurian said: "It will take about USD 10 million. We will only set up a separate line at the plant." India Yamaha Motor has another plant in Faridabad, where it manufacturers engines. "We are targeting to sell 10 lakh vehicles in the domestic market by 2014. This year we are expecting to sell 3.3 lakh units in the domestic market," Kurian said. He said the company is aiming to sell 4.5 lakh units in 2012 and 7 lakh units in 2013. "On the export front, we are hoping to sell 1.7 lakh units in this year. It will grow in the next few years," Kurian said, adding the company is expecting to sell a total of 10 lakh two-wheelers in 2013. Last year the company had sold a total of 3.8 lakh units, which included exports. When asked about dealer network, he said the company currently has a total sales point of about 1,200 outlets. "We are increasing our reach gradually. Next year, we will be adding 400-500 sales points," he said. The company is aiming to have 2,000-2,500 sales points across the country by 2014, he added. India Yamaha Motor had reported 26.82 per cent increase in its total sales in October 2011 at 47,240 units. During the month, the company's domestic sales stood at 38,229 units, up 20.25 per cent. Exports rose by 65.04 per cent to 9,011 units in last month.

MRF turnover crosses Rs 10,000 cr; eyes acquisitions abroad

CHENNAI: MRF today said its turnover for the first time has crossed Rs 10,000 crore in one year, becoming the first Indian tyre maker to achieve this mark, and announced plans to acquire plantations or companies abroad to neutralise the impact of high import duty on rubber. "MRF is the first Indian tyre company to have crossed the turnover of Rs 10,000 crore in one year. It registered growth in excess of 30 per cent over the previous year," MRF Chairman K M Mammen told reporters here. "In 2007, we reported Rs 5,000 crore. Rs 10,000 crore is something we are proud of, because we are the first Indian (tyre) company to achieve this," Mammen said. Talking about future plans, he said MRF was seriously thinking of going out of the country or acquire companies. "We are reviewing a lot of these wonderful ideas," he said. He also expressed hope that the company would double the revenues in future. Stating that the high import duty was having an impact on its bottom line, he said they were looking to acquire plantations in any region or acquire companies. When asked whether the company has zeroed in on any company or any plantations, he only said, "We are looking at the whole world." MRF exports tyres to 65 nations. It has seven facilities in the country. To another question whether putting up a factory outside India would be a feasible option for the company, Mammen said it was not a right option. "But taking over (of overseas companies) is fine. We are looking at all over the world. I would say, there are lot of opportunities in Europe, South east Asia, China," he said.

Govt probing complaints about ISO certified tyres

NEW DELHI: Consumer Affairs Minister K V Thomas today said his ministry is investigating the complaints of poor quality ISO certified tyres. "Some tyre companies, who have ISO certification, are not adhering to the quality standards. We have received complaints about poor quality tyres. We are seriously looking into them," Thomas said on the sidelines of an event here. The minister, however, did not reveal the name of the tyre companies which have violated the quality standards. Domestic manufacturers produce tyres for passenger, commercial as well as special defence vehicles. India's tyre industry, which comprises of around 39 companies, had manufactured 14.88 lakh tonnes of tyres last fiscal, according to the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association ( ATMA). Saying that products and services embossed with ISO certification give confidence to consumers, Thomas urged manufacturers and exporters to comply fully with the prescribed standards. Speaking on the eve of World Standards Day, he said national standards play a vital role in the present era of World Trade Organisation (WTO). India, which is a signatory to the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, should harmonise Indian standards, wherever feasible, with global standards, he said. "This (international standards) gives manufacturers confidence to reach out to the global markets with the knowledge that their products will compete globally and users can be confident and assured of the uniformity in the quality," Thomas noted. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national standards body, has so far formulated over 18,600 Indian standards in accordance with the needs and priorities of the country. The BIS will continue its efforts in this direction so as to face the challenges of global competition in today's market scenario, he added.

Sahaganj plant: Dunlop says unions not keen on bipartite talks

KOLKATA: Ailing tyre-maker Dunlop India today said it was unable to reopen the Sahaganj plant as unions are against bipartite talks, while the West Bengal government asserted the company should reopen the unit first. "Dunlop is unable to implement the reopening proposed by us on October 21. Workers' unions are not willing to hold any meeting with us as they are insisting on a tripartite meeting. We have not received any government nod for it," group Chairman Pawan Ruia told PTI. "As such the fate of reopening of the Sahagunj factory now rests with the government," he said. Dunlop, which had announced suspension of work on October 8, had offered to lift the work suspension order in three divisions at its Sahagunj plant in a phased manner, subject to restoration of power. Ruia said trade unions should have approached the management for a discussion rather than wait for a direction from the government. "If the discussions failed to find a common ground of understanding, then the government could have intervened," he said. Ruia argued that the government had to play a proactive role in revitalising the plant as the management had spent over Rs 300 crore to clear old debts when the company was taken over from Manu Chabbria in 2005. The chairman accepted that the company was yet to clear certain dues of employees. CITU's Dunlop unit president Santoshree Chatterjee said last week the union had received two letters from the management asking for a meeting. As the government had already intervened, it should now be discussed at a tripartite meeting, he added Meanwhile, Labour Minister Purnendu Bose told reporters that "Dunlop has written a letter to the state government alleging that unions are averse to sit with the management for bipartite talks." The minister said that the government had asked the Dunlop authorities to reopen the factory and that there was need for a tripartite agreement. Reiterating government's demand for lifting suspension of work at the factory first, Bose said "various government authorities have Rs 30 crore arrears pending from Dunlop for providing electricity and municipal services and the government would like to know what it is going to do about it". The unions claimed that 328 employees who had retired after 2005 have also not received provident fund and gratuity payments, as also statutory dues of 319 employees who took early retirement. The company currently employs 870 permanent workers. According to the proposal from the Dunlop managment, the industrial products division will first be reopened, then the OTR tyre divsion (large tyres) and lastly the tyre divsion after installation of a 50 MW captive power plant.