Indian software companies like Flipkart, Makemytrip, InMobi inching close to $1 bn valuations

Several Indian software product companies now command or are close to commanding valuations of $1 billion, a sign that the software products space is coming of age in a country whose strength in technology has so long been in services. Online travel company Makemytrip, which listed on the Nasdaq last year, had a valuation $1.13 billion at close of trade on Monday. Mobile ad network InMobi, which closed a $200 million funding in September, is close to touching a billion dollar valuation. Bankers say that online retailer Flipkart, which is reportedly in talks with General Atlantic and Carlyle to raise about $150- $200 million in funding, is valued at close to $1 billion. Sharad Sharma, co-chair of the Nasscom Product Forum, said there are other product companies that could touch the $1 billion mark in the next couple of years. Nasscom is holding a product conclave in Bangalore on November 9-10. "Every year I expect at least one product company to hit the $1 billion valuation mark. Those like Zoho and Druva Software are in line to become billion dollar companies," he said. He said that some of the successful product start-ups are now setting templates for others to follow, just like what TCS did for IT services companies in the 1990s. The lower cost of establishing businesses, thanks to cheap online marketing platforms and technologies is helping product

Google chairman says will not favour Motorola

The executive chairman of Google Inc on Tuesday played down concerns that the search giant would give preferential treatment to Motorola Mobility Holdings after its planned purchase of the firm, saying the deal would not violate the openness of its Android operating system. "We will run (Motorola) sufficiently and independently in a way that will not violate Android's openness...we're not going to change in any material way the way we operate," Eric Schmidt said at a press conference on a visit to South Korea.

India to be ranked 3rd largest Internet market after China and the US

By the end of this year, one in every 10 Indians will be an Internet user, making the country the third-largest Internet market in the world afterChina and the United States. At the end of December, 121 million Indians will be accessing the Internet at least once a week to check emails, chat or log on to a social network, a survey has found. India is adding Internet users at the rate of almost 5-7 million a month, and at the current pace it will surpass the US, which has about 245 million users, in less than two years. According to the survey by IMRB and the Internet &Mobile Association of India, the country's Internet population was about 112 million by September. When this year ends, about 9 million more will be added, making India one of the world's top markets for Net-based businesses. The profile of users is evolving rapidly, showing that the medium has made deep inroads into smalltown India and among the less affluent. There are more Internet users in towns with a population of less than 5 lakh than in the top eight metros put together. Schoolchildren make up more than a fifth of the users and more than one in 10 belong to the lowest socio-economic groupings. The Internet explosion is also rapidly opening up markets for online businesses, consumers and retailers. For entrepreneurs such as Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato.com, the Internet is changing the business landscape forever in favour of India. "Now startups look to India when planning to start a business... earlier they would flock to the US," he said. The number of customer visits to his site, which provides listings of restaurants, has doubled in the past six months to 2 million. "We are seeing 10% week-on-week growth." About 2 billion people worldwide access the Internet and 25% of them are from China. India contributes about 6% to the world's Net population and the US 12.5%.

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HTC beats Samsung in American smartphone market with 24% Share

HTC edged out Samsung Electronics to become the largest smartphone vendor in the US, capitalising on the Android platform's popularity and a lull in demand for iPhones to overtake Apple and Research In Motion. A 10 percentage-point jump in share from a year earlier gave Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC 24% of the world's largest smartphone market in the third quarter, ahead of Samsung's 21%, Palo Alto, California-based researcher Canalys said in a statement on Tuesday. Apple fell to third at 20% while RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, had 9%. HTC, which made the world's first phone using Google's Android in 2008, benefited from strong relationships with US carriers and made different models for each operator. Apple's iPhone 4S and new devices from Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung may help the two global smartphone leaders gain share in the US this quarter as HTC forecasts its first shipment decline in almost two years. "Because iPhone 4S wasn't yet ready during the quarter, there was a window of opportunity for others, and HTC benefited from this," said Wang Wanli, who rates the stock "buy" at RBS Asia in Taipei. "HTC has historically done more customisation of handsets, which has made operators more willing to market and sell their devices." APPLE, SAMSUNG HTC sells its high-end models, which include faster processors and higher-quality cameras, for less than similar Samsung products, Wang said. Samsung offers more low-price models overall, bringing its average sales price below the Taiwanese company's, he said. HTC and Samsung benefited from the rising popularity of the Android operating system, while Cupertino, California-based Apple was affected by consumers awaiting the next iteration of the iPhone, Canalys said. Android has 44% of the US market for smartphones in use, Apple's iOS has 27%, and the BlackBerry OS 20%, Reston, Virginia-based Com-Score said earlier this month. Samsung and Apple are the two largest smartphone vendors globally, followed by Nokia, UK researcher Strategy Analytics said last week.

IT can solve Public Distribution System mess, says Nandan Nilekani

A panel headed by Unique ID Authority chairman Nandan Nilekani has suggested computerisation of public distribution system (PDS) and use of cash transfers and coupons to streamline subsidy distribution. "The large focus of the report is to make system more efficient (and) to make sure people have choice," Nilekani told reporters on Wednesday after submitting the report to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. The first phase of PDS revamp will focus on supply chain improvement while the second on direct transfer of subsidy, according to the task force. Nilekani has proposed use of coupons, smartcards, and direct cash transfers, along with GPS tracking of trucks carrying ration, as some methods of cleaning the system. It has suggested creation of a National Information Utility or Public Distribution System Network (PSDN) by April 2012 and initiation of pilot projects by December 2012. There are about 4.62 lakh fair price shops (FPS) that distribute commodities, like wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene, worth over Rs 30,000 crore every year to 18 crore families. The government has accepted the report of the Task Force in principle, Nilekani said adding that it will now process it and take appropriate action. "We have serious issues in terms of leakages in subsidy transfers and any system that controls these leakages is a good idea...The only issue is with execution and as long as that is taken care of, it's a smart way of dealing with the problem," said Sonalde Desai, Senior fellow, National Council for Applied Economic Research. "A significant proportion of subsidised fuel does not reach the targeted beneficiaries and there is largescale diversion of subsidised kerosene...to ensure greater efficiency, cost effectiveness and better delivery...the goevrnment will move towards direct transfer of cash subsidy...," Mukherjee had said in the last budget. PDS is fraught with problems. "The PDS suffers due to wholesale problems such as largescale pilferage and diversion, duplicates and ghost beneficiaries, wrongful exclusion and inclusion," the report said. About 29 lakh fake ration cards were seized in Maharashtra alone, while Tamil Nadu is estimated to have about 15 lakh fake cards in circulation.

Adobe buys Auditude reportedly for about $100 million

Adobe Systems has acquired Palo Alto-based Auditude, the two companies jointly announced today. Auditude is a video ad management and analytics platform, which now becomes part of Adobe’s efforts to enter contemporary and fast growing markets such as video and mobile devices. While the two companies didn’t disclose the terms of the deal, our sources familiar with the deal put the value of the acquisition at around $100 million. Auditude had raised a total of $38 million from Redpoint Ventures and Greylock Partners. It works with companies such as Comcast, MLB, Starz & Fox News. Auditude started out as video fingerprinting technology company but later morphed into a company that balanced“who owns the rights to make money from a video with what ads are available.”

IBM India develops solar-powered data centre

One of the biggest costs in adata centre is power cost. Power is needed to fire the servers and storage systems. And since these systems heat up, power is again required to cool the systems with airconditioning. In the dot-com era, data centres consumed 1 or 2 MW. Now it's common to find facilities that require 20 MW, and already some of them expect to use ten times as much in the years to come. For countries, data centre power consumption is expected to put an enormous burden on their power grids. Not surprisingly, an enormous amount of innovation, right from the semiconductor level, is today going into finding solutions to reduce power consumption in computing systems. IBM's India Software Lab in Bangalore has just contributed towards that. It has developed a system to run data centres on solar power, and is making it commercially available, perhaps the first such commercial offering in the world. "Until now, no one has engineered solar power for efficient use in IT," said Rod Adkins, senior VP of IBM's systems and technology group, who was in Bangalore last week. "We've designed a solar solution to bring a new source of clean, reliable and efficient power to energy-intensive, industrial-scale electronics." The first implementation is being done at the Bangalore lab itself. A solar power array has been installed, spread over more than 6,000 sft of the lab's rooftop. Kota Murali, chief scientist at IBMIndia, says the installation is capable of providing a 50-kilowatt of electricity for up to 330 days a year, for an average of five hours a day. The advantage of solar power is that it is DC (direct current), unlike grid power that is AC (alternating current). Processors run on DC, so when you use grid power, you need to convert AC to DC. In the process of that conversion, you lose about 13% of power. On the other hand, when you do a DC to DC conversion, the loss is only 4%. So you have a saving of close to 10%. Adkins said while the solution could bring a 10% saving in developed markets, it could be even better in emerging markets, where there are many places that are not served or inadequately served by the grid. Murali says his facility in Bangalore suffers a 3 to 6 hour power cut on average every day, forcing them to depend on diesel generators. "The per unit cost of that is much higher than even solar," he says. The India team's innovation has been in integrating DC IT systems, water-cooled systems and solar power. Water-cooled systems are also a relatively new phenomenon; water is far more efficient at cooling than is air. "These technologies were developed in silos, but we are seeing huge benefits when we connect them," Adkins says. He says the history of solar-power shows that its biggest commercial successes come when the technology is tuned for specific uses, as was being done now by creating a preengineered solution for future data centres. "The first solar calculator hit store shelves in 1978 and was an instant hit. This is a solar solution for a slightly bigger calculator, a 30 teraflop datacentre."

World Bank signs $ 975 mn loan agreement for Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor Project

NEW DELHI: The World Bank has signed a US$ 975 million loan agreement with the Indian government to set-up the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor that will help faster and more efficient movement of raw materials and finished goods between the Northern and Eastern parts of India. "The Indian Railways urgently needs to add freight routes to meet the growing freight traffic in India, which is projected to increase more than 7 percent annually. Dedicated freight corridors (DFC) will not only meet this growing freight demand, but also decongest the already saturated rail network and promote the shifting of freight transport from road to more efficient rail transport," said Venu Rajamony, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. "Augmenting its transport systems is a crucial element of India's trillion-dollar infrastructure agenda for the next Five-Year Plan (XIIth Plan) which starts in 2012. Since the 1990s, road transport has advanced more rapidly than the railways, and now accounts for about 65 percent of the freight market and 90 percent of the passenger market in India, and those shares are growing," he added. The Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor Project will ease congestion choking the railway system and reduce travel-time for passenger trains on the arterial Ludhiana-Delhi-Mughal Sarai railway route. The corridor will add additional rail transport capacity, improve service quality and create higher freight capacity. World Bank financing will cover a route length of 1,130 kilometers (out of a total corridor length of 1,839 kilometers) and will be provided in three phases. The Project signed today will finance the first phase for the 343 kilometer section. "Implementing the DFC program will provide India the opportunity to create one of the world's largest freight operations, adopting proven international technologies and approaches which can progressively be extended to other important freight routes throughout the network," said Roberto Zagha, World Bank's Country Director in India. Unlike the existing rail network, which runs on a combination of diesel and electrical locomotives, the proposed DFC corridor will operate entirely through electric locomotives, thereby further reducing greenhouse gas emissions.