BPO and IT Sectors Lead Talent Demand Recovery with Double-Digit M-o-M Growth: RecruiteX

* BPO (15%), IT (10%) and BFSI (7%) emerged as the top three sectors with maximum M-o-M growth in talent demand in July 2020   

* BFSI – had shed most talent demand in June 2020 - picked up the pace and gained 7% growth in talent demand in July 2020 M-o-M study

* Customer Services/Tele Calling, Front Office/Administration and IT/Telecom were the most sought after job profiles in July 2020

* Vadodara (over 30% growth) and Hyderabad/Secunderabad (16%) were the top gainers for talent demand in July 2020 study

* Professionals with 5-10 years of experience were most in-demand in the review month

With ‘recovery’ as the key focus in ‘Unlock3’, talent demand is already picking pace as BPO and IT/Telecom sectors noted a double-digit growth in July 2020 analysis. TimesJobs RecruiteX noted that BPO (15%), IT (10%) and BFSI (7%) emerged as the top three sectors with maximum M-o-M growth in talent demand in July 2020.      

TimesJobs RecruiteX is a monthly recruitment index that records the demand and supply of talent at India Inc.

Overall, talent demand in July 2020 grew by 2% M-o-M, pushed largely by growth in high volume sectors like BPO, IT and BFSI.

Talking about the details of RecruiteX July 2020 edition, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “The talent demand trends for July 2020 are heartening. Though the overall growth in July 2020 is only 2% since it’s based largely on high volume sectors as BPO, IT and BFSI, I’m very confident that this trend will continue in the coming months. I foresee the talent demand to pick up from here on as India Inc has actively started working towards the road to recovery. Smart companies are, now, focussing on constructive learnings from this difficult situation which would help them to grow in future. ”

Industry-wise (MoM growth):

Following its growth pattern of June 2020, the BPO sector saw an impressive 15% M-o-M increment in talent demand in July 2020 too. The IT/Telecom and BFSI sectors had witnessed (-6%) and (-2%) de-growth respectively in June 2020 but bounced back in July 2020. Here are the top three sectors for talent demand in July 2020:

·         BPO: 15%

·         IT/Telecom: 10%

·         BFSI: 7%

Functional areas:

Customer Services/Tele Calling job profile jumped from 4% growth in talent demand in June 2020 to 18% growth in July 2020. On the other hand, Front Office/Administration profile had clocked 21% growth in June 2020, but could only register 11% growth in July 2020 analysis of talent demand. Here are the top three job profiles as per talent demand in July 2020:

·         Customer Services/ Tele Calling: 18%

·         Front Office/ Administration: 11%

·         IT/Telecom: 8%

Location-wise:

Most talent demand in July 2020 was posted in Tier-II cities, with Vadodara recording a growth of over 30%. Among the metropolitan cities, Chennai saw the most growth with 10% increment. Mumbai and Delhi noted 8% and 1% growth in July 2020. Bengaluru noted de-growth of (-7%) in July 2020.  Here are the top three cities as per talent demand in July 2020:

·         Vadodara: over 30% growth

·         Hyderabad/Secunderabad: 16%

·         Ahmedabad: 11%

Work experience-wise:

Professionals with 5-10 years of work experience were most in demand, and this category noted 11% M-o-M growth in talent demand. Here are the categories of work professionals as per talent demand in July 2020:

·         5-10 years of work experience:11%

·         2-5years of work experience: 8%

Netmagic Launches SaaS Based Application Performance Monitoring Services Based on the AppDynamics Platform

Netmagic  (An NTT Company), and a leading managed hosting, security and multi-cloud hybrid IT solution provider in India, today announced its partnership with AppDynamics, a Cisco company, to provide Application Performance Monitoring (APM) as a service to enterprises in India to ensure deep visibility into their customers’ critical applications and end user experience.

This service enables businesses to deliver flawless digital experiences consistently by connecting end-user experience and application performance to business outcomes. APMaaS is intuitive to configure and deploy, automatically discovers business transaction, consumes little production overhead, monitors every line of code, and dynamically baselines performance to proactively identify and resolve application performance issues before they impact customers and the business.

Contemporary businesses rely heavily on digital technology to deliver a superior customer experience. Technology today includes a complex fabric of multi-cloud, IOT, distributed services, microservices, containers, APIs and much more that need to work in harmony to ensure that the application performance as experienced by the end user is of high quality.

Speaking about this, Nitin Mishra, Senior Executive Vice President, and Chief Product Officer, Netmagic (An NTT Company) said, “We are extremely pleased to partner with AppDynamics to offer Application Performance Monitoring Service (APMaaS) empowering businesses to navigate this turbulent pandemic period and emerge stronger and more scalable. With the business transaction-centric management of most complex and distributed applications, the APM service will bring value and enhance customer experience by providing clear visibility on the underlying components of the application. Apart from narrowing down to the source of the problem in the entire application flow, it will also provide deep user insights and analytics that will help the customer deliver significantly improved end user experience”

Adding further, Abhilash Purushothaman, Managing Director, India & SAARC, AppDynamics, said, “Our partnership and joint solution offering with Netmagic is a significant milestone for the AppDynamics India business. In India, adoption of online application-led services has sky-rocketed across all industry verticals in recent years. Now with the recent pandemic and increased reliance on remote working, our customers have shared that managing digital user experience in real time is no longer nice to have but a necessity. This strategic partnership will help us scale and deliver APM as a service across all business and industry segments.” 

The modules of this tool that will help in delivering the APM services include Application Performance Management – Core, Performance Management – Microservices Application Performance Management – SAP, Synthetic Transactions Monitoring, Browser Real User Monitoring, Mobile Real User Monitoring, Database Visibility, Infrastructure Visibility, and Business Analytics.

The benefits of the service that would add value to customers’ applications management are –

* Uptime and availability of the applications.

* Slowness in response in terms of time and database can be identified using this service.

* Application performance monitoring for end-users who use browsers and mobiles, tablets etc. to access the applications.

The modules will be wrapped under different packages and offered to customers. The APM solution is based on the package and can be scaled up depending on business requirements. This service can be delivered as a standalone offering or as an enhancement integrated with Netmagic’s Infra Manage Services.

About Netmagic (An NTT Company)

Netmagic, an NTT Company, is India’s leading Managed Hosting and Multi-Cloud Hybrid IT solution provider serving more than 2000 enterprises globally. Headquartered in Mumbai, Netmagic also delivers Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) services to various enterprise customers globally across Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific region. The Company was the first in India to launch services – Cloud Computing, Managed Security, Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) and Software-Defined Storage. Netmagic has been recognized with 8 awards at the CIO Choice 2020, and 2 awards at the Datacenter Dynamics India 2019.

Talent Demand Tanks in Most Sectors in June 2020, Green Shoots in BPO, Health & Auto: TimesJobs RecruiteX June’20

Highlights

-        Retail, BFSI shed most talent demand in June 2020 M-o-M study 

-        Talent demand picked up in BPO, Health & Automobiles in June 2020 

-        In Y-o-Y analysis, the demand for talent remained same in June’20 and June’19

 

The TimesJobs RecruiteX, monthly talent demand index, marks a 4% growth in talent demand in June’20 (89) over May’20 (85). However, the demand in high-volume sectors including IT, BFSI and Retail records a steep fall. The Y-o-Y analysis showed that the talent demand index for June’19 (89) and June’20 (89) was the same. 

M-o-M talent demand trends: The growth in demand index is contributed by Automobiles (17%), Healthcare (16%) and BPO (14%) sectors who are re-hauling the business post the Unlock 1.0. With the Government relaxing lockdown norms, companies in these sectors are eyeing growth hacks by customising their offerings in the changing business scenario. 

Q-o-Q talent demand trends: The Q-o-Q analysis shows that demand for talent in IT and Retail sectors witnessed growth in AMJ’20 over JFM’20. Both, these sectors witnessed double-digit growth. Talent demand index stood at 370 points in AMJ’20 over 338 points in JFM’20, a 9% growth. The Retail sector witnessed a 30% growth in AMJ’20 in comparison with JFM’20. 

Y-o-Y talent demand trends: The Y-o-Y analysis for talent demand shows no growth, or loss from June’19 to June’20.  The Consumer Durables sector showed a growth of about 30% in Y-o-Y talent demand analysis, followed by Healthcare. The BPO sector saw the steepest fall of (-34%) in talent demand in the yearly comparison.

Commenting on the findings of RecruiteX June 2020, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “The findings of RecruiteX June 2020 are a silver lining in the present scenario. The rise in BPO, Healthcare and Automobile’s talent demand hints that companies are striving hard to get back to normalcy after the Unlock 1.0. Not just the M-o-M analysis, but even the Q-o-Q comparison (AMJ’20 v/s JFM’20) has shown growth, with a double-digit hike in the IT and Retail sectors”.   

Here are the major findings of the RecruiteX June 2020 edition:

Industry-wise

Sectors which gained talent demand:  

- Automobiles: (17%)

- Healthcare: (16%)

- BPO: (14%)

Sectors with steepest loss in talent demand: 

- Retail: (-13%)

- IT/Telecom: (-6%)

- BFSI: (-2%)

Functional areas: 

Functional areas which gained talent demand:  

- Doctors/Nurses/Medical Professional: (20%) 

- Logistics/Supply Chain Management/ Procurement: (10%)

- Engineering: (5%)

 Functional areas with steepest loss in talent demand:  

- IT/Telecom: (-10%)

- Sales/Business Development: (-3%)

Location-wise: 

Cities which gained talent demand:  

- Indore: (4%)

 - Ahmedabad: (2%)

 - Hyderabad/Secunderabad: (2%)

Cities with steepest loss in talent demand:  

- Bengaluru: (-18%)

- Jaipur: (-6%)

 - Chennai: (-5%) 

Work experience-wise: 

 Work experience category which gained talent demand:  

- Over 20+ years of work experience: (6%)

- 10-20 years: (5%)

- 2-5 years: No gain, no loss 

Work experience category with the steepest loss in talent demand:  

- Freshers and people with less 2 years of work experience: (-13%)

63% of HR Managers are Hiring Amid COVID-19 Tension, Most Recruiting for Niche Job Roles Solely: TimesJobs Survey

Survey

* In the TimesJobs survey, 16% of respondents said that their top leaders are seeking ways to collaborate with competitors to ensure business growth

* A majority (42%) of HR managers stated that they are using talent assessment platforms to evaluate candidates 

* Around 21% of HR managers claimed that they conducted hiring audits to ensure they were recruiting a diverse set of talent 

With 63% HR managers at India Inc. buoyed about hiring amid the COVID-19 lockdown, this quarantine period may not be as gloomy as it seems. 

In a recent TimesJobs survey, a majority (63%) of HR managers said that their company had been hiring amid the COVID-19 crisis time. Out of these, nearly 65% of respondents stated that they were hiring for niche positions only. 

TimesJobs survey titled ‘The Indian workplace response to COVID-19’ gathered responses from 1,145+ HR managers working across different industries. The important takeaways from this survey include:

1. Diversity topped the hiring agenda: A majority (61%) of HR managers asserted that hiring diverse talent was their top priority even when compared to other factors as Learning & Development.

2. Leadership response was proactive: Around 34% of respondents said their executive management was working proactively to ensure business survival amid the crisis.

3. Employee well-being gained the centre stage: More than 34% of respondents stated that restructured the employee health initiatives in sync with the public health advisory. 

4. The virtual workplace is here to stay: Nearly, 49% of respondents claimed that companies were investing in preparing for virtual work-ready modules, followed by compulsory upskilling activities.

Explaining the findings of the TimesJobs survey, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “The last few months have been a roller-coaster ride. However, on the brighter side, it forced companies to adopt virtual operations more seriously. The survey also pointed that most companies were hiring for the niche roles only, and in my sense, these are the organisations which are virtual-ready, and have restructured/are restructuring their products and processes for customers and employees via technology.”

Other notable insights from this survey were - 

‘Business survival’ crucial for top leadership:

Around 34% of professionals stated that their top management was working aggressively to find new solutions for business survival. Nearly, 24% of respondents said that their top brass was working on building a strong and transparent communication network within the organisation to smoothen the processes. While 16% of respondents asserted that their leaders were seeking ways to collaborate with competitors for business growth. 

Companies investing in assessment tools to evaluate skills: 

TimesJobs survey asked how the hiring managers were assessing candidates in the present lockdown. Around 42% of respondents stated that their company used assessment platforms to evaluate skills on candidates, this hints that companies are becoming more cautious of who they bring on board. 

Corporates held hiring audits to uphold D&I agenda while hiring amid COVID-19:

Around 24% of HR managers said that they wrote neutral job posting to encourage diverse hiring during the COVID-19 lockdown. About 21% of professionals said that their company conducted a hiring audit to ensure the Diversity & Inclusion mandate was fulfilled. While 16% of respondents said that they were writing job posting using a tech-based tool to ensure they were hiring a diverse talent pool. 

No easy going for IT companies in Europe

For India’s top tech firms seeking to grow revenues from Europe in order to offset lower spend by American clients, it’s going to be Key facts on India's IT industry

a long, arduous journey, said research firm Forrester on Wednesday.

The US, which accounts for over half of India’s $60-billion software outsourcing industry, has traditionally been the top market for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro, among many others. However, over the past few years, Indian tech firms have been trying to mitigate their high American exposure by focusing on Europe’s $14-billion market for software and back-office services.

“You cannot replicate the US model in other markets. Unlike the US, European customers are not thinking primarily about costs. If Indian companies follow the same model for another 2-3 years, they will struggle,” said Sudin Apte, principal analyst of Forrester Research. Mr Apte, who surveyed around 400 European customers in order to understand their outsourcing priorities, said India’s tech firms will need to go beyond just hiring local workforce for sales and delivery efforts, if they really want to become successful in Europe.

“Offshoring in North America is a standard business decision, however in continental Europe, it’s a religious decision,” said Mr Apte, quoting one of the customers surveyed for his study.

Indeed, for almost a decade, the UK has been the top market for Indian companies with customers such as British Petroleum (BP) and British Telecom (BT) outsourcing projects to TCS, Infosys and Wipro. However, the UK, which outsources around $9 billion worth of projects to India every year, does not reflect the entire Europe.

“The United Kingdom is very similar to the US, unlike continental Europe where language and cultural barriers exist,” added Mr Apte.

Many European customers are more comfortable working with delivery teams in neighbouring countries, instead of signing large offshore contracts. “For example, Romania’s historical ties with Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, and Germany makes it easy to connect with clients in these locations,” Mr Apte added.

However, mature outsourcers such as BT, BP and ABN Amro have had no such bottlenecks, while deciding to work with large Indian offshore services providers such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

“For globalised European customers, outsourcing is not a new phenomenon, but for many companies, especially those who are pan-European only, outsourcing and offshoring is not such as hot thing,” he added.

Compared with Forrester’s survey in 2008, the current research shows a drop of more than 20% in the number of companies that were thinking about starting an offshore initiative for the first time. “This means that in the next 12 months, we will see few first-time offshore users sending their work to locations like India,” said Mr Apte.

The Forrester research also found that multinational firms such as IBM and Accenture are better positioned that the Indian IT vendors when it comes to serving customers in continental Europe.

“Accenture has more staff serving continental Europe customers than anybody else - it’s not about pure offshoring anymore,” he said. For instance, Accenture serves more than 300 customers from Germany with a few hundred staffs making use of the managed services model, which allows the company to serve more with less.

Agencies

Accenture on a hiring spree in India; To hire 8,000 by 2010

Global technology and consultancy firm, Accenture has said that it is going to add around 8,000 people in India by the end of next year taking its total employee base in the country to 50,000.

"We are 42,000 right now and we imagine we will be about 50,000 by the end of 2010," said Accenture Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, William D Green on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit. Indicating a recovery from the global downturn, Green said the company will continue to focus in India, specially in the areas of analytics, reports a media.

Accenture's focus in India is going to be the analytics space, which will help its clients in converting information into insights for better yields. Green added, "We believe that analytics is going to be an important trend that our customers are going to demand from us. We think India is going to be a great place for us. We have some core centres of excellence in the analytics space in the country."

Accenture, which has annual revenue of $21.58 billion for fiscal 2009, will strengthen its focus on clients in pharmaceutical, telecommunications and energy in the country.

Agencies

TCS signs multi-million contract with Cardiff City Council

Tata Consultancy Services' contract with Cardiff City Council for technology services is a multi-million dollar deal that will run over 15 years, a company source said on Tuesday.

Under the deal signed last week, Tata Consultancy will provide a host of IT services for faster and efficient delivery of services in Cardiff.

Tata Consultancy and its rivals such as Infosys Technologies and Wipro are aggressively vying for deals in markets such as Europe and Asia Pacific to cut their dependence on the US, which brings in more than half the sector's revenue.

Tata Consultancy, a part of the diversified Tata Group that spans commodities autos and services businesses, last month beat forecasts with a 29 per cent rise in quarterly net profit helped by demand from recession-hit financial customers.

Agencies

Increase of IT spending by 20-25%, says GE

General Electric (GE) may increase its IT spending by about 20-25 percent for 2010-11, a step that can turn out to be a boon for several Indian information technology (IT) vendors.

Software firms like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL Technologies, Patni Computer Systems and iGate, who generate a significant amount of revenue from GE, are likely to benefit most from the increase in its IT budget.

A person close to this development said, "GE has allotted an additional $500-600 million for its IT budget during 2010-11. The firm may be looking to extend contracts with vendors like iGate and Polaris by three to four years and significantly increase its spending with large capital firms like TCS and HCL going forward."

GE has already extended its IT contract with Birlasoft, estimated to be worth $50 million and $100 million and with Mahindra Satyam, worth $100 million by three years. The existing contracts for iGate, Polaris Software Lab and Birlasoft will end in December this year.

Agencies

$2 tn in revenues for green businesses by 2020

Global revenues from climate-related businesses such as energy efficiency rose by 75% in 2008 to $530 billion and could exceed $2 trillion by 2020, HSBC Global Research estimated.

In the 2006 Stern Review on the economics of climate change, climate-related revenues were forecast to climb to $500 billion by 2050. “We can see that this seemingly huge figure has already been surpassed well ahead of time as more and more businesses adapt their business model,” said Joaquim de Lima, global head of quant research for equities at HSBC.

The climate sector has surpassed the size of the global aerospace or defence industry, with the United States, Japan, France, Germany and Spain accounting for 76% of global climate revenues, the report found. For revenues to rise to $2 trillion, the way energy is generated and used needs to change and continued government support is needed.

The four core investment pillars will be low-carbon energy production, energy efficiency, control of water, waste and pollution and climate finance, the report said. Energy efficiency recorded the highest investment returns in the year to date at 30%.

“This is a very significant trend given the substantial share of climate stimulus funds that have been directed at energy efficiency and energy management by governments across the globe,” HSBC analysts said.

Agencies

Rs 700 crore govt business is Wipro's target

Wipro is eyeing about Rs.700 crore from government projects in the current fiscal. It intends to nearly triple this in three years. The move comes at a time when the Centre is clearing the decks for a slew of projects under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), reports a media.

"The targets for this year represent a 100-per cent growth over the previous fiscal," said Ranbir Singh, Head, Government, Wipro. The export-oriented Indian IT industry has been facing headwinds in its traditional strongholds such as the US and Europe, and though things seem to be looking up, Nasscom's annual projections have pegged software exports growth at 4-7 percent for FY10.

In contrast, the domestic market is expected to grow at 15-18 percent during the year. Projects such as MCA-21, e-passport and eBiz - which were handed out in the past, have whet the appetite of IT firms that are now looking to leverage opportunities closer home. The Unique Identification (UID) project has created quite a stir among vendors and every IT player; Indian and MNC are hoping to participate in the ambitious effort; the other large projects waiting to take off include eDistrict, eCourt, eOffice, Income-Tax and Central Excise.

"While the opportunity is large, it is also important to remember that the lead and the closing timelines tend to be longer for Government contracts. But, clearly, this is a space that every company wants to play in," an industry observer pointed out. Naturally, no one wants to be left behind in the race. Wipro's Joint CEO, Suresh Vaswani, told Business Line recently that the company was 'revisiting' its strategy and game-plan on government business. The company has already clinched a Rs.1,200 crore multiple-year contract floated by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).

The project relates to computerisation of the ESIC and to provide smart cards to around 1.5 crore industrial workers across the country. The contract brought its own share of controversies when rival firm TCS wrote to the Labour Ministry against the procedures adopted in awarding the contract.

Agencies

Infosys opens training centre in Mysore

It was a wistful Sonia Gandhi who loved her day out on Tuesday. Happy to have “bunked school”, she said she was charmed by the environment, the buildings, trees, flowers and atmosphere at the Infosys campus.

Said the lady who keeps her Congress school in order, “...If I may share a secret, there is another reason for me to be happy to be with you this afternoon, this visit is giving me an opportunity to bunk my school — politics — for a few hours. I honestly want to say I wish I could bunk a few days to be here with you all!” She brought the house down.

The Congress chief was in Mysore to inaugurate the Infosys Global Education Centre-II, which will be a hothouse for next-generation IT professionals. “Social harmony, secure frontiers and communal amity are the need of the hour to create a conducive atmosphere for creation of wealth. Governments should ensure these elements for wealth creators to strive and grow,” she asserted.

Appreciating the efforts of Infosys chief N R Narayana Murthy and his peers for struggling hard and building an empire like Infosys, Sonia said he and his colleagues have shown the world that India can not only lead the IT field, but also guide the rest of the world. “Serious efforts, hard work and determination have made them accomplish this task of building GEC, which is a monument of sorts, withworld class facilities to train IT professionals,” she said.

Sonia said the foundation stone for modern technology was laid way back in 1985 by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, with the establishment of an earth station. Recollecting Rajiv’s efforts to take the country’s development in science and technology to new heights, Sonia said many in politics had flayed Rajiv Gandhi and were skeptical about his efforts. But he has now been proved right. “He knew that development of communication and transport facilities would lead India into a new world of development,” she said. Then, a telephone was a luxury, now every village has a public call office and telephone network.

Agencies

$17 bn software exports for India's IT state

Defying the global meltdown, Karnataka earned $17 billion (Rs.74,929 crore) from software exports last fiscal (2008-09) as against Rs.60,800 crore the previous year, registering a 23 per cent growth in rupee terms and 21.5 per cent in dollar terms.

"The export performance of the IT industry in the state, especially Bangalore, demonstrates the knowledge sector remains unaffected by the global meltdown and decline in IT spending overseas," state Information Minister Katta Subbramanya Naidu told reporters here.

As India's tech hub, Bangalore accounted for Rs.72,506 crore or 97 per cent of the state's total exports, while the remaining Rs.2,423 crore are from tier-two cities such as Mysore, Mangalore and Hubli-Dharwad, registering 45 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth.

India's combined software exports -- spanning services, products and business process outsourcing (BPO) -- grew 21 per cent to $50 billion (Rs.2.22 trillion) as against $41 billion (Rs.1.84 trillion) in 2007-08.

Karnataka accounted for 34 per cent of the country's total software exports last fiscal.

"The growth is substantial especially in the current economic scenario. The state retains its top position in the sector, including exports," Naidu said.

Naidu said the state had set a target of $20 billion (Rs.1,000 billion) this fiscal.

Incidentally, the industry's representative body, National Association of Software Services and Companies (Nasscom), has forecast India's software exports this fiscal to be around $48-50 billion.

According to R. Rajalakshmi, director of the Bangalore chapter of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Karnataka's software export revenues are from the 1,200 firms registered with the STPI and software-related special economic zones.

Eighty-four software units will be set up in the state this fiscal, including 35 with foreign equity, two Indian majors and 47 small and medium enterprises, with a combined investment of Rs.465 crore.

In spite of voluntary attrition and lay-offs in the BPO sector, employment in the software industry in the state increased by 34,000 to 554,000 in 2008-09.

Agencies

Does US lag in internet speed over other countries?

The US is lagging far behind other industrial nations in the availability and high speed internet broadband connection, according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA) report.

The report states that the average download speed in South Korea is 20.4 mbps, four times faster than the US average of 5.1 mbps. Japan, Sweden and the Netherlands follow South Korea with an average of 15.8 mbps, 12.8 mbps and 11.0 mbps respectively.

The new research indicates that between 2007 and 2009, the average download internet speed in the US has increased by only 1.6 mbps, from 3.5 mbps in 2007 to 5.1 mbps in 2009. At this rate, it is likely to take the US 15 years to catch up with current internet speed in South Korea, the country with the fastest average internet connection.

The report says, "Our nation continues to fall far behind other countries. People in Japan can upload a high-definition video in 12 minutes, compared to a grueling 2.5 hours at the US average upload speed." The 2009 speed test done by speedmaters.org shows that only 20 percent of those who took the test have internet speed in the range of the top three ranked countries - South Korea, Japan and Sweden. Even more alarming, 18 percent do not even meet the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) definition for current - generation broadband as an always-on internet connection of at least 768 kbps downstream.

Continued job growth, innovation and rural development require high-speed, universal networks. Data shows that for every $5 billion invested in broadband infrastructure to create these networks, 97,500 new jobs in the telecommunications, computer and IT sectors will be created.

Larry Cohen, President, CWA said, "Every American should have affordable access to high-speed internet, no matter where they live. Unfortunately, fragmented government programs and uneven private sector responses to build out internet access have left a digital divide across the country."

The US President Barack Obama has pledged to put broadband in every home and the FCC has embarked on an ambitious project to bring high-speed internet access to every corner of the country.

According to the CWA report, the fastest download speed in the US is in the northeastern parts of the country while the slowest is in states such as Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Agencies

Has Siemens IT arm sacked over 500 as Union claims?

IT firm Siemens Information Systems, a unit of German conglomerate Siemens, today said it has laid off 128 employees as part of its cost cutting measures, debunking union's claim that 500 employees had lost jobs.

The IT-ITeS union UNITES India said the number of employees laid off by the company could be around 500. It added that Siemens is laying off its employees in Bangalore violating the Industrial Dispute Act.

When contacted SISL spokesperson said, "As a part of our cost-cutting initiatives, we have released only 128 employees from one of the business units."

UNITES Professionals India General Secretary Karthik Shekhar said, "The figures provided by the company does not include the number of employees who were on contract. In the last one month, the company has laid off more than 128 employees."

SISL has over 5,500 employees in the country. The union has also written to the headquarters of the firm in Germany.

About compensating the employees, the company said it has already compensated the affected employees higher than the contractual terms.
AGENCIES

Agencies

Will broadband, mobile be key drivers to economic growth?

Access to affordable high-speed Internet and mobile phone service are key to economic growth and job creation in developing countries, the World Bank said in a report.

The report, Information and Communications for Development 2009, found that for every 10 percentage-point increase in high-speed Internet connections there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points.

"Internet users in developing countries increased tenfold from 2000 to 2007, and there are now over four billion mobile phone subscribers in developing countries," said Mohsen Khalil, World Bank group director for global information and communication technologies.

"These technologies offer tremendous opportunities," Khalil said. "Governments can work with the private sector to accelerate rollout of broadband networks, and to extend access to low-income consumers."

The report identified the mobile platform as the "single most powerful way to reach and deliver public and private services to hundreds of millions of people in remote and rural areas across the developing world."

Broadband provides the basis for local information technology (IT) services industries which create youth employment, increase productivity and exports, and promote social inclusion, it said.

"Currently though, few people in developing economies have access to broadband networks," the report said. "In 2007, an average of less than five percent of the population of low-income economies was connected to broadband networks
, and that was mostly in urban centers."

"Access to broadband completes the information foundation for a modern economy and should be a priority in national development plans," said Katherine Sierra, World Bank vice president for sustainable development.

"Governments can play a key role in expanding broadband access by policies and incentives that encourage competition and private investment," she said.

The World Bank supports information and communications technology projects in more than 100 countries with a portfolio of more than three billion dollars.

Agencies

Has Microsoft hired Morgan Stanley to sell Razorfish?

Microsoft has hired Morgan Stanley to sell Razorfish, its digital agency, and French marketing company Publicis Groupe SA is thought to be a possible bidder, according to a media report.

Microsoft acquired the agency, formerly called Avenue A Razorfish, as part of its $6 billion takeover of aQuantive in 2007.

The report cited an analyst valuing Razorfish at $600 million to $700 million, based on sales of about $400 million last year and profit margins for similar businesses of 12 to 13 percent.

Publicis and Morgan Stanley were not immediately available for comment.

Microsoft declined comment.

Razorfish is one of the largest interactive advertising and marketing agencies, boasting a client list that includes McDonald's Corp, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and Carnival Cruise Lines.

Microsoft and VivaKi, the digital arm of Publicis, last week unveiled a broad cooperation deal to develop new content, improve marketing performance and better target digital advertising audiences.

Agencies

Now get your Mobile Web report from Opera

Opera’s popular mobile browser Opera Mini claims to enhance the mobile internet experience. The software organization has now broadcasted its State of the Mobile Web report that further ascends the browser. This report presents some fascinating data that offers a detailed description about the evolution of Web browsing on mobile phones.

Opera conducted a study of vital factors that influence the mobile Web globally and publishes it as the State of the Mobile Web, monthly. The report provides information about the most regularly visited sites. Moreover it also includes key data metrics from Opera Mini and a picture of a particular development selected by the analysis team for that month.

The company had introduced the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile which are premium software for mobile Web browsing on both feature phones and smartphones. Opera Mini offers faster Web services on the handset. Moreover even the page is viewed just as it appears on the desktop browser. The Opera Zoom feature articulates the contents so as to enhance the readability and interaction. Additionally, it also incorporates Opera Link that facilitates users to synchronize their bookmarks for free. It also offers a Speed Dial option and personal bar between all the Web browsers.

The report reveals that 25.4 million Opera Mini users have browsed over 9.6 billion pages, as per the records in the month of May, 2009. Further it claims that since April, 2009, page-views have risen by 11.0% and increased by a remarkable 227% from May, 2008. It also illustrates that users generated almost 160 million MB of data for global operators in May, 2009.

The content analysis is based on an assessment of the top 100 sites ranked based on page views in every country. The designation of sites to particular kind was devised by local content professionals by following Opera’s guidelines to exemplify each site.

Additionally, demographic data was also gathered from voluntary user surveys. The data was then provided to a random subset of Opera Mini users through their handsets, in English, Russian, Chinese, German and Polish. Survey responses were accumulated between February to June, 2008.

Agencies

Will the IT industry miss Nanadan Nilekani?

Infosys Technologies' Co-Chairman Nandan Nilekani was today appointed as Chairman of an Authority with Cabinet minister's rank to steer the ambitious scheme for creating a multi-purpose unique identification database of citizens.

54-year-old Nilekani, the co-founder of the leading IT firm along with N R Narayana Murthy 28 years ago, will head the Unique Identification Database Authority of India (UIDAI) under the aegis of the Planning Commission.

He will have the rank and status of the Cabinet minister, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.

The scheme is aimed at providing a unique identity to the targeted population of the flagship schemes to ensure that the benefits reach them, she said.

A visionary and a thinker, Nilekani, who gets an annual compensation of over USD 1.75 lakh and whose net worth is USD 1.3 billion, resigned his membership of Infosys Board of Directors following his appointment.

His colleagues in Infosys top management Mohandas Pai and Kris Gopalakrishnan said his exit from would be a loss to the organisation but a gain to the country.

Announcing his appointment, the PMO said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited Nilekani to chair an authority that will create a unique identification database of the country's citizens.

Nilekani, born in Sirsi in Uttara Kannada in northern Karnataka, did his early education in Bangalore and Dharwad before moving to Mumbai to study Electrical Engineering in IIT, Bombay.

The PMO said The functioning of the authority and activities to be performed by the UIA would serve multiple objectives.

The authority shall have the responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the unique identification scheme in the country.

It shall own and operate the unique identification number database and be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis.

Sonia said the Authority shall have responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identification Scheme (UID), shall own and operate the Unique Identification number database and be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis," Soni said.

The Authority will identify the targeted groups for various flagship programmes, she added.

The flagship schemes of the UPA include the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, National Rural Health Mission and Bharat Nirman.

The unique identification number would ensure that any lacuna in these schemes is removed so that the benefits do not reach those they are not meant for.

The Government had earmarked Rs 100 crore in the interim Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament on February 16 to kickstart its ambitious Unique Identification Project.

The government has been working on improving arrangements to ensure that development deliverables reach the intended beneficiaries, Mukherjee had said.

People may not be screaming his name out in offices, but he has his own fan following and enjoys rock star-like fame. Nandan M Nilekani has clearly emerged as the most famous of those who created India's widely idolised IT company - Infosys.

N R Narayana Murthy has probably had more media coverage but as the key people behind Infosys prepare to hand over control to the next generation of business leaders, it is Nilekani who looks all set to enjoy a great solo career.

Nilekani, 54, is already credited with repainting India's image globally and will now head an authority that will create a unique electronic database of the country's citizens - a project that many see as key to plugging loopholes in implementation of welfare schemes.

As chairperson of the country's Unique Identification Authority, Nilekani would enjoy the rank of Cabinet Minister.

The electrical engineer from IIT, Bombay, who is the Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Infosys Technologies Limited, was named among Time magazine's world's 100 most influential people of 2009 - an honour he secured in 2006 too.

From March 2002 to June 22, 2007, he served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director and has previously held the posts of President and Chief Operating Officer of the company that he founded, along with Murthy and others, in 1981.

Economictimes & Agencies

IT, ITeS industry growth may fall to 5-year low, says IDC

Indian IT and IT-enabled services industry is expected to grow at 10.8 per cent in 2009, the lowest in the last five years, due to the global economic meltdown, a report said.

But in next four years, it would grow at 13.9 per cent to touch revenue of USD 110 billion, the report by analyst firm IDC India has said.

"In the backdrop of one of the worst ever global financial and economic meltdown, it is estimated that in 2009, the overall India IT/ITeS industry is expected to grow at 10.8 per cent, which is the lowest in the last five years.

"Going forward, the overall IT/ITeS industry is expected to grow at 13.9 per cent (CAGR 2008-2013) to touch over USD 110 billion in 2013," IDC India Country Manager Kapil Dev Singh said in the report.

The total revenue for the Indian IT industry in 2008 stood at over USD 57 billion in 2008.

"The ongoing global slowdown will definitely have its impact on the Indian IT sector. Despite that the industry is still expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.4 per cent by 2013," IDC India Country Manager Kapil Dev Singh said.

The domestic IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) revenue is slated to touch about Rs 2,06,398 crore by 2013 from Rs 99,254 crore in 2008, growing at a CAGR of Rs 15.8 per cent, the study said.

Agencies

Softpro buys SA software company for $19 million

The Hyderabad-based SoftPro Systems, a IT Solution provider has acquired 100% equity stake in South Africa-based Cura Risk Management software for $19 million in an all cash deal. The move is likely to help the Indian company grow six fold to over Rs 60 crore by the end of this fiscal.

“The acquisition is the first step towards the turnaround of our fledgling company. The deal draws strategic benefits as we can utilise the established client base of the acquired firm. Also, we hope to become a $200 million company in the next five years,” said G. Bala Reddy, chairman & managing director, SoftPro.

SoftPro has tied up about $14.5 million of funds with Bank of India and Andhra Bank. Andhra Bank will part guarantee the funds. The company is also looking at infusing fresh equity in the business through a preferential allotment of shares. This will help the firm raise about Rs 53 crore over the next one and a half year. It will also use a part of the money to fund the acquisition.

The promoter group currently holds 46.5% stake in the company. However, the stake will come down to 41% after the preferential allotment. The equity base of the company will increase from Rs 6 crore to Rs 9.5 crore. “While a part of the money raised through preferential allotment will be used to fund the deal, the balance will be used to meet working capital needs,” said Reddy.

SoftPro will pay $16 million upfront and the balance in the next three years based on performance of the acquired company, Cura.

“We see the acquisition as the next stage of growth,” said Alon Apteker, director, Cura. The $8-million company provides integrated software solutions addressing the Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC) requirements. It has about 200 clients across the globe. According to an IT analyst, small IT firms can leverage on such deals as they get to expand demographically and bring business home. Also a company can utilise the technology and expertise locally.

Economictimes