Sanjeev Vohra Named Global Lead of Accenture Applied Intelligence

WHAT: Sanjeev Vohra has been named the global lead of Accenture Applied Intelligence. In this role he also joins the company’s Global Management Committee (GMC). Accenture’s Applied Intelligence business – which helps clients use data, AI, analytics and automation to fuel business transformation – is a strategic growth driver for the company, and an increased priority for its clients as organizations pursue greater agility and data-driven insights..

WHO: Vohra oversees a global Applied Intelligence workforce of 40,000, with deep industry expertise and skills in areas including AI, data science, deep learning, machine learning and data engineering. This team works with clients on every step of their AI journey – from data strategy to data foundation, from AI governance to implementation. Prior to this new role, Vohra was Accenture’s Growth & Strategy lead for Technology, overseeing business strategy and investments, including ventures and acquisitions.

Since joining Accenture in 2002, Vohra has played a key role in shaping the company into a data-driven organization, with the skills to match. In his role leading Accenture’s data services portfolio, Vohra deepened relationships with mature and emerging ecosystem partners to meet new demands with joint capabilities. As part of the global leadership team, he helped drive Accenture’s focus on “the New” (digital, cloud, security), bringing the right technology, coupled with strong talent, to deliver hundreds of digital transformations for clients. 

Vohra is passionate about fostering a culture of learning within his teams, and the industry more broadly. In addition to promoting skills development at Accenture, he has forged strategic partnerships with universities including MIT, Stanford, Wharton and Harvard to facilitate innovative learning programs and research.

ACCENTURE COMMENT:

“Sanjeev brings unparalleled data and analytics expertise and a wide-ranging strategy and technology background to this critical role. We will count on his exceptional business acumen, leadership, and innovation-led mindset to drive our Applied Intelligence business and help our clients discover new ways to harness the power of data and insight to fuel their transformation and growth.”

—Annette Rippert, Group Chief Executive, Accenture Strategy & Consulting

WHEN: Vohra’s appointment is effective immediately. 

BACKGROUND: Applied Intelligence is Accenture’s approach to scaling AI-powered data, analytics and automation capabilities for clients. Our expertise in defining end-to-end strategy, combined with deep data infrastructure capabilities, cognitive services and industrialized accelerators help smooth clients’ path to AI adoption, extending human capabilities and supporting clients in scaling AI responsibly.

Infogain Recognized as 3rd Fastest Growing Company in Everest Group’s Engineering Services Top 50™ 2020

Infogain, a Silicon Valley based digital platform and software engineering company­, is pleased to announce that it ranked 3rd in revenue growth and 32nd overall in Everest Group’s Engineering Services Top 50™ 2020, a global list of the 50 largest providers of outsourced engineering services. In addition, ChrysCapital-backed Infogain’s buys of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure Expert MSP Silicus Technologies and strategy and design firm Revel Consulting featured in the report’s list of key acquisitions made by engineering companies in 2019.

Third-party providers were evaluated and ranked based on their CY 2019 engineering services revenue and year-on-year growth. This is the second year Everest Group has released an Engineering Services Top 50™ list, with this year’s Top 50™ accounting for $45.9 billion in revenue as compared to $40.5 billion in CY 2018.

Infogain was credited for offering key engineering services across select verticals, including Software Products, Computing Systems, Consumer Electronics, Healthcare & Medical Devices, Industrial & Energy, and Automotive.

Ayan Mukerji, President and Chief Operating Officer at Infogain, said, “We are pleased to make Everest Group’s Engineering Services Top 50™ 2020 list and to be recognized as 3rd for revenue growth. 2019 was a great year for us: we closed several large deals and joined hands with two outstanding companies offering niche, high-value-add services. This ranking is a great testament to Infogain’s software engineering expertise and relentless commitment to delivering value to our customers.”

The Top 50™ list helps enterprises get a better sense of the global third-party engineering services landscape, make more informed sourcing decisions, and identify new ways to leverage third-party engineering services providers. This list also helps service providers make better assessments of their competitive positions compared to their peers.

The Everest Group Engineering Services Top 50™ 2020 report can be viewed here.

About Infogain

Infogain is a Silicon Valley headquartered company with digital platform and software engineering expertise in the travel, retail, insurance, healthcare, and high technology industries. We accelerate design-led transformation and delivery of digital customer engagement systems and platforms. Infogain engineers business outcomes for Fortune 500 companies and digital natives using technologies such as cloud, microservices, robotic process automation, IoT, and artificial intelligence.

A ChrysCapital portfolio company, Infogain has offices in California, Washington, Texas, London, Dubai, India, and Singapore, with delivery centers in Austin, Kraków, New Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, and Mumbai.

Trend Micro and Girls in Tech Partner to Help Close the Gender Gap in the Technology Industry

Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today announced a new initiative in its long-running effort to close the diversity and talent gap in the technology industry. The company will extend its partnership with Girls in Tech, a global non-profit bringing the world together through education and experiences. Together, the two organizations will address the worldwide skills shortage in cybersecurity by helping to develop a large talent pool of women eager to get their start in the industry.

Although there is a global shortfall of more than four million cybersecurity professionals today, just a quarter (24%) of current roles are estimated to be taken by women. Both organizations, with global reach, are passionate about connecting with more women and gender-diverse talent and helping find them opportunities to advance their careers and secure the future. Girls in Tech, with 60,000 global members, has been dedicated to raising awareness of this skills gap and to overcome the divide for more than ten years and Trend Micro runs global education programs with a focus on helping women develop new skills to fill the open jobs.

“I’ve always been passionate about and dedicated to encouraging greater gender diversity in the industry. It’s why at Trend Micro we’re committed to supporting equal opportunities in the workplace and in 2018 launched our Close the Gap initiative,” said Eva Chen, co-founder and CEO of Trend Micro. “I’m delighted to be teaming with Girls in Tech to further advance our efforts. Especially in light of recent events, I believe we must celebrate and encourage diversity at every turn today. It’s what makes us human.”

As part of this expanded partnership with Girls in Tech, Trend Micro will develop a new Cybersecurity Fundamentals course for the non-profit. Instead of choosing a course that already exists within the program, Trend Micro has called on its world-class security team to build a custom course for Girls in Tech specific to today’s market need. The course, a blend of e-learning, online instructor-led classes and a hands-on lab via Trend Micro Product Cloud, will cover cybersecurity essentials, network security threats, an introduction to malware analysis, and much more.

“Girls in Tech shares with Trend Micro a unified vision for a future in which women are provided the same opportunities to pursue professions in technology as their male counterparts,” said Adriana Gascoigne, founder and CEO of Girls in Tech. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with Trend Micro to positively impact the technology landscape for women today and generations to come.”

Trend Micro and Girls in Tech first worked together on the Close the Gap program at AWS re:Invent 2018 where they brought managing directors from 30 global Girls in Tech chapters together to brainstorm diversity ideas and programs with industry executives.

Registration for the new Cybersecurity Fundamentals course is now open. The virtual course will run from Aug. 31 to Sept. 25 and last four hours per week.

AgriBazaar Hosts Global Webinar on Landmark Reforms in Indian Agriculture to Discuss Watershed Changes

AgriBazaar, India’s largest Online Agri-Trading Marketplace, held a global webinar titled ‘Landmark Reforms in Indian Agriculture’. The government of India recently promulgated two ordinances: augmenting ease of trade by giving farmers a new and simpler alternative to sell their produce and building a farm-gate infrastructure to ensure that farmers get the desired price for every unit sold. The combination of these two ordinances is envisaged to bring large-scale benefits to the Indian farmer community by addressing their long-standing issues and therefore significantly boost the country’s agriculture.

The webinar was hosted to highlight these watershed reforms and how they can bring a positive change to Indian agriculture. A wide array of opportunities was identified during the webinar such as crop advisory, crop marketing, smart irrigation, leasing of equipment, and new avenues of financing, among others. New ideas and innovations such as digital agri stack, gene editing, plant-based meat, etc, were also discussed. The webinar highlighted the evolution of Indian farmers who are quickly learning the new agri-tech tools by attending various workshops hosted by agri-tech companies during the lockdown.

Speaking on the webinar Regarding level playing field for private e-marketplaces Mr. Sanjay Agarwal, IAS, Secretary (Agriculture) said, “they will be treated at par with the State-sponsored eNAM (National Agriculture Market). “eNAM is a platform that works in mandis. The trade ordinances that the government came out with do not touch mandis. No special place is kept for eNAM in the ordinance. Both the government and private platforms will have equal footing,” he said.

There is no registration or regulation required, except for the fact that they have to declare their fair trade modalities, payment modalities and logistic modalities. And they have to follow these modalities. The government has kept a provision for framing norms for this ecosystem at a later point, if required to use, he added.

Amith Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, AgriBazaar said, “It gives me immense pleasure to host this webinar. I saw some of the most brilliant ideas and innovations discussed by the domain leaders and top government officials during the event. The recent reforms undertaken by the Indian Government in the Agri-sector will spur the much-needed investment in the sector and unleash agritech opportunities.”

With a focus on government’s ‘One India, One Agriculture Market’ reforms, the webinar saw participation from senior leaders from the government, industry thought leaders from the private sector, investors and senior industry professionals from the Food and Agriculture Industry across the globe (mainly from Europe, the US, and Asia). Mr Sanjay Agarwal, IAS, Secretary (Agriculture), Dr Rajeev Ranjan, IAS, Secretary (Fisheries), Mr Atul Chaturvedi, IAS, Secretary (Animal Husbandry), and Ms Pushpa Subrahmanyam, IAS, Secretary (Food Processing Industries), Government of India attended the event. The private sector and global investors were represented by Mr Anuj Maheshwari, Managing Director, Agribusiness, Temasek International, Mr Srini Nagarajan, Managing Director and Head of Asia, CDC Group, Mr S. Sivakumar, Group Head – Agri & IT Businesses, ITC Limited, and Mr Balram Yadav, Managing Director, Godrej Agrovet.

About AgriBazaar

AgriBazaar is an online marketplace that is an intelligent and intuitive system delivering future-ready solutions to the Indian agrarian sector. The Indian agri-business is fragmented, and AgriBazaar with its cutting-edge technology and tools is acting as a tech enabler. With capabilities of warehousing, collateral financing and value-added services, AgriBazaar spans across geographies and enhances the efficiencies of the entire ecosystem.

Have IT cos skipped campus recruitment for 2009-10?

With Nasscom, the software industry's apex body advising its members not to go to campuses for recruitment, the placements at engineering colleges has dried up. However, although 2008-09 was a difficult year for training and placement officers (TPO) at engineering colleges, 2009-10 could be the most critical year for campus placements, reports Economic Times.

JN Pitambare, Dean of Sinhagad Institute says, "Normally, 75-80 percent of the placements used to take place by mid-August. However, this year I will be happy if I am able to place even 10-15 percent of our students by December."

SV Dravid, TPO, DY Patil College of Engineering at Akurdi, near Pune said, "Last year, we had placed 150 students by this time. This year, not a single student has been placed. I hope the situation improves by December." Normally the big software companies finish recruitment by mid-August, placing around 75 percent of the college students.The core sector companies used to come from August, but this year they are non-committal.

Companies have been telling TPOs that their placement requirements are yet to be firmed up since things are not planned yet or they do not know how many projects they will get. "Most of the core companies are in a dilemma. They have promised to come for placements by December," said TPO Federation President Professor Shital Rawandale. Not only are there fewer jobs on offer for 2009-10 but the companies are adopting various techniques to defer the joining dates of candidates recruited last year or even to reject them.

Top colleges like the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) are also facing problems. "Of the 576 students placed last year, only 150 have joined till now. For the rest of them, joining has been deferred from July to December," said Assistant TPO, COEP, SA Meshram.

Some of the selected candidates are being asked to take more tests. With the recession, singing of bonds has also returned. "Some small and medium-sized software companies now want the candidates whom they had already selected to enter into two-year bonds," said a TPO.

Economic Times

New Internet browser from Opera

Norway's Opera Software released on Tuesday a new version of its browser, Opera 10, promising faster downloads, new design and new fea
tures.

Opera battles for the spot of third-largest browser maker with Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari, but is far behind Microsoft and Mozilla Foundation.

Opera said the new browser is significantly faster on resource-intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook, and adds features like full thumbnails of all open tabs.

Opera said its Turbo feature for slow connections, which packages web pages, makes the browser up to eight times faster than rival browsers in low connection speeds.

"We have worked a lot on Opera Turbo technology and have also made major improvements on the overall product stability. This is the most stable Opera browser yet," the company said.

The companies usually release several successive test versions of their browsers so they can incorporate user feedback in a series of improvements before their final launch. Microsoft launched its latest IE8 browser in March after a year of public beta testing.

Opera unveiled a public test version of the browser on June 3. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is used for about 60 per cent of global Internet traffic, and Mozilla's Firefox has about 30 per cent, with usage of Opera, Google and Apple all around 3 per cent each, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter.

Opera has a small share of the global desktop browser market, but its browser is the most popular in countries like Russia or Ukraine, and its mobile browser is the most widely used browser on handsets.

Agencies

Check out the latest update of SaaS studies

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is playing an important role in changing the fundamentals of business for user companies and for SaaS providers themselves. These changes are part of a multi-year 'loop' cycle that reciprocates between users and providers, with each side influencing the other in unforeseen ways.

Mismanaging this 'endless loop of innovation' will prevent user firms from being able to derive real competitive advantage from SaaS, prevent SaaS providers from competing on an increasingly global stage and trap ISVs (Independent software vendors) from growing along with the global user IT market.

Understanding how each side influences the others and how to manage it effectively through changing market scenarios, is the key theme of 'An Endless Cycle of Innovation: Saugatuck SaaS Scenarios Through 2014', the latest global research program developed and published by Saugatuck Technology.

On the launch of new study, Bruce Guptill, Managing Director of Research, Saugatuck Technology said, "The research shows us a combination of changing SaaS acquisition and adoption, both as a result of the global recession and as a result of the changing nature of SaaS itself. How users do business with SaaS is changing how providers develop and deliver SaaS and is changing how ISVs and other players will need to compete over the next several years. Failure to recognize and adapt to these changes will make it extremely difficult, and much more costly than it should be, for anyone to benefit from SaaS."

As the demand of SaaS is growing globally, the analysts expect that by year 2012, SaaS solutions is likely to become the de facto choice for the majority of user organizations that are replacing legacy applications or business systems as they reach the end of their useful lives or when driven by other important business considerations.

According to Guptill, by year 2014, SaaS and Cloud Computing will become an integral to infrastructure, business systems, operations and development within all aspects of user firms with variations in status and roles based on region and business culture. Prior to this time period, SaaS is likely to act as an important 'agent of change'.

Agencies

Mahindra Satyam BPO on a hiring spree; To hire 300 by Sept

At a time when software firm Mahindra Satyam is rationalising its headcount, its BPO arm seems to be on a hiring spree with plans to recruit 300 employees by the next month.

The company has recently bagged a major contract from a domestic client for providing it back office support.

“To support the client we have already hired 700 employees in the last one month and will hire another 300 by the end of next month," Mahindra Satyam BPO CEO Vijay
Rangineni said.

However, he declined to divulge the name of the new client or the deal size. According to sources, the new win is in the telecom space.

The total headcount of the company after the recruitment would stand at 2,900. Though the parent firm Mahindra Satyam have a considerable presence in the domestic market, this is the first major win by Mahindra Satyam BPO in the domestic space.

Rangineni further said the company would now focus on the sizeable domestic market.

"Post the acquisition by Tech Mahindra, we now have a footprint globally and will leverage the strengths of Tech Mahindra wherever they are present," he said.

Mahindra Satyam BPO has one delivery centre each in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. The company, however, do not have a global delivery centre so far.

Agencies

Is the global recovery set to begin?

The worst is over for the global economy and a recovery is likely to begin later this year, says a bank report released here.

The global economic crisis has bottomed out and positive indicators have begun to emerge, said the report by the Royal Bank of Canada which is the top bank in the country. It said there were encouraging signs for global recovery as the US economy was showing signs of recovery after worst-ever declines in its GDP in the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

Thanks to low interest rates, an easing in credit crunch and Obama's fiscal stimulus package, the US housing market is already showing some stability, it said. This, coupled with rising consumer confidence, hints at a moderate recovery for the US economy by the second half of 2009, the report said.

"The benefits of significant fiscal and monetary policy stimulus (in the US) are starting to have traction," said RBC chief economist Craig Wright. He said, "There is an unprecedented amount of money bolstering the world economy."

"What we will be watching is the impact this spending has on labour markets, as well as household and business confidence. The degree of impact will be a crucial factor in shaping economic recovery."

Though the recession has thrown six million Americans out of jobs - pushing the unemployment rate to a record 9.4% in 25 years, the recent data suggests that this rate has started declining, the report said.

It said home sales in the US are also poised to pick up as affordability improves.

But the most potent indicator of the onset of recovery was that US consumer spending has increased after six months of decline.

This trend will continue in the second half of 2009 because of low interest rates, firmer credit markets and fiscal stimulus, the report said.

About Canada, the report said its economy will shrink by 2.4% this year. With over 360,000 jobs lost nationwide since October, consumer confidence will remain low as the unemployment rate peaks at 9.2% by the end of 2009.

The report forecast that the Canadian dollar, which has rallied 15% since March, will hover between 85 to 92 cents US for the remainder of this year.

Agencies

Has software piracy in India gone up to $2.7 billion?

Global software makers lost an estimated $2.76 billion to illegal software trade in India, a study.

According to a BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study, even as piracy in the country has seen a one point drop to 68 per cent in 2008, it has resulted in loss of billions of dollars for software majors like Adobe, Autodesk and Microsoft globally.

"With the various initiatives taken by the government and the firms, piracy has gone down to 68 per cent and in the coming year also, we expect this to continue as people become more informed about licenced software," BSA Vice-President and Regional Director (Asia-Pacific) Jeffrey J Hardee told reporters afetr releasing the study.

The dollar-rupee fluctuation resulted in the increase in value terms.

Hardee also said the rapidly growing user base for assembled PC units and easy availability of pirated software on the Internet, is a major concern.

However "with software firms offering services to the SMBs and more portable PCs being shipped, piracy should come down," he added.

The study noted a rise in piracy levels globally. While it has gone up to 41 per cent globally from 38 per cent last year, piracy also remains high in the Central and Eastern Europe (66 per cent), Latin America (65 per cent) and Asia-Pacific (61 per cent).
Agencies

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Agencies

Is Yahoo on a hiring spree in India?

Internet major Yahoo is hiring for hundreds of job openings including nearly 150 vacancies in India, even as the company is set to bring down its global workforce by about 675 employees. "We are currently hiring for key positions and will continue to invest in strategically important areas," a Yahoo spokesperson based in the U.S. said.

Last week, while announcing its first quarter results on April 21, Yahoo had said that it would slash five percent of its global workforce of 13,500 employees. While the spokesperson did not elaborate on country-specific hiring plans, the career section of the internet major's website shows that Yahoo is looking for about 150 positions in India alone.

The openings are for its operations in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi, while most of them are for Bangalore. The India openings are for various departments including engineering, customer care, research and product management, among others. Further, the internet major has over 120 job vacancies for different offices in the US, the website shows.

The firm is resorting to job cuts in the wake of slackening advertisement revenues and a 78 percent drop in first quarter profit at $118 million. However, it is not clear whether India operations comprising of about 1,500 employees would be affected by the job cuts. The spokesperson noted that the majority of impacted employees are expected to be notified within the next two weeks.

Last October, Yahoo had announced that it would reduce its headcount by as much as 10 percent. "The goal is to reduce its current annualized cost run rate of approximately $3.9 billion by more than $400 million before the end of 2008," the Internet major had said in October.

Agencies

Global IT spending to drop by 3.8% in 2009, says Gatner

The ongoing global slowdown will force companies worldwide to reduce their IT expenditure to USD 3.2 trillion this year against $ 3.4 trn in 2008, according to an IT research company.

"The unprecendented decline of the global economy is impacting the IT industry with worldwide IT spending forecast to total $ 3.4 trn in 2009, a 3.8 per cent decline from 2008 revenue of nearly $ 3.4 trn," IT research and advisory company Gartner said in a report.

Gartner said that all four of the key market sectors of the IT industry-- hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications have been revised downward, with only software spending growth remaining positive.

"Spending in computing hardware
will see a decline of 14.9 per cent with total spending to be around USD 324.3 billion as against $ 3.4 trn in 2008," Gartner said.

The spending in IT services and telecommunications sectors will also fall by 1.7 per cent at USD 796.1 billion and 2.9 per cent at USD 1,891.2 billion, respectively, the report said.


Agencies

Has Wipro set up new consulting R&D arm?

Technology major Wipro is planning a deep plunge into the global consulting market with the idea of competing with true-blue global consulting brands and IT consulting firms.

In preparation for this move, the company has carried out an in-depth study on select consulting majors including Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, McKinsey and Bain & Company to understand what made them stay different in the consulting world.

Anurag Srivastava, head of Wipro Consulting Services (WCS) said, "The objective of the study was to gather a holistic understanding of the consulting business. We want to create differentiation in the global markets through innovation-driven consulting. Consulting will be the front-end service for most of our large business deals.''

Wipro has also set up a dedicated research and development arm, Global Research Centre, to support its initiatives in the consulting space. The R&D facility will seek to enhance the business value to clients through innovation. The company believes that consulting will work as a powerful tool during times of recession to gain customer confidence.

Wipro employs over 1,200 consulting professionals and 7% of them will now be part of the R&D team. The team will track 12 industry verticals. The research activity starts with profiling the customer, moves on to analysing industrial trends, followed by providing a macro-economic snapshot and culminating in a viable business strategy.

The job of the R&D team is to lay seeds of innovation. It will play a key role in bridging the divide between ideators and front-end workers.

"The researchers will work in tandem with consulting professionals, so that customers are increasingly benefited,'' Srivastava said. "Consulting will have a significant impact on our IT/BPO revenues. It will transform us from an outsourcing player to a transformational partner."

Agencies

Has IBM resorted to scattered layoffs globally?

Technology giant IBM is resorting to "scattered layoffs" and the total could be nearly 4,600 employees in North America even though the company has reported surprisingly strong quarterly profits in January, a media report says.

"Big companies also routinely carry out scattered layoffs that are small enough to stay under the radar... and IBM is one such company," the New York Times said.

Interestingly, after reporting strong quarterly profits in January, its Chief Executive Samuel J Palmisano in an e-mail message to employees said that while other companies were reducing jobs, his company would not. "Most importantly, we will invest in our people," he wrote.

But the next day, the New York Times said "more than 1,400 employees in IBM's sales and distribution division in the United States and Canada were told their jobs would be eliminated in a month. More cuts followed, and overall, IBM has told about 4,600 North American employees in recent weeks that their jobs are vanishing."

Quoting J Randall MacDonald, IBM's senior vice-president for human resources, the newspaper said "it was routine for the company to lay off some employees while hiring elsewhere".

IBM says it remains the largest high-tech employer in the US, with 1,15,000 workers. But IBM's American employment has declined steadily, down to 29 per cent of its worldwide payroll of 3,98,445 at the end of 2008.

However, experts have a different take on this. According to them, these unannounced cuts raise issues of disclosure and the treatment of workers.

The report cited Harley Shaiken, a labour economist at the University of California, Berkeley, as saying that "the issue becomes all the more pressing in this downward economic spiral."

Meanwhile, as part of a government filing last week, IBM said its workforce in Brazil, Russia, India and China had climbed to 1,13,000. These are markets with faster growth than the United States, and less expensive skilled labour.

"At IBM, the layoffs are coming swiftly, if with less disclosure. The estimate of 4,600 job cuts comes from adding up the itemised headcounts in information packages given to employees in each of the businesses," the report said.

NYT further added, "In its financial statements, IBM does report the cost of severance payments and outplacement counselling for layoffs about USD 400 million annually in the last five years but not head counts."

Meanwhile, IBM workers whose jobs are being eliminated have said the undisclosed cuts, and the timing, seemed to contradict the company's public statements.

Agencies

India remains the kings of outsourcing business

Though the world is witnessing a severe meltdown, IT firms in India found it an opportunity to step up their outsourcing activities as global companies are resorting to several cost cutting initiatives. It is despite the fact that the country is facing serious threats to its outsourcing leadership from a few internal elements like vulnerabilities to terror attacks and erosion of the confidence in corporate governance.

However India will remain a major outsourcing destination. "Even though other markets will be redoubling efforts to seize opportunities from India, no other country yet presents a serious threat as a key outsourcing destination", said Arno Franz, Partner and Asia-Pacific President at TPI, while speaking to BusinessWeek. "China is still very much an emerging destination, while it is debatable whether any other single country has the breadth and depth of skills, experience and infrastructure to seriously challenge India's position," he added.

Franz pointed out that India-based providers made significant market share increases last year. In terms of total contract value (TCV), Indian outsourcers contributed 16 percent of the global market, up from 11 percent in 2007. They also accounted for over half of the Asia-Pacific outsourcing TCV. Moreover, two out of the three mega-deals in the second half of 2008 went to India-based providers. Mega deals, defined by TPI as contracts worth over $1 billion, numbered 12 between January and June last year.

Over the year, there was a record of 88 contracts in the region with a total contract value of over US$25 million, 50 of which were awarded in the second half. Despite the high number, the 2008 TCV of Asia-Pacific outsourcing deals was $12.3 billion, lower than 2007's $12.7 billion. Annualized contract value (ACV), which is the contract value divided by its duration, also fell from $2.7 billion in 2007, to $2.4 billion last year.

Agencies

Satyam likely to layoff 10,000 employees in 2009

With a big questions mark on its cash position and a minimum outgo on salary estimated at Rs 500 crore a month, Satyam may lay off over 10,000 employees next month, says a recruitment firm.

"It is most likely that Satyam will cut 10,000 jobs next month as the company is left with no cash to pay the salaries. The current fiasco is likely to put pressure on salaries, which may reduce by 10 per cent due to the surplus of about 20,000 people in the jobs market," Headhunters India CEO Kris Lakshmikanth said.

Satyam interim CEO Ram Mynampati while admitting that the cash position is not encouraging, the company, however, has taken care of salary for December.

Lakshmikanth said till Tuesday evening there were about 7,800 people from Satyam who had posted their resumes on job sites and by Wednesday afternoon, it has gone up to 14,000.

The uncertainty about jobs is killingly painful for the 53,000 employees of Satyam, especially when the industry is going slow on recruitment.

Further, possibility of a takeover too looks distant as the accounting fraud done by the company would make it difficult for any firm to evaluate its correct market value, which is compounding the worries of the employees.

IT-BPO union Unites Professionals general secretary Karthik Shekhar said, "In case of any lay off at Satyam, we may take legal action."

"We have received over 7,000 hits since the news break. Yesterday, in one hour we have seen over 800 hits (no of people visiting the site) from Hyderabad. People have been enquiries on how the union can help them," Shekhar added.

Agencies

India to emerge strong from the global meltdown

The report said India, along with China, Russia and South Korea would emerge stronger from the global financial crisis as they enjoy strong economic foundations, higher growth rates and sound monetary policy measures.

US, China and Japan were ranked first, second and third respectively.

India ranked 19th in terms of budget balance as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) and 12th in terms of public debt as a percentage of the GDP.

The ranking was based on seven economic indicators: size of the economy, spending power, tax structure, interest rate policy, budget balances, debt burden and foreign exchange reserves.

Microsoft to axe 15,000 jobs this January

The world's top software firm, Microsoft, is planning a massive reduction in its workforce where up to 15,000 jobs may be axed this month, says a media report.

"Microsoft is preparing to announce the first wide scale layoffs in its 32-year history, with up to 15,000 jobs at risk, according to some predictions," The Times said in a report published online.

Speculation about job cuts was triggered by a report by Fudzilla, a technology blog site, which said employees were told that the software group was preparing for major layoffs from its global operations on January 15, it added.

Earlier, a brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co's analyst Brad Reback had asked Microsoft to cut its workforce by 10% or about 9,100 employees.

"Such layoff exercise "would be a healthy move for the company," Reback added. Microsoft had close to 91,000 employees on its payrolls at end of July-September quarter.

Further, The Times report stated that the news of job losses came amid the company being forced to apologise for an embarrassing hiccup with its Zune digital music player.

A bug in the device's internal clock in the original 30-gigabyte version failed to cope with the last day of the leap year and thousands of owners were left with a frozen screen on December 31.

The report quoted Microsoft statement as saying, "the issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30 GB devices will automatically reset."

Besides, Microsoft is scheduled to release its second quarter results for the fiscal year 2008-09 on January 22.

Battling the economic crisis, companies in their bid to save costs, have announced over one lakh job cuts in December in the US.

Source: Agencies

Job losses would be temporary, says Montek Ahluwalia

The government on Friday said the current economic situation could lead to some job losses, but these would only be temporary with economy poised to grow at seven per cent this fiscal.

"Certainly in sectors that are badly affected, if we are not able to completely counter the effect of recession, there may be some job losses. We hope they will be temporary," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters while briefing on the stimulus package.

He said the idea behind this package is to ensure that economy does not slow down too much.

Ahluwalia said the economy is expected to grow at seven per cent this fiscal and that will be a good performance.

"So, when I say that this package will hopefully generate a growth rate of seven per cent, that is a growth rate that is certainly consistent with the total number of jobs in the economy increasing," he said.

The Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, however, said it is not possible to completely counter the impact of an external slowdown.

"But with this package what we are doing is minimising the pain on that score," he added.

Source: Agencies

Uncertainty will remain in Indian economy, says RBI chief

The outlook for the Indian economy in the coming months remains uncertain but the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will take appropriate Subbarao action when needed, its chief said on Thursday.

"The situation way forward is quite uncertain. The RBI will take appropriate action as and when required," Subbarao told reporters after a meeting of the bank's governing board.

"The RBI will continue to closely monitor the developments in the global and domestic financial markets and will take swift and effective action as appropriate."

He also said the central bank would endeavour to minimise the stress on various sectors of the economy which have been hurt by the global economic crisis.

On Saturday, the bank aggressively cut its main rates to support slowing.