IT major Satyam Computer's head of automotives division, Subbu D Subramanian, has quit, a company spokesperson said.
Subramanian, who was serving as the Vice-President of the Hyderabad-based company, has put in his papers to seek career opportunities abroad, the spokesperson told media here.
He would be succeeded by another Satyam senior official, Keshab Panda, who was in the charge of the firm's energy and utilities vertical.
Agencies
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Is Ad spend moving into internet from TV, radio?
Global economic slowdown has led to cut in media advertisement spending for sure, but internet company Yahoo is seeing a silver-lining.
And in some sense, recession in advance markets may be a blessing in disguise for such companies as advertisers shift ad spend from television and radio to internet.
Yahoo's Co-Founder and Chief David Filo confirmed the trend. "Advertising. while there may be slow-down....it's not going away", he told reporters on the sidelines of Yahoo India R & D-organised second Open Hack Day in India here.
There are other factors, he said. "People consume increasingly more and more internet", as opposed to television and radio, he argued. "People are moving that attention (from television and radio) to internet; that shift is going to increase (further)".
Particularly in times of economic slowdown, advertisers are shifting their ad spend to internet, Filo said. Internet advertising is "measurable" and, so, advertisers are "much more amenable" (to put more dollars into internet advertising)".
CEO of Yahoo India R & D, Sharad Sharma, said broadband access in India needs to improve, while PC penetration needs to be much faster. "Internet growth is modest (in India)", he said.
Agencies
And in some sense, recession in advance markets may be a blessing in disguise for such companies as advertisers shift ad spend from television and radio to internet.
Yahoo's Co-Founder and Chief David Filo confirmed the trend. "Advertising. while there may be slow-down....it's not going away", he told reporters on the sidelines of Yahoo India R & D-organised second Open Hack Day in India here.
There are other factors, he said. "People consume increasingly more and more internet", as opposed to television and radio, he argued. "People are moving that attention (from television and radio) to internet; that shift is going to increase (further)".
Particularly in times of economic slowdown, advertisers are shifting their ad spend to internet, Filo said. Internet advertising is "measurable" and, so, advertisers are "much more amenable" (to put more dollars into internet advertising)".
CEO of Yahoo India R & D, Sharad Sharma, said broadband access in India needs to improve, while PC penetration needs to be much faster. "Internet growth is modest (in India)", he said.
Agencies
Sapient lays off 300 employees in India
Software firm Sapient has laid off 300 employees at its offices in Bangalore, Noida and Gurgaon as a result of the global economic downturn, which has impacted several IT firms.
"In order to adjust to this changing demand environment, Sapient has exited about 8 per cent of its people. Sapient employs approximately 6,400 globally and as a result of this rationalisation, 300 people in India have been impacted," the company spokesperson said.
He said the exited employees have received severance packages and full outplacement services, and would be considered for rehiring on a fast track basis if the company finds that it again needs their skills and experience.
"These people were laid off to right size the company. They were at different levels of the management," he said, adding that Sapient has two-third of its workforce in India.
Businesses worldwide are feeling the impact of the economic downturn, and as a result, are reducing budgets and delaying projects. Despite the short-term softness in demand, Sapient remains well-positioned in two large markets - IT services and interactive marketing.
The company would continue to make strategic investments and targeted hires in several areas that are expected to drive success in 2009, including trading and risk management, marketing and government services, he said.
Agencies
"In order to adjust to this changing demand environment, Sapient has exited about 8 per cent of its people. Sapient employs approximately 6,400 globally and as a result of this rationalisation, 300 people in India have been impacted," the company spokesperson said.
He said the exited employees have received severance packages and full outplacement services, and would be considered for rehiring on a fast track basis if the company finds that it again needs their skills and experience.
"These people were laid off to right size the company. They were at different levels of the management," he said, adding that Sapient has two-third of its workforce in India.
Businesses worldwide are feeling the impact of the economic downturn, and as a result, are reducing budgets and delaying projects. Despite the short-term softness in demand, Sapient remains well-positioned in two large markets - IT services and interactive marketing.
The company would continue to make strategic investments and targeted hires in several areas that are expected to drive success in 2009, including trading and risk management, marketing and government services, he said.
Agencies
Friday, February 13, 2009
Will Google, Yahoo and Microsoft collaborate to clean up web?
In a rare instance of collaboration among otherwise fierce rivals, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft said they would support a new web standard that will allow millions of publishers to remove duplicate pages from their websites. As a result, search engines would be able to make their search results more comprehensive.
"There is a lot of clutter on the web and with this, publishers will be able to clean up a lot of junk," said Matt Cutts, an engineer who heads Google's spam fighting efforts, the New York Times reported.
"I think it is going to gain traction pretty quickly," said Cutts.
The problem is the following: Many web publishers, especially those that have voluminous sites, like e-commerce companies, have multiple URLs that all point to the same page. This confuses search engines, sometimes causing them to index the same page multiple times. As much as 20 percent of URLs on the web may be duplicates, according to some estimates.
Engineers at Google came up with a simple way for web publishers to indicate when a URL is a duplicate, and if so, which is the principal, or "canonical," URL that search engines should be indexing. Yahoo and Microsoft, the no. 2 and no. 3 search engines, have agreed to support the same standard.
"We are happy that everyone is going to support the same implementation," said Nathan Buggia, a lead programme manager at Microsoft. "This is a clear benefit for publishers as it gives them an opportunity to get more exposure through search engines."
All search engines have developed technologies to detect duplicates that are more or less effective. The so-called Canonical Link Tag, as the standard is known, should make it easier for both publishers and search engines to address the problem, NYT reported Thursday.
"It is an important step because all the search engines are coming out with it," said Priyank Garg, director of product management for web search at Yahoo.
Agencies
"There is a lot of clutter on the web and with this, publishers will be able to clean up a lot of junk," said Matt Cutts, an engineer who heads Google's spam fighting efforts, the New York Times reported.
"I think it is going to gain traction pretty quickly," said Cutts.
The problem is the following: Many web publishers, especially those that have voluminous sites, like e-commerce companies, have multiple URLs that all point to the same page. This confuses search engines, sometimes causing them to index the same page multiple times. As much as 20 percent of URLs on the web may be duplicates, according to some estimates.
Engineers at Google came up with a simple way for web publishers to indicate when a URL is a duplicate, and if so, which is the principal, or "canonical," URL that search engines should be indexing. Yahoo and Microsoft, the no. 2 and no. 3 search engines, have agreed to support the same standard.
"We are happy that everyone is going to support the same implementation," said Nathan Buggia, a lead programme manager at Microsoft. "This is a clear benefit for publishers as it gives them an opportunity to get more exposure through search engines."
All search engines have developed technologies to detect duplicates that are more or less effective. The so-called Canonical Link Tag, as the standard is known, should make it easier for both publishers and search engines to address the problem, NYT reported Thursday.
"It is an important step because all the search engines are coming out with it," said Priyank Garg, director of product management for web search at Yahoo.
Agencies
Can cars will talk to each other to avert accidents?
A radio technology that allows cars to 'talk' to each other and avert accidents is being tested now.
It warns drivers of potential intersection crashes, rear-end collisions and lane drift - and could be available in everyday vehicles as early as 2012.
The technology will also enable traffic flow management and optimised route selection for drivers, reducing the costs of traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.
Live safety demonstrations of the technology will be held at an Australian Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) industry event.
Vehicle manufacturers and state and federal government will be among industry stakeholders who will see first-hand the DSRC technology developed by Kent Town-based company Cohda Wireless.
Cohda Wireless was founded in 2004 by a group of scientists working at UniSA's Institute for Telecommunications Research.
Director of UniSA's Institute for Telecommunications Research Alex Grant said DSRC is a radio technology that combines GPS and Wi-Fi like communications to effectively enable cars to talk to each other.
"This technology essentially equips vehicles with the ability to see around corners and to predict and avoid dangerous situations," said Grant, according to an UniSA release.
Cohda has done DSRC field trials for vehicle manufacturers in the US and Europe and hopes to start a large-scale trial in Adelaide.
Agencies
It warns drivers of potential intersection crashes, rear-end collisions and lane drift - and could be available in everyday vehicles as early as 2012.
The technology will also enable traffic flow management and optimised route selection for drivers, reducing the costs of traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.
Live safety demonstrations of the technology will be held at an Australian Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) industry event.
Vehicle manufacturers and state and federal government will be among industry stakeholders who will see first-hand the DSRC technology developed by Kent Town-based company Cohda Wireless.
Cohda Wireless was founded in 2004 by a group of scientists working at UniSA's Institute for Telecommunications Research.
Director of UniSA's Institute for Telecommunications Research Alex Grant said DSRC is a radio technology that combines GPS and Wi-Fi like communications to effectively enable cars to talk to each other.
"This technology essentially equips vehicles with the ability to see around corners and to predict and avoid dangerous situations," said Grant, according to an UniSA release.
Cohda has done DSRC field trials for vehicle manufacturers in the US and Europe and hopes to start a large-scale trial in Adelaide.
Agencies
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Citi's Pandit to take $1 salary, no bonus
Stung by criticism about use of billions of dollars in government aid, Citigroup's Indian American CEO, Vikram Pandit has vowed to take a token salary of $1 and no bonus until the ailing banking giant returns to profitability
'I get the new reality and I will make sure Citi gets it as well,' Pandit said Wednesday as lawmakers grilled top executives from eight of America's largest financial institutions about their apparent lack of willingness to lend despite collectively receiving $165 billion in capital.
'We will hold ourselves accountable for what we do, and that starts with me,' said Pandit, who collected a salary of $1 million last year. Citigroup has lost more than $20 billion in the last five quarters.
Appearing before the US House Financial Services Committee Pandit, 52, said taxpayers were right to expect a return for their investment, adding that the bank will pay $3.4 billion in annual dividends on the debt.
'There is a great deal of anger in the country, much of it justified, about past practices,' committee chairman Barney Frank noted in his opening remarks.
The banks have come under fire from lawmakers who criticised bonus payments and corporate expenses such as new executive jets at a time when people across the country are struggling to stay in their homes or losing their jobs. President Barack Obama last month called the bonuses 'shameful' and the 'height of irresponsibility.'
Citigroup, which has accepted $45 billion in government bailout money, last month reversed a decision to buy a $50 million corporate jet under pressure from the government. Last week the bank cancelled a convention in Atlanta for its Primerica Financial Services Inc. unit.
The CEOs were asked to disclose their salaries and bonuses for 2008 and 2009 at the hearing. The highest paid CEO for the year was Bank of America's Ken Lewis with a salary of $1.5 million, while the lowest was Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Lloyd Blankfein with a $600,000 salary. None of the executives took a bonus for 2008 or will have a salary increase in 2009.
Many of the CEOs at Wednesday's hearing defended their actions, noting that while credit standards have tightened, they were continuing to issue loans. Several of the CEOs added that without government assistance, credit would be even harder to obtain.
'We are still lending, and we are lending far more because of the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Programme),' Bank of America Chairman and CEO Lewis said.
Yahoo
'I get the new reality and I will make sure Citi gets it as well,' Pandit said Wednesday as lawmakers grilled top executives from eight of America's largest financial institutions about their apparent lack of willingness to lend despite collectively receiving $165 billion in capital.
'We will hold ourselves accountable for what we do, and that starts with me,' said Pandit, who collected a salary of $1 million last year. Citigroup has lost more than $20 billion in the last five quarters.
Appearing before the US House Financial Services Committee Pandit, 52, said taxpayers were right to expect a return for their investment, adding that the bank will pay $3.4 billion in annual dividends on the debt.
'There is a great deal of anger in the country, much of it justified, about past practices,' committee chairman Barney Frank noted in his opening remarks.
The banks have come under fire from lawmakers who criticised bonus payments and corporate expenses such as new executive jets at a time when people across the country are struggling to stay in their homes or losing their jobs. President Barack Obama last month called the bonuses 'shameful' and the 'height of irresponsibility.'
Citigroup, which has accepted $45 billion in government bailout money, last month reversed a decision to buy a $50 million corporate jet under pressure from the government. Last week the bank cancelled a convention in Atlanta for its Primerica Financial Services Inc. unit.
The CEOs were asked to disclose their salaries and bonuses for 2008 and 2009 at the hearing. The highest paid CEO for the year was Bank of America's Ken Lewis with a salary of $1.5 million, while the lowest was Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Lloyd Blankfein with a $600,000 salary. None of the executives took a bonus for 2008 or will have a salary increase in 2009.
Many of the CEOs at Wednesday's hearing defended their actions, noting that while credit standards have tightened, they were continuing to issue loans. Several of the CEOs added that without government assistance, credit would be even harder to obtain.
'We are still lending, and we are lending far more because of the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Programme),' Bank of America Chairman and CEO Lewis said.
Yahoo
Royal Bank of Scotland to axe 2,000 jobs, says report
Royal Bank of Scotland, which is majority-owned by the British government, is about to announce plans to cut 2,000 jobs after forecasting a record annual loss for 2008, BBC television reported on Tuesday.
A company spokesman contacted by reporters refused to comment on the report.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was bailed out by the government earlier this year after running into trouble raising funds from shareholders because of the credit crunch and is now 68-percent owned by the state.
The report of job cuts came as the bank's former chief executive, Fred Goodwin, apologised Tuesday to lawmakers for failing to foresee the financial turmoil that led to RBS being rescued.
The bank says it expects a 2008 annual loss of up to 28 billion pounds (32 billion euros, 41 billion dollars) -- a record in British corporate history -- due to the crisis and a costly takeover of Dutch lender ABN Amro in 2007.
Agencies
A company spokesman contacted by reporters refused to comment on the report.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was bailed out by the government earlier this year after running into trouble raising funds from shareholders because of the credit crunch and is now 68-percent owned by the state.
The report of job cuts came as the bank's former chief executive, Fred Goodwin, apologised Tuesday to lawmakers for failing to foresee the financial turmoil that led to RBS being rescued.
The bank says it expects a 2008 annual loss of up to 28 billion pounds (32 billion euros, 41 billion dollars) -- a record in British corporate history -- due to the crisis and a costly takeover of Dutch lender ABN Amro in 2007.
Agencies
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