CSS Corp’s Unveils ‘Earn As You Learn Program’ in Association with BITS Pilani

CSS Corp, a leading IT Services and Technology Support company, today announced the launch of its ‘Earn As You Learn’ program - a specialized M.Tech Work Integrated Learning Program, in association with BITS Pilani. The program is 100% sponsored by CSS Corp, and will help its employees in India to acquire knowledge and skills required for excelling in their careers with the added advantage of gaining a top-notch M.Tech. degree in Software Engineering from one of India’s most prestigious universities.

The M.Tech Work Integrated Learning Program will be open to all CSS Corp employees, who meet the qualifying criteria, and have completed a minimum tenure of 6 months with the organization. The program offers a unique opportunity to employees to enhance their academic qualifications while gaining significant professional experience. The 4-year Integrated Learning Program is designed to create a pool of industry-ready technology professionals.

Speaking about the association, Manish Tandon, Chief Executive Officer, CSS Corp said, “CSS Corp believes in investing in its people, their learning and their development. Our M.Tech Work Integrated Learning Program for B.Sc. / BCA Graduates from BITS Pilani is testimony to this. As a new-age company, we are strongly focused on innovation. Our clients are among the world’s top technology companies and there are interesting shifts happening in their ecosystem. Through this initiative, we see a great opportunity to bring our employees up to speed with the latest technologies. This would have a positive cascading effect on the services we can deliver to our clients.”

“With our rich legacy of expert innovation and employee development track record, we are committed to provide challenging career opportunities for high performing employees in the technology space. We are confident that this program in association with BITS Pilani, will set new precedents in learning and development in the Indian technology space.” saidDavid Raj, EVP and Chief HR Officer at CSS Corp.

“Work integrated learning has been a core element of the educational philosophy at BITS Pilani, and it is our firm belief that life-long learning is key to achieving professional success and organizational development. We believe that organizations such as CSS Corp, which provide opportunities to their employees to enhance their academic qualifications and technical skills while gaining significant professional experience, will remain prepared to tackle business challenges of the future.” said  Prof. G. Sundar (Director - Off Campus Programmes and Industry Engagement, BITS Pilani)

As a part of the program, the first set of B.Sc. and BCA graduates will be joining in May 2017. Initially, candidates will undergo 60 days of CSS Corp’s intensive New Hire Training. On successful completion of the course, successful candidates will get deployed in various projects. At the end of 6 months, all employees who have qualified from this lot, will join the BITS M.Tech program which will commence in Jan/Feb 2018.  Once these candidates meet the relevant performance criteria, both in CSS Corp and in the M. Tech program, they will earn their final degree from BITS Pilani.

TCS to Add 3.75 L Sqft Office Space for 4k IT Professionals in Bengaluru

At a time when Indian IT companies are going ahead with layoffs, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is expanding its presence in the tech hub. The company is adding 3.75 lakh sq feet office space to seat 4,000 IT professionals by signing a deal with city-based Brigade Enterprises.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Brigade Enterprises CMD M R Jaishankar stated that the company is pleased to start a strategic relationship with TCS and look forward to growing Brigade business to new heights in the years to come.

“Brigade Bhuwalka Icon, located on Whitefield main road, is another jewel in our crown of quality commercial developments. We have entered into agreement with TCS to offer 3.75 lakh sq feet area,” he said.

Brigade has a large strategic portfolio in corporate real estate of developing 10 million sq feet in addition to its operating portfolio of 6 million sq feet. Its under development projects include a 3.3 million sq feet of IT/ ITeS SEZ Tech Park called Brigade Tech Gardens in Brookfields.

Brigade Group has licences to develop World Trade Centres in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. World Trade Centres are already operational in Bengaluru and Kochi.

Only 5-6 Global Cyber Attacks So Far; No Reports of Any Major Disruption in India

The Centre on Tuesday said that the impact of global cyber attack has been limited to five or six isolated instances so far and there are no reports of any substantial disruption to India’s IT backbone. 

“A multi-agency monitoring team is continuously assessing the situation round the clock”, IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told reporters here. 

CERT-In, the government’s cyber security arm, has maintained that apart from five or six isolated instances, there are no reports of a substantial scale to indicate that Indian systems have been hit.

Few computers in Andhra Pradesh Police, some panchayats in Kerala and West Bengal Electricity Board and two more places, a few systems were affected due to cyber attack, she said.

Agencies

Kassia Seeks Joint Action Committee of Southern MSMEs

Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (Kassia) has urged for setting up a joint action committee of southern MSME associations to implement government programmes in South India.

Kassia submitted a memorandum to Kalraj Mishra, Union Minister for MSME in this connection. “We have requested setting up of a Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Southern Industry MSME Associations, comprising the six States namely Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to look into the interests and objectives of MSMEs,” Kassia said in its memorandum.

The JAC should meet in certain frequencies, for example once a month or twice a quarter, across the southern states along with Central Ministers and the officials of various MSME departments, the memorandum said.

“We see all the three ministers for MSME are from north India and regional peculiarities play an important role in case of the MSME sector,” B Pravin, Honorary General Secretary of Kassia, said. He also said that the sector in the south was facing neglect for the past 10 years, adding, “Though policies are being made, they have not been implemented fully.”

Earlier in the day, Mishra launched ‘My KASSIA’ mobile app and a MSME Handbook in Kannada. The handbook is the first MSME handbook in the country on the MSME sector in a regional language.

Chinese Mobile Players Capture Over 50 Percent Market Share in India

China-based vendors continue to strengthen their grip in the Indian smartphone market. In the first quarter of 2017, China-based vendors captured 51.4 per cent share of the smartphone shipments in India, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

In contrast, the share of homegrown vendors dropped to 13.5 per cent in Q1 2017 from 40.5 per cent in Q1 2016.

The ASP (average selling price) of smartphones has increased from $131 in Q1 2016 to $155 in Q1 2017. Almost two-thirds of the smartphones sold by China-based vendors are in the price range of $100-200 in India. It has shifted the mass segment, which used be the less than $100 to $100-$200 in India, contributing almost half of the smartphone shipments in Q1 2017.

IDC said 94.5 per cent smartphones shipped in Q1 2017 were 4G-enabled. While home-grown companies had half of their portfolio in 3G in Q1 2016, China-based vendors were already bringing a majority of devices in the 4G segment, which benefited them in leveraging the 4G wave demand in India. For the first time, in the first of quarter of 2017, a smartphone model from a China-based vendor became the highest shipped smartphone as the Redmi Note 4 replaced the Samsung Galaxy J2, which was the top model in Q4 2016.

"Though homegrown vendors are making attempts to recapture the lost ground with new launches in the sub-$100 as well as in the mid-range segment. But intense competition from China-based vendors continues to be a major challenge and is expected to increase in the coming quarters" said Jaipal Singh, Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India. "Recovery of the homegrown vendor is necessary for the Indian smartphone market, not only to fill in the vacuum created over the last few quarters, but also to fuel the feature phone to smartphone migration," added Singh.

Agencies

No Big Jobs Cuts in India’s Technology Sector, Says IT Secretary Sundararajan

The government said IT industry has assured it that there will be no large-scale job losses in the technology sector which continues to demonstrate 8-9 per cent growth.

IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said there could be some cases were contracts are not renewed as part of the regular annual appraisal cycle.

Besides, she said, the industry is also undergoing a shift in the job profile given the advent of cloud, big data and digital payments.

“Some of the companies which have been named (as undertaking job cuts) have clarified that there is nothing big this year,” she said on the sidelines of Broadband India Forum event.

Sundararajan added: “As part of annual appraisals, they may not be renewing contract of some people but it is absolutely incorrect to assume that suddenly this year a large number of jobs are being shed.”

The government has categoric assurance from the industry in this regard, she emphasised.

The industry is growing at 8-9 per cent and there is nothing to suggest that the growth is going to slow down “dramatically“.

IT sector, she said, will continue to hire and has added 5 lakh jobs in the last 2.5 years. The issue needed to be looked at “holistically”, she added.

Over the past few weeks, there have been reports of layoffs across the IT sector. Tech majors like Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant, and, more recently, Tech Mahindra have initiated annual performance reviews, a process that weeds out bottom performers or non-performers.

There are fears that thousands of employees in the sector could be shown the door over the next few weeks.

The development comes at a time when Indian IT firms are facing challenges in the business environment and stricter work permit regime in countries like the US, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

That apart, executive search firm Head Hunters India said recently that job cuts in IT sector will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually for next three years due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

A McKinsey & Company report also said earlier this year that nearly half of the workforce in the IT services firms will be “irrelevant” over the next 3-4 years.

Agencies

Indiana Governor Holcomb Announces India Visit During 2017

Encouraged by Infosys’ decision to set up a tech centre in his state and generate 2,000 jobs, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb will lead a high-powered trade delegation to India later this year with the sole objective of attracting more Indian business, particularly IT companies.

“I’m looking forward to travelling to India, probably in the fall, before the winter,” Holcomb told PTI in an exclusive interview in his office at the State Capitol.

Holcomb, who succeeded Vice-President Mike Pence as Indiana governor, said he wanted to travel to India soon after his inauguration early this year but pressing engagements and now the summer prevented him from doing so.

Holcomb, who would be the first Indiana governor to visit India, said he would be looking to grow Indiana’s presence and strengthen its friendship and partnership with companies headquartered in India.

The governor, credited with initiating a series of steps to make Indiana a business friendly destination, said, “Indiana’s become the best place in the country to create and innovate.”

And “that’s why this partnership, with not just Infosys but the other companies that we discussed, are so important. Because it is the future. This knowledge economy is the future and it’s exciting to launch new efforts here on Hoosier soil,” Holcomb told PTI.

He said he started working towards attracting Indian companies to his state on his inauguration itself when he met Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna, who attended the event.

The Infosys story, he said, started a few months ago.

“But it has come together very fast. We try to operate on the speed of business, not the speed of government. That was recognised by Infosys and everyone that was working together on this project,” he said, adding that he had tried to address every concern that Infosys might have had.

The state of Indiana, the governor said, has over 800 foreign-owned businesses and counting.

“We welcome Infosys into our family in a big way.”

Looking at strengthening Indiana’s partnership with Infosys in the coming years, Holcomb said he wants to attracts other Indian IT companies.

“Indiana is such fertile ground (for IT companies). We have world class universities where Infosys can, in fact, recruit that talent right out of Purdue, Indiana University... folks who are strong in the STEM subjects, science and technology, engineering and math, right here in their backyard now,” he said.

“... we’re always gonna be proud that they planted their flag here in Indiana first. We will continue to look for ways as this technology evolves and grows itself to grow with Infosys.”

Indiana is now an attractive destination, the governor declared, with low tax rates and a “reasonable predictable regulatory environment so there’s real certainty when you invest in the state of Indiana and our people“.

“And we do as well in the companies that come here and that’s why we’re still blooming and continuing to outpace the national average,” he said.

Indiana, he said, is doubling the national average in terms of high tech job attraction and growth. “Indiana is on a roll and has momentum.”

Eminent Indian American businessman Gurinder Singh Khalsa welcomed the announcement of Holcomb’s India visit later this year.

Indiana is home to at least six India-based corporations.

India ranks number 18 for Indiana’s exports. Last year, Indiana exports to India totalled $266.6 million.

The top categories include engines, transmissions, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and chemicals.

India ranks 19 in terms of imports. Indiana imports from India totalled $348.8 million. Top categories are pharmaceuticals, engines ransmissions, motor vehicle parts and apparel.