Mphasis Net Profit and EPS Grew 8.7% QoQ in Q3 FY 2017-18

Mphasis Limited, an Information Technology (IT) solutions provider has announced its financial results for the third quarter ended December 31^, 2017.

Highlights of quarter ended December 31^, 2017

·  Net revenue grew to Rs 16,607 million in Q3 FY18 by 3.5% QoQ and 8.1% YoY; 3.7% QoQ and 12.2% YoY in constant currency terms

·  Direct International revenue grew 3.6% QoQ and 5.5% YoY. On constant currency basis, growth was 3.7% QoQ and 9.6% YoY

·  Direct Core revenue grew 3.4% QoQ and 9.5% YoY. On constant currency basis, growth was 3.5% QoQ and 13.8% YoY

·  DXC/HP Revenue grew 3.1% QoQ and 15.8% YoY. In constant currency terms, growth was 3.6% QoQ and 20.5% YoY

·  Robust new deal wins of USD 130 million TCV in Direct International business of which 83% in focus areas of Digital, NextGen and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) services

·  Deal wins in the Direct International business stands at (YTD) USD 435 million as compared to USD 276 million in YTD FY17, higher by 58% YoY

·  Net profit grew 8.7% QoQ and 7.3% YoY. Net Margin improved 60 bps QoQ

·  Digital Risk signs up CitiMortgage as a marquee client for its digital mortgage platform, LoanFx

·  Guru Grewal joins as Head of Europe to drive Mphasis' growth strategy in the region

“With the knowledge that 'every business is a digital business', we are proactively providing a roadmap to enable our enterprise clients to reimagine their digital future. The Mphasis X2C²_TM and Front to Back _TM (F2B) transformation are solid foundations aimed at delivering high-impact business outcomes of speed, innovation and cost-effectiveness. Our deal wins and strong pipeline this year is a proof of this strategy in action”, said Nitin Rakesh, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, Mphasis.

FIABCI Members Puts Forth Pre-Budget Wish List for the FM

The implementation of RERA, bringing in GST against the backdrop of demonetisation and tightening of purse strings in the economy has extensively squeezed margins of the real estate industry in an already slowed down market scenario. While unsold stock piles up on one side, the tax squeeze continues with new areas marked for compliance. To effectively address this, the FIABCI International hosted a panel discussion on Pre-Budget expectations 2018-19, voicing the views of Bengaluru’s developer community along with other stake holders in the real estate sector for the forthcoming financial year.

The panellists included  Farook Mahmood, FIABCI World President and Chairman & Managing Director Silverline Group, Shankar Sastri, President CREDAI Karnataka and Joint Managing Director Sterling Developers, Raj Menda, Corporate Chairman, RMZ Corp along with Rajiv Khaitan, Partner, Khaitan & Co, K T Chandy, Partner Tax & Regulatory Services, Ernst & Young (India), Abhishek Goenka, Partner, PwC and Naresh Narasimhan, Principal Architect Venkataramanan Associates.

Moderated by Abhishek Goenka, the discussions veered around various issues that impacted the functioning of the real estate sector ranging from segments that invited double taxation to requirement of adequate incentives for first time home buyers. The panel deliberated on a range of specific tax elements that impacted the industry’s functioning in the current market scenario, requesting clarity on select legislations and taxes levied, single window clearance for receiving project approvals, availability of cheaper land for affordable housing, abolition of stamp duty on sale of flats, digitising land records besides a host of other issues.

Commenting on the discussions, Farook Mahmood, FIABCI World President and Chairman & Managing Director Silverline Group said, “There is vital need for changes in current levies and laws applied to the real estate sector. Many lead to double taxation besides pushing up cost. The current set of regulations also increase the holding cost of the industry especially in a scenario where developers are finding it difficult to offload stock. We recommend a more realistic approach in the forthcoming budget, making both cost and pricing market friendly, especially in the affordable segment and for first time home buyers.”

Stating that real estate sector serves as a key contributor to the GDP and is also the fourth largest employment generator in the country, Abhishek Goenka, Partner, PwC called for extending industry status to the real estate sector. “This will enable developers to raise funds at lower rates which will in turn reduce cost, push up demand and indirectly trigger labour absorption.”

Pointing that first time home buyers need to be given greater incentives as well as leverage, K T Chandy, Partner Tax & Regulatory Services, Ernst & Young (India), suggested increasing the limit of interest deduction for them. “Developers cannot be penalised for timely completion of projects.  Given various economic exigencies, sales velocity has been low and any deemed tax on completed projects would disincentivise attempts by developer to complete projects on time”

Currently, tax is levied on notional rental income on unsold stock that lies with developers after a year of receiving completion certificate. Given market conditions, it is not easy to offload inventories within one year and the tax puts pressure on builders to dispose flats at a loss. The time frame for levying this tax should be increased to two years.

Drawing attention to the time duration for projects such as industrial parks to become operational, which is anywhere between three to five years or more, Shankar Sastri, President CREDAI Karnataka and Joint Managing Director, Sterling Developers, said, “Surplus cash prevails when funds are not deployed during this duration and this is normally invested in liquid assets to earn returns. The returns are ploughed back into construction, eventually aiding in reducing cost of capital employed. Income earned from such investments should be exempt from tax.”

Calling for digitising land records, Naresh Narasimhan, Principal Architect Venkataramanan Associates stated, “Real estate sector is known for its high risk given the time taken for receiving the required approvals. It is time government promoted single window clearance and a smoother approval process within specific timelines. This will go a long way in reducing the high cost of capital as well as project delays, directly impacting project returns.”

Said Raj Menda, Corporate Chairman, RMZ Corp “Land acquisition is one of the single highest cost contributors in real estate; In affordable housing where margins are thin, government should make available land at a cheaper cost to promote affordable housing.”

Added Rajiv Khaitan, Partner, Khaitan & Co “The existing rate of GST is already high and has pushed up cost of buying. In a tight market scenario, government would do well to abolish stamp duty on sale of flats. This will reduce the cost and burden for buyers.”

The panel discussion ended on a positive note, the participants hoping that the key issues put forth would be addressed in the forthcoming budget, easing the tight marketing conditions currently faced by the developers.

Vijaya Bank Q3 Net Profit Declines 65.45% to Rs 79.56 Crore

State-owned Vijaya Bank reported a 65.45% decline in net profit at Rs79.56 crore for the third quarter ended on 31 December 2017, due to rise in provisions. The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 230.28 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

The bank’s total income also declined 7.09% to Rs 3,450.81 crore in the quarter from Rs 3,714.37 crore a year ago, Vijaya Bank said at a press conference in Bengaluru.

During the quarter, Vijaya Bank’s provision (other than tax) and contingencies grew by 62.35% to Rs 676.92 crore as against Rs 416.95 crore in the year-ago period.

The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) improved marginally to 6.17% as against 6.98% in the same quarter last fiscal. Net NPA’s also came down to 3.99% in the quarter under review compared to 4.74% a year ago.

Canara Bank Q3 Net Profit Plunged 61% Due to Bad Loans in 2017

Canara Bank Ltd said on Wednesday its third-quarter net profit plunged 61 percent, missing analysts' estimates, pulled down by higher provisions for bad loans.

Net profit came in at 1.26 billion rupees ($19.78 million) for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with 3.22 billion rupees a year ago, the country's fifth-biggest state-run lender by assets said. 

Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans stood at 10.38 percent at end-December, compared with 10.51 percent in the previous quarter, and 9.97 percent a year ago.

Provisions for bad loans rose about 28 percent to 19 billion rupees. Canara Bank net profit plunged in its third quarter due to higher provisions for Non Performing Assets (NPAs).

“The net profit has declined to 61%, mainly because of ageing provision on the treasury. Hence we had to make Rs74 crore provision on treasury bonds which affected decline in profits,” Canara Bank Limited managing director and CEO Rakesh Sharma said at the press meet in Bengaluru.

“However, it is only a provision. Let us see how the yields move in the next quarter. Accordingly, we will take a view to make adjustments,” he said.

Sharma said the gross NPA ratio stood at 10.38%, down sequentially from 10.51% as on September 2017, while net NPA stood at 6.78%, down sequentially from 7.02% as at September 2017.

The net interest margin improved to 2.64% domestically and 2.39% globally, he added. The cost of deposits came down by a healthy 72 bps to 5.59% from 6.31%, Sharma said.

He also said net interest income growth of 52.4% and 11.29% growth in non-interest income, excluding trading profits significantly shielded them from ã unexpected quarter-end surge in bond yields and resultant market-to-market provisions.

The banks strenuous efforts for recovery has resulted in improved recovery under stressed assets, especially written off assets, thereby improving the bank’s non-interest income, he said.

Over 39,000 Developers Finds Technical Hiring Managers Struggle to Assess Skill

Software developers are in high demand. Programming is one of the fastest growing professions today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2020, there will be 1.4 million computer-science related jobs available with only 400,000 computer science graduates to fill those roles.

As a result, software developers can be selective about where they work, fueling bidding wars and a shortage of developers with computer science degrees. HackerRank, a platform that helps companies evaluate technical talent based on skill, today released its annual 2018 Developer Skills Report, which surveyed over 39,000 software developers around the world to get a pulse on the state of developer skills: what they’re learning, what they care about, how to best way to assess their skills.

The findings provide a roadmap for companies and hiring managers to improve the way they hire developers,_, and reveals the biggest hurdles companies face when growing their developer teams. While 77 percent of hiring managers in India primarily rely on resumes to evaluate developers at the first stage of the recruiting process, nearly all report that actually measuring skill is the hardest part of the technical hiring funnel, above talent shortage and time-consuming interviews. Meanwhile, about half of developers say that resumes are not a good reflection of their abilities. 

“2018 will mark the end of the resume for developers. As more and more companies across all industries are hiring software engineers, it's more important than ever to truly take the time to understand who developers are, what they’re interested in, what drives them, and what they look for in a job. Without this, hiring managers will always struggle to find the best technical people,” said Vivek Ravisankar, co-founder & CEO of HackerRank. “With this report, we’re helping companies become more developer-focused. Very few companies are doing tech hiring well because there's a gap in developer knowledge.” 

The 2018 Developer Skills Report provides insights into the programming languages and frameworks developers are learning, love and dislike; the emerging technologies they’re most interested in building, how they’re learning and what they look for in a job. Key India findings include:

One-third (33%) of Indian Developers are exclusively self-taught, proving that the ability to self-teach – not just a college degree – is the best path to becoming a skilled software developer. While 76 percent of Indian developers have a computer science degree, roughly 37 percent say they are at least partially self-taught. In fact, 6 out of 10 Indian developers learn to code when they are 16 to 20 years old.

Developers are constantly learning, even after graduating. 97% of Indian developers have a college degree or plan on obtaining one. On average, majority of Indian developers know C, Java and C++ with 43% developers saying that Python will be the next language they wish to learn. Python is universally the most popular language and is most loved by Indian developers while Node.js is the most loved framework. There is, however, a generational divide around newer languages and frameworks. While millennials generally like JavaScript and dislike Go, the opposite is true among 45-54 year olds. What’s more, younger developers prefer newer frameworks like AngularJS and React, while older developers prefer Vue.js.

YouTube is more popular than books for learning. The very nature by which they learn is evolving, and can’t be quantified by a resume. Eighty-six percent of developers report that they head to Stack Overflow when they need to learn a new skill or tool. As a second source of knowledge, Indian developers head to YouTube (77 percent).

What developer candidates value in a job defies current wisdom. In the hopes of attracting top talent, companies have usually leaned in on perks and stock options. However, when asked what they care most about in a job, developers rank those among the least important priorities. Rather, in India, professional growth and learning opportunities (65 percent) and good work life balance (58 percent) are their true deal-breakers. Companies looking to build a developer-first brand should keep these values in mind.

Dailyhunt Launches Newzly, a News-in-Brief App, in Nine Indian Languages

Dailyhunt, India’s #1, News and local language content application, today announced the launch of Newzly, a news-in-brief app for Android users. The app offers a summary of trending news articles across multiple genres such as regional, international, entertainment, business, sports and technology. The content is available in nine languages -  English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and Gujarati. 

Newzly presents a summary of stories in a simple minimalistic design, in the form of cards that can be swiped horizontally to seamlessly sift through subsequent news. The app allows users to read the full article by simply swiping vertically. With Newzly, consumers can also customize their feed basis topics of interest. Users can bookmark cards and share stories on social media including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  

Commenting on the launch of Newzly, Virendra Gupta, Founder and CEO, Dailyhunt, said, “India has a large local language population with diverse needs and the launch of Newzly is part of our expansion of the product portfolio to serve those needs. Newzly app is designed to serve the needs of users who have less time on hand and wants to stay updated with the summary of major breaking & trending news. This app is currently available in 9 languages and we are likely to expand it into more languages in the coming months.”

Newzly is a significant addition to Dailyhunt’s product portfolio, which also launched Dailyhunt Lite, its PWA in November last year and partnered with Vuclip and YuppTV to offer original videos and Live TV on its platform.

AI AI-Driven Growth Shall Boost Revenues by 38%, Employment by 10% by 2022

Businesses risk missing major growth opportunities unless CEOs take immediate steps to pivot their workforces and equip their people to work with intelligent technologies, according to new research by Accenture.

The Accenture Strategy report, Reworking the Revolution: Are you ready to compete as intelligent technology meets human ingenuity to create the future workforce?, estimates that if businesses invest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human-machine collaboration at the same rate as top performing companies, they could boost revenues by 38 percent by 2022 and raise employment levels by 10 percent. Collectively, this would lift profits by US$4.8 trillion globally over the same period. For the average S&P500 company, this equates to US$7.5 billion of revenues and a US$880 million lift to profitability.

Impact of greater AI spending on revenue and employment growth, 2018-2022

Both leaders and workers are optimistic about the potential of AI on business results and on work experiences, according to the study. Seventy-two percent of the 1,200 senior executives surveyed said that intelligent technology will be critical to their organization’s market differentiation and 61 percent think the share of roles requiring collaboration with AI will rise in the next three years.  More than two thirds (69 percent) of the 14,000 workers surveyed said that it is important to develop skills to work with intelligent machines. 

Yet, a disconnect between workers’ embrace of AI and their employers’ efforts to prepare workers puts potential growth at risk.  While a majority (54 percent) of business leaders say that human-machine collaboration is important to their strategic priorities, only three percent say their organization plans to significantly increase its investment in reskilling their workers in the next three years. 

“To achieve higher rates of growth in the age of AI, companies need to invest more in equipping their people to work with machines in new ways,” said Mark Knickrehm, group chief executive, Accenture Strategy. “Increasingly, businesses will be judged on their commitment to what we call Applied Intelligence - the ability to rapidly implementintelligent technology and human ingenuity across all parts of their core business to secure this growth.”

The research suggests that there is a strong foundation on which to boost AI skills investment. Sixty-three percent of senior executives think that their company will create net job gains in the next three years through AI. Meanwhile, the majority of workers (62 percent) believe AI will have a positive impact on their work.

The report shows how pioneers are using human-machine collaboration not just to improve efficiencies, but to drive growth through new customer experiences. An online clothing retailer’s AI helps its stylists learn more about customers’ preferences so that they can offer a unique and highly personalized service. And a sports shoe brand set a new bar in customization and speed-to-market by aligning highly skilled tailors and process engineers with intelligent robots to design and manufacture in local markets.

“Business leaders must take immediate steps to pivot their workforce to enter an entirely new world where human ingenuity meets intelligent technology to unlock new forms of growth,” said Ellyn Shook, Chief Leadership and Human Resources Officer, Accenture. “Workers are impatient to collaborate with AI, giving leaders the opportunity to demonstrate true Applied Intelligence within their organization.”

To help leaders shape the future workforce in the age of AI, Accenture makes the following recommendations:

1.    Reimagine Work by reconfiguring work from the bottom up. Assess tasks, not jobs; then allocate tasks to machines and people, balancing the need to automate work and to elevate people’s capabilities. Nearly half (46 percent) of business leaders agree that job descriptions are already obsolete; 29 percent say they have redesigned jobs extensively.

2.    Pivot the Workforce to areas that unlock new forms of value. Go beyond process efficiencies and prepare the workforce to create new customer experiences. Fuel new growth models by reinvesting the savings derived from automation into the future workforce. Foster a new leadership DNA that underpins the mindset, acumen and agility required to seize longer-term, transformational opportunities.

3.       Scale up ‘New Skilling.’ Measure the workforce’s level of skills and willingness to learn to work with AI. Using digital platforms, target programs at these different segments of the workforce and personalize them to improve new skills adoption. Accenture has developed a ‘new skilling’ framework based on a progression of skill level and using a suite of innovative digital learning methods that maximizes training investment at speed and scale.

Methodology
Accenture combined quantitative and qualitative research techniques in order to analyze the attitudes and readiness of workers and business leaders with regards to collaborating with intelligent technologies. The research program included a survey of 14,078 workers across skill levels and generations and a survey of 1,201 senior executives. These were carried out between September and November 2017 in 11 countries and (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and the USA) and the following industry sectors:  Automotive, Consumer Goods & Services; Health & Life Sciences; Infrastructure & Transportation; Energy; Media & Entertainment; Software & Platforms; Banking (Retail & Investment); Insurance; Retail; Telecommunications; Utilities.

The research also included economic modelling to determine the correlation between AI investment and financial performance, in depth interviews with 30 C-suite executives and ethnographic interviews with 30 individuals who have been working with AI.