"The West Bengal government is fully committed to the IT industry. Just let us know your requirement and we'll support your company," said Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, in her inauguration speech at INFOCOM 2011, the 10th edition of the information and communication technology conference and exhibition hosted by Businessworld and the ABP Group in Kolkata. This positive message set the tone for the three-day conference organised at the ITC Sonar Bangla. Banerjee said she had set up two high-powered committees headed by Sam Pitroda and N.R. Narayana Murthy to make West Bengal a top IT destination. In his welcome address, D.D. Purkayastha, managing director and CEO, ABP, and chairman of INFOCOM, said, "Today after 10 years, INFOCOM has evolved to become a powerful and cogent confluence of the best minds in IT and business. It has played a significant role in promoting ICT awareness and investment in West Bengal and the east." Later in the evening the chief minister spoke to Purkayastha, and said that she would give land to IT companies in various cities, if they were interested in setting up campuses. Basudeb Banerjee, principal secretary, IT, West Bengal government, who was the guest of honour at the event, said, "A new government has come in. We have a lot of policies in the making and in the fitness of things ‘Inclusion' is an appropriate theme at INFOCOM this year."Nearly 150 exhibitors, including Microsoft, Lenovo, AMD, Canon, Emerson, HCL, Cisco, Sify, BSNL, Huawei, Nokia, Ricoh and Avaya, participated in the event. Close to a hundred speakers talked about varied subjects such as analytics, technology and inclusion, cloud technology, animation, technology in media and entertainment and ICT in healthcare. The first session was on the need for inclusion. Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman of Microsoft India, emphasised that technology could change lives. "Proliferation of devices is already happening and cloud-based services can make customer interaction seamless," he said. He pointed to projects such as Project Shiksha and Project Jyothi where Microsoft was playing a pivotal role in changing the way teachers and job seekers used technology. While the speakers agreed that the focus for inclusive growth should be on education and making small and medium businesses (SMBs) use technology, Eric Yu, president of Huawei Enterprise Business, India, had a different perspective. "We should know our employees before we embark on inclusive growth outside of the organisation." One of the most talked-about subjects of the day was the inclusion of the 600 million people who were economically backward in the country. "The country is diverse and so is inclusion. On the whole, inclusivity means working with people who work differently," said Kiran Karnik, former president of Nasscom. The mood on Day 2 was sombre as several people died in an early morning fire at a Kolkata hospital. The chief point of discussion was the building of a smart city in emerging markets. "A smart city has every government department connected via tablets and knows what they are doing," said Shankar Kalyana, chief technology officer at IBM Global Business Services. However, the entire delivery model of smarter cities is only possible if cloud-based technologies become a reality. "We have to integrate various small businesses to use cloud technology to scale up their operations," said Amit Sinha Roy, vice-president of marketing and strategy (global enterprise solutions), Tata Communications. "For cloud to be truly democratic it should be less of an implementation problem for clients," said Joydeep Datta Gupta, the chief operating officer at Deloitte and Touche Consulting India.Day 3 saw a packed morning session as several turned up to hear Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail, who is now running JaxtrSMS — a free SMS service. He spoke about the government's role in being more responsive to people's needs and said SMS was a great way of asking people to communicate with their leaders.The INFOCOM-Assocham Media & Entertainment Forum and Awards brought together stalwarts from the global animation industry. The Excellence in Media & Entertainment Awards with over 20 categories received about 450 entries from 10 countries. INFOCOM 2011 was held in association with the Department of Information Technology (IT), government of West Bengal and was supported by NeGP and Department of IT, government of India. The platinum sponsor for the event was the Tower Group, while the gold sponsors were URO Group, Avaya India, State Bank of India and Huawei.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 02-01-2012)
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When 28-year-old Gaurav Shokeen and his 24-year-old cousin Vineet Dabas tossed up the idea of carwashwale.com before their families asking for initial investment, they were snubbed. "What kind of work is this? Will you clean dirty tyres and windows of cars after doing MBA?"After some initial struggle, the cousins managed to take carwashwale.com online in February 2011. The company provides doorstep services of exterior and interior cleaning of cars in and around Delhi and will soon extend its presence to Chandigarh.The car-cleaning-at-the-doorstep idea for carwashwale.com generates 100 queries a day, 30-40 get converted into firm calls and the founders claim this business to be highly profitable. According to Shokeen, the net profit is Rs 1.8 lakh on a Rs 3-lakh monthly revenue. The initial capex of Rs 10 lakh will be recovered within a year. "Looking at the scale of our business, the families are happy," smile Dabas and Shokeen. The company is also in talks for franchise operations in Lucknow, Coimbatore etc. The franchise will not just bring them royalty of 30-40 per cent of the revenue but also a one-time payment for lending the brand name. Next, it intends selling accessories such as door mats and car fresheners, gradually moving to basic services such as engine oil and seat cover replacements.A one-hour long pressure cleaning, buffing and minor scratch removal costs about Rs 700. Prices vary according to the kind of service you opt for."There is a huge demand for doorstep cleaning but not many people are aware of it and so the revenues are not stable," says Dabas. Gradually carwashwale.com will start offering membership plans so as to get a stable source of income and to get bulk payments.Though the company is ramping up at a great pace and is eyeing pan India presence through franchises, it faces huge competition from traditional car washing/servicing companies, who have started providing door-step services. These companies have the advantage of being established brands and thus carwashwale.com might have a tough time competing with the already established players in the space.It also has rivals in city-specific sites such as delhicarwashers.com and pegasusfacilities.com. The Chennai-based pegasusfacilities though is a broader business. The website is a one-stop shop for cleaning not just cars and motorbikes but also living room, bathroom, kitchen, even gas stove, chimney and exhaust fans. Founder Vijay Simha, started way back in 2000, and earns Rs 30 lakh a month. Simha,who has been providing these services only in Chennai, has now started looking at franchises and will take its business to Pondicherry by end of January 2012. However, scaling up to other cities is a puzzle he is yet to crack.
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According to a survey by Symantec, small businesses are very interested in utilising virtualisation technology — the process of creating a virtual environment for the regular IT infrastructure such as a hardware platform, operating system, a storage device or network resources — and witnessing a wide range of potential benefits.Ajay Goel, MD, India & SAARC, Symantec says "while the majority of small businesses have shown an interest in virtualisation technology, they are still in the early stages of adoption". He adds that the survey reveals that only eight per cent have already implemented virtualisation.The study reveals that about 72 per cent of small businesses across the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region are at least considering virtualisation.In a related finding, businesses are far more comfortable with web and database management applications than with more critical applications such as accounting, ERP and CRM software. This indicates that while organisations are eager to see the benefits of virtualization, they are still reluctant to risk placing business-critical apps into a virtualised framework.In his storage and back-up predictions for Symantec in 2012, Vijay Mhaskar, VP, Information Management Group believes that, "companies that adopt a silo approach will be laggard in the Virtual Machine adoption race. Their Return on Investment for virtualisation will continue to decrease as operational costs of running separate environments slow the ability of organisations to convert from physical to virtual. The days that companies could afford separate storage management and backup software for virtual and physical servers are numbered." Data Protection WoesDespite the enthusiasm small businesses are showing, many of them are failing to sufficiently protect the information they place into the virtualised environment. Only 13 per cent perform regular backups on virtualised servers and 24 per cent back up infrequently or not at all.More than half of the organisations in the survey cited budgetary issues as the reason for not performing regular backups, with some blaming staffing issues.Still, the backup market is growing fast. Backup integrated Virtual Machine protection, deduplication, snapshot management, appliances and some key changes to the operating model are driving the change. "What used to be considered a mature and slow growth market is putting up some impressive numbers." adds Mhaskar.Organisations that rely on snapshots rather than backup and don't implement deduplication or granular recovery technology for virtual environments will see backup and recovery windows increase. However, new technologies introduced by vendors will change the way data protection is done, saving organisations millions of dollars each year. Virtualisation, with the various benefits it has to offer is being seen amongst SMBs, as a cost effective technology that enhances their business efficiency. In fact, 72 per cent of the respondents from APJ in the Symantec 2011 Small Business Virtualization Poll said that, their organisations are considering virtualisation. A majority of the respondents cited cost efficiencies and disaster-recovery readiness as benefits they're hoping to gain from adoption of it.Adopting and maintaining virtualisation in an organisation's IT infrastructure requires careful planning, in order to maintain security while also improving efficiency. The following recommendations can help small businesses achieve the maximum benefits of virtualisation:Define a virtualisation strategy: Work with an IT consultant to develop a strategy. Proactively develop guidelines and assess your data protection and security needs. Determine if moving to these cloud services are right for you. Once you have a strategy, develop a plan and stick to it.Secure your virtual environments: Consider what security solutions you need to secure your virtual environment, including a firewall, antivirus, and endpoint security. Make sure you have established security practices as an additional layer of protection.Protect your data: Follow a simplified approach to backup. Implement a solution that protects both physical and virtual environments. Consider a data deduplication solution to save space and time.poonam(dot)kumar(at)abp(dot)in
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Accounting and professional services giant Ernst & Young has recently appointed Farokh Balsara as the Media & Entertainment industry leader for the Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) region. Based in Mumbai, Balsara has been E&Y's M&E Practice Leader in India for over a decade and will now drive the sector program throughout the EMEIA region. In 2008, Ernst & Young became the first professional services firm to create an integrated EMEIA Area with a view to offering clients a seamless cross-country experience and leverage the firm's global knowledge capabilities. Balsara is the first partner from India to lead a sector at an EMEIA-wide level.Commenting on his new role Balsara says he is looking forward to taking on new responsibilities and working with a strong EMEIA-wide team of professionals to significantly ramp up our Transactions and Advisory practice. "Ernst & Young is the market leader in working with the Media & Entertainment industry and we would continue to strengthen our market leadership position. We have a strong M&E industry practice in France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain, India and the Nordics and with the challenging business environment, our endeavor would be for our clients to benefit from cross coordination of ideas and best practices between developed and emerging markets," he further states.Julie Tiegland, Accounts, Industries & Business Development Leader, EMEIA, Ernst & Young says that over the last several years, (Balsara) has built India's leading M&E Practice among all professional services firms, advising both Indian and multinational M&E companies. "As the M&E sector increasingly converges across boundaries, Farokh's knowledge and experience will be deeply valued by our clients across the EMEIA area. Media & Entertainment is a priority sector for our firm globally and we are seeking to significantly strengthen our M&E market presence across the EMEIA region." In his career of 25 years in professional services, Farokh Balsara has, for the most part, extensively advised several large Indian M&E companies in risk management and in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of key processes. He is also experienced in performing a variety of market reviews and feasibility studies, and developing entry strategies for multinational M&E companies desiring to establish a business presence in India. He was one of the founding members of FICCI-Frames and authored the FICCI-Frames report since its inception in 1999 for 5 years and has also been the National President of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC). Under his leadership, IACC has endeavoured to promote greater exchanges between Hollywood and Bollywood.
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As the interest rate cycle appears to have peaked, N Sethuram Iyer, chief investment officer, Daiwa Asset Management, feels this would be the right time for investors to move into short and medium term bond funds. Talking to Businessworld, he said 2012 appeared to be a year for investing in fixed income rather than equity, as one could look at returns of around 10 per cent or higher in fixed income funds over the next one year. Confident that this is a time for a gradual shift to longer maturities in debt funds and increasing the mark-to-market component in portfolios, Iyer also feels the uncertainty in equity market will continue and a defensive portfolio in FMCG, pharmaceutical, telecom and IT will be the preferred bets at this point of time.Excerpts from the interviewWhat has been your analysis of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy? And why? RBI Policy review was on expected lines with no rate action in any of the reference rates. RBI has also indicated that future monetary policy responses will take into account the risks to growth. The emphasis has therefore shifted from inflation targeting to managing downward pressures on growth. The clear indication is that there would be no further rate hikes.On the liquidity side, RBI has clearly indicated that open market operations (OMO) would be the route taken to manage the liquidity position.Globally countries are cutting rates. How do you see the interest rate cycle panning out in India and why? Will RBI wait to cut rates till inflation falls below 6 per cent?There is a clear indication that interest rate easing would depend on the economic growth numbers that will emerge in the future. RBI has indicated that while inflation would moderate, it may remain above the comfort zone for some time. We believe that RBI could consider rate cuts even before inflation gets into the comfort zone of below 6 per cent. We feel that if the growth numbers continue to remain weak, action could be taken in cutting rates within a few months if the inflation continues to have a downward trajectory.Despite increasing the FII window in G-Sec and corporate bonds, why aren't we seeing inflows coming into these market? Surprisingly, on a risk adjusted basis, they can make a risk free return of 3-3.5 per cent.The restrictions relating to minimum period lock-in in respect of G-Sec and corporate bonds are being relaxed and we will be seeing very active interest from FIIs to participate in the Indian debt market papers.Going forward, where do you see the 10-year government securities and why? Will 10-year cross 9 per cent? Are you buying G-Sec? Which maturities are you favouring and why?Yields on 10-year government securities had very likely peaked at around 8.85 per cent levels witnessed a few weeks back. We believe that the yields would gradually come down in tandem with the RBI action relating to short-term interest rates. The yield curve which indicates inversion in the short-term securities would likely realign over the short term and we would gradually witness a parallel downward shift in the yield curve. This is clearly a time to go for longer maturities where the returns would be significantly higher over the next 6–9 months.What is your take on the 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, 5-year and 10-year yields in corporate bonds? Will you be a buyer in corporate bonds and what would be the tenure?In respect of corporate bonds, we expect a significant downward drift in yields at the shorter end, which would be more liquidity driven, while we do not see major shift in the yield pattern in long maturity bonds.It's been seen that the market is favouring Certificate of Deposits rather than corporate bond. Why is that?Certificate of Deposits have better liquidity and that would be the primary reason for CDs being preferred to corporate bonds. Also, so far the preference has been in the very short maturity papers where yields have been high due to liquidity in the system remaining tight.Why is commercial paper languishing in the market? Commercial papers are less liquid as compared with CDs. Besides, with the slowing of the economy and the rising incidence of NPAs in the banking sector, credit risks in companies issuing CPs would be scrutinized in greater detail.In times of uncertainty, where will you advice investors to invest? Currently where are you investing your money? And why?As the interest rate cycle appears to have peaked, this is a good opportunity for investors to gradually move into short and medium term bond funds, which can benefit for slightly longer maturity securities as and when the interest rate cycle is reversed. It would make sense to gradually shift from Liquid Funds to Short term and medium term bond funds over the next two to three months.Is the fund house seeing an inflow of money? How much of it is coming into fixed income and how much into equities and in which schemes? 2012 clearly looks to be a year for investing in fixed income as compared to equity. One can look at returns of around 10 per cent or higher in fixed income funds over the next one year.As a fund manager how are you managing the money in your portfolio and where are you investing in this market (both equity and debt)?This is clearly a time for a gradual shift to longer maturities in Debt Funds and increasing the mark-to-market component in portfolios. The equity market continues to look uncertain and a defensive portfolio (FMCG, pharma, IT, telecom) are the preferred bets at this point of time.Where do you see the equity markets in the short and medium term and why? Is it a good time to buy equities?Equity markets are likely to remain range bound in the short and medium term with a slightly negative sentiment. Third quarter earnings are likely to be under pressure on account of input costs going up and also on account of currency weakening and other factors. One needs to wait for clear indications both on the reform front and definitive actions from RBI in respect of interest rates before getting comfortable that growth can rebound. We would advise investors to have caution in equity investments in the very short term.
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There is good news for more than 2,000 employees of Tata Communications Business Unit (TCBL) this Diwali. This year, the employees are likely to get the interest payment on their Provident Fund from the government.On Monday, the Communications Ministry cleared a proposal for payment of interest on certain PF accounts pertaining to erstwhile Retail Business Unit (RBU) employees of TCL (now renamed as TCBL) that had acquired Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. It has also allowed certain officials of the company to vote and attend general meetings of its subsidiaries and companies where TCL is a member.Sources in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said that the government has disinvested its stake in VSNL (now TCL) and signed a shareholders' agreement with the strategic partner. The SHA does not warrant a Presidential approval to go ahead with such proposal. "The current proposal seems to be well within the powers of TCL Board," the DoT official said.As per the understanding, government nominee directors on TCL board — A.K Mittal, Senior DDG (Access Services) and Saurabh Tiwari DDG — "may stay neutral and ask the company to take necessary steps to safeguard the overall interest of the government."Tata acquired VSNL in 2002. Industry analysts feel that the government is keen to remove small issues before it can take a call on a contentious issue like the sale of 773 acres of surplus land asset. This was not divested as part of VSNL divestment. Since 2002, it has remained a vexed issue for both government and the Tatas. The government is hopeful that a final decision could be taken, once the minor pending issues are resolved.
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Microsoft, the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing has launched the Windows Phone in India with the latest operating system 'Mango'. The new OS sports a smooth transitional user interface called 'Metro', a visually appealing modern design language based on a set of principles which are modern, clean, alive in motion, and authentically digital.The conventional application icons have been replaced by Live Tiles on the Windows Phone start screen, thus boldly displaying critical information at a glance. The Live Tiles come to life with real-time updates from the Web such as news, appointments or the status of friends. New Live Tiles can be easily created from whatever content a consumer wants, for applications, websites and music.Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India said, "We are incredibly excited about Wednesday's unveiling of Windows Phone. With Windows Phone, we have looked at the consumer experience in an absolutely fresh way, and the end result is an operating system that is stylish, innovative and one that seamlessly integrates the most sought after user experiences such as search, gaming, email and social networks across Bing, Office, Xbox LIVE, Facebook, Twitter and more".Every Windows Phone device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon™ mobile processor and comes with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone.Speaking at the launch, Vikas Arora, Group Director - Operator Channel, Microsoft, said: "Windows Phone is for people who are ready for a new phone experience, one that brings together the things you care about in a way that uniquely represents who you really are - whether at work or play".The phone has laden with applications such as Xbox LIVE and mobile versions of Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint, SkyDrive, Office 365 or SharePoint sites.Microsoft revealed a range of Windows Phone devices that will be available in India soon, the first being the HTC Radar. This will be followed by devices from Samsung and Acer, and subsequently Nokia.Faisal Siddiqui, Country Manager, HTC India said, "We are excited to unveil HTC Radar, with the latest Windows Phone operating system in India".At the launch Avneesh Agrawal, Senior Vice President Qualcomm and president, Qualcomm India and South Asia said, "Qualcomm and Microsoft have been working closely together, and we continue to collaborate to enable Windows Phone with Snapdragon. The powerful and power-efficient Snapdragon processor is an excellent match for Windows Phone, enabling a whole new level of consumer experience that is fast, rich, productive and fun, so consumers connect to what they care about the most, in the best possible way. KEY FEATURES Threads: Switch between text, Facebook chat, and Windows Live Messenger. Group contacts into personalised Live Tiles.Social network integration: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds integrated. Windows Phone includes built-in Facebook check-ins and face detection software.Linked Inbox: Consumers can see multiple email accounts in one linked inbox.Hands-free messaging: Built-in voice-to-text and text-to-voice support enables hands-free texting or chatting.App Connect: By connecting apps to search results and deepening their integration with Windows Phone Hubs, apps to be surfaced when and where they make sense.Multitasking: Quickly switch between apps in use and allow apps to run in the background while helping to preserve battery life and performance.My Windows Phone: All Windows Phones come with the ability to use any web browser to log in to and locate your lost phone on a map, have it sound the ringer, lock it, or wipe it.Bing: Use Bing to get answers or to find an address or get directions. You can also search with your voice or take a photo to get results with Vision search.Calendar: Meeting invitations arrive in your Outlook inbox with schedule conflicts highlighted. You can view multiple calendars from your Exchange Server, Facebook, Windows Live and web email in one view.
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Lack of triggers and no clear direction in the Indian equity market saw players offloading their position, pulling the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) down last week. The Sensex lost nearly 5 per cent to end the week at 16,371.51. Last week was the third consecutive week that the Sensex ended in negative territory, losing 8 per cent. "It was a broad-based selling in the market. Investors have been dumping shares throughout this week amid worries that companies won't be able to cope with the weakening economic scenario. Some of the counters were also hit amid speculation about possible margin calls from brokers," says Amar Ambani, head of research at India Infoline, a Mumbai-based financial services firm.Now all eyes are set on the government and the forthcoming winter session of parliament that starts on 22 November 2011. Though expectations have been building that government may announce foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, aviation and pension, it's not going to be easy for the government as opposition parties have already started talking against liberalization.The government spending has come to a standstill which is clearly visible from the lower economic and industrial data. This has put serious concern over economic growth. In fact, in a recent interview to Businessworld, Ritesh Jain, Head Investment at Canara Robeco AMC expressed his disappointment on the red-tape in the country and lack of investment from the government which has wiped out all the past good work done by the government. He said, "With no developmental work happening in the past two years, India has been pushed back to being a third world country. This has even seen the foreign institutional investors investment in the Indian market taking a back-seat."In the near term, one can't expect any positive trigger from Europe. There is a lot of work needed to be done as it's a structural problem in Europe and it will require multi-year of restructuring. In such a scenario if the market has to move up all eyes will be on the domestic economy and the government's developmental reforms in the country.Meanwhile, with most of the negative news being discounted, the Indian market since September has been in a yo-yo state on account of global and domestic problems. In the last two months, the Sensex has been hovering between 15,800 to 17,900 levels. Initially it fell from a high of 17,209.66 on 8 September 2011, to touch a low of 15,745.43 on 4 October 2011; thereafter buying spree at lower levels witnessed a vertical surge in the Sensex to touch a high of 17,908.13 on 28 October 2011. And once again selling has pulled the Sensex down to a low of 16,164.99 on 18 November 2011. Next week, only any positive indication from the government on reforms can lift the market upwards.
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