CT Exclusive : BPO derailing Indian youth?

BPO's may have changed the face of India and the lifestyles but is that the truth, the following composition of two articles examines the following questions.

1) It also explores the employability factor of engineers and the much required restructuring of technical education.
2) Indian youth make the wrong career choices?
3) Are they making Indians content being a telephone operator?

BPO

Engineering seats vacant!
Courtesy : Times of India

This year as many as 23,000 seats in engineering colleges have no takers. Not even the education department is hopeful of filling all the seats. They are speculating that not less than 20,000 seats will remain vacant by the end of all phases of counselling.

Educationists say this lack of demand is because there is nothing that an engineering degree can offer students now. Industry bigwigs do not hesitate to say that barring a few top colleges, students of all other engineering colleges in the state are "unemployable". "When we go out for campus recruitment, we only go back to those that have in the past produced some good students. And no district engineering college figures in these," said Sanjay Khadri of Sierra Atlantic. "Even for those candidates who are selected, we have to conduct an extended induction programme like teaching them all the skills that their college and syllabus have failed to cover, but are important for industry," he added.

The students learn outdated technologies like 8085 micro processor which was last used 20 years ago, Khadri added. Students agree. "All an engineering degree can get us now is a chance at campus placement. Once we are selected based on our academics, we have to unlearn whatever we studied in four years as most of it is outdated and learn the concepts as the industry wants them anew," said P Priya, a fourth year Electronics and Communications student.

The tag of "unemployable" also includes, not being any good at communication skills. Students say they should be taught communication skills, seminar presentation, and group discussion tips from day one, instead of thrusting everything upon them in the final year.

The industry does not blame the students so much as the education department. They say not only is the syllabus outdated, with the coming up of so many colleges, it has become difficult to ensure quality with not enough trained faculty or proper infrastructure. As a result, the engineers that come out are more like half-baked pies. The engineers are also realising this fact and improving their credentials. Many of them are doing some certificate or diploma course in computer applications and languages so that they are more ready to face the cynical industry. Even students of Computer Science Engineering are learning more languages and applications as per the requirement of the industry. But what is interesting to note is that students of other branches like mechanical, chemical and civil are also looking for a software job.

But the industry is not interested in these people either, as they do not learn the subject in depth. They only learn some applications. More complex things like algorithms are left untouched.

Most of the students take up mechanical or civil engineering seats not out of choice but out of desperation to do any engineering course. While some go ahead in their specialised field, most only want the high paying software jobs. So, they do these short-term courses outside and expect to be placed. "This does not happen as there are already too many like them, they end up doing jobs that are not even related to their studies," said Nikhil Iruku, who runs an HR consultancy firm.

This is where the BPO industry has come as a boon for the students. With little communication skills they can earn a fortune in a couple of years. Many students save up this money to go abroad for an MS or MBA in a top private institute in the country. Either way they end up working in a career very far removed from what they have worked hard for nearly six years - which is two years of intermediate and Eamcet preparation and four years of engineering.

We are happy, we dont need unions

LA Times

From Europe and North America, India's offshore workers — call center operators, data entry clerks and telemarketers — may seem like the sweatshop laborers of the information age, toiling long hours for meager pay.

But an international alliance of unions that wants to organize them is finding a very different reality in India: Many workers think of themselves as members of a relatively well-paid, respected professional elite in no need of a union's protection.

"I know these young people have a negative image about unions," says Narayan Ram Hegde of Union Network International, a global alliance of 900 unions.

But "these professionals are more like cyber-coolies," he said. "We hope we will be able to convince them over time."

Hegde is leading the drive to unionize workers in India's back-office outsourcing industry — a sector that employs about 350,000 and is expected to add 80,000 jobs this year.

Union Network International has been quietly setting up the union for the last year — its formal launch date was Sunday. But it has so far managed to attract only about 500 recruits, underscoring workers' hostility to unions and the difficulty of the task organizers face.

"A union would make sense if there was no job security," said K.V. Sudhakar, who does technical support work in IBM Corp.'s offshore outsourcing center in the western city of Pune. "Here jobs are more, people are less — companies are trying all means possible to keep employees happy so that they won't leave."

It's not the first time the union has encountered such sentiments. A previous effort to start a union for Indian software programmers — the highly skilled elite of the business — flopped in 2000 after the programmers balked at joining, offering similar reasons.

A comparable situation is playing out in the U.S. where, with manufacturing jobs disappearing, many union leaders say they must organize high-tech workers and academics to survive. But the Communications Workers of America union has had a tough job trying to organize white-collar workers at companies such as IBM and Microsoft Corp.

Global companies have increasingly farmed out any task that can be done over a computer network to low-wage countries. India is the undisputed king of the business with 44% of the global market and an industry that earned revenue of $17.2 billion in 2004.

For Union Network International, the organizing drive is crucial because jobs outsourced to India cut into the unions' traditional pool of members in Europe and North America.

"We lose members [in the West] because of outsourcing," Hedge says. Setting up new ones in India "will help us have the same negotiating power."

He says the new union can help the industry's workers win better conditions. The work can be monotonous and grinding — fielding calls from irate Americans whose computers are crashing; spending eight hours plugging numbers into a Dutch bank's database; deciphering hundreds of X-rays of sick Europeans in a single shift.

Burnout is common, and 3 out of every 10 workers change jobs each year. Hard figures are difficult to come by, but industry experts say that stress forces 1 in 7 workers to leave the industry every year.

Among those who decided to join the union is Raghavan Iyengar, a call center supervisor in Bangalore. He said companies gave incentives for those who worked extra time, and young workers ignored health problems, such as insomnia and back pain, to earn those extra bucks.

"The industry's motto is 'Shut your mouth and take your money,' " Iyengar said. "We want to change that."

But money can be a powerful lure in India, where per capita income hovers around $500 a year and most people make much less toiling in dusty fields or on steaming city streets.

Call center rookies, in contrast, make about $2,400 a year — about twice the pay of first-year teachers, accountants or lawyers — and work in air-conditioned offices, many of which have health clubs and well-stocked cafeterias. With experience, the salaries multiply.

The easy money is on display every Friday evening in Bangalore, the industry's center, where young workers unwind after a week of work in the posh clubs and restaurants that have grown with the outsourcing business.

As for complaints about working conditions, Ruchinder Singh, who works in the southern city of Hyderabad for GE Capital International, said he could take them straight to his company's chief executive.

"When my CEO will listen to what I have to say, then why do I need a union?" asked Singh, who helps customers around the world use specialized software programs.

"We have a structure in place where the management is constantly in touch with teams and responds within 24 hours to any complaint," he said. "We are not factory workers, we are knowledge professionals — every employee is treated as an asset in this industry."

Back-office workers are typically college graduates in their 20s and early 30s and drawn from India's urban middle and upper classes. Their parents are lawyers, doctors and small- and large-business owners.

Such a background does not make them fertile recruits for union organizers, said H.S. Sudarshan, a former call center worker and now a recruitment consultant.

Faced with problems, Sudarshan said, many just quit and take a better job.

"There is opportunity everywhere," he said. "A new job is a better solution than union."

SQL Star ties up with Sun

IT training organisation, SQL Star International Ltd has tied up with Sun Microsystems to be its authorised educational partner in India.

"Apart from offering Java courses to students at our centres, we will set up Sun learning centres in Hyderabad and Chennai over next eight months," said Mr N R Ganti, Executive Chairman of the company here on Thursday.

The learning centres would offer training in Sun Solaris and Sun Java Enterprise System. The students would be provided access to state-of-the-art Sun platform, Mr Ganti said.

"We have requisite resources to scale up operations and are investing over Rs 50 crore," he said adding, the company is also open to inorganic growth.

High-end hotels in Hyderabad

A host of luxury hotels are expected to come up in Hyderabad, doubling the existing number by 2010.

It is destination Hyderabad for the hospitality industry. The city of pearls is going to witness a spurt in high-end hotels in a span of four to five years.

According to Taj Krishna area director and general manager, Sanjay Sethi, the number of high-end hotel rooms is likely to go up by more than 100 per cent from the existing 1280 to 2650 by the year 2009-10. The major hotel groups that are keen to set up shop in the capital of Andhra Pradesh include the Oberois, Leela, J. W. Marriot, ITC and Park.

Besides, the Dubai-based Emmar group is constructing a 321-room star hotel which is expected to be completed by March 2006, well before the Asian Development Bank conference to be held in the city in May, next year. Minerva Grand, a business class boutique hotel, has opened its food and beverages outlets this month and is planning to keep its 105 rooms ready by mid-November.

At present, the Taj group has three five-star hotels, Taj Krishna, Taj Residency and Taj Banjara, in Hyderabad which account for 533 rooms. Besides, ITC Kakatiya Sheraton and Towers has 189 rooms, Viceroy Hotels has 272 rooms, Greenpark has 148 rooms and Hotel Manohar has 138 rooms.

Sethi foresees an addition of 1371 high-end hotel rooms in the next five years. Indications are that the Oberois, J.W. Marriot and ITC are looking forward to establishing a 200-250 room hotels each while the Leela group and Park are keen on taking up 150-room projects. At an estimated cost of over Rs 50 lakh per room ( including parking areas, lobbies, lawns, etc.) the combined investment in these projects is likely to exceed Rs 700 crore.

Thanks to the growing service sector industry, particularly the IT and ITES companies, the occupancy rate in star hotels in Hyderabad has increased to as much as 86 per cent in the past three years as against a mere 50-55 per cent earlier.

The occupancy rate is expected to go up further to 90 per cent in the next couple of years as the demand for hotel rooms would continue to outpace the supply during this period.

On the other hand, Sethi said, the occupancy rate would decline to 72-76 per cent once the new hotel projects commence commercial operations by 2009-10. Even after the decline, the business would be profitable as hotels were viable even at 55 per cent occupancy rate.

“However, when there is a sudden spurt in the supply, the growth of the aggregate rate of returns flattens and, sometimes, the graph may even go southward”, he told Business Standard.

In view of this, Sethi feels that the hospitality industry should not put all its eggs in one basket. “ We can’t heavily depend on the corporate travelers. We have to enter new businesses like tourism and leisure segments so that we can withstand even if the IT sector goes bust in future”, he added.

More room

High-end hotel rooms to increase from 1,280 to 2650 by 2009-10.
Emmar group’s 321-room star hotel expected to be completed by March 2006
Minerva Grand to keep its 105 rooms ready by mid-November.
Oberois, JW Marriot, ITC each planning a 200-250 room hotel
Leela group, Park keen on taking up 150-room projects

National Biotech strategy

THE National Biotechnology Development Strategy, which promises concessions to industries and chart out a roadmap to fuel the biotechnology sector's growth, would get the Union Cabinet nod in two months.

Stating this at a 'Biotech CEO Summit' here on Friday, the Union Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal, said the strategy would have specific tax incentives, address industry concerns and promote biotech parks in the country.

The last leg of interactions with the industry is slated in Chennai and Ahmedabad very soon, the Minister said.

The creation of a 'single window' regulatory framework for genetically modified and biotech products, direct import of cell lines and other features that would make the regulatory mechanism more industry-academia friendly and aid in the growth of the sector will be in place by November, Mr Sibal said.

He felt the Government has a duty to fund industry. "We cannot expect the industry to invest huge amounts to generate new molecules. Its not a favour, but an obligation, therefore funding would be provided by the Government," he added.

However, he was quick to urge the domestic industry to invest in research and development.

"We will fund your R&D to an extent, but do not expect us to support your foreign travel and Bloody Marys", he told the assembled gathering of CEOs and leaders of biotech industry.

Thinking aloud on the challenge posed by the summit of the Indian biotech industry reaching $5 billion by 2010, Mr Sibal said the public-private partnership route was one solid route.

He also asked the industry to meet him once in two months to discuss and sort out issues, which would ensure fast growth of the sector. He pointed out that it was not happening now. For example in October 2004, we discussed the issue of duty concessions on diagnostic kits, but till date the industry has not come back with specifics.

The Minister said many delegations of multinational corporations were coming to India now to invest.

This clearly shows that the Patent (Amendments) brought in recently have found positive favour. Several US companies were also looking at investing in India through venture capital companies.

The Minister also fielded questions from select industry leaders in a brief 'Cross Talk', session organised by the BioSpectrum magazine of Cybermedia Group.

Earlier, Mr N. Suresh, Editor of BioSpectrum, in his introductory remarks said the biotech policy, regulatory mechanism and incentives to facilitate the biotech industry to grow from the present $1 billion to $5 billion should be put in place quickly.

Passport office revamped

Having eliminated unnecessary delays in processing applications, the Hyderabad Regional Passport Office is expected to touch the 3 lakh-mark in terms of issuing new passports during this year besides taking up new initiatives to further reduce the waiting period.

The Hyderabad Regional Passport Office, the only such facility in the country to receive ISO 9001:2000 certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards, has already been ranked number one among all the offices in terms of input and output handling with Kozhikode and Mumbai offices occupying the next two places respectively.

Adding to the ongoing effort of speedy clearances, online police verification system is now being introduced in Cyberabad police commissionerate limits, where verification of facts mentioned by the applicant to the police department would be reported to the passport authorities through online network, V Sraman, regional passport officer, said here today. According to him, receiving police verification reports has been a major constraint in further reducing the waiting period.

The office caters to the requirements of 17 of the 23 districts in Andhra Pradesh. It issued 2.84 lakh passports last year and earned Rs 41.36 crore in revenues. According to Sraman, 80 per cent of the applications are being received from rural areas, and most of them come from just four districts of Kadapa, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Mahabubnagar and the old city in Hyderabad, which are known for labour migration to mostly Middle East countries.

The dramatic turnaround from a pendency of 1 lakh applications seeking passports in the year 2002 with the Hyderabad office to a situation where the Ministry of External Affairs had to issue revised guidelines allowing the passport offices to issue passports in less than 30 days time, has been achieved with the help of his staff and the automaticity brought into the whole process, he said.

The ministry issued revised guidelines in May 5, 2005, to allow the passport offices to issue passports in less than 30 days time even in non-Tatkal cases. “This is because we represented the matter to the ministry saying that we would be able to process the normal applications in less than 30 days, which was allowed only in Tatkal cases,” Sraman said.

Business Standard

KPO industry to touch $17bn by 2010

Expected Indian market share to be around $12-14 billion

Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), one of the fastest growing industries in the field of outsourcing, is expected to be a $17 billion industry by 2010.

According to industry experts, India's present dollar billion KPO industry is slated to target a market share of more than 70 percent translating into a $12-14 billion industry in five years.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of a seminar hosted by Nasscom on From BPO to KPO and Beyond, Sam Balaji, managing director, Deloitte Consulting India Pvt Ltd, said, "This is an explosively growing market globally. We have around 25,000 people employed in this industry and this is going to grow tenfold by 2010."

He further added that fields like market research, business intelligence, analytic research and IP intelligence, etc. constitute KPO.

Earlier at the seminar, panelists discussed the challenges and weaknesses of the Indian industry in the wake of the growing opportunity.

Uma Parameswaran, CEO, SciTech Patent Art Services said, "Though India stands to be the world's third largest brain bank where 2.5 million technical professionals exist, we still lack employable quality manpower. Though demand and supply needs differ from vertical to vertical, at some point there exists some deficiency."

Mudit Kulshreshta, associate director-Program Management, Knowledge Services said, "It's not going to be a natural progression from BPO to KPO. There are certain complexities involved, marketability and serviceability issues, selling and pricing models have to be fine tuned, delivery and contract levels could be different."

Digital metro maps

The Union government has decided to develop computer-aided digital maps of mega cities like Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad in order to have a fresh look at the state of developmental affairs in those cities.
The cost of working out digital maps for megacities has been pegged at Rs 21 crore and the responsibility for implementing the project has been given to National Informatics Centre, government sources said.

In a related development, the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare has developed multi-layered nationwide maps, based on geographical information system (GIS), for health management purposes. The move is aimed at offering a user- friendly and effective tool to public heath administrators.

The Centre realised the need to generate digital maps for mega cities in view of the fact that civic amenities were perceived to be tottering because of population explosion in these cities. Administrators and planners in these cities need to have a technology-driven updated data retrieval system to comprehensively evaluate the situation and take decisions. Even the physical infrastructure in these cities could be upgraded in accordance with contemporary needs with proper data projections for planning and development purposes. The project has been classified into three parts — including basemap compilation, formulation of metropolitan area network (MAN) and utility mapping.

Under basemap compilation, digital maps of cities would be created. Area-wise maps of Ahmedabad will cover 310 sq km, Chennai will have 180 sq km, Mumbai 468 sq km, Bangalore 400 sq km, Hyderabad 256 sq km and Kolkata 180 sq. km. In light of MAN, it has been decided to establish a communication network which will enable exchange of data among various utility agencies in a secured environment in a city. Utility mapping will involve mapping of utility networks and related things. Five agencies in these cities have been identified for the purpose.

As regards the digital maps for health management, the NIHFW has hired a Noida-based GIS software company, JT Maps, one of the country’s indigenous GIS software developers, to accomplish the task.

The maps will be digitally powered with many features, to help health administrators in planning, analysis and managing a range of diseases.

By using this model, administrators can also generate results, distribution and variation in diseases ~ both in terms of intensity and locations. The model is based on multiple criteria where data can be retrieved at state or even district level. Such a map, among other things, would be very handy in determining the level of distribution of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the country.

With the click of a mouse, one will be able to get actual figures of HIV-positive people and their distribution in terms of location, gender and age groups.
Thematic map facility has also been provided to determine the distribution pattern of HIV-positive urban women in the country in the age group of 31-40 years.
The application software developed on indigenous tool, JT Maps SDK, is reportedly quite cost-effective and may be the precursor to many more such application software in future.

Second tier of IITs soon

India will soon have a second tier of IIT-like technology schools with the upgradation of seven institutions across the country to the level of IITs. The Union HRD ministry has identified the seven institutions and appointed an expert committee to calculate the financial implications of the ambitious project, Ministry Joint Secretary Ravi Mathur said here today.

"We have chosen two institutes in Hyderabad, two in West Bengal -- Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering College, two central universitites -- IT-BHU and Aligarh Muslim University and Cochin University for upgradation to IIT levels," he told reporters.

The expert committee headed by Prof Ananda Krishnan will submit its report within next two months, he said.

Mathur said the expenditure and intake capacity of the IITs will also be enhanced under a World Bank Technology Fund. "The current allocation for the IITs is about Rs 800 crore and this will see a significant rise in the next few years." The IITs will also diversify to become training centres for other non-conventional streams like life sciences, social sciences, medicine and law, he added.

Indian BPOs eyeing US health sector

Indian business process outsourcing companies involved in healthcare are increasingly eyeing a niche business in the US healthcare sector.

The healthcare sector in the US is undergoing a sea change due to the need for compliance to the Health Insurance Profitability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which might result in off-shoring a good quantum to other countries such as India, according t o analysts.

"The verticals such as healthcare administration, medical management and imaging are in high demand in the US and India can make this a niche BPO area," a top functionary of Atlanta-based STI Knowledge said.

As of now outsourcing to Indian companies can offer cost saving to the tune of 20-30 per cent. "For every healthcare dollar spent, 21 cents go to administration. The average margins for publicly traded healthcare firms are under pressure," he adds.

Apart from administration and paper work, imageology also offers business promises to India, say analysts. As per the HIPAA verticals such as electronic transactions and electronic claims attachment frameworks are being revamped and offer immense busines s opportunity to India BPOs.

Apart from administration and paper work, imageology also offers business promises to India, they said. - PTI

Kingfisher connects Hyderabad

Kingfisher Airlines has announced that it will begin twice daily services between Bangalore and Chennai & Bangalore and Hyderabad from September 14 with two daily flights in both directions

One-way fares on the Bangalore — Chennai route start at Rs 1,299, plus taxes. The fare for the Bangalore - Hyderabad route starts at Rs 1,899, plus taxes.

With the launch of these new routes, the number of daily flights offered by Kingfisher Airlines will go up to 34. The new services will be operated by

Kingfisher Airlines' fifth, new Airbus A320 aircraft which joined the fleet recently.

By the end of September, Kingfisher Airlines will have six new Airbus A320 aircraft in its fleet.

USP to set up research arm

US Pharmacopeia (USP), an independent public health organisation, today announced its first overseas site in India with the incorporation of the United States Pharmacopeia-India in the ICICI Knowledge Park in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. This is only its second office after the one in Washington.

The research outsourcing facility has been considered a recognition of the growing strength of India in pharmaceuticals.

According to the release stating the latest update, the USP site in India would help promote the availability of good-quality therapeutic products globally. USP-India will provide USP's pharmacopeial services to customers in India and surrounding countries.

The site would also include a state-of-the-art laboratory and experienced Indian scientists in the standards-setting activities of USP.

USP sets quality benchmarks for medicines, dietary supplements and other healthcare products. It also works with healthcare providers to help them attain USP's standards which are recognised not only in the US but elsewhere too.

The location of the USP lab in Hyderabad is expected to boost contract research outsourcing of the state and facilitate certification of the drugs manufactured in the state which, is a big supplier of bulk drugs to US.

The USP-India site will allow USP to work more closely with Indian and regional constituencies, including the Indian Pharmacopoeia and Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers, to promote the manufacture of good-quality, safe and effective medicines for the US market and elsewhere, the release added.

USP has also created an Indian Advisory Group (IAG) to assist the organisation in addressing national and regional issues.

NTSI to Manufacture Chips in India

Nano-Tech Silicon India (NTSI), has begun work on a $600 million facility to manufacture semiconductors. The factory, coming up in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is expected to begin production in 18 months time. P June Min, promoter of NTSI says, “We chose Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, for setting up the fab unit as the climate is ideally suited for a fab and the government has assured us of the availability of uninterrupted water and power supply.”

When completed the fab will manufacture low-cost solutions to be used in color TVs, DVDs, LCD driver modules, telephone handsets, mobile phones, computers and automobiles. It will have the capacity to manufacture 30,000 chips a month. The fab will employ 1,500 directly and while supporting companies, such as semiconductor packaging and test, engineering support, semiconductor materials, equipment and design, are likely to generate employment for another 20,000 workers and engineers.

NTSI was incorporated through seed financing with Min investing 60% of the equity, the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation 20%, and private investors Jai Ramesh and M. Prabhakara Rao 20% each.

Quality of higher education

The higher education department in Andhra Pradesh is on a mission to ensure quality improvement in various undergraduate and postgraduate courses being offered by the 13 universities in the state.

In a two-pronged strategy, which was in proposal stage now, degree courses would be converted to honours degree courses with a duration of nearly four years Introduction of semester system was also in the proposal.

Talking to presspersons after chairing a meet of AP State Vice- Chancellors, held for the first time here last evening, the Chairman of the state's Higher Education Council, K C Reddy, said the idea was to strengthen degree-level quality and maintain academic standards.

He said it was being observed that after taking degrees from state-run educational institutions, students were finding it difficult to get a job of their choice.

For the first time the VCs meet was held outside Hyderabad.

On the issue of filling nearly 3600 posts for teaching staff alone in various universities in the state, Mr Reddy said they had been asked to incur 33 per cent expenditure of the salary component from their internal accruals. The state government was ready to incur the remaining amount required.

He hoped the state government was ready to allow private universities in Andhra Pradesh in case the Government of India Private Universities Bill was passed on the floor of Parliament.

Monsanto acquires land

Monsanto India Ltd has acquired land near Hyderabad to put up a corn drying plant, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. The acquisition was due to continuous demand in the company's corn hybrid seeds business, Monsanto said.

The company further informed that its board of directors has decided to declare dividend at the rate of Rs 13 per equity share.

Govt approves revival of IDPL

The Chemicals and Fertilisers Ministry has decided to revive all the five ailing units of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL) at an estimated cost of Rs 200 crore.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by the Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, based on the recommendations of an expert committee constituted by the Government. The revival decision is pending with Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR).

Government officials said that the AAIFR would be informed of its decision at the next hearing scheduled for September 13. Thereafter, a detailed revival package for IDPL would be finalised. The previous Government had decided to close down IDPL and most of the employees were offered voluntary retirement.

However, the current Government is in favour of giving IDPL a new lease of life to ensure availability of medicine to the poor at affordable prices.

The five units of the company located at Gurgaon, Chennai, Hyderabad, Muzaffarpur, and Rishikesh will be revived in a phased manner.

The restructuring will commence on October 1 and is likely to be completed within two-and-a-half years. The facilities at Gurgaon, Rishikesh, and Chennai produce medicines while the chemical plant at Muzaffarpur and bulk drug and formulation plant at Hyderabad are closed. The renovation and upgradation work of the plants at Muzaffarpur and Hyderabad would start soon.

HMT may get Rs 735 cr revamp

The Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) has recommended a Rs 735-crore revival package for HMT Machine Tools Ltd.

The Board has proposed a cash infusion of Rs 623 crore. The loan component of the package is Rs 443 crore which will have to be paid back to the government. The sale of surplus land at the Bangalore and Hyderabad plants are expected to raise resources for the company.

Rs 150 crore has been earmarked for technological upgrading.The company is also expected to buy technology from foreign players to develop computerised numerically controlled machines tools.

The PSU has manufacturing units at five locations. Its negative net worth stood at Rs 565 crore.

While the cash infusion is not expected to wipe off its negative net worth, the Board has recommended bailing out the PSE before it becomes sick and is referred to the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).

Travel and Tourism Fair

Travel and Tourism Fair (TTF), an annual event to showcase tourism for trade, was inaugurated by minister for tourism & sugar, major industries, commerce and export promotion J Geeta Reddy here on Friday.

The three-day event brings more than 100 travel companies from across India and three countries from abroad, including 16 states that are officially participating in the fair.

Addressing mediapersons, Geeta Reddy said that the fair, apart from providing a platform to various players in the tourism industry to showcase their products, also provides information to the earnest traveller. “The Buddhist culture that existed in Andhra Pradesh is a little known fact in the East and it is planned to revamp these sites in the state as a major circuit for attracting Buddhist tourists,” she added.

Sanjiv Agarwal, CMD of Fairfest Media, and promoter of the event, said that TTF serves as a platform for travel companies and states to promote their products and the visitor an opportunity to pick and choose.

Rajasthan and Uttaranchal are the partner states at TTF Hyderabad, while Andhra Pradesh is the host state. The event is being organised for the third consecutive time in the city.

Skybus or Metro ?

In the search for a modern urban transport system for Hyderabad of the future, the Skybus is being touted as a better alternative in every respect to the Metro Rail.

"The Skybus has many advantages over Metro Rail. The need for land acquisition would be less and the project can be built at comparatively low cost. Early completion is assured and cargo can also be transported," said Skybus inventor B Rajaram, a former managing director of Konkan Railway.

At a press conference here on Friday, Rajaram said the Skybus track could be laid at a cost of Rs 55 crore per km. In comparison, the Metro Rail track would cost Rs 250 crore per km for an underground track and Rs 125 crore for an elevated track.

Rajaram said the Skybus corridor would be ready in 24 months while Metro Rail would need nothing less than five years. He said Skybus can also carry cargo, a facility not possible with Metro Rail. An important feature of the Skybus is that it can run on existing roads with a speed of 100 kmph and provide viable public transport at 50 paise per km. Rajaram said travel up to 500 km would cost Rs 250 per month, a cost that would be unviable for Metro Rail.

Rajaram said a detailed feasibility study for the Skybus is being taken up on the Uppal-Mehdipatnam corridor. This will be ready in four months. The Centre will take a decision on whether the Skybus is ideal for Hyderabad once the technical feasibility is done.

Konkan Railway is leading the study for a Malaysian consortium led by Doxport. The consortium and Konkan Railway signed an agreement on Friday to that effect. To a question, Rajaram admitted there had been a mishap during the trials of the Skybus but several changes were made to the project subsequently. The Skybus will also have an anti-collision device to avoid accidents, Rajaram explained.

President Abdul Kalam and many scientists including the railway safety commissioner have approved the Skybus as a technically viable and safe public mode of transport, Rajaram said.

Source : The Times of India

TCS, Infosys, IBM gets €1.8 b contract

In one of the largest outsourcing deals, ABN AMRO Bank has signed a €1.8 billion contract with five IT-vendors including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and IBM.

TCS and Infosys would provide application support and enhancement to ABN AMRO Bank for its worldwide operations, while IBM has been selected for IT infrastructure, according to ABN AMRO Bank's notification to Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

All five vendors - TCS, Infosys, IBM, Patni Computers and Accenture have been selected to supply application development.

According to Infosys this is the single largest multi-year multi-million Euro contract ever won by the company and the company's share of the overall contract includes committed volumes in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

"This is a landmark deal for Infosys," Mr Nandan Nilekani, CEO, President and Managing Director of Infosys, said. This deal clearly indicates that large offshore players such as Infosys have a competitive business model to deliver large, global, multi-ye ar contract.