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Prajay to set up IT park SEZ
Crucial water pipeline work in progress
Sahebnagar to Marredpalli pipeline would not only link the entire Secunderabad and Cantonment areas but also nearby municipalities of Malkajgiri, Kapra and Uppal with the Krishna network.
The effort is part of the HMWSSB's ambitious exercise to link the entire water supply network of the twin cities and surrounding municipalities with the Krishna water supply grid reducing the burden on Singur and the Manjeera. Due share from Singur and Manjeera had been the long-pending demand of farmers of Medak district, who had been opposing the apportioning of major share of water from the Singur reservoir to the State capital at the cost of their irrigation needs.The Sahebnagar-Lingampally pipeline, for which work is in progress for more than a year now, would bring in 45 MGD to areas now covered by the Singur water system besides parts of those under the Himayatsagar and the Osmansagar grid, including the Mylardeverapalli, Rajendranagar, Asifnagar and Prashasannagar areas.
The water board would also call for tenders soon for laying a similar pipeline from Sahebnagar to Marredpalli. The 11-km pipeline would not only link the entire Secunderabad and Secunderabad Cantonment areas but also nearby municipalities of Malkajgiri, Kapra and Uppal with the Krishna network. More importantly, it would bolster supplies to these water-starved municipalities where residents still get drinking water once in three to five days unlike their peers in the city despite the comfortable water supply position this year.
The Rs. 85-crore pipeline would be laid from L.B. Nagar X Roads to Marredpally/Mahendra Hills to provide 55 million gallons per day (MGD) of Krishna water.
Virtusa to to target MCA's for jobs
Hyderabad numero uno in hospitality
Le Meridien, the InterContinental group and Lemon Tree are keen to come to Hyderabad
As per the study, Hyderabad has overtaken cities like Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore. Business travel is said to be one of the main drivers of the growth in the hospitality industry.The demand now does not match supply. However, this is expected to change with many Indian and international chains planning to set up shop in the city. The star hotels in the city claim that almost 90% of the guests are business travellers.
The year-on-year occupancy rates, too, have been rising to over 80% in ‘04-05. The Hyderabad International Convention Centre stabilizing as an international centre, and also the growth of the Genome Valley, Hitech City and ICICI Knowledge Park are positive drivers for increased occupancy in the first class business segment. The number of rooms in the city is expected to touch 2,461 by the end of 2006 and go up to 6,507 rooms by 2010. The average room rate currently at Rs 5,000 is expected to go up to Rs 8,000 by 2008-09.
Hyderabad is currently in a very strong position as its average room rates are still very low but its occupancy is high at over 80%. Though the room tariffs are higher in other cities, considering the city’s performance against all other parameters, it is clearly in the number one position. The construction of the Hyderabad international airport is also expected to spur the growth of hotels.
The number of rooms in the city is expected to touch 2,461 by the end of 2006 and go up to 6,507 rooms by 2010.
Currently, the city has approximately five five-star hotels including ITC Kakatiya Sheraton, Taj Krishna, and the Viceroy. Viceroy has chalked out an elaborate expansion plan and will be known as JW Marriott and is also planning to take the number of rooms up from 168 to 300 with an investment of Rs 80 crore. Bangalore-based hotel group Royal Orchid plans to set up a four star hotel in Hyderabad by the end of 2006 and is also mulling the possibility of setting up a five-star hotel in the future. Also, hotel chains like London based Le Meridien, the InterContinental group and Lemon Tree are keen to come to Hyderabad. The ITC group also has plans to build another hotel in the city while Tulip Manohar has tied up with Radisson.A modern fish market
A first of its kind modern fish market complex, with cold storage and other amenities to provide stench-free and hygienic ambience will come up soon in the city. And what more, it will even deliver 'dressed fish' at the doorstep on demand. Minister for Minority Welfare and Fisheries Mohd. Fareeduddin laid foundation stone for the complex in Banjara Hills on Thursday.
The complex would have fish retail counter, aquarium shop and a cold storage unit. A fish fast-food centre would be added in the second phase.
Godavari express is now superfast
The upgraded trains, which were given new numbers. Train number 7007 up Visakhapatnam - Hyderabad Godavari Express has been changed to 2727 up Visakhapatnam - Hyderabad Godavari Express, train number 7008 down Hyderabad - Visakhapatnam Godavari express to 2728 down Hyderabad - Visakhapatnam Super Fast Godavari Express.
Of techies and fitness
Wipro has a 5,000 square feet gym where it also offers yoga and aerobics.
Companies are now willing to invest heavily in making the work atmosphere employee-friendly. Gyms and recreational facilities have become mainstays in IT premises. "We felt the need to create an environment that will foster team spirit, learning, intellectual discussions as well as relaxation and fun," said an Infosys spokesperson.Recreation facilities at Infosys include world-class gymnasiums, swimming pools, aerobics, yoga and meditation, billiards, snooker and pool, volleyball, basketball, tennis, table tennis and squash.
Wipro too paints a similar picture. In Hyderabad, Wipro has tied up with fitness club Latitudes Pro, which offers a customised programme for software professionals. Wipro has a 5,000 square feet gym where it also offers yoga and aerobics. "The investment in just the equipment is huge," said Wipro facilities manager Major Dinesh Sharma.On an average, about 20% to 25% of the employees use these facilities on a fairly regular basis, says Infosys. Interestingly, women are not averse to using facilities like gyms and swimming pools.
SQL Star acquires SolutionNet
The group's Singapore business will be taken over by SQL Star's Singapore subsidiary International SQL Star Pte Ltd and the Australian business of the group will become the Australian subsidiary of SQL Star, the company said on Wednesday.
SolutionNet group is an established US-based consulting and product group with an annual turnover of approximately $5 million in consulting. SQL Star has major presence in the knowledge and enterprise services space. With its headquarter in Hyderabad, the firm has eight learning centers in the country with subsidiaries in USA, UK, Singapore and Australia.
Death sentence for no helmet
The driver of the motorcycle, a 27-year-old, died immediately from head injuries when a traffic constable allegedly threw a stick at them because they were violating the helmet compulsory rule.
The incident triggered violence in the city on Monday, with the police accused of being heavy-handed. Last month a motorbike rider lost his eye when allegedly hit by police. He too was not wearing a helmet.The driver of the motorcycle, a 27-year-old, died immediately from head injuries when a traffic constable allegedly threw a stick at them because they were violating the "helmet compulsory" rule. Eyewitnesses said that the stick hit the driver who lost control and crashed.
The incident created a major uproar in the city, with mobs on Monday throwing stones at police and passing vehicles. Seven people were injured. In a move to calm protesters, the state government announced a payment of 200,000 Rupees ($4,371) to the families of both the victims, and a job to one member of the two families.
The state's human rights commissioner has now issued a legal notice to the police demanding they explain their actions. Traffic police personnel, including a sub-inspector of police and five constables, were questioned by DCP (Central Zone) M Madhusudhan Reddy on Tuesday on Sunday's incident in which a youngster, Syed Sharif, crashed into a road-divider and later succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
Developers for integrated townships to be finalised
In the prevailing market, HUDA expects about Rs.1.5 crore per acre.
Gamuda Berhard, and Sun City Berhard from Malaysia, Keppel Investments, Mauritius, DLF, L&T, Unitech Ltd., Noida, Prestige Estates, Bangalore, Emaar Properties, Delhi, Pacifica, Ahmedabad are among those who have submitted tender documents so far.HUDA would give a basic plan demarcating open spaces, common amenities, earmarking area for Economically Weaker Section, Low Income Groups etc. and it is for the developer to submit the plan conforming to the concept of integrated township and take up construction with his own investment. The whole selection process is expected to take about three months, it is said. HUDA would provide the external infrastructure such as approach roads, electricity, water Supply, drainage etc up to the project site.
In the prevailing market, HUDA expects about Rs.1.5 crore per acre. After the developer recovered his investment by marketing the plots and houses through various agencies, the surplus would be shared between the HUDA and developer in the ratio which would be fixed by the HUDA Board. Each township is to be developed within a time frame of three years.
An integrated township with residential, commercial, office complexes, multiplexes, entertainment and recreation areas, amenities like schools, hospitals, graveyards would be a self-sufficient entity generating employment opportunities and catering to employees of IT and other sectors located in the area. HUDA proposes 22 integrated townships along the 162-km ORR to be taken up in a phased manner.
Microsoft's diwali gift : Xbox 360
Nautica to retail in Hyderabad
Nautica will open a third Indian store in Chennai, and there are plans in the works for units in Mumbai and Hyderabad
This summer, Nautica will open a third Indian store in Chennai, and there are plans in the works for units in Mumbai and Hyderabad. The stores, which range from 2,500 to over 4,000 square feet, offer a full selection of product, from Nautica Jeans, women's wear and men's wear to swimwear and accessories. The stores will carry the women's better sportswear and home lines beginning with the spring 2007 season, along with the new fragrance from Coty, Voyage.In India, Nautica is produced under a licensing agreement with Arvind Brands Ltd., a subsidiary of Arvind Mills Ltd. The company also holds the licenses for two other VF brands, Lee and Wrangler. In addition, Arvind produces product for the shirt brand Arrow; it launched Tommy Hilfiger in India through its nine freestanding stores in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkota, Hyderabad and Chennai, and last month, Arvind introduced the Gant brand in the country. In addition, the company has several homegrown brands such as Excalibur, Flying Machine, Ruggers, Bay Island and Newport.
ORR phase 1 finally starts
The competitive bidding by international companies brought down the estimated cost by 13 per cent.
When the financial bids for the first phase were opened on Tuesday, it certainly gladdened the hearts of HUDA authorities as the competitive bidding by international companies brought down the estimated cost by 13 per cent.While HUDA estimated the first phase cost at Rs. 590 crores, it was bid for Rs. 513 crores and HUDA would fund the project through bank loan. A high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary would meet on May 29 to finalise the developer and in the mean time, technical committee would evaluate the proposals submitted by the bidders, according to ORR Project Director Piyush Kumar.
With the alignment for ORR second phase which had to be shifted in certain stretches notified once and for all, the authorities are now focussing on pockets of work to be assigned to international bidders. The work allotment would commence first in three pockets of 10 km to 12 km each out of ten pockets from Narsingi to Kollur, Kollur to Patancheru and Shamshabad to Srisailam Road and would be completed by September . Work assignment in remaining pockets of second phase of ORR would be completed by December, he said.
Apart from bank loan, HUDA would adopt different financial assistance models apart from Central Government aid to fund the entire project, he said
Animation industry faces talent crunch
About 3,000 people are employed in the animation sector in India and the demand is for about 10,000 animators.
The reason for the talent crunch, industry observers say, is the absence of animation from the curriculum as a structured course. Also, there are very few training institutes such as MAAC and Maximus, who provide some technical education to aspiring animators. MAAC, an animation training studio, which has about 35 centres across the country, produces 2,000 animators annually. Sachin Bhatnagar, technical head, MAAC, says that big names like UTV, Crest Animation, Prana Studios, Rhythm and Hues, DQ and Prime Focus recruit from their campus. For a fresher to enter this industry, he should be equipped with basic qualities such as creativity and the ability to visualise content on paper, apart from technical expertise. Youngsters who want to join this industry should take it seriously, because a lot of effort goes into the conceptualisation of a character before transforming it into an animation.Career growth in this profession is completely based on the performance of an employee. A fresher can join an animation house at a junior/trainee level with a monthly salary of Rs 8,000-15,000 and can become a character animator or a modelling expert in three-four years. The salary at this level will range between Rs 25,000 and Rs 35,000. One can also earn as much as Rs 1 lakh a month if he has experience of seven years.
ITC GROUP Opens Customer Service Facility
ICT GROUP, headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania, is a leading global provider of customer management and business process outsourcing solutions.
Initially equipped with 100 workstations, the Hyderabad facility will have the ability to expand to 300 workstations, based on projected client demand. The facility will provide voice and back-office business support services across a range of targeted applications for existing and prospective clients within the financial services, mortgage banking, healthcare and insurance industries in North America, Europe and Australia.ICT GROUP will initially focus on providing high-value data capture and application processing services from its Hyderabad facility. The operation will also be technology-enabled to provide voice transaction support services.
ICT GROUP, headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania, is a leading global provider of customer management and business process outsourcing solutions. The company provides a comprehensive mix of customer care/retention, acquisition,
up-selling/cross-selling, technical support, market research and database marketing as well as e-mail management, data entry/collections, claims processing and document management services, using its global network of onshore, near-shore and offshore operations.
ICT GROUP also provides interactive voice response (IVR) and advanced speech recognition solutions as well as hosted CRM technologies, available for use by clients at their own in-house facility or on a co-sourced basis in conjunction with the company's fully integrated contact center operations.
ICFAI's Tsunami Tracking System goes to finals
Raheja Corp to develop another IT park
The company has developed IT parks under the name of Mindspace in Mumbai and Hyderabad; the latter is close to completion and occupation. Mindspace Pocharam will be built in stages over the next few years and eventually have a total built-up space of about 6 million sq ft. This project seeks to host well-planned layout for IT companies and hotels, fitness, recreation and entertainment facilities.The Pocharam facility will provide employment to about one lakh people when completed.
Stem cell therapy put to use in city hospital
It didn't raise ethical issues or pose supply side constraints associated with embryonic stem cells.
However, it is too early to come to a conclusion on the efficacy of the procedure, they said. The procedure involves administering stem cells, usually harvested from a patient's or donor's bone marrow, into his or her diseased or damaged organ.It is less painful and chances of rejection are nil since the cells are from the patient's own body. Adult stem cell therapy does not call for administration of immuno suppressants to ward off rejection of transplanted cells. More importantly, it didn't raise ethical issues or pose supply side constraints associated with embryonic stem cells.
Dr G.P.V. Subbayya, a spinal surgeon, claimed that it was for the first time in the country that the therapy was tried on patients suffering from spinal cord injury patients.
Citing an estimate that there were over one lakh patients suffering from spinal injuries every year, he said spinal cord, unlike other organs such as skin and liver, didn't have the capacity to regenerate. But the stem cell therapy, thanks to its capacity to regenerate, would prove to be a boon for the patients. He said the hospital was doing comparative studies to complete the scientific study and to prove the efficacy of the therapy. Three cases were attended to so far.
Pharma, Bio-tech projected growth of 30 to 40 %
"Andhra Pradesh government is showing its interest in developing this industries and they have declared so many facilities to woo them in their state," Aroop Zutshi, president of Frost and Sullivan, told reporters in Panaji on the sidelines of a two-day global summit on Opportunities in life sciences molecules, which began on Monday.
"Nearly 50 per cent of this industry is based in Bangalore, 25 per cent in Hyderabad and rest in other parts of the country," he said. Of the $75 billion life science industry, India attributes for just $2.5 billion with estimated 10 per cent growth, he said.
All roads four lanes?
This would be by privatisation of development process through build, operate and transfer (BOT) model. The State Highway Authority will be given powers to handle the development process.
Safety initiatives
At a Cabinet meeting held here on Monday, the issue regarding road safety and increasing number of accidents was discussed. The Cabinet took serious note of accidents on State roadways, which claim the lives of about 30 people a day.As a part of the Government effort to stem this problem, the Roads and Buildings Department has been directed to prepare a master plan that would outline the steps and funds required for this initiative.
A draft Bill to amend the Registration Act in the State was cleared by the Cabinet. This curbs registration of Government land by private parties. A section inserted into the act was struck down by the court, as it failed to define the document opposed to public policy. Now the Government has made rules under the Registration Act clearly defining the documents that are opposed to public policy.
B-school grads get 100 per cent placement
The average salary offered was Rs 2.60 lakh The highest package offered was Rs 4.5 lakh/annum
A total of 54 students of the 2006 batch participated in the placement out of the 58. While 66 companies visited the campus for recruitment, only 33 could recruit, while the rest had to return empty handed, he said in the press release. In addition to the corporates mentioned, Nipuna Services, SAB Miller, Citifinancials, Sharekhan Ltd. ICICI, Vysya Bank, Sierra Atlantic, Softcell and Spencers Hypermarket were some others to conducted campus interviews.Started in 1995, the IPE's PGDBM course has been ranked 20 among B-Schools in category A (AIMA rankings) and 36 by Cosmode-BW Survey 2005, the release claimed.
The land of infrastructure contractors
"Andhra pradesh has traditionally been a land of contractors and construction a significant part of the state economy,"
To understand this untold story, take a trip to the 1960s and 1970s. Like others, Andhra Pradesh too built its share of mega projects three-four decades ago: the biggest being the Nagarjunasagar dam, 150 km south east of Hyderabad, followed by the Srisailam dam 200 km south of the capital, Vizag Steel Plant and National Thermal Power Corporation's Ramagundam power station. "Andhra pradesh has traditionally been a land of contractors and construction a significant part of the state economy," says KV Rangaswami, executive director, L&T. By 2020, says a UN report, construction will contribute a tenth of the state’s GDP.
Managing construction workers, say old-timers, was an extension of overseeing hundreds of agricultural labourers, especially in sowing and harvest seasons. The abundant availability of labour mainly from Palmur area of the drought-prone Mahbubnagar district, 100 km southwest of Hyderabad, helped. If the ability to get large worker-pools to stick to project milestones was a competitive advantage, it was the entrepreneurial zeal of the contractors that saw them scaling up. Unlike counterparts elsewhere who stuck to doing business at home, the Telugu contractors headed wherever projects beckoned.
By 2020, says a UN report, construction will contribute a tenth of the state’s GDP.
Yet, political blessings were a key variable in deciding winners of contracts and powerful communities were gainers, admit industry leaders. “Political connections did matter in those days as there were hardly any entry barriers in terms of stringent grading or pre-qualification. So, there was room for manipulation,” admits E Sudheer Reddy, vice chairman and managing director, IVRCL Infrastructures. Over 20-30 years, some companies have broken into the big league. The 27-year-old Nagarjuna Construction boasts of a three-year order book of Rs 5,800 crore, turned in revenues of Rs 1,800 crore last year and aims to grow 50% this fiscal. IVRCL has revenues of Rs 1,100 crore last fiscal and is growing two-fifths annually.
its order book of Rs 6,000 crore is dominated 60% by water projects, the rest accounted for by roads, power and industries and buildings. The growth has attracted private equity firms ICICI Ventures and ChrysCapital to take exposures in the two companies. Madhucon Projects has Rs 4,900-crore worth orders spread over nine states and is a dominant player in road projects. It is targeting 1,000 km of road projects in the next five years to be constructed on a 'build, own, transfer basis'.
Unlike counterparts elsewhere who stuck to doing business at home, the Telugu contractors headed wherever projects beckoned.
According to its finance director S Vaikuntanathan, the company plans to promote a new entity to consolidate its BOT projects. While the biggies hog the limelight, there are several other players are active in the arena. They include Soma Enterprises, Gayathri Constructions, Progressive Constructions, B Seeniah & Co., KNR Constructions, KMC, Southern Engineering and Prasad Projects. Almost all of these mid-sized businesses are run by first or second - generation entrepreneurs.The metamorphosis from small-time, family-run construction businesses into professional, project-driven entities has seen Andhra’s infrastructure companies adopting new operating structures. Some are even taking a leaf from sectors like the automobile industry where manufacturers focus just on core operations and assembly, outsourcing ancilliary functions.
The Rs 300-crore Indu Projects is an example. "We give smaller companies assured business for say, five years as well as the necessary finances, thus enabling them to focus on quality and timely construction," says I Syamprasad Reddy, the company's managing director. "Now we are working on a model of even taking equity in those companies."
The future looks bright for the Andhra Pradesh companies as infrastructure and construction investments boom. For every GVK or GMR, there are at least a dozen others with ambitions of making it big. "The demonstration effect has worked powerfully," says historian Mahadevan. GMR chairman G Mallikarjuna Rao predicts many more construction and infrastructure companies will mushroom in the future. Now, who said brick and mortar is dead?
XLRI Hyderabad?
Meanwhile, on the issue of increasing the number of seats to minimise the impact of reservations on the general category of students, the director said that in the case of XLRI, it is simply not a viable option. The reasons being cited: lack of space as well as a shortage of faculty.
Meanwhile, on the faculty issue, the director said that despite recently hiking their salaries by 15% as well as offering a 20% differential increase based on faculty evaluation, the institute was still facing a problem attracting good talent.
The government has asked to increase the number of seats by 54%, that would mean about a hundred students. The current batch strength is 180.
Outsourcing comes of age
"companies have begun to outsource and offshore not just horizontal generic processes, but also vertical business-specific processes."
The Indian School of Business (ISB) held a research presentation on 'The global sourcing model in financial services' in Hyderabad recently. Phanish Puranam, professor of strategy at ISB & at London Business School and Suresh Gupta, partner of Capco, were the co-directors of this research study.The study says that companies have begun to outsource and offshore not just horizontal generic processes, but also vertical business-specific processes. While cost savings continue to be the dominant motivation, quality improvements and flexibility are rapidly catching up as important drivers. This apart, companies are beginning to prefer managing a multi-vendor, multi-geography sourcing framework rather than handing over the entire set of functions to a single vendor, it adds.
Sourcing options are determined by process characteristics and are, therefore, not decided in isolation. However, the study adds, that the most significant management challenges in global services sourcing are often at the operational level, thus making good project management capabilities the most important ingredient to a global sourcing capability.
Convention tourism : Hyderabad already a leader?
Fortuitously, economic reforms and globalisation has given this country its first state-of-the-art world class complex in the fast growing metro, Hyderabad. Although formally inaugurated in January with the Pravasi Divas, it will offer its complete range of services (including a five-star Novotel Hotel of 289 rooms) in the first week of May when over 2,000 leading bankers and investors gather in the Andhra capital for a full meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), as it is christened, is promoted by the Cyberabad Convention Centre (P) Ltd, a joint venture company comprising the Dubai-based EMAAR group, and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, a public sector undertaking. EMAAR group, which runs the famous Dubai International Convention Centre in association with the Australia-based Accor chain, has the same arrangement in place for HICC as well with the Novotel Hotel (an Accor superior brand). HICC general manager Philip Logan told this writer that the Centre "has been uniquely conceived and designed to offer everything needed for a successful, world-class event whether it is a conference for 6,500 delegates, a seminar for 500 or a meeting for just 50." He added, "Conscious of India's growing wedding market, HICC has provided for their special requirements of banqueting and celebrations. We can cater a sit down dinner for 10,000 guests."
Pointing to the versatility of the main hall, which is divisible in a dozen variable sections, Logan said it could also be used for (indoor) sports events, theatre and concerts. One of his dreams, he said, is to move back to India the Bollywood (IIFA) Awards, from Amsterdam to Hyderabad. He conceded that for HICC's success more quality accommodation, a modern airport and more international flights are a must. But he is upbeat that Hyderabad is fast heading towards those goals. He estimated that with his own Novotel the city now has 1,500 rooms in four and five-star hotels. Three thousand more rooms are in the pipeline, which will be made available well before 2009 by which time the new international airport at Shamsabad with a phase one capacity of ten million passengers would already be in operation.
The present Hyderabad airport serves six domestic carriers and a dozen international airlines including Lufthansa, KLM, Saudia, Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Malaysian, Sri Lankan and of course Air India and Indian, which bring in more than 90 flights a week. More international carriers are expected to include Hyderabad in their services when the new airport is commissioned in the first quarter of 2008. Trial runs are scheduled for the end of 2007. An official of the promoter company building the GMR Hyderabad Airport Ltd, said the project has been so planned that in phase two its capacity can be raised to 20 million passengers and in phase three this could go up to 40 million. He said work on the access roads linking the airport to NH-7 has been undertaken in a coordinated manner. Even the railways have been approached to extend the rail link. He said that apart from terminal buildings and various facilities for passengers and cargo, the complex would have hotels, shopping and entertainment.
The new airport is a public-private partnership initiative. It is a joint venture of the GMR group of Hyderabad, Malaysian Airport Holdings and Airport Authority of India. (GMR has also won the bid to modernise the Delhi airport). An innovation in the airport design takes care of the Indian tradition of friends and relations wishing to see off those going abroad. An airport village at the entrance to the terminal will have covered space for them in air-conditioned comfort with amenities like shopping, food and washrooms.
Vizag to get to get $10 bln Investment
At a public meeting in the municipal stadium here on Saturday, the Prime Minister said the Union Government was having discussions with foreign investors on setting up the mega Special Economic Regions. "By developing Visakhapatnam as a mega Special Economic Region, investments worth $10 billion can be attracted. We will support the efforts of the State Government in developing this region," he said.
He launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) here. Drinking water schemes and drainage works would be taken up. Visakhapatnam had been sanctioned Rs 100 crore under the scheme. There were proposals for schemes worth Rs 200 crore more.
He promised to consider inclusion of the Visakha-Bheemili beach road project in the JNNURM and to look into the pleas to construct an international airport and provide Mass Rapid Transport System for the city.
Geospatial industry poised for growth
India has emerged as a major data conversion centre for geospatial services. Firms from the US, Europe, Japan and Australia have either started operating directly or are subcontracting work to Indian firms. This has created enormous employment opportunities in this sector. Most of these firms are currently engaged in data conversion. In FY 2005, this sector marked Rs 720 crore with an expected growth rate of 20 per cent.
SumTotal Signs Contract with Satyam
C&S, a joint venture between Computer Associates and Satyam, will resell and implement the SumTotal Enterprise Suite. Satyam has identified 'Knowledge Management' as an organization wide initiative that endeavors to bridge the information and knowledge gaps among the global Associates. The company has also realized the importance of providing the support services in a virtual manner to its customer-facing units. To achieve this goal, it has undertaken an initiative of 'Virtualization' of non-core processes through an organization-wide portal named as 'eSupport'.
Satyam sees SumTotal's software solution as a key enterprise application to enable these two enterprise wide initiatives. This will enable the Associates to focus on serving customers by addressing their needs in a proactive manner. The company will implement SumTotal's solution across all its global locations.
SumTotal Systems also announced that it has opened a 45,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility on the seventh floor of Maximus Towers, Mindspace at Madhapur, Hyderabad for up to 300 employees. The new, high-tech center boasts of cutting-edge technology infrastructure and recreational facilities.
This facility rivals any like it in the world today. Creating a phenomenal physical environment that will be a catalyst for not only spurring great work but also attracting top-flight talent. it currently employs 250 people, and the company are looking at adding 50 more by end of the year. A major chunk of it's research and development, professional support, technology services and international delivery happens in Hyderabad. They have also set up direct sales and marketing teams here. They're aggressively working with our partners, CA, Satyam and NIIT, to market and sell our products and services in India.
FDA Approves Aurobindo Pharma's HIV drug
Aurobindo Pharma LTD. of Hyderabad, India manufactures the generic version, which will now be available for consideration of purchase under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. President Bush introducted the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in his 2003 State of the Union Address. It provides $15 billion to fight HIV/AIDS over five years, and focuses on 15 of the hardest hit countries.The agency's tentative approval of this product means that Aurobindo's product meets all of the FDA's manufacturing quality and clinical safety and efficacy standards. However, existing patents and/or exclusivity prevent its marketing in the United States.
Indo-German advanced tech institute
Sensex falls 826 points, Time to buy?
Of course, the conclusion is neither straightforward nor unlayered. But it is directional, it is strategic, it is definitive. For, when you address the fundamental principles of investing in shares or riding it passively through equity funds, the age-old dictum, buy-low-sell-high, comes into play. And at extreme situations like today's, when the Sensex fell a record-breaking 826 points, closing 6.8 per cent lower at 11,391, you don't think, you buy.
For investors who didn't buy stocks during the past three years and have been regretting the passing by of money - multiplying gains, opportunity came knocking at 3.10 pm today, when the Sensex hit its lowest intra-day. This fall was across the board (both, Sensex and Nifty fell 6.8 per cent, Nifty Junior crashed by 8.2 per cent, BSE 100 by 6.9 per cent) and across the world (Oslo down 5.4 per cent, Jakarta down 4.2 per cent, Seoul down 2.6 per cent, Hang Seng down 2.1 per cent). In India, the prices of all significant companies fell between 1 and 17 per cent.
As a not-so-small investor, you would be concerned with two questions. One, should you sell? Two, should you buy? The answer to the former is simple: No! But the answer to the second question is not necessarily a 'Yes'. It is 'Yes, but.' Understanding this 'but' is the key to taking an investment call. And that's where no analysis, no information, no knowledge can help. In any bull market, analysts come in droves; newspapers, TV channels and the Internet are over-supplying information real-time; and books by Peter Lynch and on Warren Buffett abound bookshelves.
The issue is not of the mind but of guts-do you have the stomach for risk? When investing, there is no bigger risk than 'not investing'. Once this inertia has been taken care of, choosing the vehicle becomes easy. And if that vehicle is equities-which means you are not averse to locking your investment for five years or more (you do that with bank FDs, anyway)- what you're looking for is not how high the Sensex has risen but how low the price of a good company has fallen. The lower the better. That's because, the long-term India story (8-10 per cent growth) and corporate performance (the sales and net profits of 1,555 companies are up 13.7 per cent and 26.8 per cent, respectively, over the previous year's figure) remain strong. India remains among the fastest-growing significant economies of the world.
From macroeconomics to your little portfolio, the issue today is whether the market will continue to fall or whether this blip will turn. In either case, your strategy should be to go ahead and buy. If the market turns tomorrow and returns to its previous level, for every 10 per cent fall in price, you will make 11.1 per cent gain (a 10 per cent which rises to the same level translates into a higher return, as it goes up from a lower base). If the market falls further over the next one month, keep buying as it goes lower. And if a doomsday situation is to be imagined and the market continues to fall over the next two to three years, keep buying. Those of you who have lived through booms and busts of 1992, 1994 and 2000, would know that finally what goes down must come up.
But don't buy just any company or fund. The onus is on you to identify the fundamentally sound, well managed winners of tomorrow. Also, there is no cause for haste—your Rs 50,000 investible surplus can be broken down into packets of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 each and invested over the week or month, until the next investible surplus accrues. More important are the do-nots. Do not speculate. Do not follow tips. Do not let the Sensex decide your strategy. Do not buy when everyone is buying. Do not sell when everyone is selling. Do not wait for the 'bottom of the market' because that's a bottomless search. Essentially, identify a handful of good companies, wait for the bad news and go ahead and invest.
Hyderabad emerging fastest growing airport
In terms of aircraft movement, Hyderabad recorded a growth of 45 per cent having handled 40,875 domestic aircraft in 2005-06 compared to 28,144 during the previous year.
Traffic up
During the year, while Bangalore recorded a growth of 39.5 per cent in domestic passengers handled at 47.92 lakh (34.35 lakh), Chennai reported a growth of more than 29 per cent at 41.73 lakh (32.33 lakh).
Among the other southern airports, Coimbatore handled 5,59,133 domestic passengers recording a growth of 47.9 per cent, Tiruchi reported an increase of 21.9 per cent at 29,556 and Mangalore reported a growth of 13.6 per cent at 3,04,824.
In Kerala, while Cochin International Airport Ltd, reported a growth of 24 per cent in domestic passengers handled at 7,31,762 (5,90,054), Tiruvananthapuram reported a growth of 12.2 per cent at 3,22,597.
During the year, there was a growth of 27.9 per cent with all the airports having handled 5.1 crore domestic passengers up from 3.98 crore in 2004-05.
Mumbai, Delhi 'flying'
"The higher increase in passenger traffic is mainly because of higher growth in most international airports. The introduction of low-cost no-frill airlines has also given a boost to the industry,'' a senior AAI official said.
Mumbai and Delhi continued to handle the maximum number of domestic passengers at 116.82 lakh and 104.68 lakh, respectively, during April-March 2005-06. While Mumbai reported a growth of 22 per cent, Delhi recorded a growth of 33.4 per cent.
Source: The Hindu
VIPs to get prime land almost free?
The market price of the open lands on the outskirts of Hyderabad is more than one crore rupees per acre. But the who's who of Hyderabad will get it by paying just about five per cent of the actual cost. VIPs include judges, IAS officials, MPs, MLAs and even journalists.
The Andhra Pradesh Government has issued orders on May 4, allocating 245 acres of land to the rich and influential persons. Out of the allocated land, judges will get 38 acres, IAS and IPS officers will get 55 acres, MPs and MLAs will get 72 acres and media persons will get 70 acres, at different locations.
The State Government justifies this distribution saying it is not new in the state. Information & Public Relations Minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, said, "What we are doing is not new for Andhra Pradesh. So far we distributed lands to legislators, bureaucrats and journalists at least three times earlier and this is the fourth time we are doing this".
Lands will be allotted at Nanakramguda, Poppalaguda, Vattinagulapalli, Nizampet and Pet Basheerabad. All of these locations are adjacent to the new IT hub on outskirts of the city. Surprisingly, the state government had recently expressed its inability to sell these lands to the IT companies citing shortage as the reason. IT major Wipro had asked for 350 acres for its second campus, but got only 100 acres.
Government says IT companies require long stretches of land while the space being allotted to the VIPs were patches of few acres on each location. The State Government has already initiated the process of the unprecedented discounted sale of the prime lands.
Albany Molecular opens R&D in Hyderabad
When completed in late 2007, the new R&D center will conduct contract projects in early stage drug discovery research, including custom chemical synthesis and medicinal chemistry. It also will house a scale-up laboratory, which will be used to develop efficient methods for producing larger quantities of active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates.
When fully staffed, the new facility will add over 100 employees to the company's existing Hyderabad operations, which currently have 19 employees in the nearby ICICI Knowledge Park. The current facility can accommodate up to 40 employees and is expected to reach full capacity in the coming months.
Nanotech: Materials center revived
CMET's three R & D labs in Hyderabad, Pune and Thrissur are working on establishing pilot technologies for a range of electronic materials prior to commercialization. CMET will set up characterization facilities, take up applied research in developing viable technologies and establish a database on electronic materials.
For the next few years, the labs will focus on ultra-high pure materials, electronic packaging, optoelectronic materials, sensors and actuators. Nanotechnology will be used in these programs to develop materials, devices, and components.
The Robbery arrests
The police said two CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras inside the shop had fading images of two persons. The looted property was initially estimated to be worth Rs.90 million. However, after verifying the records and a detailed assessment, the shop management told police that jewellery worth Rs.60 million was missing. The weight of the stolen property is estimated at 40 kg.
Earlier, Home Minister K. Jana Reddy blamed the management for not providing foolproof security on the premises. A high-level meeting called by him noted that nine out of 12 closed circuit TVs in the shop were not working. Other security equipment along with security guards also did not function effectively. Four special teams were constituted to hunt for the culprits.
Hyderabad will have India's longest runway
They want to develop it as an airport village, with hotels, malls, theme parks and restaurants, besides the airport. When these facilities are fully developed, the revenue from the non-aero stream will be as much as 65-70 per cent.
First phase
After the first phase of the project is completed by the first quarter of 2008 at a cost of Rs 1,760 crore, the existing airport at Begumpet will be closed down for commercial operations and the entire traffic diverted to the new facility. The first phase of the airport project will have the capacity to handle about 7 million passengers, which will go up to 40 million passengers after the entire project is wrapped up. At present, the Begumpet airport handles four million passengers. They expect to handle 6.5 million passengers and one lakh tonnes of cargo in our first year of operation.
The first phase of the project will consist of a single runway, a passenger terminal building and a cargo terminal building. The runway is planned to be 4,260 metres, making it the longest runway in India - its width will be 75 metres so that it can accommodate the wide-bodied aircraft used by airlines like Emirates and Lufthansa.
Subsequent phases
There is a requirement to construct a second runway when traffic volume exceeds 15 million passengers a year and at this point, the terminal building will be expanded in modular fashion to accommodate up to 20 million passengers. In subsequent phases, a second terminal building, capable of accommodating another 20 million passengers, will be set up. The company expects to earn a revenue of Rs 400 crore in the first year of operation, based on the revenue earnings of the existing Begumpet airport and growth projections. This will include the aero charges such as landing charge, handling charge and user development charge, apart from non-aero revenue such as cargo handling, aircraft maintenance and commercial projects. GMR is going by a well laid-out time schedule. Having completed site preparation work last month, the company plans to complete the shell of the passenger terminal building, air traffic control tower, a majority of the runway work, fuel farm and retain concessionaires in the current fiscal.
Telecom contract
TVS Interconnected Systems Ltd (TVSICS), part of the $3-billion diversified TVS Group, has bagged a mandate to partner with Siemens Information Systems consortium to develop a structured telecom backbone network for Hyderabad International airport. While the nature of job for the new airport is being finalised, the deal could typically be valued at about 10 per cent of the airport cost. The company refrained from giving the deal size, but it could potentially be worth $20-30 million initially.
Country's first in-vehicle navigation device
Nippon Satguide, a touch screen-based navigation device, would guide drivers, from any part of the country, in the highway, company's managing director K S Goindi told reporters.
For the Chennaiites, the device would be developed in collaboration with the Hyderabad-based IT company, Satnav Technologies. It has an in-built comprehensive database of places of interest in Chennai and other important landmarks, he said.
Microsoft Hyderabad achieves a milestone
The Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile extends features of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft Office Communicator to the Windows Mobile 2003 SE and Windows Mobile 5.0 platform, both pocket PC edition and smartphone.
The product has been developed completely at MIDC and is a collaborative effort between the Unified Communications Group and MIDC's centre of excellence for mobile devices.
The product was unveiled during the keynote address by Steve Ballmer, MS CEO, at 3GSM in Barcelona, Spain, and based on the user interface of the Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 desktop client, the client goes beyond simple voice services, incorporating connected communication modes such as more secure instant messaging, presence awareness and integrated VoIP-telephony, a company statement claimed.
Fujitsu in Hyderabad
The US$20 million will be spent to set up a new center in Hyderabad and expand the existing Pune and Noida development centers of Rapidigm.Post acquisition, Fujitsu Consulting's global employee strength will go up to 8,500. Fujitsu Consulting bought Rapidigm (India), an information technology and consulting firm, for an undisclosed amount during March.
Prior to the acquisition, Rapidigm's 2005 revenue was US$260 million.Rapidigm already employs 1,000 consultants in its three development centers in India and has invested US$10 million so far.India's burgeoning information technology and business process outsourcing industry is estimated at US$22 billion and is growing at a CAGR 32%.
Robbery Hyderabad never witnessed
ISB ups student intake by 20%
Scholarships exclusively for women students are also being offered. At the end of the academic year, the top 20 students who are selected for the Dean’s list will be offered merit scholarships.Another highlight of the new class at the ISB is the significant increase in the number of women students. Their number, which has gone up to 87 from 67 last year, represents 20% of the Class of 2007, which is comparable to some top European B-schools.
Pramati Tech. launches middleware support service
CT Cares: Tigers are almost gone
Ten tiger reserves - including Simplipal, Indrawati and Dudhwa - have reported a drop in tiger count in the latest census, highlighting a new crisis in India's efforts to preserve its tigers.The government is likely to declare the results of the lastest census only next year. Meanwhile, the method of tiger count itself continues to remain a controversial issue. The Environment Ministry, in an effort to avoid false reporting, has changed the entire system of tiger count from this year. Called the 'Framework for estimation of tiger populations of India', the job of tiger census is now in the hands of India's premier research body, the Wildlife Institute of India.
Under the new method being used, estimates of not just tigers but also their prey base -- which includes ungulates such as deer and chinkara -- are also made. But the new method is not without problems. A report of the World Conservation Union, points out serious problems in this new methodology. Based on an assessment made by WCU, the report states that the exact number of tigers cannot be deduced on the basis of the presence and absence data as it can lead to over-reporting. Also, this process of tiger count ignores poaching, the report points out. The new method has also reported tigers from non-forest areas, which may be false data, the world conservation body says, adding that the new method does not take into account tiger deaths or poaching which is one of the major threats to the species in India.
Tiger is present only in 7 per cent of India's total geographical area. As its numbers crash, it is clear that the tiger has not only become India's most endangered but also perhaps the most controversial cat. If urgent steps are not taken, scientists say it may be gone within the next decade. Wildlife conservationists say the government is not willing to acknowledge the real problem. The new methodology is a mere eyewash, they claim.
Links to find more resources:
http://www.projecttiger.nic.in
http://www.eia-international.org/campaigns/species/tigers/
GMR's unique HR approach
Barely a fortnight after taking control of the airport, the group has laid out a plan to reduce the number of employees without disrupting their employment.
The Hyderabad-based infrastructure developer has decided to shun the conventional, high-cost voluntary retirement scheme. Instead, it will upgrade the skills of the staff mostly below the rank of deputy general manager who already know the basics of managing different tasks at an airport.
GMR plans to fly in a Singapore consultant to train the staff to run different services, sources familiar with the development said. They said the consultant has given this training - from accounting to hospitality - to airport staff in Hong Kong. GMR reasons that VRS would hit its bottomline but skilled employees will become the target of other airport developers. GMR's plan also has sound financial logic. VRS for 1,000 employees would cost anywhere between Rs 80-100 crore, but it would spend less than Rs 15-20 crore on an international consultant to train them, the sources added.
Lombardi Software and Satyam Form Alliance
Satyam and Lombardi have already jointly developed key process solutions for a Global 500 financial services customer. With an alliance agreement now in place, the companies will now expand their focus on implementing and optimizing cross-departmental processes to other Global 2000 organizations within Europe. By improving process efficiencies in operational areas such as compliance, customer service, human resources and sales management, companies will benefit from reduced operating costs, better profit margins and improved customer care.
TeamWorks is the leading BPM software platform for designing, executing, and improving business processes. The product is built on open standards and provides ongoing process visibility and control, increasing the speed and flexibility with which organizations can manage process activity and decision-making. TeamWorks includes a rich, cohesive Eclipse-based modeling environment for building all aspects of a business process, a highly collaborative Web-based work portal for process participants, and provides industry-leading optimization technologies for analyzing and improving business processes.
Wipro buys CAD firm Quantech
However, the size of the deal was not revealed, but Wipro is likely to pay around $10.2m (Rs 46 crore) as upfront cash payment. The transaction has also been structured based on the earn-outs on achieving the agreed financial targets over a three-year period.
Quantech, which provides computer aided design (CAD) and engineering services was started in 1990 and reported revenues of $12.7m (Rs 57 crore) for the ’05 calendar year. It has centres in US and two in India at Hyderabad and Bangalore with total employee strength of 500.
Wipro has been constantly making acquisitions. The last buyout was cMango for an estimated $20m (Rs 90 crore). It had recently acquired entities like Austrian-based firm NewLogic for $56m (Rs 252 crore) and mPower for $20.8m (Rs 94 crore).
New airport to be state of the art?
According to officials, the need for a new airport was felt for a variety of reasons: High traffic growth rate, terminal building capacity constraints at the Begumpet airport, the high-rise buildings in its vicinity and its inability to handle new generation aircraft.
In addition, the central location of Hyderabad, which is two hours flying time from most major Indian cities, and 3-5 hours from most South-East Asian countries, made a new airport a necessity. Couple this with the city's growing software and services industry along with the pharma and biotech industries, and the need for a new airport is even greater.
State-of-art facilities
The promoters of the new airport, being undertaken by a consortium that includes the GMR Group, Malaysia Airports which manages and operates 38 commercial airports in Malaysia, the Andhra Pradesh Government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), are promising a world-class experience right from the minute you reach the new airport.
The terminal building is being planned in a modular fashion to provide easy transit within the building between the domestic and international terminals. Besides, there will be 60 check-in counters with Common User Terminal Equipment (CUTE) and eight self check-in kiosks. Eighteen immigration counters have also been planned as have extensive retail and shopping outlets. There will also be barrier-free access for the disabled and elderly. At a later stage, the promoters are also looking at providing facilities for city check-in.
The new airport will be Code F-ready, which means that it will be able to handle the Airbus A-380, likely to be largest aircraft operating globally. The double-decker aircraft that can seat 550 passengers is due to enter service later this year. A number of international airlines including Singapore Airlines and Emirates operate flights to Hyderabad. However, the airlines have not yet said whether they will operate the A-380 on the India route. To facilitate a smooth flow of passengers and aircraft, the airport will have 30 aircraft parking stands and 10 passenger boarding bridges.
Cargo terminal
Although the opening of the airport is still some time away, the promoters have already awarded a contract to Menzies Aviation Plc of UK for building, on a Build, Operate & Own basis, a cargo warehouse in the new airport. The proposed cargo terminal, to be built on a plot of 3.5 acres, will be equipped to handle 100,000 tonnes of cargo.
The air and land side work that includes construction of the runway, taxiways and apron as also the airfield ground lighting system, fire station and equipment, is being handled by Larsen and Tourbo, while work on the passenger terminal building is being undertaken by China State Engineering Construction of Hong Kong, which has built the Hong Kong international airport and the theme park Hong Kong Disney.
While the physical completion of the Hyderabad airport's first phase is expected during the fourth quarter of next year, the first flight is expected to take off in the first quarter of 2008. In the first phase, the airport will have the capacity to handle 7 million passengers annually.
On completion of the entire project the airport will be able to handle 40 million passengers a year. The project is expected to cost Rs 1,760 crore during the first phase.
NRI Concern: Bill on NRI voting rights
'The bill has been referred to the department-related parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice for examination and report,' he told the house in a written reply.
Voting rights for NRIs were promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during India's annual conclave to connect with its diaspora - the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas - in Hyderabad in January.
The prime minister had said the demand for such rights had a 'convincing political basis' and assured the delegates that his government would take appropriate measures in this regard.
The union cabinet later approved the tabling of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2006 in both houses.
Best time for NRIs to invest in shares
The fall during April 12-13 has wiped off 426 points from the 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange and it was at 11,237.23 at the close of trading last Thursday.
Due to bullish secondary market, some IPOs were aggressively priced last year which disappointed investors. The disappointment of investors and the fall in sensex will make IPO pricing more reasonable this year.
The strong pipeline this year includes IPOs from public sector companies like:
Air India/Indian Airlines (Rs 4,000-5,000 crore)
Power Finance Corporation (Rs 1,500 cr)
Power Grid Corporation (Rs 1,000 cr)
National Hydro Power Corporation and National Mineral Development Corporation.
From the banking sector:
Central Bank of India
United Bank of India
Punjab and Sind Bank
Besides DLF, real estate and construction will also see equity issues from Ansals, Akriti Constructions, Ahluwalia Contracts and DS Kulkarni.
In media and entertainment, Sun TV has already raised Rs 600 crore through IPO while equity issues from Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL), Indian Express and RGV Film Factory are in the pipeline.
Equity issues from telecom sector include that of Idea, Hutchison and Tata Tele Services. Gujarat Adani Port Limited and Haldea Petro Chemicals Limited will also hit the market in 2006-07. Indian companies had raised Rs 23,684 crore through 102 public issues in 2005-06 compared to Rs 21,422 crore raised in 29 issues in the previous fiscal, a growth of 11 per cent.
24x7 Learning on expansion drive
It has created a separate Academic Solutions Group to serve as a finishing school for engineering graduates and is eyeing overseas markets by establishing an Overseas Solutions Group.
Citing the Nasscom-McKinsey report that has predicated a demand-supply mismatch of about 5,00,000 engineers by the year 2009, Karthik said "the company is planning to train about 25,000 students in the first year by partnering about 100 engineering colleges. These would be tier-II colleges as tier- I colleges would not require our support."
Growing demand
As the demand for skilled employable graduates goes up, recruiters will find the going tough as barely 7 per cent of graduates and 5 per cent of engineering students are employable research studies point out. By partnering with tier II and III colleges, we would help them groom students with a six months of additional training that would not only hone up technology skills but also soft skills, which is key to recruiters.
The market for eLearning and learning management solutions is estimated at about $23 billion and is growing at a steady pace. Companies such as Wipro, Patni and L&T Infotech located in a distributed environment are seeking ways to train their workforce. This serves as a mini enterprise resource planning system for learning within a company.
DLF to buy Bhagyanagar Metals land
Bhagyanagar Metals may also opt for a joint development of the 12 acres of land at Uppal with DLF. They added that the company is in the process of acquiring properties to the extent of Rs 300 crore for business purposes.
Bhagyanagar, the flagship company of the Hyderabad-based Surana group, plans to invest Rs 150 crore in infrastructure projects through its demerged entity Bhagyanagar Infrastructure.
IT sector attracts $8.6 bn investment
The consortium will be supported with technology and equity funding from chip maker AMD and memorandum of understanding to this effect has been signed with Andhra Pradesh government. The second largest chunk of investment has been announced by largest software maker Mircosoft, which has announced investment of $1.7 billion in the country on research and development, education, productivity and governance.
Following Microsoft closely is Intel, which has proposed to invest in research and development, marketing, education and setting up a venture fund.Ericsson has announced an investment of $250 million for telecom manufacturing and research and development in Chennai and Jaipur. Telecom major Nokia and Samsung have invested $200 million in the country on a manufacturing facility. Nokia is manufacturing handsets in Chennai and Samsung in Gurgaon. Tessolve Services too will spend $200 million in India on a Assembly Test Mark Pact facility in the Fab City that will come in Hyderabad.
Siemens, Flextronics and Elcoteq have announced an investment of $100 million each in the country. French telecom company Alcatel has lined up investment of $80 million in India. Aspcomomp has announced an investment of $70 million on setting up a hardware manufacturing facility in Chennai.
GMR eyes airport projects in Kolkata , Chennai
GMR has already invested Rs 200 crore and Rs 640 crore towards the modernisation of the Delhi and Hyderabad airports, respectively. Another Rs 198 crore will be invested out of the proceeds of the company’s IPO. GMR is expected to hit the bourses soon with a Rs 1,000–1,500 crore IPO.
About Rs 106 crore from the IPO proceeds will be spent on the Hyderabad airport and Rs 92 crore on the Delhi airport, while Rs 470 crore will be spent towards the development of roads; the rest will be used to settle the debts. The investment in the Delhi and Hyderabad airports will be Rs 1,760 crore (by 2008) and Rs 2,980 crore (by 2010), respectively.
ICRISAT receives the best technology award
IICT plans storage facility for plant molecules
The facility would greatly benefit drug developers in the private sector. They would get all biologically active compounds isolated from Indian medicinal plants under one roof, for further use. Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Dr J.S. Yadav, Director of IICT, said the Rs 24-crore National Facility for Combinatorial Natural Products would have state-of-the-art equipment for drug development from plant products. It was being developed with financial assistance from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research).
The facility will also house a bank that can preserve up to a million compounds. It would have automatic storage and retrieval facilities using advanced robotic technologies. The IICT is also setting up a national facility for analysis of herbo metallic products using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF). This would help determine the nature and extent of metals present in herbal products and preparations. Dr Yadav said this would go a long way in establishing good manufacturing practices in herbal-based preparations.
AP economy to get a natural gas boost
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday hinted at investing about $ 6-7 billion (about Rs 27,000 crore to Rs 32,500 crore) to tap the huge natural gas potential in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin wells. By mid-2008, the first phase of the gas project in the KG basin will be ready. This project has the potential to add about $20 billion to the GDP, and potentially support 10,000 MW of power generation, according to R.P. Sharma, President of Gas Business, Reliance Industries. Reliance is extremely optimistic on the overall outlook of the potential in the sector and has initiated several projects, and KG is a priority area.As a part of this pipeline project, Reliance is in the process of laying down a 1,400-km, 48-inch pipeline from Kakinada to Ahmedabad. The first batch of 10,000 tonnes of pipeline (imported) is set to land in Andhra Pradesh on May 18.
Lifestyle store revamped
Lumba was in Hyderabad at the launch of Lifestyle's revamped store. The company has used the services of Italian designers for refurbishing the 47,000 sq ft store that has now been divided into three segments - circulation, retail and island. The company has spent approximately Rs 7 crore for revamping the store. According to Lumba, the Hyderabad store performs the best among all the Lifestyle stores in the country.
Lifestyle has 10 stores at present across Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Delhi and Mumbai. Chennai, which currently plays host to Lifestyle’s largest store in the country at 75,000 sq ft, will shortly pave the way for Noida that will soon have a 1,20,000 sq ft store.
Post Offices to work more hours
Thai to fly 3 flights a week
Hyderabad metro to have improved features
The single class stainless steel coaches are to be lightweight with an axle load of 15 tonnes, against 18 tonnes for DMRC, which will in turn make the supporting structures lighter and occupy less space. The power traction 750 volts systems will be on the bottom rails rather than overhead giving a better look. It was also decided not leave any space between the coaches and the platforms with barricading up to four and six feet.
Hyderabad MRTS Project Director N.V.S. Reddy told presspersons visiting Delhi Metro that different designs were being discussed to make the journey safe for passengers for the three/six coach trains with scheduled speed of 34 kmph and maximum speed of 80 kmph.
Platform barricading will ensure that none will have access to the rails and the gates will open only when the train stops and the automatic doors open. The ballast-less and joint-less rails will reduce noise besides providing better riding comfort.
Integration of routes and different systems of transport are being planned at Ameerpet, Secunderabad and Osmania Medical College stations and they will remain with the Government for better interchange facilities.
The Central and State Governments are expected to pitch in close to Rs. 2,800 crores of the Rs. 7,000 crores estimated cost. This 'viability gap' funding by the Governments will be some 40 per cent of the total cost, he said.
The remaining 60 per cent of the money will be brought in by the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) developers of which six were shortlisted for phase one of 60 km on three lines - Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma, L.B.Nagar to Patancheru and Habsiguda to Hi-tec City.
The Government was planning to start construction before the year-end and complete it in four years, said Mr. Reddy. Two routes will have a minimum carrying capacity of 25,000 passengers per hour per direction (pphd) upgradable to 55,000. The third route covering the Secunderabad-Falaknuma line will have the capacity of carrying 20,000 pphd upgradable to 36,000. The pre-cast girder segmental construction of the Panjagutta flyover currently under way could hold the key because the building method is akin to the MRTS project development work, he added.
Satyam's European plans
Acquisitions are also on the agenda, according to Satyam's head of Europe, Keshab Panda, who said the company was looking for small IT services firms with up to 200 staff that can add presence in certain regions or expertise around specific industries.
Panda said the ability to serve customers on-site or from nearshore locations, or India would allow firms such as Satyam to offer higher-value business consultancy and systems integration services as well as simple application maintenance. Currently, half of Satyam's business comes from application development and maintenance and its more sophisticated Enterprise Business Solutions arm accounts for 39 percent. It said this sector is the fastest growing part of its business.
Traditionally, UK firms have been reluctant to trust Indian outsourcers to handle complex business trnasformation and IT integration projects, citing the difficulties of frequent travel to India required by such projects and a lack of cultural and industry-specific understanding.
However, Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju insisted this view is increasingly outdated. He argued that investment in Satyam's own Business School to develop consultancy skills and a shift in recruitment policy to attract more experienced international executives with specific industry skills make the company a viable alternative to established systems integrators such as Accenture and IBM Global Services.
Virgin atlantic's domestic airline plan?
Virgin planned to pick up stake in Air Deccan and Richard Branson had discussions with the airline CMD G R Gopinath but the talks remained unfruitful due to civil aviation policy guidelines. Virgin clarified that Branson was not interested in investing in Air Deccan in his individual capacity.
The airline is considering operating direct flights from Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore to London. Meanwhile, it will be increasing its number of flights to Mumbai and New Delhi.
The airline today introduced upper class suite in India offering comfortable reclining leather seat for take off and converts into a fully flat bed. The airline was also thinking of providing mobile connectivity in the air, but it was in the premature state, he said.
The upper class suite is available in all Virgin's Boeing 747-400, Airbus A 340-600 and A 340-300 aircraft. The A 340-300 aircraft operating on the Indian routes has been configured with 34 upper class suites, 35 premium economy seats and 171 seats in the economy class.
Facility for stem cell research
The stem cell facility is claimed to be one of its kind in the country facilitating both basic and futuristic research such as gene knockout technology wherein NIMS role is to provide the patient pool. Meanwhile, Scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have for the first time succeeded in identifying the gene that produces milk in mammals. The gene, discovered in a mouse, can in future help in producing animals with increased milk yield as well as tailor-made proteins essential for lacto-based pharma industries. This is a significant achievement for biologists in the country. Moreover, this technology can be used to create human disease models and in the drug discovery process.
Towards this, CCMB has created a national facility for transgenic and gene knockout mice in association with DST. With this, CCMB joins the elite club of advanced nations such as the US, the UK, Germany, France and Japan, by creating a knockout mouse strain for the first time in the country.
Having sequenced the human genome, the knockout research gains more significance for biologists through which the nature and its properties of a gene can be understood.
Stone laid for biotech park
The first two phases of the Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park spread over 400 acres have been completed and 23 biotech companies have commenced operations.
According to a statement from the Chief Minister's Office, this is part of the Genome Valley that hosts a biotech cluster and comprises ICICI Knowledge Park and Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park.
Fourteen international biotech companies have established operations in the cluster over the last one year and several others such as Nektar Therapeutics and United States Pharmacopoeia have decided to move in to the Genome Valley.
Albany Molecular Research Inc, Mithros Chemicals, Chanelle Pharmaceuticals and NND Biomedical Data Systems, are others to commence operations. The Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation (APIDC) Venture Capital Ltd has launched Biotech focused Venture Capital Fund with a Seed Capital of Rs 10 crore. In pursuance of a MoU signed with ICRISAT, the State has set up an Agri-Science Park.
According to the CMO, AP is a strong contender for the Bio-IT Park proposed by Software Technology Parks of India. The State has tied up with Shapoorji Pallonji for locating the proposed Bio-IT Park in SP Biotech Park.
ISB into real estate research
Under this alliance, ISB would establish a Research Chair for 'Real Estate and Urban Studies' for which Indu would make a grant of $5,50,000 (approximately Rs 2.5 crore) spread over a period of five years. This Chair would function under the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurial Development (WCED) at the ISB. As a part of the first tranche, Indu has released an amount of Rs 49.5 lakh here on Tuesday.
State Bank of Hyderabad plans IPO
SBH, headquartered in Hyderabad, is a mid-sized bank with total advances of Rs 21,264 crore and deposits of Rs 35,474 crore at the end of March 2006.
The book value of SBH shares of Rs 100 each was Rs 12,255 at the end of March 2006, up from Rs 10,236 at the beginning of 2005-06. Net of gross NPAs of Rs 453 crore, the book value of the bank's shares is Rs 11,800.
Its operating profit grew by 21.71 per cent to Rs 868.09 crore despite a one-time expenditure of Rs 96 crore for arrears of wages for the period November 2002 to March 2005. The bank's net interest margin was 3.25 per cent in 2005-06.
The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) decreased to 2.13 per cent from 3.46 per cent a year ago and net NPAs declined to 0.36 per cent from 0.61 per cent a year earlier.
Mistral opens development center
Mistral already has a development center in New Delhi, in addition to its Bangalore headquarters. The Hyderabad center will be headed by Anand Pandurangan.
Patent your innovation
A Mumbai school teacher has filed for a patent on a mathematical teaching apparatus she developed. A young student in Mumbai University has secured patent for a mechanical device he pieced together for measuring and analysing body pulse. An architect is filing for a copyright on the design of a stucco bungalow in Hyderabad.
In a globalized society like India protecting native innovation from the clusp of greedy International corporates is a challenge and IPR offers a solution. India is a signatory to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which lays down standards for protection and enforcement of IPRs. India’s global commitment, the presence of international companies in the country and an opportunity to make money from patents has created awareness about securing IPRs.
Secretariat implements RFID for security
The electronic gadgets installed by the Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), at the main gate for tamper-proof security to the premises round-the-clock, will be activated by then. An ECIL team headed by S. K. Kundu, deputy general manager, is now issuing RF tags and smart cards to senior officials using cars and 7,000 Secretariat employees for a changeover, bringing manual checks by the police to a close.
The new system provides three routes - the present 'in' gate for four-wheelers and a massive one installed adjacent with two openings for scooters and pedestrians. A lamppost-like equipment called "Reader" senses a four-wheeler with an RF tag when it is six feet away and lifts up the boom-barrier. A CC camera records the driver as the vehicle passes to the next stage- an "under carriage surveillance system." This system with two underground cameras detects any explosive material at the bottom before clearing the way. This system replaces the mirror-trolley currently used by the police. As the car passes, a fourth camera snaps its front. If a bomb is detected, the "Reader" and the boom-barrier blocks the car, while a sharp-tooth spike surfaces instantly from underground and punctures the tyres. A provision has been made for the Chief Minister, Ministers and VIPs to bypass all this process.
For two-wheelers, three "Readers" and as many boom-barriers have been provided. Pedestrians, however, will pass through the tripad. A pass to visitors will be issued with a photo on it, taken instantly by the computer. The exit by all will be again by RF tags and smart cards. A printout taken any time indicates how many still remain inside. Police at the gates are waiting in the wings for the big change, as it will end their drudgery of frisking and checking.
State Government , Isro MoU on telemedicine
The network will be established in two phases. The initial phase covers eight nodes consisting of Osmania General Hospital, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, MNJ Institute of Oncology and LV Prasad Eye Institute, district hospitals of Anantapur and Kakinada and Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences and Mullapudi Harischandra Prasad Hospital.
Odean theatre blast
The police have announced a reward of Rs. 1 lakh for any information leading to the arrest of culprits behind the blast in Odeon theatre. The informant would be given a code word with a letter followed by four digits. Any clue about the blast can be informed to Additional Commissioner of Crimes Rajiv Trivedi or Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detective Department) T.V. Shashidhar Reddy over their telephone Nos. 94406-27940 and 98487-78217 respectively.
09/05/06
A day after the explosion in Odeon deluxe theatre here at RTC Crossroads, detectives on Monday tried to narrow down on the culprits based on the registration number reportedly found on the grenade's lever found at the blast site. Once the grenade's company name is found out, it will be easier to probe how the grenades went into the hands of culprits or the possible persons who would have acquired them from that company.
Police confirmed that high explosive material was used in the grenade. Efforts are also on to find out if any of the banned organisations ever used such explosives in the past. Sleuths believe that the person who hurled the grenade had done a recce of the theatre. It is said that air conditioner was on only in one side of the balcony when the second show began.
As a result, most of the viewers preferred to sit on that side. Police believe, the suspect chose the row of seats where there were not many spectators and threw the grenade.
However, higher-ups formed special teams to look into the possible involvement of religious fundamentalist organisations backed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence to left wing extremists.
Update: 08/5/06 12:40pm IST
The blast in a cinema theatre here that injured two people was caused by a foreign-made grenade, police reported Monday after preliminary investigations.
Two people, including a 17-year-old girl, were injured in the blast Sunday night.
Police Commissioner A.K. Mohanty said it appeared to be a grenade explosion, but added that it would too early to comment on who could be behind the act.
The explosion occurred in Odeon theatre in the busy RTC crossing around 10.30 p.m., just before interval during the screening of the Venkatesh starrer "Lakshmi".
Police suspect that somebody from the upper rows in the balcony could have thrown the grenade in the aisle.
Forensic experts, dog squads and a police team rushed to the spot and found remnants of a foreign made grenade. The explosion caused a small crater.
In the pandemonium following the explosion, viewers damaged glass panes to rush out. Later, angry patrons also ransacked the manager's room protesting lack of security.
The theatre management said 150 people were seated in the balcony when the explosion occurred. Blood stains were seen at the site.
The producers of "Lakshmi" have announced a compensation of Rs.40,000 each to the injured.
Police sources did not rule out the involvement of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence or the terror groups backed by it. They pointed out that these groups were involved in five to six blasts that occurred in the city during the last seven years.
Update: 08/5/06 8:00am IST
A crude bomb expolded at Odean theatre on RTC cross road in Hyderabad at around 2225 hrs IST on Sunday night. In the stampede that followed five people were injured with one of the woman stated to be serious. The blast occured at the balcony of Odean Cinema, where the night show of a Telugu movie was on, after the interval, police said.
Furnitures of the theatre were damaged, they said adding that senior police officers have rushed to the spot along with the bomb squad. The theatre was vacated and search was going on for any explosives, police added. Hyderabad Commissioner of Police AK Mohanty said it was a very low intensity blast. He added that such bombs are common in Andhra Pradesh. Police also said it was not a planted bomb but somebody might have carried it inside the hall.
Hyderabad AV Birla 's Biotech base?
In fact, it is already in talks with a few companies in the biotech space for possible acquisitions. Sources also said the group had already identified a location near Hyderabad for its proposed biotechnology R&D centre along with a greenfield product development facility. When contacted, the company refused to comment.
The AV Birla group, one of the most diversified industry houses in the country, has for quite sometime been planning to enter this sunrise sector with an array of niche technologies and products, which goes into both industrial and healthcare applications.
Source: Business Standard
Icrisat gets $2.5m aid for watershed
As part of this pact, ADB has extended $2.5m assistance to Icrisat for tackling land degradation in China, India, Vietnam and Thailand through participatory watershed management. The ADB funding has also triggered a slew of other investors to pump in money for scaling up the watershed management model developed by Icrisat.
"The institute’s watershed projects also facilitate collaboration between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa," the release added. Earlier, the bank had also supported Icrisat in setting up a state-of-the-art genomics facility.
Why Microsoft is on hiring spree? : An answer
Sizeable headcount expansion is also in the offing at Microsoft’s Global Tech Support Centre in Bangalore. In fact, Microsoft Global Tech Support and Microsoft IDC-Hyderabad are likely to account for the bulk of the expansion. During his recent tour, Mr Gates had announced that Microsoft would add 3,000 employees in four years across its multiple technical support facilities in the country.
The Hyderabad team will work across the company’s seven core business lines. They will be involved in the upcoming global rollout of a slew of new products, alongside the new versions of the existing software. Over the next six months, Microsoft will reinforce the seven core business lines handled by the Hyderabad IDC, which directly reports to the company’s global headquarter in Redmond. The Hyderabad team executes global projects in areas such as Windows Client, Windows Server, Microsoft Office, Microsoft mobility & embedded devices, MS home and entertainment division and Microsoft Dynamics Platform for SMBs, company sources said.
The manpower expansion comes at a time when Microsoft has indicated that it plans to ship its new Windows Server release, codenamed R2, in the latter half of 2005-06. While analysts felt Windows Server R2 would have new features and functionality, it won’t be too different from the older versions such as Windows Server S-2003, they said.
The company will release a conversion tool that will allow Office users to point to files in an older format and convert them en masse to the new Office12 XML format.
TV9 Karnataka launch in June
"Within a short span of time TV9 has made rapid strides and commands excellent viewership. We expect to repeat the success in Karnataka offering a diverse fare. Though it will be based on a regional language, its look and feel would be that of international TV channel," Mr Narayan, a former senior executive with Satyam Computer Services Ltd, said.
TV9, funded by venture capitalist Mr Srini Raju's I-Labs and Associated Fund and the Chennai-based Wealth Management, is poised to invest about Rs 20 crore in the venture for infrastructure and other facilities.
Georgia tech in Hyderabad?
Watch out for GMR IPO
GMR, through its various units, is building expressways in different parts of the country and developing the Delhi and Hyderabad international airports. The company said in the offer document it would use part of the funds to repay bank loans worth 550 million rupees.
GMR's net profit for the nine months to December 2005 stood at 549.69 million rupees and sales reached 713 million rupees. After the issue, the founders' shareholding in the company would come down to 80 percent of the paid-up capital of 3.31 billion rupees.
ADB update
Addressing the inaugural session of the Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank (ADB), he said India is working closely with ASEAN, Japan, China and South Korea. He is anticipating a free trade area in Asia covering all major Asian economies and possibly extending further to Australia and New Zealand may not be a far-fetched with the India’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the nations of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Singapore and Thailand.
The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, at the ADB meet, said that the infrastructure development in the country will need over $150 billion over next few years. He said that the ADB had supported projects in sectors such as transport, power and urban infrastructure, and the bank is now considering new areas such as restoration of water bodies, tourism infrastructure and agribusiness. He also called on major international financial institutions to devise a strategy to enable the world economy cope with the increased unpredictability and volatility of energy prices.
About ADB centre in Hyderabad
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has responded positively to the Andhra Pradesh Government's appeal to set up a regional training centre in the State.In a statement released here at the 39th annual meeting of ADB's board of governors, the official said the bank was interested in facilitating regional co-operation in the South Asian region. "We would be interested to know more about the proposal," the official said.
Property rentals firming up
The mega project, Fab City, to be set up by SemIndia, has also started taking shape. The State Government is allocating 1,200 acres of land near the upcoming international airport in Shamshabad in addition to providing several incentives, the report added. The other demand drivers, include technology, biotechnology and industrial sector. The better infrastructure and proactive State Policy is expected to bring in commitments from local, national and foreign developers, which in turn would attract global corporates.
Listing the major leased space, the report said Data Monitor has leased 25,000 sq.ft office space in E-Park; Skyworks about 18,500 sq.ft in Pioneer Towers, a fortune 500 ITES company about 95,000 sq.ft in Mindspace; and a large IT major about 180,000 sq.ft , all in Madhapur. The biggest investment/sale has been the ICICI Ventures, Nagarjuna Constructions & Maytas Properties purchase of approximately 5 acres in Jubilee Hills at Rs 23,695 per sq.m.
Right to information meet
S&P upgrades India's rating
Microsoft to double Hyderabad workforce
India is in a transition phase and moving from a "renter of intellectual property to producer of intellectual property." Microsoft's employees tend to strike out on their own and that could happen in India too. This would mean that they would expect protection for their intellectual property. India would need strong intellectual property regime under such conditions, she said.
ICICI venture buys 5% of GMR
Though the exact details of the deal could not be ascertained, it is learnt that ICICI Venture has bought less than 5% in GMR Infrastructure, pegging the valuation of the company at over Rs 7,500 crore. The deal is a pre-IPO private placement, a phenomenon which is now becoming commonplace.
Currently, the Bangalore-based corporate is planning to raise around Rs 1,500 crore by selling around 15-16% of its equity. Out of the total Rs 1,500 crore, GMR wants to mobilise around Rs 500 crore through the private placement route.
GMR currently generates revenues from the power and road businesses. The company is in the process of developing an international airport adjacent to the city of Hyderabad, the fifth largest city in India with a population of approximately 6m.
The Hyderabad airport is scheduled to commence commercial operations towards the end of the first quarter of ’08. In addition, GMR has won the high profile contract to operate, manage and develop the Delhi Airport.
Virtusa, Vignette in strategic partnership
Vignette developed a comprehensive suite of enterprise content management (ECM) solutions that help organisations transform their content from a liability to an asset.The Vignette centre of excellence at Virtusa opened in 2000 as a small quality assurance team and had since evolved into a significant ecosystem fully integrated with Vignette's global engineering workforce, processes and systems. Under the terms of the new agreement, Vignette might increase the team size, according to a release here.
Gold prices not to fall
Overseas gold prices have been rising as hedge funds are pouring in money, to mitigate risks of high crude oil prices and a weak dollar. "I do not see a fall in gold prices in near-term... A large part of urban India has been putting in its saving in gold," Mr Chidambaram said while addressing the annual general meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in hyderabad. The rise in overseas gold prices is aided by both strong fundamentals and technical factors.
Massive hedge fund buying, high crude oil prices, tension between Iran-US over nuclear plan, and a weak US dollar are driving bullion prices higher. Global prices of gold have direct bearing on the country, the largest consumer of the precious metal, as it imports almost all its requirements. "Indian gold prices have also been fuelled by rising income," the finance minister added. On Wednesday, India spot gold was at a fresh high of Rs 9,815 per 10 gram. Jewellery demand jumped almost 50% in the first half of 2005. Domestic prices rose 5% in 2005.
IT and charity can change lives : An Answer
The Mustaidpura Government High School which has about 400 students is one of the few government-run high schools in Hyderabad that demolishes the stereotype of a government-run school being a place where teachers play truant and students learn next to nothing. The other school is the Kulsumpura high school, barely a kilometre from Mustaidpura. No wonder then, two teachers of these schools, M Narayana of Kulsumpura High School and Sunita Yadav of Mustaidpura High School won the Innovative Teacher Awards of Microsoft in 2005. Their projects on using computers as part of classroom teaching were among the 10 winners from 1200 applicants across the country.
Kulsumpura and Mustaidpura schools were fortunate to get 12 computers each under the MPLADS (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) of former Hyderabad MP, Mr K M Khan, five years ago. While several schools that were similarly gifted computers did not even bother to unpack the computers, these two schools not only set up a computer lab but even appointed instructors to teach the students. The instructors were paid by pooling the contributions of teachers and some parents.
Last year Narayana and Sunita were nominated to a course run by Microsoft and the state government to train teachers in computers. Subsequently, they used the skills learnt at the two-week course and produced multimedia lessons. While Sunita's lesson was on the working of the heart, Narayana's was on how radio and TV work. These projects bagged them the awards.
The teachers are as excited with the accessibility to computers as the students. "The lessons literally take the students into the subject…they get to see the subject while in a classroom they have to only imagine," said the 35-year-old Sunita who teaches biological sciences. "For instance, the heart beat can be shown, so also the flow of blood. The process of photosynthesis is fascinating and when seen on the computer it is mind-bogging," she said. The students are allowed to work on the computers from fifth class. The lower classes, from first onwards are taught from animated lessons in primary subjects like language and arithmetic. The programmes, donated by Azim Premji Foundation, are screened on a 29-inch TV set donated by a private bank. "Even private schools that take Rs 50 as monthly fees do not provide the kind of access to computers like we do," said Sunita proudly.
The students have the computer lab twice a week and two students work on one computer. They are taught MS Word and later Excel. By the time they pass out from class 10, they are proficient in all applications and most can use English and Telugu while some become proficient additionally in Hindi too. The children have even entered competitions and bagged prizes at district and state levels. "Despite our inadequate facilities our kids have delivered wonderfully," said Narayana.
The teachers believe the computer education that these two schools offer are attracting more students. According to Sunita, computers have helped generate interest for studies among the children. "Naturally, there’s even personality growth; they have become more confident and their self-esteem has increased," she said. Other benefits of exposure to computers include strengthening of fundamentals, improved reading ability, improved grasp of English language and improved general knowledge. In fact, students hang on in the school and in the computer lab for at least an hour after school hours and need to be shooed out.
What about the impact of computers on the teachers? "Old and young, all teachers are now using CDs in the classroom," said Narayana as they have discovered that it is effective. The teachers' knowledge levels too have shot up and needless to say, they have lost the fear of technology. Sunita found she can complete a topic in one class with the help of computer, while normally four classes are needed in the traditional classroom teaching. Interestingly, at times the teachers turn to students for help with the computers that not only makes teachers more humble but also empowers the students.
What next then, for these teachers? "We don't have Internet. Our task of preparing lessons will be more easy if we can access the Net," said Sunita. Even if they find a sponsor to fund the Net connection, the schools have a problem. There is no broadband/cable provider for several kilometres around them. But for these determined teachers who improved the school result from zero pass 15 years ago to 70-80 per cent now, that is hardly a difficult target to meet.
New Airport cargo warehouse contract
The cargo terminal will be built in a 3.5 acre land at the new international airport premises at an estimated cost of Rs 50 crore which will be equipped to handle 1,00,000 mt of cargo per annum.
Currently, the outward cargo from Hyderabad includes pharmaceutical products (70%), perishable goods (14%) and manufactured goods (9%). As far as imported cargo is concerned, it accounts for mostly manufactured goods of close to 50% followed by perishable goods of 30% and pharmaceuticals constitute 10%, the release said.
The $150 Billion opportunity
According to India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a public-private partnership between the Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the Confederation of Indian Industry, the four main sessions including the opening session on Advantage India Day would focus on India's economic liberalisation and the opportunities it presents for greater foreign direct investment and private-public partnership.n consonance with the ADB's agenda of eradicating poverty through infrastructure-led growth, a special focus would be on the $150-billion opportunity India offers in infrastructure development, IBEF said in a release.
The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, and the ADB President, Haruhiko Kuroda, would participate in the India Day sessions. The Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, would speak at the session on the opportunities in India's rapidly growing infrastructure sector and would highlight the avenues available for foreign direct investment and public-private partnerships. Advantage India Day, set against the backdrop of ADB's annual meet, might be considered mirroring the Government of India's agenda of promoting inclusive development by focusing on infrastructure through programmes such as Bharat Nirman, the National Highways Development Programme and the National Urban Renewal Mission, the release said.
Jet Air, Lufthansa in frequent flyer pact
Similarly, members of Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme, Miles & More, can also accrue and redeem their miles on all flights operated by Jet Airways, , according to Werner Heesen, General Manager (India), Lufthansa German Airlines. He said Miles & More was the leading frequent flyer programme in Europe with 11 million members. Miles & More is the frequent flyer programme of Lufthansa, Adria Airways, Air Dolomiti, Air One, Austrian Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Luxair and SWISS.
AP to set up software escrow account
The State Government's eProcurement platform is the largest in the government sector in the country and has hosted about 13,591 tenders valued at Rs 33,974 crore in eight government departments, 13 public sector undertakings, 57 local urban bodies, five universities and Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam, out of which 8,618 tenders worth Rs 28,663 crore have been finalised.
According to a statement from Ms Prabha, the ICT department would receive the source code from the escrow account and run the eProcurement service on its own, even if C1 India were to be liquidated. This is being done to address the critical issue of business continuity.
Indo-Kiwi airservices pact
Under the agreement, airlines from New Zealand can operate seven own-aircraft services per week to Mumbai via Australia and/or Singapore. Additionally, they can enter into code-share arrangements with Indian partner airlines to five Indian cities, namely Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkatta.
Meanwhile, Indian air carriers can operate own-aircraft services to Auckland, and code-share to Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown and Dunedin, the PTI said.
Emaar opens Novotel Hyderabad
Built by Cyberabad Convention Centre Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between Emaar and the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd (APIIC), the 287-room Novotel Hyderabad is managed by the Accor hotel group, the release said.
Common Asian currency!
The unit was born as a concept almost 10 years ago, prior to the Asian currency meltdown. It is a notional unit of exchange based on a "basket" or weighted average of currencies used in the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus South Korea, China and Japan (ASEAN plus 3).
It was primarily mooted to help develop regional bond markets and promote monetary cooperation among Asian economies. This idea, contemplated on and off over the years, got a big boost last month, and the ADB seemed definitely committed. The launch was held up by the need to settle some divisive views and political anxieties: Inclusion of the currencies of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, an idea strongly contested by China and the ASEAN states.
Exclusion of India in the first round of talks. It is important for India to be part of the initial negotiations so that it reflects the interests of Indian business. It is believed that Singapore, a strong ally of India, is pushing for its inclusion in the first stage of talks, which will develop the concept of the unit.
Need for consensus relating to the weighting and components of the ACU based on countries' share of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) as well as trade volume, the level of capital flows or convertibility of their currencies.
Some of the long-term issues that need attention are:
Hegemony of stronger states. Smaller Southeast Asian states allegedly feel threatened by China's growing economic power and Japan's isolationist economic policy. They also question whether the currencies of Australia and New Zealand should be included with India in the second round. It is argued that it was impossible to replicate the euro experience because Europe had sorted out the question of hegemony long before the question of a single currency was mooted.
Substantial diversity in Asian economies. Critics also point out that the concept of Asia has been defined only by its geography. There is a substantial gap in the growth and development of countries within this region. Cambodia and Laos have a substantial chunk of population below the poverty line.
The euro experience - a good learning process. The architects of the ACU are making efforts to point out that they are not trying to make the ACU the Asian equivalent of the euro. The unit would merely be an indicator of exchange rates, with no exchange-market interventions. There is also talk of changing the name to "Asian currency index" to set it apart from the European Currency Unit, which was the precursor of the euro.
The primary purpose of the ACU would be to facilitate the development of an Asian multi-currency bond market, strengthening of capital markets to make them resistant to external shocks. The ACU would reflect how the region's currencies as a whole move against the dollar and the euro and how each currency in the ACU moves against the average level of participating currencies. The evolution of the euro could at best be a good learning process.
The past few years have witnessed higher trade interdependencies in East Asia than ever before. Reportedly, this is happening at a much faster rate than Europe ever experienced. Trade volume among the ASEAN plus 3 countries has swelled, with trade between China and ASEAN poised to reach US$200 billion before 2010. Trade between India and China increased more than 12 times over the past five years.
Financial analysts point out that it will not be long before ASEAN plus 3 set up a mechanism for exchange-rate stability, not necessarily for safeguarding financial stability in Asia but purely for self-interest. Japan is a proactive member of the club, as Tokyo is not too comfortable with China's emergence and the fact that the yen may be overshadowed by the yuan. It has shed its isolationist tendencies for this reason.
It is therefore understood that several steps need to be taken toward creation of a unified currency structure in Asia. Certain absolutely necessary requirements are information exchange and policy dialogue on surveillance, initiation of a central reserve pool for financing the liquidity needs of member countries, and cooperation in developing suitable mechanisms for regulation and supervision.
Nevertheless, this initial step toward a single common currency needs to be preceded by a common single market. The benefits of an eventual single currency are numerous. It will increase market transparency by making prices more easily comparable. Cross-border transactions will also become more attractive as market operators will no longer be exposed to exchange-rate risks, and costs associated with currency conversion will be eliminated.
The single market will become one of the main pillars of economic and monetary integration. However, any expectations of a common Asian currency in a holistic sense is a long way off. This trend, which began in East Asia, will have to be popularized in the more difficult terrains of South and Central Asia. The toughest challenge will perhaps come when it is time for West Asia to be part of the system.
ADB meet to commence today
The AGM, which gets kick-started with country presentation by Azerbaijan, will have seminars on core financial services related topics like the challenges and implications of Basel II norms for Asia that are due to be implemented from 2008 as well as those focussing on policy and institutional framework required for improving rural infrastructure. In the light of the ICT revolution across the globe, the delegates will deliberate on the knowledge-based economies and the help of Information Technology in mitigating rural poverty.
The main focus of the event, however, is expected to be on the integration of Asian economies, if the emphasis laid on the more effective regional cooperation among Asian nations is any indication. Eminent speakers, including ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda, will give out their views on topics like the improving links that have started to build across the sub-regions.
Though not officially on the agenda, the much talked about common currency, on the lines of Europe, is expected to be one of the key issues that will come up for discussion. The deliberations on the issue are likely to focus on whether it will be prudent to move towards a common currency over the coming years or should a model on the lines of North American Free Trade Area be adopted.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to address the meeting on May 5.
Satyam Appoints Vice President of Global Mktg
Prior to joining Satyam, Baginski served as global director of integrated marketing for Accenture's business consulting division, where he led marketing and communications for all of the company's business consulting practices. Before that, he held several other marketing, communications, and business development leadership posts, including partner and director of marketing for CSC's Consulting Group.
According to Mr. B. Ramalinga Raju, Satyam founder and chairman, "We're delighted to have Bob join at such a pivotal time for Satyam and our market. He's built a number of industry-leading marketing and communications programs at companies such as Accenture, CSC, and others. Bob's 25 years of major league industry experience, marketing creativity, and distinctive leadership skills will be instrumental in continuing our rapid growth and reputation for superior client business results."
Sierra Atlantic wins Malaysia's largest port deal
"Sierra Atlantic will provide complete implementation and consulting services including project management, functional consulting, technical consulting and DBA services.
It will implement the project along with Comline (a partner), where Sierra Atlantic will take complete responsibility of implementing the Oracle ebusiness suite and programme management," Yeshwanth Reddy, executive director, Sierra Atlantic said in a release here today.
"We are delighted with the development since this project will give us the opportunity to deliver to the largest port of Malaysia, and also allow us an entry into the infrastructure and logistics industry in the Asia Pacific region", Reddy added.
Big four to hire big
TCS alone plans to hire about 30,000 new professionals in 2006-07 after adding 21,000 last fiscal. The demand for good people, both experienced and freshers, is soaring. So the war for talent will continue this year also.
Similarly, Wipro and Infosys Technologies are going to create 30,000 and 25,000 jobs, respectively, while Hyderabad-based Satyam plans to hire 12,500 engineers. "It is important to attain scale-up in this business and that's why we are hiring big," Infosys' Head (HR) T V Mohandas said, adding that the surge in export of Indian software and IT-enabled services to $22 billion has encouraged companies to hire big time.
In addition to this, other IT companies are expected to add another 50,000 this fiscal to the existing 10 lakh personnel working in the IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) sector.
Forget campus interviews, urgency has ensured that IT firms take online tests too for prospective candidates. According to the IT recruitment firm TVA Infotech, campus recruitment is good and easier for finding fresh talents but hiring senior-level professionals is very difficult owing to a growing ‘bargaining culture’ among candidates. "Indian IT firms hire freshers from campuses offering Rs 20,000 to Rs 35,000 per month, while MNCs prefer lots with experience of over five years and offer Rs 8-12 lakh per annum," said Suhas Nururkar, President, TVA Infotech.
He pointed out that getting a job in the open market is a herculean task if one fails to get through campus recruitment as IT firms generally neglect such candidates. Software firms have also resorted to retention perks and stock options to retain talent - a big challenge in the industry.
AppLabs Becomes Testing Partner of SpectraLink
AppLabs will be responsible for executing tests designed by SpectraLink to ensure interoperability of the company's Wi-Fi handsets with enterprise-grade wireless LAN infrastructure products.
AppLabs will apply world class facilities, engineering and tools to ensure the highest quality execution of the VIEW interoperability and performance test methodology. AppLabs maintains one of the leading independent wireless testing facilities available with multiple clean RF enclosures, state of the art automation architectures, and superior engineering resources.
AP gets Rs 404-cr VAT compensation
The Commercial Department fell short of the annual target of Rs 12,706.16 crore and registered collections of Rs 12,534.41 crore during 2005-06, leaving a shortfall of Rs 171.75 crore. The department could achieve 98.65 per cent of the target.
But thanks to the compensation from the Centre, the department could achieve 101.82 per cent of the target. The department collected Rs 1,511.81 crore more than last year's revenues, achieving a growth rate of 13.72 per cent.
Is Hyderabad real estate overrated: An Answer
Hyderabad is not an overheated market. Not yet. Land prices in even the costliest areas are a fifth of that in Delhi. Many feel that announcements of major projects like Sem-India’s FAB city and the international airport have given a sudden spurt in prices in Hyderabad. Which is also witnessing speculative buying. Moreover, with the Andhra Pradesh government announcing the Outer Ring Road project, prices have shot up by 40-50% in a span of just three to four months.
The government has a target of raising Rs 23,000 crore in the next three years by selling land already acquired at various urban conglomerates. As per the drafted ‘business plans’, three government bodies—AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, Hyderabad Urban Development Authority and AP Housing Board—were asked to promote special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to enter the real estate business.
The government will allocate large chunks of land to these SPVs, who in turn will develop house sites and industrial parks by providing the amenities. However, this is still at the policy stage and will take two more months to get going, sources added.
While the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad is where most of the action is, Visakhapatnam saw a real swing in property prices when German auto major Volkswagen considered it a possible location for its plant last year. After it backed out, there was some lull.
However, with all the big four IT majors looking at the port city to set up their centres, real estate prices are once again on the move. Moreover, with the Gangavaram port project mired in a resettlement and rehabilitation controversy, prices have shot up by almost 100%, according to a real estate agent.
The Vizag-Kakinada corridor, also known as the gas corridor is also witnessing significant upward movement of prices, as some big-ticket investments are expected.
Courtesy : Financial Express
750 acres allotted for IT SEZs
First time in the state, each of these three private IT SEZs has been proposed in an area of 250 acres when compared to the relatively smaller size of 14 IT SEZs cleared by the Union commerce ministry recently.
The Indian software giant, Infosys, is the only exception so far which has proposed its second campus in 550 acres in Hyderabad.
The cabinet, which met here yesterday cleared the proposal to allot 250 acres each to Raheja Group, Indu Projects and Brahmani Infotec, which is associated with Navbharat Ferro Alloys group, for setting up three IT SEZs near Mamidipally where Infosys too has been allotted land for its biggest-ever campus.
Private IT SEZs have suddenly taken the centre stage with mushrooming of new IT companies in Hyderabad. While the state government is aiming to achieve higher and faster growth in the IT sector to reach the second place in software exports next to Bangalore in a couple of years, the apparent constraints in allotting land to small and medium companies together seem to have created a favourable conditions for the promotion of large-scale private IT SEZs such as these by the government.
More than 10 private IT parks have already been cleared by the state government in and around Hyderabad. About 173 new companies registered in the state during the last financial year with a total projected investment of Rs 1,760 crore. Of them, 69 are foreign equity companies, which, according to B V Naidu, director, STPI, Hyderabad and Bangalore, is a clear sign of growing confidence of foreign investors in the growth prospects offered by Hyderabad.
Rs. 54,800 per sq.yard in Kukatpally
Though only 28 bidders turned out at the office of the Executive Engineer (Housing), Western Division, AP Housing Board, Kukatpally besides 10 sealed tenders that were submitted till Thursday evening, it did not stop bidders from increasing the stakes.
The only 1,544.72-sq.yard commercial plot on the main road, on the western side of Sulekha Complex with an upset price of Rs. 30,000 per sq.yard, was bid for Rs. 54,800 per sq.yard. The plot bid by Prajay Engineers Syndicate yielded APHB over Rs. 8.46 crores. The APHB on the whole netted Rs. 17.70 crores from the auctions.
Of 12 residential plots, 10 plots - seven MIG-B plots in the fifth phase and three MIG-II plots in ninth phase - were auctioned. While their upset price was fixed at Rs. 20,000, the highest bid amount was Rs. 31,200 and the lowest Rs. 20,100. Two plots went for sealed tender bidders. One of the successful bidders for a residential plot said it was for her NRI daughter as she was looking for a safe investment.
Virinchi records 40 pc revenue growth
The company also recorded an increase in the net profit for the fourth quarter 2005-06 which stood at Rs 22.69 million as against Rs 19.28 million for the same period last year recording, a growth of 17.69 percent.
Total revenues for the year 2005-06 stood at Rs 257.05 million, up 40 percent over the previous year. Net profit for the whole year 2005-06 rose 49.39 percent to Rs 85.48 million.
Virinchi Technologies has now become the world's leading IT solutions provider in the niche retail micro lending. The company is providing services to three out of the top five companies in this domain in North America.
Audi in Bangalore, soon Hyderabad
Sanjay Malhotra, business head of Jubilant Motors, the dealership of Audi in South said, "We will provide both sales and after sales facilities that adhere to Audi's stringent, worldwide quality standards." Subsequently, the company will open showrooms and workshops in Hyderabad, Chennai, Cochin and Coimbatore.
The range of Audi cars that will be available in Bangalore are Audi A4 costing above Rs 35 lakhs on road, Audi A6 costing between Rs 50 lakhs and Rs 65 lakhs, Audi A8 Quttro version between Rs 73 lakhs and Rs 1 crore, and Audi A8 W12 version for above Rs 1 crore.
Headlines
- Prajay to set up IT park SEZ
- Crucial water pipeline work in progress
- Virtusa to to target MCA's for jobs
- Hyderabad numero uno in hospitality
- A modern fish market
- Godavari express is now superfast
- Of techies and fitness
- SQL Star acquires SolutionNet
- Death sentence for no helmet
- Developers for integrated townships to be finalised
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