The declining prices of mobile handsets and low connectivity costs have helped in doubling Internet access through cellphones this year.
Reserve Bank of India set to bring transparency in credit card operations.
The Essar group firm is in talks with 7-10 companies for a "strategic fit", as it races to become a $500 million company by 2010. In some of these cases the due diligence process is in progress. Aegis is looking at firms in the US, South America and the Philippines.
Consider these numbers. The latest figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reveal that the number of Indians using their mobiles to logon to the internet has increased from 16 million in 2006 to 38 million in 2007 (both GSM and CDMA).
Companies hit by the sudden appreciation of foreign currencies such as Swiss franc and yen are finding it difficult to restructure their currency options as banks have become cautious in extending fresh credit limits to them.
These measures, under preliminary discussion with the central bank, come soon after Hexaware Technologies, an IT services company, recently said it was providing Rs 80-100 crore due to losses allegedly on account of foreign exchange transactions fradulently entered into by one of its officials with banks.
Players such as Net4, Sify and Worldphone Internet Services are offering International long distance (ILD) calls that work out to less than a rupee a minute by using a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Around 80 million minutes worth of calls are made via VoIP every month (legally), according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
The effects of the sub-prime crisis and the resultant slowdown of the US market is evident on the margins of Indian information technology (IT) and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) firms. Business process outsourcing (BPO) firms such as Firstsource, Pune-based HOV Services, Zenta, Aegis BPO and others have been receiving inquiries from existing as well as new customers for ramping up their account receivables management (ARM) business.
Players in the Indian animation industry, who primarily cater to movie studios in the US, are increasingly looking at the domestic market, especially after the commercial success of animated movie Hanuman. Of the total revenues generated by the Indian studios, approximately 70 per cent comes from outsourced work.
RBI, govt concerned over inflationary impact of rising capital inflows.
Reliance Power's exemption demands prompt move.
According to sources close to the development, the IPO will provide an easy exit route to the banks and FIs to bring down their respective stakeholding to 5 per cent as required under the new demutualisation guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
With the rupee going from strength to strength and attrition a continuing concern for Indian business process outsourcing companies, the new poster child of private equity investors is witnessing adjustments in valuations in the changed scenario.
According to sources close to the development, major domestic banks and institutions such as State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of India (BoI) and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) have sought the permission of their respective regulators - the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) to participate in the equity derivatives market (F&O segment) as traders.
Hyderabad-based Applabs, providing quality management, testing, and certification solutions, will be increasing its business from the domestic market. In the next 12 months, the company is aiming at a revenue of $4-5 million (around Rs 15-19 crore) from India.
The concerns were legitimate as unlike the IT industry, more than 90 per cent of the cost of BPOs is in rupees while earnings are in dollars. However, the firms have managed well by focusing on increasing productivity, enhancing employee utilisation, increasing billing rates and effecting better management strategies.
Neeraj Bhargava, CEO of Mumbai-based business process outsourcing (BPO firm) WNS Global Services, and his team have voluntarily decided to forfeit their bonuses if they are not successful in getting the attrition rates below 30 per cent. This is probably the first such move of its kind in the industry in which attrition has become a critical issue. WNS has over 15,000 employees, and its current attrition rate stands at 43 per cent.
Banks have asked for an exemption of statutory requirements such as the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) for lending to the infrastructure sector. While the CRR is a tool where banks have to set aside liquidity with RBI in proportion of the deposits mobilised by them, the SLR requires banks to invest 25 per cent of their liabilities in government securities to generate instant liquidity.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may opt for a 25 per cent cut in the repo rate, to prop sagging demand in the interest rate-sensitive durables sector in the mid-term review of its 2007-08 monetary policy on October 30.The likely reduction in the repo rate would take place despite concerns about inflation, which suggest that interest rates can be left unchanged, banking sources said.
While this is a global phenomenon, it is for the first time that the Indian Music Industry (IMI) is making an effort to stop this before it erodes the revenue stream of music companies like it is already happening in the software, gaming and the movie segments.
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