Hundreds of sellers of eBay have called for a global boycott of the online auction giant on May 1 over payment, pricing and feedback changes which they allege will hurt their profits. The sellers, for instance, are distressed that they can no longer give buyers negative feedback, and that eBay will increase the fees that are paid as a percentage of the final sales price. Their angst has spilled over social networking sites and forums like Myspace and Delphiforums too.
A global value-added services (VAS) player, Buongiorno, has researched on the habits of browsers who surf the Internet on their cell phones. In India, analysts estimate that 20-25 per cent of mobile handsets can be used for Internet surfing. Embracers, for instance, are hooked on to the technology on mobile phones and battery power is their only limitation when it comes to being online. On the other hand, Pragmatists use mobile phones as tools to make their life easier.
It's a $38-billion company with a touchingly simple ambition. Cisco wants to become a household name. Having sold over 80 million devices to consumers the world over, it no longer wants to be perceived as a boring company that only manufactures networking gear such as routers and switches. The ambition may sound soft but for Cisco, it is serious business.
The fourth quarter (January-March) is usually a weak quarter for the Indian IT companies due to the lesser number of billing days. This time, however, the good news is that the rupee has depreciated by about 1.3 per cent during the quarter. Every increase/decrease of a percentage point in the rupee lowers/adds to the operating (EBIDTA) margins by 30-50 basis points (bps).
Not a single Indian insurance company offers a comprehensive anti-cybercrime policy for the corporate sector. In India there are few takers for cybercrime insurance primarily because of the high cost vis-a-vis their exposure. These policies are of a high value and, on request from a few brokers, are customised for banks. Cybercrime policies in the US cover e-theft, denial or impairment of e-service, e-communication, e-vandalism, e-threat and fraudulent e-signatures.
The media and entertainment industry in 2007 grew by an estimated 17 per cent over the previous year to touch Rs 51,300 crore (Rs 513 billion), according to a recent Ficci-PwC 2008 report. However, this is 6 percentage points lower than the 23 per cent growth registered in 2006. All the major segments within the M&E industry, comprising TV, film and print, will see a year-on-year fall in their growth rates going by the report estimates for 2007.
Indian operators offering BlackBerry services, top executives of Canadian telco Research in Motion (RIM), the company that owns the brand, security agencies and officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are expected to meet on March 14 to answer the concerns of security agencies in a bid to prevent having BlackBerry services terminated after the March-end deadline.
Canadian communications major Research In Motion (RIM), owners of the BlackBerry brand of mobile phones, has assured the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that it would sort out the BlackBerry tangle by initiating discussions between security agencies of Canada and India. The move comes in response to a government notice directing BlackBerry service providers to stop services by December 31, 2007.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs has been empowered to frame a scheme for preparation and filing of service tax returns through service tax return preparers, similar to the tax return preparer scheme for income tax introduced in 2006. The performance of the TRP scheme so far, however, indicates that it is in need of fine tuning - in terms of recruitment, training and remuneration - to become more effective and serve as a benchmark for the STRP scheme.
The Open Document Format (ODF) proponents are alleging that the Microsoft has "cajoled" Indian NGOs to write to the IT ministry and BIS, supporting OOXML as a standard.
Shorter durations and smaller-value transactions, analysts reason, allow businesses to spread operational risk and develop new relationships according to business demands.
From CCTV cameras to mobile jammers and perimeter protection equipment, the Indian electronic security market is worth over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).
Mobile banking will soon reach Indian villagers as state govts tie up with banks, telecom companies to provide this facility to them.
While the extent of Iran's isolation was unclear, many blogs alleged that the cable cuts and outages in West Asia were a ploy by an intelligence agency to disrupt Iranian commerce, targeting an emerging petroleum exchange that the country was shortly hoping to roll out.
Anti-virus and anti-spyware technologies, which are packaged as 'blacklist' solutions, are gradually giving way to what security experts claim is a far more effective IT security technology based on 'whitelist' solutions.
In less than a week's time, a fourth submarine cable was severed in West Asia, disrupting voice and telecommunication traffic between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Indian firms across sectors, especially small- and medium ones will see their annual wage bills increase from this financial year since the government has raised the eligibility limit for statutory bonus payments to those who earn Rs 10,000 a month (basic salary and dearness allowance).
The voice operations (call centres) of IT-BPO firms -- which comprise around 20-30 per cent of most firms in India -- will be the most affected since the International Private Leased Circuits are down.
Despite wage hikes, an appreciating rupee, and fewer working days nibbling at their profit margins during the quarter ended December 31, 2007, the five IT majors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services and HCL Technologies posted revenue and net profit figures that were in line with market expectations.
Companies are developing new engine technologies to deliver the ultimate in fuel efficiency.
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