Dell has announced the launch in India of its Global Small Business Excellence Award. India will be participating in these awards for the first time. The global competition will see entries from 13 countries, including China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The winner will get $50,000 (around Rs 2.5 million) in Dell solutions and a meeting with Chairman Michael Dell. For the India leg of the competition, Dell expects 300-400 entries.
Indian information technology vendors may be missing an unfolding opportunity in the current American recession, Gartner India, the research firm, has warned.
India's largest software exporter, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), says it will see more deals in its infrastructure services (IS) business in the $5-10 million range this year than in the $15-100 million one.
While the exact number of employees being asked to quit could not be confirmed, sources said close to 1,000 employees were tipped to go. Syntel has around 11,000 employees in India. The shifting of employees to the KPO operations is part of increasing its utilisation and reducing the bench strength.
After the rechristening of Telco to Tata Motors in 2003, one of the auto-maker's earliest decision was to settle its high-cost debts of around Rs 500 crore with the proceeds from foreign currency convertible bonds, or FCCBs. The company had raised $100 million and repaid the debt.
Reliance Retail has added 485 stores in the last one year, taking the total count to 950 and the footprint is now spread across 77 cities (58 in the last one year) across India. While his critics say Ambani may have lost the plot as the progress of his retail plans are nowhere near what he had sought to achieve, others feel the Reliance chief is just being pragmatic given the not-so-conducive environment for expansion in retail.
For TCS, the retail business has been growing at 10-12 per cent over the last three quarters. On a year-on-year basis, the growth rate of the retail business has been impacted due to currency fluctuation and the general slowdown. In dollar terms, the retail business grew 51.6 per cent for the company last financial year.
"We have a cash balance of close to Rs 1,500 crore. A majority of this balance can be used for acquisitions as our annual working capital requirement is only Rs 25-30 crore. I will not rule out a buyout of companies to expand our domestic business," said Mernosh Kapadia, senior executive director, GSK India. It is speculated that GlaxoSmithKline Plc is in talks to acquire leading Indian drug major Piramal Healthcare, in a deal valued over $1.5 billion.
A company executive said that the Anil Ambani group is still keen on foraying into television broadcasting business. The top-line of broadcasters was shrinking in the December-ended quarter on the back of economic slowdown and the consequent slowdown in advertising revenues, said the latest Ficci & KPMG report.
Capgemini has gone back on its previous expectations of modest growth in the first half of 2009, following a significant deterioration in the wider economic environment since the third quarter, said John O'Brien, senior analyst at advisory and consulting firm Ovum. Capgemini now expects to see a modest decline in the first-half sales, while maintaining an operating margin of 6.5 per cent.
Tata Consultancy Services, the country's largest IT company, has changed its hiring strategy and will focus on just-in-time hiring or real-time talent management."TCS has decided to adopt the policy of real-time management whereby we will hire in the last three months of the final year of graduation rather than a year before," said S Ramadorai, managing director and chief executive officer, TCS.
New drug discovery and contract research have taken a back seat as global drug majors have slowed down their research and development offshoring to India.
If Taro fails to address the issues raised by the US Food and Drug Administration, it may face ban on many of its products in the US market, made from the facility at Ontorio, Canada. If Taro fails to address the issues raised by the US Food and Drug Administration, it may face ban on many of its products in the US market, made from the facility at Ontorio, Canada. If Taro fails to address the issues raised by the US FDA, it may face ban on many of its products.
Surinder Kapur, president of the company's 'vendor council,' said it has about a dozen representatives from Tata Motors and an equal number from the vendors. "We supply for about 4-5 per cent of our revenues to Tata Motors and we do not have payment issues," he said. Lumax, which derives about 15 per cent of its turnover by supplying almost half of the lighting solutions for Tata Motors worth about Rs 60 crore a year, said they had not experienced any payment issues.
Meanwhile, 117 Pan-Asian private equity players - with India as focus -- aim to raise funds worth $59 billion, says UK-based Preqin, an alternative assets research and consultancy group. On a global platform, he said, majority of investors remain positive towards private equity. Aditya Birla Private Equity is an example.
Chevron CEO David O'Reilly told analysts the company has pulled out of some unprofitable refining markets, and will continue to do so. However, he had said that Chevron is continuing talks with its refining joint venture partner RIL that would determine whether it keeps a foothold in Indian refining. Chevron has not yet signed a crude supply and product off-take agreement with RIL to take forward its plans to increase its stake in RPL beyond the existing 5 per cent.
Wockhardt, the Mumbai-based leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology company that is struggling to repay its nearly Rs 900-crore
Germany-based Merck KGaA, the world's oldest multinational pharmaceutical company, is eyeing to acquire a prominent Indian pharmaceutical company and established drug brands.
The merger of Pfizer and Wyeth is expected to create the second-biggest drug maker among multinational companies in India. The world's largest drug maker Pfizer yesterday announced a $68-billion acquisition of US-based Wyeth.
The 7,480 MW project will be the largest gas-fired power project at a single location in the world and will cost about Rs 20,000-25,000 crore (Rs 200-250 billion). Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL for the supply of gas from the Krishna Godavari basin, where RIL is developing the largest gas reserves in the world. The matter is currently under litigation in the Bombay HC and a decision is expected soon.
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