For start-ups, the model can save 30-40 per cent of the total costs.
Capgemini, the information technology services and consulting major, plans to add 6,000 people in India over the next 12 months, which will make this the company's largest global centre, with over 26,000 employees. The company has a little over 20,000 employees at its headquarters in Paris.
Bing clocks 18 million visits every month, while Google India has unique monthly visits of 753 million.. Analysts say while Bing is in its infancy, it can grow up rapidly once it powers Yahoo! searches across the world.
The company plans to strengthen the offerings of its digital platform, Adtech, which it launched a few months back.
Litigation, regulations and the process of seeking approvals have also discouraged some developers.
Reliance Brands, a group company of Reliance Industries, began operations two years earlier to launch premium-to-luxury domestic and international brands and also set up retail stores for them.
After the euphoria, "affordable" realty developers are faced with the reality of excesses.
Because of oversupply and rising vacancy levels in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, among others, rentals are expected to remain stagnant in the next six months or see a further fall of 10-15 per cent.
VoIP services come in real handy to make cheap overseas calls.
When United States-based drug major Merck bought Schering-Plough early this month, it decided to go off the beaten track. Instead of having one managing director for the merged entity, it decided to retain both: Naveen A Rao will continue to head Merck's subsidiary MSD Pharmaceuticals in India and K G Ananthakrishnan will retain his position as MD of Schering-Plough's subsidiary Fulford India.
Almost 80% mid-sized firms plan to raise IT budget for 2010.
WNS, an NYSE-listed business process outsourcing company, recorded good second quarter numbers, reflecting the improving market conditions in global markets. Neeraj Bhargava, Group CEO, attributed the performance to better volume growth and a robust pipeline. In a chat with Business Standard, he spoke about the recent stake sale talks with Warburg Pincus, appointing a new CEO and other issues.
That the flow of deals has resumed is evident from the third quarter Global TPI Index that tracks commercial contracts valued at $25 million or more.
The growing margins suggest that the belt tightening is paying off. For example, the margins of Pantaloon Retail, the country's largest listed retailer, have gone up from 9.2 per cent in June last year to 10.6 per cent in June 2009.Others such as the Raheja-owned Shoppers Stop and Tata Group's Trent, Reliance Retail and Spencer's Retail aren't far behind.
With the US economy showing a positive annual growth rate of 3.3 per cent, the Indian IT industry - which gets over 50 per cent of its revenue from the US - is heaving a sigh of relief.
Dell says the credit goes to its campaign -- 'Take Your Own Path' -- launched in October, 2008. It was the first such campaign by Dell anywhere in the world as the company mainly relied on direct marketing earlier.
Sales grew only 5-10% last year on weak consumer sentiments
IT companies hire an average of 50 students each from engineering campuses and 20 students from management institutes. Headhunters confirm that many of the IT companies have given them mandates for hiring over the next couple of quarters. "We have seen an uptick in the hiring patterns among the IT firms. We ourselves have received good mandates from firms like Infosys and others.
The newest CEO in the Tata group brings an aggressive pace and style to India's largest IT consultancy firm.
After a year of slow growth, apparel maker and retailer Provogue is reworking its business strategy to boost revenues and prop up margins, a top company executive said.
