New services will bring the IPL to mobile phone screens.
Data from web analytic firm Comscore shows that last year, social networking traffic saw a surge of a whopping 51 per cent in India. Social games are simple games such as word puzzles, antakshari or quizzes. Also referred to as Gaming 2.0, this form of gaming does not require high-end PCs or 3D graphics. ComScore reports that networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, iBibo and Hi5 draw maximum number of social gamers.
The initial euphoria over reduction in mobile termination charges (MTC) seems to be dying down, with telecom service providers now alleging that the process is completely "flawed".
But half the 'profit' should be ploughed back into the company, says Trai.
"Japan currently accounts for 5 per cent of our revenues but we see this touching 9 per cent in the next three years. Business from Japan grew almost 35 per cent last year and we expect healthy growth from this region," said Deepak Khosla, senior vice-president and head, Asia-Pacific. Patni company has been in Japan for over 10 years but, in the past two years, the momentum of deals has increased considerably.
CDMA operators are launching services that offer speeds of up to 3.1 mbps. On a comparative basis, this is faster by over 20 times than the existing wireless broadband connections, and 10 times faster than average broadband connections in the country. However, the upload and download speeds do not match the advertised speeds, which can be misleading for users.
Analysts see HCL's Rs 1,780 crore deal with Reader's Digest and another half-a-dozen big deals signed in the past three months by Indian IT firms, encompassing both global and domestic markets, as evidence that the outsourcing story continues to progress as the best option for companies to cut costs in the current difficult economic environment.
Customs officials have been directed to stop shipments of such phones. Industry experts expect the move to hit the sales of dual-SIM handsets, which are imported into the country by companies including Nokia, Samsung, Meridian Mobile and Spice. More importantly, this could also affect the plans to manufacture these handsets in the country. It is estimated that around 100,000 dual-SIM phones are sold in the country every month.
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.
Murthy's life story is to be the content of a new comic to be brought out by Amar Chitra Katha, the popular comic book series, making him the first living person to be featured in the Amar Chitra Katha series, which mostly focuses on popular Indian myths and legends.ACK Media, the publisher, will follow this up with stories of famous personalities like cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and former Indian President and Bharat Ratna award winner, APJ Abdul Kalam.
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.
A delay would also result in a loss of opportunity to add at least 10 million broadband customers per year, which would have helped increase broadband penetration. India had a total of 5.65 million broadband connections as on January 31, 2009, way below the 9-million subscriber target set by the DoT for 2007. The meagre growth -- the country is adding around 1 million subscribers per annum -- will make it difficult to meet the government's target of 20 million users by 2010.
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.
Reliance Communications has decided to launch a call centre to help its subscribers locate a particular destination. It will give information on the shortest route to a destination, important places to visit while travelling to another city, location of theatres, hospitals and ATMs. The information, if required, will also be texted to user. The service, currently in its pilot phase, will be launched across the country within a fortnight.
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.
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.
Netcore offers the service 'MyToday' to 3.8 million mobile phone users in the country. Jain was the founder of IndiaWorld Communications, a small start-up, which was acquired in 1999 by IT major Sify Technologies for around Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).
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.
Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-controlled BIG TV has withdrawn from partnering the Indian Premier League, alleging discrimination by the league's broadcast rights-holder Sony Entertainment Television.BIG TV has communicated its decision to IPL CEO Sundar Raman, alleging that SET has decided to offer the contract to competitor Airtel DTH, though it quoted a lower price for on-air partnership, sources said. When contacted, a BIG TV spokesperson declined to comment.