Prices of cotton have already gone up by 10-20 per cent per candy (356 kg) this year to Rs 16,000-Rs 23,000 depending on the variety. There has been a softening in the past few weeks but the prices are expected to firm up again as demand grows.
The industry is seriously concerned that the new Competition Act, passed by Parliament in September but not yet fully notified, could impact local and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and curtail business activities by placing substantial discretionary powers in the hands of the thinly-staffed Competition Commission of India (CCI).
The herculean effort and complexity involved in getting IT-BPO employees and employers to register - coupled with the high costs incurred in the process - is likely to force IT industry body Nasscom to miss its March 2008 target of 500,000 registrations for its National Skills Registry (NSR) by a huge margin.
This will be a measure to provide start-up entrepreneurs and professionals the much-needed flexibility in setting up a business in India.
New Delhi-based e-learning company Educomp Solutions has worked on a novel business model under which it will invest over Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) to "enable" setting up around 150 schools over the next four years.Under this model, Educomp will earn its return on investment by providing intellectual property (IP) for the schools through its Educomp School Management programme and leasing infrastructure through its subsidiary Educomp Infrastructure.
Rohit Kapoor, COO and co-founder, EXL Service, talks to Business Standard about the company's third-quarter performance, growth plans and outlook.
To encourage innovation, IT industry body Nasscom and ICICI Knowledge Park are setting up a $25 million venture capital fund to help startups that are in the intellectual property space. The fund -- to be registered with market regulator Sebi -- will look after the brick-and-mortar costs of startups.
Situated in a special economic zone in Noida, HCL Technology's upcoming campus is spread across 46 acres of land. The half-constructed new HCL tech-hub provides a picture of the grandeur that is to follow as the campus is scheduled to be completed in the next five years.
With the US dollar poised to go below Rs 38 mark, the future looks bleak for the small infotech companies. Even as the nearly $40 billion information technology industry is still trying to stabilise itself from the impact of the rupee exchange fluctuation, since most of their business comes from overseas, the roots of smaller companies have been shaken further.
With the export market losing its sheen, a growing number of apparel exporters are drawing up strategies to sell their wares in the domestic market. Analysts said that the higher local demand for branded apparel was because of rising purchasing power of consumers who were now spending 6-7 per cent of their disposable income on ready-made garments. The surge in consumer spending has resulted in a 20 per cent growth in demand for international apparel.
The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which owns the Amul brand, is all set to introduce sugar-free chocolates across the country, targeted at diabetics. This comes soon after the company had launched sugar-free ice-cream. India has become the diabetes capital of the world with almost 35 million people suffering from the disorder. And their population will continue to grow at a fast pace, say experts, because of Indian dietary habits and a sedentary lifestyle.
Companies based at Gurgaon are sending workers on 45 days' leave without pay before the festival, while those in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, have not renewed the contracts of over 8,000 workers. All expansion plans have been put on hold and orders for new machinery are being revoked.
Indian IT service providers are increasing their exposure in the healthcare and pharma segments. Multi-million dollar deals in this space by IT firms over the past three-four months only buttress this trend. Healthcare outsourcing has moved away from just undertaking medical transcription and business process outsourcing (BPO) work to core functions such as drug discovery, testing, research and development.
The government is planning to codify class action as law. A clause to this effect has been included in the new Company Law Bill, which is expected to be tabled in the coming winter session of Parliament.
The process started from October 6, and trademark owners have the chance to register domain names in the new .asia top-level domain (TLD), prior to a general release of .asia names in 2008. With the support of 73 countries in the region, .asia is looking at means to bind the Asian community.
Currently, only Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) of the Rs 24,280 crore (Rs 242.8 billion) goes to the organised sector. Companies are targeting kids from the age of one to 14. According to Technopak, this sector is growing at 20 per cent per annum.
In a bid to transform Mumbai into a world-class financial hub, the Centre has asked the Maharashtra government to upgrade its ports, railway and other infrastructure at the earliest.
Rising wage costs, competition from countries like China, the impending withdrawal of tax incentives under the STPI scheme, the slowdown in the US and the rising rupee have all punctured the optimism of the IT industry.
Over the past one year, since the helpline became functional (on September 8, 2006), a total of 3,110 grievances have been registered.
It is not the urban centres alone that are powering India's phenomenal growth in mobile telephony. Data on rural telephony, compiled by the telecom regulator, shows people in villages are subscribing to mobile services in large numbers
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