Some employees have alleged that close to 20 employees of the troubled Satyam Computer Services have been promoted to the I-1 and I-2 bands (representing assistant vice-president and vice-president levels) and also received a salary hike of 20-40 per cent. The timing has caused much resentment with some employees taking up the matter with the human resources department.
India's second-largest IT services firm, Infosys Technologies, has set up a separate unit within its business process outsourcing arm (Infosys BPO) to concentrate solely on the domestic BPO market.
Not only have they been thriving for over 10 years in India alone, but also have stood their ground in the face of newer and smarter technologies like radio-frequency identification, which promised to revolutionise the retailing sector.
IIT Bombay, for instance, recently joined hands with Intellectual Ventures to seek support in marketing and licensing patents the institute holds.
India's second-largest private ship builder, Bharati Shipyard, which already holds 14.9 per cent stake Great Offshore, has said it will make an open offer to buy an additional 20 per cent. While P C Kapoor, MD, Bharati Shipyard, ruled out any possibility of a hostile takeover bid for Great Offshore, he had earlier said competitors such as Punj Lloyd and ABG Shipyard had shown an interest in buying Great Offshore shares from the open market.
Bharti Telecom, the unlisted holding company of Bharti Airtel, may issue fresh equity to the MTN group to give it the 25 per cent economic interest in India's largest mobile service provider.
Sony is hopeful of growing the fledgling Rs 410 crore console gaming industry in India with games that will be developed in India and will be essentially based on Indian storylines. The journey has begun with the launch of the first India developed game for the PS2 platform, Hanuman: Boy Warrior, which is based on the hit Indian animation film Hanuman.
In an earlier interview, chief operating officer N Chandrasekaran had voiced this concern and said TCS was taking some measures. The impact was also evident on the overall revenue contribution, which fell to 4.7 per cent in FY09 from 5.2 per cent in FY08. TCS' head for Apac, Girija Pandey, feels the region will continue to be volatile till they reach a certain level.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the company that cancelled a five-year contract of rig supply with Great Offshore on Thursday, is planning to issue a new tender. India's largest oil producer cancelled the contract as Mumbai-based Great Offshore could not supply the rig in time.
New Delhi-headquartered IT services provider HCL Technologies plans to cancel hedging contracts worth $600 million (around Rs 2,970 crore), as the rupee continues to remain at Rs 49-50 levels. These hedges, analysts opine, would be taken at a rate of around Rs 41.
Having spent the first 90 days meeting employees and key clients, Jeya Kumar, new CEO of Patni Computer Systems, is clearly in control. While he acknowledges concerns due to the current slowdown, he has started restructuring the company. He details the growth plans in a chat with Business Standard's Shivani Shinde.
Tata Motors, India's largest commercial vehicle maker, is in the process of raising Rs 5,000 crore through a bond issue to refinance the remaining $ 2 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) bridge loan it took to acquire Jaguar and Land Rover.
While the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has approved the access of TV on mobiles, service providers still cannot stream live TV channels on to the handset due to spectrum allocation from the Ministry of Information and Broadcast. However, since the regulations do not allow a direct transmission of TV channels, service providers as well as content providers have started using a technology called Unicast which provides content to end-user on a one-on-one basis.
"That plant has a high cost of production and it is not feasible to operate it when aluminium prices have dropped significantly," said a company executive. It has started reducing output and full closure is expected soon. Aluminium prices fell to $1,251 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange from last July's all-time high of $3,271, as the global credit crunch and economic slowdown curbed demand for the base metal. On Wednesday, the metal's LME price was $1,421 a tonne.
Over the next three to five years, according to a Credit Suisse report, these cheap laptops and netbooks could add 170-250 million units globally to the current figure of around 300 million units. Netbooks sales, alone, could be 25 million units in 2009.
Ripples of Indias largest corporate scam along with poor quarterly performance have made more than half of the actively traded companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opt not to disclose their fourth quarter un-audited results this month. Instead, they would announce only their annual audited results, before the end of June.
Wipro sees a silver lining in Q1; others say recovery by 2009-end.
"We have reduced the time period for improving skills. Earlier, if an employee would show even a small improvement, we would give an extension of a few more months. Henceforth, that will not be done," said Ajoy Mukherjee, vice-president and head, global human resources. The company will consider an employee's performance for the past three years so as to maintain consistency.
The National Aluminium Company (Nalco), India's second largest producer of the base metal, avoided a production cut by offering discounts to its key clients that helped it boost sales and trim rising inventory.
Tech Mahindra, the highest bidder for Satyam Computer Services, has tied up Rs 875 crore funding from mutual funds and insurance companies and is in talks with banks to mobilise Rs 1,000 crore bridge loans.
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