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.
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.
Information technology firms, which are already in trouble due to the slowdown in their key markets, are now facing payment delays. Many firms said collections cycles (receivables) are getting extended.
Venture capitals in India, which traditionally invested in urban segments or technology sector, have begun investing in rural-centric technology firms. Avishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, Acumen Fund, and Rural Innovations Network are showing increased focus on rural markets.
On the back of a global meltdown, big-ticket firms may not be flocking at the premier Indian Institute of Technology campuses. IITians, however, have not lost all hope. Many are looking at start-ups for their first jobs.
Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent, does not consider India as a low-cost destination. Rather he does not like to use the word offshore in the context of India. "If it is just about cost then I would not have been in India but to some other low-cost country. For me, India is a high talent country," he adds. As the person who was heading British Telecom's operations before taking over Alcatel-Lucent, he has pushed over a billion dollar of outsourcing work to India.
The IT industry, which has already taken a hit of more than Rs 500 crore in the second quarter because of the appreciating dollar against the rupee, will now be hit by adverse cross-currency movements even as they attempt to boost the share of revenue from the UK and the Eurozone. Unfortunately, the hit will be despite attempts by software makers to step up hedging in the pound and the euro. The IT industry earns about 60 per cent of its revenue from the US.
Industry insiders as well as sector experts said that companies are unlikely to miss this opportunity to rationalise bloated boom-time salaries.
In fact, firms like NIIT Technologies and EXL Services are already reaping the benefit of the first- mover advantage with over 20 per cent of their revenues coming from non-linear business in the quarter ended September 30. A non-linear business' focus moves away from the tendency to measure growth on the basis of headcount or the concept that the more the number of people working, the more the revenue.
India's mid-cap software companies may shed as much as 10 per cent of their workforce as revenues and margins have shrunk owing to a global slowdown, analysts say.
Indian clean technology businesses are finally catching the attention of investor community. New Ventures India - founded by World Resources Institute and CII-Godrej Green Business Centre - aims to fund 50 entrepreneurs in this segment by 2010 with a target investment of $250 million
With India's two leading IT outsourcing companies, Infosys and HCL Technologies, vying to acquire the UK-based consulting firm Axon, SAP implementation is back in focus.
After the dramatic end of the Star-Balaji proposed joint venture -- formed to launch regional channels -- Balaji has signed a content deal with leading southern broadcaster Sun Network. Balaji's move will set the battleground between Star and Balaji as the Murdoch company is believed to be partnering with Kerala-based broadcaster Asianet for its regional foray.
At least three major broadcasting companies have held discussions on forming a combine, the first of its kind, to counter the might of media buying houses in dictating commercial air-time rates.
A day after the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that players can be transferred for the second edition of the DLF Indian Premier League team, owners are already drawing up their wish lists.
Small-budget films seem to be raking in the moolah for production houses. Little wonder that filmmakers like Ghai, Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt and Pritish Nandy have over the years stuck to making small-budget films in the range of Rs 10-15 crore (Rs 100-150 million).
The venture, on the lines of Kishore Biyani's Future Ventures India, will focus its investments in the information technology sector, said a source familiar with the development.
What started as a trickle three years ago has now hit big time with music companies putting more and more songs on iTunes. "Three years back, when we started off, Bollywood filmmakers were not very bullish about promoting music content on a global platform. Under iTunes' world category of songs, Bollywood certainly features in the top three," said Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama Mobile. The company has been responsible for making Bollywood music available on iTunes.
The company is in talks with a few private banks and has signed on Citibank as one of the bankers to raise these funds, said sources. HCL Technologies and Citibank declined to comment saying that 'they do not comment on market speculation'.
Plans another $1-billion fund, wants to expand core team in India.
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