Shivani Shinde And Dev Chatterjee

Stories by Shivani Shinde And Dev Chatterjee

Zambia copper mine: Vedanta scouts for fundraise options

Zambia copper mine: Vedanta scouts for fundraise options

Rediff.com   24 Apr 2024

Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta Resources (VRL), which has hired Standard Chartered Bank to raise funds for its Konkola copper mine assets, says it is engaging with several potential partners for both short-term funds and long-term equity financing for the Zambian project. A Vedanta official said its commitment to optimising capital allocation and driving expansion is a key cornerstone of its strategy for the mines. It will enhance value creation and operationalise the Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).

Why 4,500 Indian IT Leaders Moved On

Why 4,500 Indian IT Leaders Moved On

Rediff.com   18 Apr 2024

With the rush of growth after the pandemic slowing down, many leaders are moving to firms that may be smaller but are growing much faster and have the headroom to grow.

What IT Majors Want In Their Hires

What IT Majors Want In Their Hires

Rediff.com   11 Apr 2024

Companies now require more than just academic marks; they seek students with internship experience or extra certification courses.

IT firms may report muted Q4 growth, eyes on FY25 guidance

IT firms may report muted Q4 growth, eyes on FY25 guidance

Rediff.com   10 Apr 2024

With the last quarter of 2023-24 (FY24) expected to have been soft owing to lower discretionary spend and macro uncertainty, many are hoping FY25 will be a year of recovery for the information-technology (IT) industry. The fourth quarter, January-March, is considered soft, and will continue to see the headwinds the sector has been facing. And the sector has entered the new financial year on a weak footing. Analysts are expecting Tier-I firms to report sequential growth of -1 per cent to 1.5 per cent and midcap players' growth may range between 0.7 per cent and 4 per cent.

Wipro's leadership crisis gets more severe with Thierry Delaporte's exit

Wipro's leadership crisis gets more severe with Thierry Delaporte's exit

Rediff.com   8 Apr 2024

The writing has been on the wall for some time. Exodus of senior leadership and growth behind its peers are reasons that have prompted Thierry Delaporte, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Wipro to resign, analysts said. Delaporte, Wipro's seventh CEO, also resigned without completing his five-year term, like his predecessor Abidali Neemuchwala decided to end his tenure prematurely in 2020. Phil Fersht, HFS Research CEO and chief analyst believes the change in leadership was at least six months overdue.

Srini Pallia's job as Wipro CEO: Drive growth, stem senior-level exits

Srini Pallia's job as Wipro CEO: Drive growth, stem senior-level exits

Rediff.com   8 Apr 2024

Wipro has once again chosen to bet on an insider who has grown through the ranks to lead the company. Srini Pallia has spent over three-decades at Wipro and it's the only company he has ever worked with. Till now, Pallia was heading the Americas-1 unit.

IPO-bound Oyo eyes Rs 100 crore PAT in Q4, 20% revenue growth in FY24

IPO-bound Oyo eyes Rs 100 crore PAT in Q4, 20% revenue growth in FY24

Rediff.com   5 Apr 2024

Oravel Stays, the parent company behind the travel tech brand Oyo, is eyeing to clock Rs 100 crore in Q4FY24 profit after tax (PAT) and a 20 per cent revenue growth for FY24, according to informed sources. These numbers were part of an internal review meeting between founder Ritesh Agarwal and senior management earlier this week, where he spoke about the company's profitability trajectory and growth in business.

PE investments plummet to 6-year low in FY24

PE investments plummet to 6-year low in FY24

Rediff.com   2 Apr 2024

Private equity (PE) investments in India have fallen to a 6-year low at $24.2 billion in the financial year ending March 2024. Investments via PE deals are down 47 per cent compared to FY23, when private equity deals worth $45.8 billion were signed. According to data sourced from Bloomberg, PE firms had signed record deals worth $80 billion in the financial year ending March 2022.

M&A activity in slow lane, deal value down 43%

M&A activity in slow lane, deal value down 43%

Rediff.com   1 Apr 2024

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in India have moved into the slow lane, dropping 43 per cent in terms of deal value to touch $13.37 billion since January this year to date, compared to the same period in the last year. According to data sourced from Bloomberg, Indian companies reported deal value worth $23.5 billion between January and March 22, 2023. Data Infrastructure Trust's acquisition of American Tower Corporation's India telecom towers business for $2.5 billion was the top deal for the ongoing quarter so far, followed by the Highway Infrastructure Trust's acquisition of PNC Infratech's road projects for $1.08 billion.

Meta And Google Get Ready For Lok Sabha Polls

Meta And Google Get Ready For Lok Sabha Polls

Rediff.com   30 Mar 2024

Meta is working closely with the Election Commission. This enables the Commission to flag unlawful content.

94 new Indian entrants to Hurun rich list

94 new Indian entrants to Hurun rich list

Rediff.com   27 Mar 2024

The global billionaires list witnessed as many as 94 new entrants from India, stated a report by Hurun India on Tuesday. Following a net addition of 84, the country's billionaire tally touched 271 with their combined wealth at $1 trillion, noted the report. Mukesh Ambani, chairman & managing director of Reliance Industries, is the only Indian to make it into the top 10 of the Hurun Global Rich List 2024, a ranking of billionaires in US dollar terms.

TCS likely to offer 7-8% salary hike to offsite staffers

TCS likely to offer 7-8% salary hike to offsite staffers

Rediff.com   26 Mar 2024

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services firm, is planning to increase salaries by an average of 7-8 per cent for its offsite employees and 2-4 per cent for its onsite staffers in 2024-25. High performers can expect a raise of 12-15 per cent. The company, which had a headcount of 603,305 as of December 31, 2023, will be closely looking at the promotions and the process may also get pushed to the first quarter of FY25, revealed a source on condition of anonymity, because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Tata Sons' net debt burden at eight-year low as cash reserves swell

Tata Sons' net debt burden at eight-year low as cash reserves swell

Rediff.com   18 Mar 2024

Tata Sons Private Limited, the holding company of the Tata group, witnessed a precipitous drop in its net debt to Rs 5,656 crore in the 10 months ended January this year, as its cash reserves burgeoned to Rs 9,516 crore during this period. Eight years ago, in 2015-16, Tata Sons reported a net debt of Rs 5,132 crore; from March 2017 until March 2023, this figure was above the Rs 14,700 mark, peaking at Rs 27,437 crore at the end of March 2019, according to data sourced from Capitaline. The company's gross debt nearly halved to Rs 15,173 crore until January 2024 on a standalone basis, down from a peak of Rs 31,363 crore reported in the financial year ended March 2019.

Google Restricts AI Use for India Election

Google Restricts AI Use for India Election

Rediff.com   14 Mar 2024

Google is also working with the Election Commission of India to enable people to easily discover critical voting information on its search platform -- like, how to register and how to vote -- in both English and Hindi.

Use of Indian languages key for increasing internet access in India: Report

Use of Indian languages key for increasing internet access in India: Report

Rediff.com   13 Mar 2024

Nearly 665 million Indians or 45 per cent of the rural population did not have access to the internet as of 2023. Difficulty in understanding internet procedures, insufficient awareness of its benefits, and a lack of interest have emerged as the top reasons for a gap in internet penetration in rural India, according to a joint report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar. "The proficiency of English in rural India is very low. While we have content in Hindi, the internet is English-heavy.

'In the long run, thanks to AI, we will need less talent'

'In the long run, thanks to AI, we will need less talent'

Rediff.com   12 Mar 2024

'If creative jobs can get disrupted, then left brain jobs like coding are easily disrupted. We are going through the journey of huge disruption.'

Overseas loans' share in total Adani group debt portfolio declines

Overseas loans' share in total Adani group debt portfolio declines

Rediff.com   5 Mar 2024

The share of foreign loans in total Adani group debt portfolio dropped to 61 per cent by September 2023 from 63 per cent as of March 2023, as the group repaid part of its foreign loans and refinanced part of older loans. The share of Indian lenders, on the other hand, rose to 39 per cent in the total debt pie in September 2023 from 37 per cent in March after a report by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research in January last year, which led to volatility in the share prices of group companies. The group's total debt remained static at Rs 2.26 trillion in the same period.

Adani in talks with sovereign funds to raise up to $2.6 bn

Adani in talks with sovereign funds to raise up to $2.6 bn

Rediff.com   26 Feb 2024

The Adani group is in advanced talks with top sovereign funds based in West Asia to raise up to $2.6 billion for its airport expansion and green hydrogen projects. The group, which expects to close the ongoing financial year ending March with Rs 80,000 crore of Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation), has held a series of road shows in London, Dubai, and Singapore with potential investors, briefing them about their future growth plans. The group's flagship, Adani Enterprises, may dilute part of its stake in the airport-holding firm and/or the green hydrogen business to these funds, which are keen to invest in the Indian infrastructure sector, said a source close to the development.

Majority of Capgemini's 2 billion euros investment in AI coming to India

Majority of Capgemini's 2 billion euros investment in AI coming to India

Rediff.com   22 Feb 2024

A bulk of the Paris-headquartered IT major Capgemini's proposed euro 2 billion investment over three years in artificial intelligence (AI) is coming to India, a top official of the company said here on Wednesday. The three areas where the European tech major is investing are talent acquisitions, talent reskilling and for partnerships and creating a centre of excellence (CoE). "We have announced we will be training 100,000 people by the first half of 2024.

AI framework to be presented by July: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

AI framework to be presented by July: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Rediff.com   21 Feb 2024

Calling out the need for a global consultative approach towards the creation of regulations around artificial intelligence (AI), Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for information technology, said India has taken the lead in framing such regulations. He also stated that these frameworks will be presented by June-July this year. "India has taken the lead in creating this draft paper.