Slowing growth and execution challenges for Cognizant (CTSH) may well allow Infosys to overtake the former after a decade. Cognizant had marched ahead of Infosys in terms of revenue in the first quarter of financial year 2012-13. The Nasdaq-listed IT services firm's performance in Q3 and the guidance for Q4 and full-year 2022 suggest that it could take time for Cognizant to see the expected improvement in performance from its decision to restructure.
US media reports that Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, could be the latest technology giant to downsize its workforce have triggered trepidation among its 300-400 employees in India, according to people familiar with the matter. "We have not heard much about the impact (of downsizing) on India. "It's a wait-and-watch situation. Certainly, there is uncertainty," said a source.
Google has said that it is pausing enforcement of Google Play billing system (GPBS) for developers in India. This comes after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty of Rs 2,275 crore in two cases and an immediate cease-and-desist order of its policies of running the Android Mobile device and Play Store ecosystem. In a statement, the company said, "Following the CCI's recent ruling, we are pausing enforcement of the requirement for developers to use Google Play's billing system for the purchase of digital goods and services for transactions by users in India.
In the future of work, companies will have to embrace terms like moonlighting, gig work, flexi work as 'on-demand talent in a Cloud' can be a reality, says Milind Lakkad, chief human resource officer of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). In some form or the other, gig work, flexiworking - and even moonlighting - will have to be welcomed by companies, says Lakkad. As a first step towards embracing these, TCS is trying to bring all these opportunities for its own employees within the company.
'This is a race where every technology can be used by the bad guys and good guys.'
Foreign currency loans raised by Indian companies nosedived to $210 million in the September quarter (Q2), 93.3 per cent less than the year-ago period when five firms raised $3.1 billion. The Q2 amount is the lowest since December 2003 quarter when India Inc raised $191 million. Companies cited volatility in the currency markets, sharp rise in interest rates in the United States, and fund availability in India as the main reasons behind the sharp fall.
Fuelled by the $57.8-billion merger of HDFC twins (HDFC Ltd and HDFC Bank), M&A (merger and acquisition) transactions in India touched a record high of $124.2 billion in the first half of 2022-23. Bankers said with several transactions, including the government's stake sale in IDBI Bank and Hindustan Zinc in the pipeline, the ongoing financial year will end up as the best year for M&A activity in the country. Apart from the HDFC transaction, the $6.5-billion acquisition of Holcim stake by the Adani family and L&T's $3.2-billion acquisition of Mindtree added to the record transactions in the first half of FY23.
The drying up of funds for a number of start-ups is affecting the firms' unicorn status across the globe. The past six months have seen the valuations of 147 unicorns drop, of which 71 were from the US and 29 from China, according to the latest Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2022. Eighty-one unicorns from across the globe saw their valuations drop below $1 billion-the threshold for a start-up to be labelled unicorn-from last year.
Infosys Technologies is being sued again by a former senior employee for discrimination on the basis of age, gender and ethnicity while hiring in the US. The suit filed by Jill Prejean, vice-president of talent acquisition, has alleged that the company discriminated and retaliated when she tried to point out the discriminatory actions. Infosys' motion to dismiss the claims made by Prejean was rejected by a judge from the United States District Court Southern District of New York.
Wipro on Tuesday asked its employees to be in office at least three days a week. It has informed its employees that offices will be open for four days a week, starting October 10. In an e-mail to its employees, Wipro said: "Starting October 10, Wipro's office will be open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays. We will not be open on Wednesdays." The company said in the e-mail, seen by Business Standard, that the move will "help us enjoy the camaraderie and team spirit of connecting in person while maintaining hybrid work flexibility".
India Inc is not in the dark about moonlighting employees. According to a forensic accountant, companies can easily turn to experts and deploy digital tools that can be used to check if an employee is doing a second job or not - reaffirming fears of many who are wary of the practice in the context of the recent sacking of moonlighters by IT major Wipro. Arpinder Singh, global markets and India leader, forensic and integrity services, EY, said that EY had been involved with several companies to gauge moonlighting.
The Indian IT industry recorded 25.2 per cent employee attrition in FY22 and that pain will continue as it loses talent to other industries, said a report by TeamLease. The attrition in the contract staffing industry is predicted to touch at least 50 per cent in FY23 compared to 49 per cent in FY22, said the report called 'Brain Drain: Tackling the great talent exodus in IT sector'. Company policies, payment and work flexibility is making talent move, as non-technology firms step up demand. "Tech talent in non-tech companies will see 3X growth in the coming years, opening up approx 1 million new tech jobs by 2025.
The Piramal group and Zurich Insurance have decided to jointly bid for Reliance General Insurance, a subsidiary of Reliance Capital. The groups had earlier submitted separate bids for the general insurance business of bankrupt Reliance Capital. Both Piramal and Zurich will hold 50 per cent each in the proposed special purpose vehicle (SPV).
India's largest IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is mandating its employees to be back in office for three days a week. Teams will have to work with their team leaders, and the human resources team which three day's best suits them. In an email that went out to employees over the past two days, which Business Standard has seen, said: "As part of our return to office initiative, all TCSers are expected to work from office at least three days in a week."
The Tata group is planning to invest $90 billion in new industries such as mobile components plant, semiconductor, electric vehicles, batteries, renewables energy and e-commerce by 2027. The Tata group's investment in India is far higher than the $75-billion investments planned by Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries and $55-billion investment planned by the Adani group in the next five years in the country, the Economist reported recently. The investment by the Tata group is a shift in its strategy to focus more in the home markets instead of international markets where the group lost money.
Close to six months since the launch of Tata Neu, the super application (app) from Tata Sons Group is all set for a revamp. The highlights include a reimagined rewards programme or NeuPass, a more seamless user experience by increasing the digital maturity of brands, adding more brands to the platform, and hiring category leaders to drive the next phase of growth. When it comes to brands, Titan will join Tata Neu by Diwali. Tata Motors and Air India will be on board after the Festival of Lights.
When Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was conceived last December, the idea was to reduce the dominance of e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. It was also to bring in a level-playing field for small merchants in India's fragmented but fast-growing $1-trillion retail market. However, those goals have changed now as large e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon and Ecom Express are in various levels of talks with the ONDC team. They want to form partnerships like integrating with the network as well as providing their expertise to build it, according to the industry sources.
The Adani group said Reliance Infrastructure, part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, had initiated arbitration on one specific dispute under the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) in December 2021 with a claim for just Rs 500 crore. Adani said it has filed counterclaims against the Ambani company. The Adani group firm, Adani Electricity was reacting to a Reliance Infrastructure statement of last week, which said it has filed an arbitration claim of Rs 13,400 crore against Adani Group in the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA). Reliance had cited a breach of a December 2017 share purchase agreement relating to the transfer of its Mumbai power distribution business to Adani Transmission.
Online pharmacy platform Tata 1mg turned a unicorn after raising close to $40 million in a funding round led by Tata Digital, media reports said. The company was yet to comment on the valuations till the time of going to press. 1mg has raised $230.8 million across 16 rounds, including this one.
The IT major will give an anniversary hike for lateral hires as they complete a year at the company. And, these employees were entitled to the annual salary revision that followed the anniversary hikes.
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