Sundar Sethuraman &Amp;Amp; Shivani Shinde

Stories by Sundar Sethuraman &Amp;Amp; Shivani Shinde

Meta Platforms' India staffers on edge over layoff media reports

Meta Platforms' India staffers on edge over layoff media reports

Rediff.com   8 Nov 2022

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.

Rights Issue See Sharp Decline

Rights Issue See Sharp Decline

Rediff.com   4 Nov 2022

The fundraising through rights issues in the first 10 months of 2022 is the lowest since 2016 during a similar period.

Google pauses in-house billing system in India on antitrust directive

Google pauses in-house billing system in India on antitrust directive

Rediff.com   2 Nov 2022

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.

Talent Cloud will address moonlighting: TCS

Talent Cloud will address moonlighting: TCS

Rediff.com   24 Oct 2022

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.

Rs 9000-cr worth of IPOs lined up for next few weeks

Rs 9000-cr worth of IPOs lined up for next few weeks

Rediff.com   17 Oct 2022

IPO market hopes to come out of slump in festive season, reports Sundar Sethuraman.

'AI is going to be used as a weapon by the bad guys'

'AI is going to be used as a weapon by the bad guys'

Rediff.com   17 Oct 2022

'This is a race where every technology can be used by the bad guys and good guys.'

Half of top 500 stocks trading below their 200-DMA, shows data

Half of top 500 stocks trading below their 200-DMA, shows data

Rediff.com   13 Oct 2022

The benchmark Nifty50 managed to reclaim its 200-day moving average (DMA) on Wednesday but about half of top 500 stocks continue to languish below this key technical indicator. The 200-DMA - nearly a year's average of closing prices - is analysed by traders to understand the market sentiment. A fall below these levels indicates a weak trend.

Unicorns feel funding winter chill; see fall in numbers

Unicorns feel funding winter chill; see fall in numbers

Rediff.com   10 Oct 2022

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 again faces legal action for age and gender discrimination in US

Infosys again faces legal action for age and gender discrimination in US

Rediff.com   8 Oct 2022

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 asks employees to report to office at least three days a week

Wipro asks employees to report to office at least three days a week

Rediff.com   5 Oct 2022

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".

Moonlighters beware: Companies may start using digital tools to track them

Moonlighters beware: Companies may start using digital tools to track them

Rediff.com   30 Sep 2022

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.

IT industry logged 25% attrition in FY22, trend to continue: Report

IT industry logged 25% attrition in FY22, trend to continue: Report

Rediff.com   30 Sep 2022

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.

TCS asks employees to work in office for at least three days a week

TCS asks employees to work in office for at least three days a week

Rediff.com   23 Sep 2022

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."

Tata Neu onboarding Titan by Diwali; TaMo & Air India next

Tata Neu onboarding Titan by Diwali; TaMo & Air India next

Rediff.com   19 Sep 2022

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.

Onboarding of e-commerce giants crucial to ensure success of ONDC

Onboarding of e-commerce giants crucial to ensure success of ONDC

Rediff.com   15 Sep 2022

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.

Small-caps outperform large-caps but fail to match mid-caps in August

Small-caps outperform large-caps but fail to match mid-caps in August

Rediff.com   8 Sep 2022

The small-cap universe outperformed large-caps, but failed to match the returns generated by mid-caps in August. The Nifty Smallcap 100 Index rose 4.9 per cent. By comparison, the Nifty50 Index rose 3.5 per cent and the Nifty Midcap 100 soared 6.2 per cent. This was only the third calendar month in 2022 when the small-cap index has outperformed the large-cap-oriented Nifty50 Index.

Online pharmacy platform Tata 1mg turns unicorn after raising $40 mn

Online pharmacy platform Tata 1mg turns unicorn after raising $40 mn

Rediff.com   7 Sep 2022

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.

TCS scraps anniversary hikes, to follow industry norm of annual raise

TCS scraps anniversary hikes, to follow industry norm of annual raise

Rediff.com   3 Sep 2022

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.

In August, markets log 3rd highest monthly FPI inflows since Covid outbreak

In August, markets log 3rd highest monthly FPI inflows since Covid outbreak

Rediff.com   1 Sep 2022

In August, domestic equity markets garnered one of the highest foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, despite the US Federal Reserve standing firm on unwinding its stimulus measures to control inflation. FPIs pumped in over Rs 51,000 crore ($6.4 billion) in August, the most since December 2020 and the third-highest tally since March 2020-the month the Covid-19 pandemic roiled global markets. This was the second consecutive month of positive foreign flows. In the preceding nine months, FPIs had yanked out over $32 billion or Rs 2.2 trillion.

India's valuation premium to emerging market peers at five-month high

India's valuation premium to emerging market peers at five-month high

Rediff.com   26 Aug 2022

A sharp rally in domestic stocks from June lows has once again rendered Indian markets expensive to their emerging-market (EM) peers. The 12-month forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple for the Nifty50 Index is around 20.6x - 82 per cent higher than 11.3 per cent for the MSCI EM Index. India's valuation premium has hit a five-month high. This is on the back of sharp outperformance to EM and global peers from June lows and also due to earnings downgrades, following the April-June quarter of 2022-23 earnings.