Most economists expect the global economy to weaken in the coming year amid political and financial volatility, but a large majority of over 90 per cent are confident of moderate or strong growth in South Asia, notably India, a survey showed on Friday. At the same time, the outlook for China has dimmed following signs of deflationary pressures and fragility in the country's real estate market, the World Economic Forum's latest 'Chief Economists Outlook' report said. As the world grapples with political and financial volatility, almost six in 10 believe the global economic outlook will undermine progress towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with 74 per cent saying geopolitical tensions will have the same effect.
'The estimated expenditure is expected to be more than double the Rs 60,000 crore spent in 2019'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the "overwhelming" response he has received on the Digital India initiative has inspired him to hold a Digital Dialogue with the tech enthusiasts of the country.
India, the world's fifth largest economy in the world, is likely to overtake Japan to become the world's third-largest economy with a GDP of $7.3 trillion by 2030, S&P Global Market Intelligence said in its latest issue of PMI. After two years of rapid economic growth in 2021 and 2022, the Indian economy has continued to show sustained strong growth during the 2023 calendar year. India's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow 6.2-6.3 per cent in the fiscal year ending in March 2024, being the fastest-growing major economy this fiscal year.
"Our strategic investments, backed by strong client relationships and client spends towards enterprise modernisation and digital transformation have enabled us to deliver a very satisfying quarter," Wipro CEO and executive director Abidali Z Neemuchwala said.
Intel Capital is the 12th company to join the list of marquee firms who have recently invested in Jio Platforms, taking the total investment amount to Rs 1,17,588.45 crore.
'It has been a wonderful experience since she independently manages the show without much of interference,' says IT professional Baudhayan Lahiri.
Rediff.com did a word cloud analysis (see the image below) of the Prime Minister Modi's speech at the Digital India dinner meet.
The country's second-largest IT services firm Infosys on Wednesday reported a 16.6 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,197 crore for the December 2020 quarter. The company had posted a net profit (after minority interest) of Rs 4,457 crore in the year-ago period, Infosys said in a regulatory filing. Its revenue grew 12.3 per cent to Rs 25,927 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 23,092 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
Businesses of various scales can improve productivity and affordability of their products and services by building tech intensity, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said. Nadella noted that organisations globally are undergoing digital transformation amid the COVID pandemic, and that trends like hybrid work, hyperconnected business and multi-cloud environments require "a boundaryless digital ecosystem where trust between different parties needs to be established in real-time". "Digital technology is a powerful deflationary force in an inflationary economy. Businesses - small and large - can improve their productivity as well as the affordability of their products and services by building tech intensity," he said.
Currently, TCS is India's second most valuable firm after Reliance Industries, which has a market cap of nearly Rs 12.9 trillion.
Why is the government unwilling to disclose the winners of its DigiDhan Yojana?
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
"Emerging fields, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of things, blockchain, and big data can take India to new heights of development, and improve the quality of life of its citizens," he said, adding for India, this is not just an industrial transformation, but a social transformation.
'We need more support from states to back budding talents from not-so-affluent families.'
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported an 11 per cent drop in its June quarter net profit largely due to weak oil-to-chemical (O2C) vertical and higher interest and depreciation cost. Net profit was Rs 16,011 crore, or Rs 23.66 per share, in April-June - the first quarter of current 2023-24 fiscal year - compared with Rs 17,955 crore, or Rs 26.54 a share, earning a year back, according to a company's stock exchange filing.
'A lot of the emphasis when we hire graduates is the learning for these new technologies -- whether it's cloud and digital data analytics, cybersecurity, or IoT, but also some of the new ones, such as Metaverse or other newer areas.'
In 2017, when Infosys announced that Salil Parekh would be its next chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD), very few in the industry or the analyst community doubted his ability to bring the company back to a healthy growth trajectory, improve morale within the company and, more importantly, win the promoters' trust and investor confidence. There were reasons for this confidence. He was not only the deputy CEO of the Paris-headquartered IT services major Capgemini, but also one of the only non-European faces on the executive board of the company.
E-commerce companies have understood the importance of having their own in-house wallet, explaining their acquisition spree, says Manoranjan Mohapatra.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Indonesian city of Bali from November 14 to 16 to attend the G-20 summit, the ministry of external affairs announced on Thursday.
Strong macroeconomic headwinds causing turbulence in the $245-billion Indian IT industry are yet to calm down. Top Indian IT services companies are likely to post a decline or just marginal growth in sequential revenue in Q1FY24 because of a soft discretionary spending environment. Though the first quarter is seasonally strong for IT firms, "June 2023 will be an exception", according to analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities.
'The structural story of India is a multi-decadal story.' 'One should stay invested in that story and avoid reacting to what is happening globally.'
Japanese agri-equipment firm Kubota is taking cues from Suzuki Motor's strategy to establish India as its global production hub, according to a report by Nikkei Asia. The acquisition of Escorts in 2022, leading to the rebranding as Escorts Kubota, a prominent tractor manufacturer in India, which held the fourth-largest global market share, offered Kubota a crucial foothold in the Indian and international markets, complementing its strengths with Escorts' established presence.
ICICI Bank share price hits record high, ICICI Bank m-cap tops $100 billion: Shares of ICICI Bank have been on a steady uptrend, rising 30 per cent over the past one year; not far behind Axis Bank stock that surged over 34 per cent during the period. The BSE Sensex, meanwhile, is up 25 per cent, and the BSE BANKEX 22 per cent in the last one year, ACE Equity data shows. On Wednesday, June 26, ICICI Bank shares hit a fresh record high for the third consecutive day, rising 2 per cent on the BSE in the intraday trade.
The climate for 'doing business' remains forbidding, taxtortion is still rife, corruption at state and district levels has increased, oil prices remain extortive with high taxation, and the continued red tape has kept the enterprise system as stifled as before, points out Debashis Basu.
Betting big on the 'Internet of Things' as the third major wave in technology space, IT major TCS' chief N Chandrasekaran has said that going digital was no more an option, but a default now.
Speaking at a fireside chat with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he said the big change driving this transformation was the deepening of mobile networks which were working at a much faster pace than before.
The new entity will continue to work on technologies in areas like healthcare and education, while also looking at next-gen competencies like artificial intelligence, Blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, among others.
Google said safety, affordability and expanded use cases for the next wave of users will be the pillars to get the next 700 million users online.
Though India is not a member of the G-7 grouping, Modi has been personally invited by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The first-quarter performance of top IT services players, as well as mid-cap firms, has been subdued, reflecting macro uncertainties. The numbers of the top four firms show several misses, hinting at difficult times ahead. One mismatch is the total contract value (TCV) signed by the firms and the revenue growth registered.
Branch additions for most major banks in the current financial year do not correspond to the number of the past two years.
Mumbai-born author Salman Rushdie has endorsed Kamala Harris's candidacy for the US presidency and said he believes she is the person who can prevent former president Donald Trump from dragging the country towards authoritarianism.
Internet giant Google will invest USD 1 billion in telecom major Bharti Airtel, which includes equity investment as well as a corpus for potential commercial agreements, to be identified and agreed on mutually agreeable terms over the course of the next five years.
On his three-day trip, the Microsoft CEO will meet governments and businesses to get them to use the company's platforms.
Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said one of the primary focus areas of Digital India is Pillar 5: eKranti - electronic delivery of services.
Hiring activity in the country touched an all-time high in July, witnessing a 11 per cent sequential increase, indicating a strong revival of economic growth and a recovery of business from the impact of COVID-19, a report said on Friday. With 2,625 job postings, hiring trends grew 11 per cent in July compared with 2,359 postings in June, the highest it has ever been, including the pre-COVID-19 timeline, according to the report by Naukri JobSpeak. The Indian job market has witnessed sequential growth for the second month in a row, with a 15 per cent rise in June, after the pandemic-linked decline in April and May, it stated.
The Bengaluru-based company had registered a net profit (after minority interest) of Rs 5,197 crore a year ago, a regulatory filing said. Infosys' revenue grew 22.9 per cent to Rs 31,867 crore in the quarter ended December 2021 from Rs 25,927 crore in the year-ago period, it added.
Analysts have given a thumbs up to the Reliance Industries (RIL) and Walt Disney Co. (Disney) proposed a joint venture (JV). The stock of the Mukesh Ambani-controlled company gained nearly 1.5 per cent on Thursday to Rs 2,952 levels as compared to the S&P BSE Sensex that traded marginally weak, down 0.2 per cent to 72,172 levels in intra-day trades.
'My simple instruction to every IBM salesperson is, "When you go to the customer, use less of this (he points to his mouth) and more of this (ear)".' 'Talk less, listen more",' Karan Bajwa tells Raghu Krishnan.