IITians need to play a larger role in nation building and contribute to society. This could vary from mentorship, creation of jobs and broader wealth creation, said Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman and co-founder of Infosys Technologies Ltd, during the weekend.
Speaking after inaugurating a three-day annual convention and conference of Indian Institute of Architects in Bangalore, Nilekani said the new method would help reduce corruption, and enable drawing up of digital database of cities. He stressed the need for energy-efficient and sustainable buildings, and 'climate adaptation' in design.
Infosys Technologies Limited, the Bangalore-based consulting, IT services and business process management company, is leveraging its human resource (HR) development strategies to bring new business into its fold, said company's chief executive officer and managing director S Gopalakrishnan (Kris).
His stepping down from the NDTV board has now sparked off speculation over whether he too is going the Nandan Nilekani way to take up a governmental responsibility.
Infosys employees understand the environment in which we are operating. They interact with the clients, they see the situation, says Kris Gopalakrishnan.
The consolidated revenue of the country's second largest software exporter rose to Rs 6,198 crore
India's second-largest information technology services provider, Infosys Technologies, has issued letters to its employees stating they could opt for a one-year sabbatical to engage themselves in philanthropic activities. They would continue to draw 50 per cent of their salary during the period. Infosys crossed the 100,000-employee mark in India in the quarter ended September 30, 2008.
The company would focus only on expanding its existing facilities at an investment of around Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion), said S Gopalakrishnan, chief executive officer and managing director.
Infosys Technologies has emerged as India's best company to work for in 2009.
Huge short covering and strong buying from institutional players and traders alike helped the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or Sensex, to a six-month high on Wednesday.
The total headcount of Infosys and its subsidiaries stood at 104,850 employees as on March 31, 2009, the company said in a statement. 'During the quarter, Infosys and its subsidiaries added 4,935 employees (gross). The net addition during the quarter was 1,772,' it stated. In the entire financial year ended March 31, 2009, the company took on board 28,231 employees, but the net additions for the year were just 13,663.
Developed by the US Green Building Council, LEED Green Building System aims to promote design and construction practise that increases profitability while reducing the negative environmental impacts of buildings. The Bangalore-headquartered company was working with experts on the subject to employ the latest technologies in every aspect of energy consumption in areas like lighting and air-conditioning, the company said in its annual report filed with the SEC.
As the demand and costs for computing power soar, a core team at Infosys is undertaking a series of green IT initiatives that could help in raising the bar for green IT practices in the country.
While IT bellwether Infosys Technologies added 4,429 to its headcount in the last quarter, three of its employees were also in the news for the wrong reasons leading to two suspensions and one sacking in the IT firm.
Infosys already works with a communication services provider major in Western Europe in the digital TV space. The company has a solution called modular content accelerator which serves as an interface between stakeholders of consumer marketing and IT. The solution provides an operator the means to efficiently manage content catalogue, bundled offers and pricing, apart from providing interactive services through multi-media content storefront.
The survey takes into account factors such as financial reputation, vision, corporate reputation, quality and innovation.
"Satyam will give us the scale. This will make us stronger," says Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of the Freemont (California)-based IT services provider, iGate Corporation, and one of the suitors of the beleaguered IT corporation.
Grappling with falling sales and a dropping bottom line, companies have had no alternate but to put cost-cutting measures in place. Infosys, for example, has cut variable pay, made appraisals more stringent and asked employees to make a one time saving of $10.
'Fresh recruitments would start only after demand picks up.'
Infosys Technologies will delay its visit to campuses for recruitment this year. The software major normally starts the recruitment process during April or May.
The deal size was, however, not disclosed. T-Mobile is one of the world's largest mobile operators with more than 125 million customers worldwide and about 16.7 million customers in the UK itself.
Indian telecom czar Sunil Mittal and NRI businessman Anil Agarwal are among the four Indians featuring in the list of '48 Heroes of Philanthropy' compiled by business publication Forbes.
The Bangalore-headquartered company is believed to be evaluating two-three companies, which are in the revenue bracket of $100-200 million to eliminate some gaps that exist in its services offerings and increase focus on certain verticals, which have been least affected in the midst of the economic slowdown. It's reliably learnt that the company is looking at healthcare and energy and utilities as the two major areas for possible acquisitions.
Infosys, according to sources close to the development, bagged the pilot project emerging as the lowest bidder (L1) in a competitive bidding process, which was attended by most Indian IT services firms and global companies like Siemens and IFS.
Within days of his appointment as International Advisor on Information Technology to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, IT czar N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday quit from the post citing personal reasons.
This is the highest cover offered by any insurance company, under any single employer-employee group life insurance policy in India, Thomas Mathew T, managing director, LIC, told media. The policy between Infosys and LIC was initated in 2002 with a uniform cover of Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) per employee covering 12,000 employes for a total sum of Rs 1791 crore (Rs 17.91 billion).
Industry body Nasscom on Wednesday said it has formed a corporate governance and ethics committee to prevent Satyam-like incidents in future.
IT major Infosys Technologies Ltd is not seeing any trend towards downward pressure on pricing by clients, its CEO and managing director S Gopalakrishnan said on Wednesday. "We are not seeing any trend towards driving down pricing", Gopalakrishnan told reporters in response to questions on the sidelines of a press conference of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).
Infosys Technologies has placed around 5 per cent of its global workforce under the scanner. The move, which is being seen as an offshoot of the global financial meltdown, is expected to affect over 5,000 of the 100,000-plus employees on the company's rolls.
Nandan Nilekani, who has been appointed as head of the Unique Identification Authority, said he would ensure there is no conflict between his present role and the interests of Infosys Technologies.
Nandan Nilekani will have the responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identity card scheme and shall own and operate the UID database. The authority was notified on January 28 this year as an attached office under the aegis of the Planning Commission with an initial core team of 115 officials and staff. The scheme will be implemented in three years.
"We plan to hire 2,000 people in the next four-five months or by the end of this fiscal. Currently we are 16,000 people in India."
India has now seen a positive growth and youngsters have greater responsibility to make this growth sustainable, non-executive chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies, N R Narayana Murthy, said on Saturday.
Though Infosys did not elaborate why it has parked more money with PSBs, bankers indicated the prime reason was the high deposit rates. Large private players such as ICICI Bank, which were till early last year offering higher interest rates, have withdrawn from that segment. In contrast, till November-end, PSBs were offering up to 400 basis points higher on bulk deposits to mop up resources for the increase in demand for loans.
Infosys made this position clear, a day after its chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy reiterated that his company would not act on any CVs received from Satyam employees to ensure that nothing is done that would adversely impact the Hyderabad-based firm's future.
India's second-largest IT services firm, Infosys Technologies, has set up a separate unit within its business process outsourcing arm (Infosys BPO) to concentrate solely on the domestic BPO market.
Reacting to the horrific blasts that ripped through Bengaluru, India's third-largest software company, Infosys Technologies Ltd, said that it had increased security on its campus and that all its employees are safe.
Looking at the forthcoming year, while there will be macroeconomic challenges, industry in India is better off because we are still growing. If we manage the next 12-18 months, we should emerge stronger, says S Gopalakrishnan.
Flush with cash and stung by the rising value of the rupee against the US currency, Indian information technology companies are venturing into diverse geographies -- from Brazil to Ecuador.
Despite wage hikes, an appreciating rupee, and fewer working days nibbling at their profit margins during the quarter ended December 31, 2007, the five IT majors Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services and HCL Technologies posted revenue and net profit figures that were in line with market expectations.