Of the 2,562 customer complaints received between January 2020 and March 2021, a majority relate to illegal apps. At least two dozen suicide cases have been reported, perpetrated by the harassment by loan app operators, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
How is it that Western society is willing to pay the short-term price for technological progress and we, in India, find it so tough?
Companies are increasingly sending IT work to hubs outside India. They're saving money but facing a whole new raft of challenges.
Their favourite alternatives: Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Note, India is missing from that list. And this is despite an attractive financial incentive scheme for OSAT players. The reason, said a senior executive of a US chip company who had a meeting in Taiwan just a few weeks ago, is that "they want more predictability in government policy because they plan to put in big money."
With the objective of curbing paper leaks in government recruitment exams, the Gujarat legislative assembly has unanimously passed a bill that provides for up to 10 years in prison for such malpractices.
Notably, both the meetings were presided over by Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, who was sworn in as a minister earlier this week with environment, forestry and climate change portfolio.
The new rules are aimed at providing a strong impetus to the industry and positioning India as one of the most competitive IT jurisdictions in the world.
Political power has now been outsourced fully to the Modi government. Even if the RSS is still, in principle, his guru, nobody would dare to whisper a word of advice to Modi, forget some whiff of criticism. When the shishya grows into such a popular and domineering leader, the guru has to applaud from the sidelines, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The second quarter of FY22 continued to show double digit growth for the top four IT services providers, with every vertical and geography growing well, even though the total contract value (TCV) looked soft for all the players. The trend was first evident in Accenture's Q4 numbers, which saw its TCV in outsourcing deals softer. A soft TCV does not mean that growth is declining, but it does point to the trend of few and scarcer mega deals.
With its new premium Primus and Ampere NXG, it is targeting buyers seeking a faster and more stylish ride
We believe American workers should never have to subsidize the loss of their own job, he said.
In January, Visa's chief executive officer, Al Kelly, said during an earnings call that "there's been a burst of the balloon in valuations in the fintech world". Noting that the trend of lower valuations "is a helpful characteristic of the current environment", he added: "We will look for capabilities and management teams that will bring more value to Visa than we can bring ourselves." Data from KPMG's Pulse of Fintech H2'22 shows that global fintech investment - via mergers and acquisitions (M&As), private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms - at $164.1 billion in 2022, was down 31 per cent over the year before. Indian fintechs held up better during this timeframe, attracting $6 billion, or a fall of 24 per cent.
Mumbai-based Indian Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ISMC) and Singapore-headquartered IGSS Ventures have one strategy in common: They have told the government in their application for semiconductor fabrication plants that they will export the bulk of the chips they make in India in the initial five or 10 years. The third applicant, Vedanta-Foxconn, which is also building a fab plant, has said it will concentrate on the needs of consumer electronics and mobile device markets, and earmark 80 per cent of output for domestic consumption, but has not specified its customers. Finding a viable domestic market could well be the biggest challenge for India's renewed tryst with semiconductors. Fab plants do not sell directly to end users but to intermediary chip design companies - such as Qualcomm or MediaTek.
'See, nobody asked "Michael Jackson arrey, aap aaj kal toh filmon mein nahi gaate ho".' 'The problem is in India, a lot of undue importance is given to film singing.'
Some analysts also pointed out that "outsourcing" political management to regional satraps such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana may have proven counterproductive and micromanagement by the Gandhi family was needed.
Jobs in HR, administration and recruitment have seen a substantial rise as per Monster data with a 42% growth in job posting activity.
'Where was the armed police?' 'Did you see armed constables around him?' 'There was deep negligence by the UP police and this was a deep conspiracy.'
'As long as businesses do not consider cyber recovery an integral part of their enterprise IT, they remain greatly vulnerable.'
Some of India's largest companies have seen a slowdown in the growth of temporary, contract and casual jobs, as compared to the increase in their total workforce. The absolute number of such jobs is up 30 per cent between financial year 2017-18 and 2021-22 (FY18-22), shows an analysis of data collated from the annual reports of S&P BSE 100 companies. Forty-eight firms were considered for the final analysis based on the availability of uniform data across the last five years. In comparison, the total workforce numbers are up 36 per cent in the same period.
In March this year, when Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) unveiled a new brand statement of "Building on Belief", many wondered if it was the right strategy. When things are uncertain, wouldn't a brand statement such as "Experience Certainty" have been better? But for Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO & MD, TCS, it was all about the way the company was looking at business. As Gopinathan explained over a video call, "Today, we have over 1,000 customers and 98 per cent of our business is repeat business; our relevance to customers should continue, and to increase.
Major IT firms such as Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Cyient, and L&T Technology Services have direct exposure to Boeing or its suppliers' ecosystem, which comprises engine manufacturers, body suppliers, and avionics providers. These firms provide services like application development, testing, engineering, avionics, and business process management for the Boeing 737 Max programme.
'Khalistanis can be divided into three categories: Firstly, hardcore ideological people. They are microscopic, not even 1%.' 'Secondly, those who consider Khalistan a business.' 'The third category that has built the narrative of Khalistan are those who gain from polarisation.'
Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the energy portfolio, held a meeting with trade union representatives and later said the government had no intention to privatise state-run power utilities.
More than 1,600 employees of Air India, the former state-run carrier now owned by the Tata group, have opted for voluntary retirement under a scheme announced on June 1. These employees comprise 22 per cent of permanent staff (around 7,000). The airline has a total employee strength of around 10,800, including those on contract.
Reliance Retail has entered the Indian fast-moving consumer goods space as it takes its private label brands, sold at its supermarkets and hypermarkets, Reliance Fresh and Reliance Smart, to general trade. The company had internally set a target of Rs 50,000 crore turnover from the FMCG business, which will fall under Reliance Retail's consumer brand division. Business Standard accessed a presentation which includes the brands it has taken to the general trade.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has directed the chief secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party for political advertisements it published in the guise of government advertisements, official sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asserted that there is a "huge difference" between pre- and post-2014 India, saying the country is now moving ahead at an "unprecedented speed and scale" as he showcased the achievements of his term in power to the Indian diaspora in Indonesia.
The analyst community tracking the Indian IT services industry took special note of Accenture's first quarter (Q1) performance, which showcased the rapid growth of its consulting business that outperformed its outsourcing business. Bookings indicate that the trend will continue. Consulting bookings increased 41.6 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to $9.4 billion, higher than the 17.6 per cent growth in outsourcing to $7.4 billion. The management commentary was also more bullish on the consulting business.
'I will make sure criticism of business practices which harm American workers doesn't generate a backlash against Indian Americans, the same way trade disputes with Japan in the 1980s led to incidents of anti-Asian bigotry,' says John Kerry.
Ola Electric will roll out its complete offering of electric scooters and motorcycles in each segment of the market - premium, mass premium, and economical - in the next 12 months in a bid to push for a near-full conversion of the two-wheeler market to electric in three years. According to Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola Electric, "ICE (internal combustion engine) products will fall off a cliff." He also says the company is aiming to become profitable next year.
'Outsourcing and offshoring are realities. The clock cannot be turned back. The train has left the station and it will not be going back,' says Dilip R Vellodi, founder, Sutherland Global Services.
Attrition in India is expected to stay high as 34 per cent of the employees are extremely or very likely to shift to a new job in the next 12 months, a survey showed on Thursday. PwC's "India Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022" provided insights into important employee aspirations, drivers, and expectations from their workplace in the next 12 months. Among all the age groups, millennials are most likely to seek new employment, with 37 per cent stating that they are "extremely or very likely" to switch. For Gen Z and Gen X, this figure stands at 33 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively.
According to outsourcing advisors and experts, while almost half of the deals are likely to see delay, the others are expected to be renewed at a lower price as enterprises ask for discounts in roll-over contracts.
While for clients it has led to increased outsourcing, they are no more worried about which shore the service providers are executing the project in - offshore, onshore or near-shore - because remote working has become the standard norm in the industry, giving rise to a "no shore" kind of model.
The Indian film industry is now luring foreign producers too for investment. Many Hollywood movies are now being outsourced to the country for visual effects. Major Hollywood studios like Viacom, NBC, Universal, Dream Works, besides Warner Bros., Sony and Disney have also made investments in India's entertainment sector. According to a Ficci report, Indian entertainment and media industry is poised to grow at an annual rate of 18 per cent by 2011 faster than its counterparts.
'Is baar vote jati par nahi, kaam par milega.'
Presenting his fifth Rail Budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad said that professional agencies were being involved on a pilot basis to ensure cleanliness in running trains.
