Category Archives: Business & Economy

World’s first cross-border Silicon Valley-Bangalore hackathon zeroes in on collaboration

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Bangalore and Silicon Valley are set to simultaneously host their first joint hackathon, which will see over 200 developers working together to create new collaboration applications.

The two-day hack fest that links Silicon Valley and Bangalore is aimed at creating a new generation of open and innovative collaboration tools.

According to the Enterprise Innovation, these tolls will be built over new open APIs (application programming interface), including WebRTC.

Tata Communications  announced it would sponsor the ‘Future of Collaboration’ hackathon by providing 75,000 dollars in cash and prizes.

Tata said that by crowd sourcing the best minds across California and India , the hackathon provides a gateway to rapidly develop, prototype and innovate applications using new web standards to address everyday collaboration challenges, the report added.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-ANI> Business / ANI / New Delhi – June 24th, 2013

Biocon rides growth wave on diversification

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Biopharma company Biocon is seeing increasing demand for its contract research services in allied areas such as agrochemicals, petrochemicals, and even electronics — into which it has recently expanded — as an offshoot of its core biopharmeceuticals and biologics research expertise.

While biopharma is by far its main revenue-yielding area for research services, the firm says the diversification into other segments gives it the dexterity to maintain the growth momentum.

The research services subsidiary Syngene and the clinical research arm Clinigene together crossed the $100-million revenue mark in FY13, growing 36% over the previous fiscal. Syngene, in which GE Capital last year bought a 7.69% stake for R125 crore, is looking at going public in FY15.

“Our strategy at Syngene and Clinigene is to build a comprehensive range of discovery and development services to enable us to offer increased and integrated support,” said Peter Bains, director of Syngene International, at a recent interaction. “We see demand growing against that background in the biopharmaceuticals sector, the pharmaceuticals and the biologics sector. We also see increased demand in associated areas like agrochemicals, veterinary and even some which could be considered more remote, like petrochemicals and electronics.”

The entry into some of these remotely connected areas began 2-3 years ago as an extension of the work the material science division was doing, mostly relating to formulation development in polymers for the release profiles for pharmaceuticals. “This is a relatively small component of our business. What is important is that we can diversify our customer base,” said Bains.

The diversification, however, had begun earlier with research into nutritional science followed by agrochemicals and veterinary science.

Biocon’s contract research services — India’s largest contract research organisation and Asia’s second largest after China’s WuXi AppTec — says it sees potential for more applications from polymer and material science. Demand for contract-based research in drug discovery and development is typically driven by the productivity challenges that life sciences companies face in innovation, which has led to an increase in the allocation of work to an external research agency as well as collaboration.

source: http://www.financialexpress.com / The Financial Express / Home> FE> Story / by Ajay Sukumaran / Bangalore – June 21st, 2013

Wipro hires former Lloyds executive for banking business

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Jun 13, 2013 (Menafn – Mint – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)

Wipro Ltd has hired former Lloyds Banking Group executive Ganesh Balasubramanian to create a new unit focused on banking products and platforms, as part of a move to shore up its banking and financial services business that has lagged rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

India’s third largest software exporter, which recently hived off its non-information technology business units and started trading as a stand-alone IT stock, has named Balasubramanian as senior vice-president of its newly created banking products and platforms business, according to people familiar with the development who requested anonymity.

Balasubramanian, who previously was the chief technology officer at Lloyds Banking Group, will take up the role in July and report directly to Wipro chief executive T.K. Kurien.

Soumitro Ghosh, who has headed Wipro’s global financial services business since 2008, will continue in his current role and report to Kurien.

Wipro, which gets more than a quarter of its revenue from the financial services business, confirmed the appointment.

“Wipro confirms that Ganesh Balasubramanian will join the company effective July 2013 as senior vice-president — banking products, BFSI in emerging markets and key strategic account relationship. Ganesh was previously with Lloyds Banking Group, where he played a key role as part of the Global CIO leadership team,” the company said in an email response.

India’s 108-billion IT sector gets nearly 40% of its overall business from the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, where large clients like Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase outsource projects worth millions of dollars every year to Indian software vendors such as TCS, Infosys Ltd and Cognizant.

For more than two years, Wipro has lagged rivals like TCS and Cognizant and is struggling to turn around its performance in the BFSI segment. TCS gets 43% of its overall business and generates more than thrice as much in revenue as Wipro from the sector. Cognizant gets a similar proportion from BFSI and grew revenue from the sector by 20% in 2012.

“Wipro has been a slow bear in BFSI compared with other Indian counterparts such as TCS and Cognizant,” said Yugal Joshi, practice director at outsourcing advisory firm Everest Group. “When the financial downturn happened in 2008-09, Wipro was one of the companies that was least impacted because it has the least exposure towards BFSI. But once the market started to recover a bit, the technology spending went up in BFSI and Wipro was found wanting there because of their lack of exposure.”

In April, Wipro gave a tepid revenue growth forecast for the first quarter, raising concerns about whether the turnaround plan overseen by CEO Kurien was working.

After the fourth quarter results were announced in April, Kurien admitted that Wipro had started slowly in BFSI and needed to step up its performance in the sector.

“If you look at banking, we’ve traditionally had a very poor footprint, being late to start off in the game, and I think some of the fact that our footprint and some of the customers that are doing well or not has been reflected in our topline growth. And we were overweight again on investment banking, which has been under pressure,” Kurien had said.

Kurien said Wipro would focus on “deepening our footprint in BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), not using traditional, but non-traditional methods.”

For the 2012-13 financial year, revenue from Wipro’s financial services business grew sluggishly at 3.7% to 1.65 billion, lagging the company’s overall revenue growth of 5%. Wipro expects the appointment of Balasubramanian will help it compete better with rivals such as TCS and Cognizant.

Experts tracking the sector feel Wipro will find it difficult to make significant headway in BFSI, given the competitive landscape and their relatively less established footprint in the sector.

“Now the challenge is that there is very limited business in the market — most of the business is coming from renewals and the service providers are going all out to maintain their existing clients,” said Joshi of Everest Group. “Now if Wipro wants to win business from any fresh, new BFSI client, it will be very tough for them…the marketplace is becoming hyper-competitive and no other service provider will gave away even an inch. There is a lot of pressure on pricing. So the challenges for Wipro are going to increase going forward.”

___ (c)2013 the Mint (New Delhi) Visit the Mint (New Delhi) at www.livemint.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services

source: http://www.menafn.com / June 13th, 2013

First Ever ‘Five Star Cafe’ In India

Business & Economy, World Opinion

CP India Foods Pvt Ltd launched their first ever café called the ‘Five Star Cafe’ in Bangalore, which is spread across 1000sq ft on St Marks Road. Five Star Café is a vibrant, youthful and enthusiastic place where you can have a streaming cup of brew and some delicious chew.

Five Star Café dishes out delicious fresh food and beverages of high quality. The café has a great menu with the right balance of flavour and spice to create the perfect mouth-watering taste. The product range includes various fried and grilled chicken recipes, snacks, burgers, fries, rolls, sandwiches, biryani and rice, different value combos, coffee, tea, soft drinks, ice cream and desserts. It suits lunch and dinner as well as throughout the daylight eating options.

FivestarBF28jun2013

Five Star Cafe insists on a combined mix of Indian and Thai flavours. Unlike other fast food joints where you will get taste only international flavours, at Five Star Cafe you have the oriental tastes waiting for you.

Speaking on the launch Mr Sanjeev Pant, Sr Vice President CP Foods said, “Five Star Cafe’ is more than just a café – it is a a fun place where people can come have a good time and spread happiness as it is a happy place. That’s why we say “Happy Thing Happen in Happy Places”. The café has great food and beverages that has been developed by a renowned chef using his secret recipes. It also offers free wi-fi. Mouth watering must haves includes fried chicken, burgers, fries, rolls, sandwiches, biryani, coffee, frappuccino, and desserts.

When we aksed Mr Sanjeev Pant why he chose Bangalore to launch the first Five Star Cafe in india he replied, “Bangalore is an exciting city. People from different parts of India are coming here to work. And we also have our headquaters in Bangalore. A majority of our investers are also here.”

In a nutshell it is fun place to meet, eat, share and hangout; add some laughter and fun; where you socialize eat, drink, be happy, happier and spread happiness.

source: http://www.boldsky.com / Bold Sky / Home> Insync> Pulse / Thursday – June 20th, 2013

ASU students conducting microfluidics research in Bangalore, India

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Two Alabama State University students are traveling abroad fro two months of research at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms and the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India.

Brandi Barlow, a junior biology major at Alabama State University
Brandi Barlow, a junior biology major at Alabama State University

Brandi Barlow, a junior biology major, and Christian Rogers, a senior mathematics major, are the first two ASU students to intern at the institution that is one of the world’s premier research facilities.

Christian Rogers, a senior mathematics major at ASU.
Christian Rogers, a senior mathematics major at ASU.

The two are working in the field of microfluidics, using miniature devices to study microorganisms like round worms under a microscope without killing them.

The technology allows scientists to study organisms as they grow, enabling them develop diagnostic tools and the progression of human diseases, said Shree Singh, director of ASU’s Center for NanoBiotechnology Research and Life Science Research.

The two left for Bangalore, India late last month and will return in July.

The National Science Foundation is covering their travel expenses through its Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program.

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms is covering their research and living expenses during their stay.

ASU has existing agreements for student exchange in several countries, including Argentina, China, the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, India, Armenia and South Korea.

source: http://www.blog.al.com / AL.com – All Alabama / by Evan Belanger – ebelanger@al.com / June 12th, 2013

Bangalore initiative: Training local leaders to be good corporators

Business & Economy, Leaders

Bangalore,  (IANS) :

Fed up with Bangalore being in the news for all the wrong reasons – strewn garbage, chaotic traffic, air pollution, water scarcity, et al – a citizen’s group is to launch a “leadership incubator” for aspiring corporators aimed at raising the governance quotient in the city known as India’s tech capital. Civic elections are due in less than two years.

“Currently this is meant for aspiring corporators. We will examine if we need to extend this to existing ones as well,” said Revathy Ashok of the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC), which is backed by the city’s top movers and shakers.

While details of the course are being worked out, Ashok said “the programme is planned to be of 18 months’ duration.”

The first three months would centre on induction of selected participants with “sessions from experts on leadership, campaign management, branding , outreach and communications, public policy, ethics, BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike or the Greater Bangalore City Corporations) and governance structure, legal and financial issues related to BBMP, development and diversity issues in the city, PPP (public-private partnership) models and the like,” Ashok told IANS in an interview.

The next 15 months would be “on the field work at the ward level consisting of documentation of issues, identification of problems and suggesting solutions and working with citizens’ groups to solve at least two key issues,” she said.

“This is to ensure that theoretical knowledge is supported by strong grassroots experience in public service”, Ashok pointed out.

B.PAC president Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, head of biotechnology major Biocon, last week unveiled plans to start the training course.

B.PAC was formed in February by leading entrepreneurs, former bureaucrats, sportspersons and artists to work for a better Bangalore. It has the backing of IT icon and Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.

While Mazumdar-Shaw heads B.PAC, former Infosys director and now head of Manipal Global Education Services T.V. Mohandas Pai is the vice president and former Karnataka additional chief secretary K. Jairaj is the secretary. Former athlete Ashwini Nachappa, swimmer Nisha Millet and Bharatanatyam dancer Vani Ganapathy are among the trustees.

The plan appears timely as elections to the 198-member BBMP are due in less than two years. The city is divided into 198 wards.

The last election was held in April 2010 when the Bharatiya Janata Party captured the civic body for the first time.

On whether B.PAC would provide the training free or charge a fee, Ashok said “a fee will be charged so that the candidates take this more seriously. However, we will try to subsidise this to the extent possible”.

Details about the quantum of the fee are being worked out.

Asked if political parties were willing to support the programme, Ashok said: “These are early days. We have not been approached by any political party. Whatever we do, we will be party agnostic, non-partisan and apolitical. We want to develop at least 100 young leaders from the grassroots to become good corporators.”

Bangalore is now home to nearly 10 million people and over four million vehicles but infrastructure development has not kept pace with its rapid growth, particularly after it became the country’s IT hub in late 1990s.

With the growth came traffic congestion compounded by poorly maintained roads and vehicular pollution. In the last one year, the city’s biggest problem has become garbage disposal with BBMP officials and the elected representatives seemingly clueless on finding a lasting solution.

source: http://www.firstpost.com / FirstPost. / Home> Firstpost> Fwire / by IANS  (V.S. Karnic can be contacted at vs.karnic@ians.in) / Bangalore – June 12th, 2013

Wipro to triple headcount in Germany

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

WiproBF27jun2013

Bangalore : 

Germany’s relatively stable economy in the troubled Euro Zone has prompted Wipro to increase its headcount.

India’s fourth largest software exporter has decided to triple its headcount in the next three years.

According to a company statement, the company plans to add 1,000 employees in Germany by 2016, from 500 employees at present.

Wipro counts a global automotive company, a European utilities’ major and a large telecom company in Germany as some of its 30 clients in the region.

FOCUS ON SMALL FIRMS

To drive stronger incremental growth in the future, Wipro is looking to address the requirements of medium-size enterprises in Germany in addition to large global enterprises, said Rajat Mathur, Chief Sales and Operations Officer (Growth Markets), Wipro.

Similar to Wipro, other Indian IT companies are also looking to increase their European presence – either by acquiring companies or recruiting in Germany.

In September last year, Infosys made its largest ever acquisition by buying Swiss consulting firm Lodestone Holding AG for $350 million. At the time of the acquisition, CEO S.D Shibulal said the acquisition would help Infosys in getting access to 850 IT consulting employees and also give it a scale in SAP software implementing business. SAP makes software for companies to manage their accounting, supply chain and other inventory management functions.

Cognizant in December last year acquired six companies for an undisclosed amount in Germany. All these companies have development centres in Germany. ccording to sources inside HCL Tech, the company plans to increase headcount in the region. When contacted an HCL spokesperson said that the company does not comment on workforce in a particular geography and does not make any forward looking comments.

Apart from the large companies, even mid-size Indian IT companies are also increasing their Germany play.

In January, Pune-based Geometric bought 3Cap Technologies, a German firm specialising in automotive electronics engineering with 110 employees, for an undisclosed amount.

REVENUES FROM EUROPE

Despite slowdown, revenues from Europe for all the top 5 IT companies have crossed the billion-dollar mark.

“We are seeing an increased viability for offshoring,” said Shashi Bhusan, Senior Research Analyst, Prabhudas Lilladher. Industry estimates peg the Germany IT market at around $80 billion in 2012.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Industry> Info-Tech / by The Hindu Bureau – venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in / Bangalore – June 12th, 2013  

Mother Teresa Award

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All

Mysore :

Reginald Lawrence Sharaon, Course Director of Mysore Interiors and Designs Academy, has been selected for ‘Mother Teresa Award’ for his outstanding achievements in the field of Interior Design Studies.

The award will be presented by Integrated Council for Socio-Economic Progress at a function to be held at the Central Court Hotel, Hyderabad, on June 23 at 4 pm.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> In Brief  / June 14th, 2013

MSRIT-Bangalore walks away with Blaze-2013

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology

Bangalore :

Schneider Electric India recently concluded the finals of ‘Blaze 2013’ at RVCE College, Bangalore. ‘Blaze’ is an annual energy efficiency contest by Schneider Electric exclusively aimed at students from engineering colleges across India. The contest witnessed nail biting finish when MSRIT-Bangalore was declared winner for Schneider Electric’s Energy Efficiency challenge this year. The winning team was awarded Rs 75,000.

The first runner up team from PESIT-Bangalore and the second runner up team from VIT-Vellore were awarded with Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 25,000 respectively. VIT-Vellore was awarded the “Best Diversity Team” for a healthy mix of team members from different engineering branches and gender balance. RVCE-Bangalore, NIT-Trichy and MSRIT-Bangalore won the “Best White Paper Award” while MSRIT-Bangalore also took the “Best Audit Report Presentation Team Award”.

The contest this year was launched online across 14 engineering colleges from India. Applications were received from more than 80 teams covering more than 500 students across different colleges. Based on the performance in initial rounds of the contest top 14 teams were selected for the mega finals.

The contest comprised of two rounds in which engineering students submitted a white paper on the topic “Energy Efficiency First” in the first round. In the second round, selected students undertook energy audits of their respective university campus. The teams that made through the different rounds then battled it out in the mega finals where they submitted their reports to the jury and the winning team was decided.

The 14 colleges who competed in the final round were Jadavpur University-Kolkatta, IIT-Delhi, NIT- Durgapur, VJTI-Mumbai, COEP-Pune, New Horizon-Bangalore, SJCE-Mysore, IIT-Chennai, MSRIT-Bangalore, MIT-Manipal, RVCE-Bangalore, VIT-Vellore, NIE-Mysore, NIT-Trichy.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore / TNN / June 02nd, 2013

Farmer reaps fruits of smart work

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Science & Technology

 On a govt-sponsored trip to Israel, he learnt waterwise ways to get a good yield.

Businessman-turned-farmer Mahesh Mittalkod shows the yield of a mango tree on his field. His income and profit are soaring since he adopted new techniques. - DNA/DNA
Businessman-turned-farmer Mahesh Mittalkod shows the yield of a mango tree on his field. His income and profit are soaring since he adopted new techniques. – DNA/DNA

While many farmers are selling their land and quitting farming owing to ‘unfavourable conditions’, one man is seeing his profit increasing manifold in the arid region of Koppal.

A government-sponsored trip to Israel in 2009 taught Mahesh Mittalkod methods to improve his yield. Upon returning, he put those methods to practice. Now, he is reaping the benefits. Literally.

He told dna that after the study trip, he got his first profit last year—Rs3 lakh. This year, the profit more than doubled to Rs7 lakh. He said he is expecting his income to touch Rs15-20 lakh the next season.

The businessman-turned-farmer said Israeli farmers’ technique of growing mangoes, using minimal water, impressed him a great deal. He found it of use particularly as Koppal, from where he hails, is infamous for water-shortage. He said that upon returning from the study trip, he took a sample of soil from his field to horticulture department for test. The report gave thumbs up to the soil quality, which encouraged Mittalkod to procure seeds of alphonso from Andhra Pradesh in April 2009.

In line with what he learnt in Israel, he dug one-foot-deep pits and used green leaves, neem cake and superphosphate as fertilizer, besides switching to drip irrigation for watering plants. He said his initiative made him the butt of joke of his neighbours, but he continued doing what he was doing. He said the support of horticulture department officials—such as Mohan NB and Murthy—egged him on. And the result is here for everyone to see.

While the saplings he had bought in 2009 have started giving yield, the ones he bought in 2010 would be giving result from the next season, taking his expected income to Rs15-20 lakh, he said.

District information centre BV Tukaram acknowledged Mittalkod’s achievement. He said the farmer grew five tonnes of alphonso mangoes this season and his yield might increase threefold next year. Mittalkod said the success of the new method has spurred him on to expand the practice to the other 17 acres of his land.

Having learnt about Mittalkod’s success, farmers from the region have been visiting his field for the past two months to learn the tricks of the trade from him. He said he would like to appeal to other farmers to look for such innovative ways instead of abandoning the profession.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com  / DNA / Home> Bangalore> Report / by Sangamesh Menasinakai / Agency:DNA, Place: Koppal / Sunday – June 02nd, 2013