A callous government: Karat

NEW DELHI: The four Left parties on Wednesday formally snapped their over four-year-old ties with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government at the Centre by submitting their letters withdrawing support to President Pratibha Patil.

General secretaries of the four Left parties – Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc – met the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted separate letters to her.

They also submitted a joint letter, requesting her to direct Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha immediately. It was signed by Prakash Karat of the CPI(M), A.B. Bardhan of the CPI, T.J. Chandrachoodan (RSP) and Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc).

Later at a joint press conference, Mr. Karat said the UPA government minus the Left support has been reduced to a minority government.

Charging the Manmohan Singh government and the Congress leadership with being “callous” towards the people, Mr. Karat said it was more concerned with fulfilling the commitment made to the U.S. President, George Bush. “We cannot be a party to such a government. The Congress leadership and the government was always looking up to the U.S. but they should have learnt some good things also from America,” he added.

Mr. Karat cited the example of the U.S. government negotiating an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which was not yet approved by the Board of Governors but was made available to all members of the Congress and put on the net.

“Obviously, the IAEA cannot have one standard for India and another for the U.S.,” he said. The CPI(M) general secretary sought to know if the Indian government had asked the IAEA to treat the text of the safeguards agreement as “classified.”

“If the government wants to have any credibility, this text has to be made public. The people of the country and our nuclear scientists have a right to go through the text. It is an insult to the Left parties that at first you commit and then do not show the text.”

Claiming that the Congress leadership and the government had “disregarded” the majority voice in Parliament on the nuclear deal, Mr. Karat said the government had not been “transparent.”

Replying to a query if the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee would be asked to resign, Mr. Karat said it would be for the Speaker to decide.

He said the Left fight against the deal would go on and hoped that the agreement with the U.S. would not become final. On future ties with the Congress, Mr. Karat said the current developments had shown that it would do anything to remain in power.

The Hindu dt. 10 7 2008

Rupee helps, wages bite IT cos!

BANGALORE: India's top information technology outsourcing companies are set to report their first quarter results for fiscal 2008. While the profits are likely to rise, thanks to a weaker rupee, further losses for their major clients, US financial companies, could lead to falling orders.

Infosys Technologies and No. 4 Satyam Computer Services are expected to raise their revenue guidance for the full-year to March, analysts said, adding that they are keen to see evidence of new deals and their pricing. Although Indian outsourcing firms are expanding to Europe, Asia and the Middle East to lower their dependence on the United States, the country still accounts for roughly half of their sales.

The rupee's 6.8 per cent fall against the dollar in the June quarter has helped offset the effect of large wage increases and costs related to getting visas for their staff overseas on margins.

Brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher expects Infosys' margins to drop 34 basis points and TCS to dip 17 basis points this quarter compared to the previous one. Every 1 per cent rise or drop in the rupee impacts the profit margins of Indian software services firms by 30 to 50 basis points, they said.

"In the short-term, the rupee is likely to further weaken against the dollar or remain stable given the exacerbation of both domestic and global negative factors," India Infoline said. Shares in Infosys, which the market values at $24 billion, rose 21 per cent in the June quarter and Satyam added 11 percent.

Morgan Stanley said in a report this month the credit crisis fallout would extend into 2009, and that mortgage asset overhangs would drive additional write-downs for Wall Street firms, such as Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, as they struggle to clean up their balance sheets.

"Clients' postponement, cancellation of IT projects, indecisiveness over IT spending due to uncertainty over global economic growth remain key concerns," Khandwala Securities said in a note. Brokerage India Infoline said it had heard that some large banks, financial services and insurance companies were demanding significant price cuts. "This, along with low-volume growth, manifests a tough operating environment," it said.

A large pool of English-speaking graduates and comparatively cheaper wages had helped Indian firms ride an outsourcing boom for years, but the growth slowed last year when Wall Street banks issued huge write-downs related to the subprime crisis and as the US economy lurched towards recession.

Infosys which reports first results on Friday is likely to see net profit rise 17.6 percent to 12.7 billion rupees ($295 million) in the fiscal first quarter ended June from a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll of 15 analysts showed. Tata Consultancy Services, which reports on July 16, should post a modest 5.5 per cent rise, hurt by its high dependence on the banking and financial services sector.

India's software and back-office services companies revenue growth will slow a little to 25 per cent in 2008/09, down from an estimated 29 per cent a year earlier, lobby group National Association of Software and Service Companies has said.

Indiatimes Infotech dt. 10 7 2008

Accenture India close to half of global count

A key milestone in India’s IT revolution is set to be crossed in months if not weeks, as the country’s share in the global headcount of multinational Accenture’s outsourced services network is set to cross the 50 per cent mark – which means half of the world-wide work-force in the key unit will be based in New Delhi.

The Indian headcount of IBM Global Services is also fast heading for the half-way mark. Sapient, a relatively smaller company focused on IT consulting, crossed the half-way mark years ago. All these companies signify services globalisation, in which India is becoming akin to what China is in manufacturing.

As Accenture inaugurated a new delivery centre in Noida on Tuesday, its sixth in India since a modest start of the delivery centre work in 2003, the total headcount of the Global Delivery Network (GDN) – which is the part of Accenture that competes for outsourced work with companies like Infosys and Wipro – was about 77,000 across 53 countries. Company officials put the Indian part of it at well over 35,000 in six cities.

“We are just a couple of thousands away (from the half-way mark),” Pankaj Vaish, who heads the worldwide delivery centre network for Accenture, told Hindustan Times.

Accenture chairman Bill Green had said last April that the total headcount in India will cross 50,000 in about a year’s time.

Worldwide, Accenture has about 180,000 employees in 49 countries, but the bulk of the staff are consultants and computer systems integrators who work on client sites. The GDN has call centres and business process outsourcing (BPO) workers and in effect works like a company within the company.

(The Hindustan times dt 9 7 2008)

Apple iPhone 3G makes international debut

SAN FRANCISCO: The iPhone 3G makes its international debut Friday in an eagerly-awaited launch expected to boost Apple's fortunes along with its share of the booming "smart phone" market.

Apple stores will open early to cater to throngs of aspiring iPhone 3G owners in more than 20 countries and analysts say sales could pass the billion-dollar mark within days.

IPhone fanatics began camping outside Apple's flagship store in New York City on July 4, while in downtown Tokyo some 30 people had begun queuing on Wednesday.

"I am a huge Apple fan and I'm excited to buy the iPhone, which I find is far better than any other cellphone," said 25-year-old graduate student Hiroyuki Sano who was first in line in Tokyo.

If Sano's anticipation is any indication, Apple's latest device will be a smash hit.

Online orders for iPhone 3G handsets at British telecom carrier O2 reportedly topped 13,000 per second on Monday, overwhelming the website and causing it to crash.

Industry tracker iSuppli predicts Apple might sell as many as two million iPhone 3G devices at the launch.

Apple intends to gradually roll out the coveted mobile phones, which it is billing as twice as fast and half as expensive as the debut model, in 70 countries.

First-generation iPhones are sold in six countries but have been taken to many others and modified to work on local telecom networks.

"It is clear there is a demand for iPhones in many more countries," Apple founder Steve Jobs said while unveiling the new device last month.

It is designed for faster Internet downloads, longer talk times, and takes advantage of the high-speed third-generation (3G) networks to provide built-in GPS mapping.

Early iPhone 3G reviews have been favorable, saying the device delivers as promised but expressing mild disappointment with battery life. The higher performance of the 3G network saps power faster than its predecessor.

Apple will sell iPhone 3G models in the United States for 199 dollars and 299 dollars, depending on memory capacity. The original eight-gigabyte iPhone was priced at 600 dollars when it debuted in June last year.

IPhone 3G prices in some countries will be as low as a euro (1.57 dollars) provided customers purchase multi-year service plans that translate into lucrative long-term revenue streams for carriers.

Apple is continuing its strategy of locking iPhones exclusively to one telecom carrier per country.

IPhone service providers are AT&T in the United States, T-Mobile in Germany, O2 in Great Britain, and Orange in France, where iPhone 3G launches on July 17.

Belgium will evidently be home to the most expensive iPhone 3G devices, which will be priced at 826 dollars (525 euros) and 968 dollars (615 euros) because law there prevents subsidizing hardware costs with service plans.

Apple and numerous technology websites have posted online tips on how to navigate Friday's anticipated buying frenzy.

The second-generation iPhone will let business users send and receive Microsoft Exchange email, in a direct shot at rival BlackBerry made by Canada-based Research-In-Motion.

BlackBerry handsets have long let people "push" work email to the devices using the Microsoft email system.

IPhones are the third most popular "smart phones" in the world, with 5.3 per cent of the market.

BlackBerry claims 13.4 per cent of the market while Finnish handset colossus Nokia dominates with 45.2 per cent," according to research from Gartner.

The popularity of iPhones has led to copying by competitors such as Nokia and Samsung, which have released touch-screen mobile telephones with Internet capabilities. BlackBerry is also planning a touch-screen device.

Apple reported selling six million iPhones as of June. Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray predicts Apple will sell more than 12 million new iPhones this year and more than triple that number in 2009.

The Economic Times dt. 10 7 2008