Govt clears two Infosys SEZs

NEW DELHI: The government today gave go ahead to six SEZ proposals, including two proposal from the IT major Infosys to set up special economic zones (SEZs). Of the six SEZ proposals, four were given in-principle approvals while two received formal clearances.

Infosys has received initial go-ahead for two IT zones to be set up near Hyderabad, while Genpact has received formal approval for an IT SEZ in Jaipur and Enfield Infrastructure was given a green signal for an IT zone at South 24 Parganas in West Bengal.

The government has so far given 364 formal approvals and 180 in-principle nods. These take the total number of clearances to approximately 550. The proposals were cleared by the Board of Approval, which took up eight cases in its meeting here. It, however, deferred two proposals from Adarsh Prime Projects and Blue Vision Construction.

In a separate development, Commerce Ministry extended the validity of the Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai SEZ. "The extension to in-principle clearance to Maha SEZ was done by the ministry itself" without referring it to BoA, Commerce Secretary and BoA Chairman GK Pillai told reporters.

Another nine proposals would be taken up for clearance at the BoA' next meeting on August 30.

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NYSE seeks Infy listing

World’s largest exchange, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is wooing India’s showpiece IT firm Infosys Technologies to list its shares on its trading platform.

Sources said the US exchange group is trying to convince Bangalore-headquartered company to transfer its shares from rival NASDAQ to NYSE, which after its acquisition of the Euronext exchange early this year, brings together six cash equities exchanges in five countries.

Currently, there are a total of 11 Indian companies (including Tata Motors, Wipro, Satyam Computers, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank) listed on NYSE, compared to three in NASDAQ.

Recent times have seen companies such as Sterlite Industries and WNS getting listed on the NYSE while others such as Genpact announcing its plans to go to NYSE.

Getting to convince Infosys Technologies to transfer its shares to NYSE would be a tough task for its officials, given that it became the first Indian company to figure in the prestigious NASDAQ-100 Index in recent months.

Madhu Kannan, managing director (Asia emerging markets) of NYSE Group, did not respond to a mail on this subject. V Balakrishnan, CFO of Infosys Technologies, said, “at present the company does not have any plans to move to NYSE”.

He said at the time of its listing on NASDAQ in 1999, the company had evaluated both the exchanges and had preferred to list on the NASDAQ exchange.

“We decided on NASDAQ due to several factors,” he said, pointing out that NASDAQ was an exchange “where most of the global technology companies are listed.” The liquidity, depth of the market place, and volatility were the other factors, he said.

NASDAQ has been losing a stream of blue-chip companies to rival NYSE over the last couple of years.

In 2006, 13 companies including Red Hat, Under Armour and Safeco transferred their shares from NASDAQ to NYSE and in 2007, (up to June) another six companies moved from NASDAQ to NYSE. This year’s transfers include American Eagle and PetroHawk, which was the number two oil & gas company on NASDAQ.

A spokesman for NYSE said: “We have had some leading companies move here, and they include companies that were formerly part of the NASDAQ-100. There are a good number of NASDAQ transfers in the immediate pipeline for the remainder of this year, complementing the more than 130 companies that moved from NASDAQ to the NYSE since 2000.”

Significantly, NASDAQ has not attracted one company from the NYSE this year, and only a handful of companies ever moved voluntarily from the NYSE to NASDAQ, he explained.

Asked if the inclusion in NASDAQ-100 listing was acting as a deterrent to a move to NYSE, Balakrishnan of Infosys said: “I don’t think so. But, as we understand, NASDAQ is one of the few global exchanges where a non-US company can get into one of their global indices.”

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The Buying Triangle says Infosys is holding its data hostage at an offshore location

In a lawsuit, The Buying Triangle says Infosys is holding its data hostage at an offshore location, exposed its customer data online, and stole its business plans

AUGUST 7, 2007 A provider of spend management services says one of India's largest outsourcers is holding its data hostage at an offshore location and is refusing to return the information unless legal claims against it are dropped.

New York City-based The Buying Triangle also says that Infosys, through a subsidiary, exposed its customer data online and stole its business plans.

TBT hired Infosys BPO last year, when the unit was known as Progeon Ltd., to host, support, and maintain its P2P Smart spend management application. TBT customers access P2P Smart online to help analyze and reduce their purchasing costs.

The deal quickly went sour after TBT found that its customers were frequently unable to access P2P Smart because servers Infosys set up in Bangalore to host the application were frequently down, TBT alleges in a lawsuit it's filed against Infosys BPO.

"Between July 2006 and March 2007, there were approximately 15 different occasions in which the FTP server was unavailable," TBT charges in court papers filed in June in U.S. District Court for Southern New York.

To boot, TBT alleges Infosys BPO failed to properly secure customer information on the P2P Smart server. The result: TBT's customers were able to view each other's confidential data, TBT claims.

TBT says that when it tried to cancel its contract with Infosys BPO in April, the Indian service provider refused to release its data unless TBT promised not to pursue any legal claims. "Infosys would return neither TBT's intellectual property nor the confidential account data of TBT clients," TBT alleges in court papers.

TBT also alleges that on a site visit to Bangalore its employees discovered that Infosys was using confidential TBT marketing materials to pitch clients like CIBC, Alcoa, and British Petroleum on a spend management service that Infosys was contemplating. "It is clear that Infosys intends to enter the procurement space occupied by TBT, supplying a motive for its wrongful refusal to return TBT's trade secrets," TBT claims.

TBT is seeking unspecified damages in excess of $600,000.

For its part, Infosys says TBT is making up false allegations against it in order to escape payment for services. "Infosys has fully performed under the agreement," the company says in a countersuit it filed last month against TBT.

Infosys claims it's owed more than $40,000 in unpaid fees and is asking the court to award damages.

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Infosys plans training for SC students

DAVANAGERE: The district Social Welfare Department has invited applications to train SC candidates by Infosys.The candidates should have passed degree in 2006 or 2007 in arts, science or commerce and aged between 21-23 years with a minimum of 60 percent in degree.The annual income should be below Rs one lakh and the last date for filing applications is August 14.

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Infosys to Invest Rs 30 cr in Chandigarh Operations

Chandigarh, Aug 5 (PTI) Software solutions developer Infosys Technologies Limited has said it will invest Rs 30 crore on expansion of its Chandigarh operations during the current fiscal.
"We will invest Rs 30 crore on infrastructure development of our operations in Chandigarh during this year," Infosys Technologies Limited's Development Centre Head Sameer Goel said here.

The company, which is India's second biggest software exporter, has so far invested Rs 160 crore on its facility in Chandigarh.

With the new investment, it proposes to set up blocks for software developers at its IT centre in Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park.

The 30-acre Software Development Centre of Infosys employs about 2,000 people in Chandigarh, which is extendable to 3,000.

The company has been exporting softwares to countries like the United States, Europe and Middle East. It has also been awarded the STPI software export award for earning export revenue of Rs 17,423 lakh from the Union Territory. PTI

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IT jobs will double to 3.2 m in four years - Nandan Nilekani

Employment generation by IT and ITES sectors will double to 3.2 million within the next four to five years, feels Mr Nandan M. Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Delivering the 12th Prof. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Lecture, on ‘Information Technology for Development’, at the R.M.K. Engineering College, Kavaraipettai, on Wednesday, Mr Nilekani observed that it took the industry 30 years to reach the present level of employment of 1.6 million. “What has happened in the last 30 years, will now happen in the next four to five years,” he said.

Mr Nilekani also received Nayudamma Award for the Year 2007 from Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.

He said that IT worked well when it came to projects of one entity on a national scale, such as railway reservation or the National Stock Exchange. However, when it came to integrating applications at multiple regions, “it is a different ballgame”.

“Every city and every State is determining its own applications. A large number of projects, but we are not really able to replicate and scale them up across the country. And therefore clearly the challenge is how do we take elsewhere projects that are run in one State or one city and replicate,” Mr Nilekani said. He also stressed the need for introducing a national identification number for all citizens and presented it to the audience as a major project involving the IT industry.

“Unlike in the US, where everybody has a social security number, we do not have one number to identify our citizens,” he said.

In India, there are different numbers to identify a citizen — such as passport number, PAN number, TIN and ration card BPL number.

“So, one of the big challenges of the next decade is how to create a national way of systematically assigning an identification number to everyone. Because once you do that, you can do that for many things. Today, thousands of crores of subsidies are being given to the poor, but they are not reaching the poor people, because there is no way to directly reach benefits to the poor. The national identification number will actually enable the govt to directly target benefits to the poor

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IT scrips slump to 3-month low

The rupee appreciation against the dollar took its toll on the information technology sector, with frontline and mid-cap IT stocks closing at a three-month low on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday.

Infosys Technologies and TCS closed at a three-month low, while Wipro dipped to a 52-week low. However, Satyam Computer held the fort and closed at a one-month low.

Among the second-line stocks, Tech Mahindra, i-flex Solutions, MindTree Consulting, Patni Computer Systems, Geometric Software and Polaris Software also closed at a three month-low. Hexaware Technologies (Rs 123.25) and Aztecsoft (Rs 71.60) ended in the red, closing at their 52-week low on the BSE.

The BSE IT Index was the biggest loser on Thursday, down 62.21 points at 4,649.11, declining to a 10-month low. In comparison, the Sensex, however, closed at 14,985.70 against its previous day close of 14,935.77, up 50 points.

The four blue-chip IT stocks, which are a part of the Sensex, declined in the range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent. Wipro fell 2.83 per cent to Rs 462.25 (Rs 475.70), TCS dropped by 1.83 per cent to Rs 1,095.35 (Rs 1,115.80), Infosys Technologies fell 1.55 per cent to Rs 1,899.60 (Rs 1,929.60) and Satyam Computer Services declined by 0.75 per cent to Rs 466.20 (Rs 469.70).

Among others, Polaris Software declined 4.25 per cent to close at Rs 112.25 against the previous day’s close of Rs 117.25 on the BSE. Mastek fell 3.89 per cent to Rs 272.80 (Rs 283.85), while Hexaware Technologies dropped 3.14 per cent to Rs 123.25 (Rs 127.25), i-flex Solutions fell 3.04 per cent to Rs 2,036.10 (Rs 2,099.94) and Tech Mahindra declined 1.75 per cent at Rs 1,276.50 (Rs 1,299.25) on Thursday.

During the first four months of the current calendar year, the IT index was the biggest loser among all sectoral indices of the BSE. While the IT index declined by 5.11 per cent, the Sensex rose by 14.64 per cent.

Meanwhile, the American Depository Receipts (ADR) of Infosys Technologies and Wipro hit a ten-month low on the overseas exchanges yesterday.

The Wipro ADR fell 4 per cent in last two trading days to $14.42 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), while the Infosys Technologies ADR declined 3 per cent to $49.18 on the Nasdaq.

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Infosys and Mobera Systems receive STPI awards

Chandigarh, Aug 2 (UNI) Haryana Governor A R Kidwai gave away the STPI Software Exports Awards for the year 2006-07 here today.

For the Software Development, Infosys Technologies Ltd (with exports of Rs 174.23 crore) was chosen for the award in the multinational category while Mobera Systems Pvt Ltd (with a turnover of Rs 10.03 crore) was selected from the SME category.

In the ITES sector, Dell International Services (I) Pvt Ltd (Rs 97.70 crore), and Excel Callnet Pvt Ltd (Rs 4.70 crore) were awarded in the the multinational and SME sectors respectively.

STPI also selected six companies, two each from Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh, for Fast Tracker Awards for their exports performance.

From Punjab, the Award for Software Development has been bagged by Tech Tier IT Solutions (Rs 1.22 crore), while Lambodra Info Tech Pvt Ltd (Rs 1.63 crore) got the award in ITES category.

From Haryana, it is Webart Softech (Rs 3.38 crore) for software development and FCS Software Solutions (Rs .98 crore) for ITES category.

From Chandigarh region, Vertex Infosoft Solutions Pvt Ltd (Rs 2.76 crore) got the award for software development, while Acoustic Technologies Pvt Ltd. for ( 1.21 crore) ITES category.

Dr Omkar Rai, Director HQ, STPI, commended the IT/ITES companies from the region for excelling in the global market.


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Canadian Pacific Inks Pacts With IBM, Infosys Technologies To Manage Railway's I.T. Application Development And Support - Quick Facts

Canadian Pacific (CP, CP.TO) on Thursday said it entered into agreements with IBM (IBM | charts | news |

PowerRating) and Infosys Technologies Ltd. (INFY | charts | news | PowerRating) to manage the railway's I.T. application development and support. The company said that the multi-year agreements would focus on the application development associated with management and maintenance of CP's operations.

The company added that the agreements represent a significant corporate outsourcing initiative which will provide considerable capability and quality enhancement.

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Hearing on Narayana Murthy’s petition adjourned

The Karnataka High on Monday adjourned further hearing on a criminal petition by Infosys Chief Mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy seeking quashing of proceedings initiated against him in a lower court.

In his petition, Mr. Murthy said a Bangalore court had issued summons to him following a private complaint by the Kannada Rakshana Vakeelara Vedike.

The vedike had filed a private complaint before the Second Additional City Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) against Mr. Murthy for his alleged remarks on singing of the National Anthem. Mr. Murthy had moved the High Court for quashing the May 26, 2007 order passed by the ACMM in issuing process (summons) to him. The vedike claimed that Mr. Murthy had made insulting remarks about the anthem during a media interaction on April 8 after the then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited the corporate education centre of Infosys at Mysore. Senior advocate K.K. Venugopal, appearing for Mr. Murthy, said the complaint was misconceived and that the ACMM could not have taken cognisance of it. He said though the remark was allegedly made in Mysore, a Bangalore court had taken cognisance of it, asking him to be present on June 21.

He informed the court that the magistrate had no jurisdiction in taking cognizance and issuing summons and that he had failed to notice that Mr. Murthy had not prevented anyone singing the national anthem.

Moreover, an instrumental version of the anthem had been played on the occasion.

Mr. Venugopal urged the court to quash the proceedings saying that his client was not guilty of any offence and that playing the instrumental version did not amount to any violation. He pointed out that the High Court had during earlier hearings had stayed the lower court order.

Justice K. Bhakthavatsala adjourned further hearing on the case after the vedike advocate sought time to argue. He, however, continued the interim order of stay of lower court proceedings.

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