JRD Tata's Words Inspired me in Philanthropy: Sudha Murthy

Did anybody know that there was a strong Tata connection to Infosys? Meet Ms Sudha Murthy, the better half of the Infosys chairman, NR Narayana Murthy. On a down-the-memory-lane visit here after 25 years, Ms Murthy, who is now heading the Infosys Foundation, said it was a chance association with the house of Tatas when after topping the graduating class in computer science from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, she came across a job advertisement in February 1974, which said Telco (Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company) wanted bright young graduates.

However, much to her disappointment, she found in the footnote it was written "female candidates need not apply." Her ego deeply hurt, she shot off a 'postcard' to JRD Tata asking him how a leading and progressive house like the Tatas, "which always thought ahead of time, could put such a restriction." "After posting it I forgot about it," she said. A pleasant surprise awaited her. A telegram soon arrived asking her to appear for an interview "with a promise of reimbursement of first class fare both ways," she said.

Selected as a GT (graduate trainee) and as the first lady technical officer at Telco, she was first posted to Pune and was later shifted to Telco Jamshedpur "for a short stint." She was thereafter shifted to Bombay House, She had later learnt that JRD had himself intervened in the matter following her letter and had instructed the board that "if she was found up to the mark in her subjects, she should be taken." She recalls how after having put in her papers in February 1982, after having served Telco for eight years, she wanted to meet JRD to convey her gratitude.

"It was again a chance meeting as I was going downstairs and he was climbing upstairs in Bombay House," she told reporters here Monday. "I told him I was leaving the job. He said "you fought so much for the job and nowyou are quitting it?" I told him that my husband wanted to start the Infosys Adventure. And then JRD turned almost a soothsayer to say, "If you make lots of money you must give it back to society as you have received so much love from it." "That was the last time I saw him," the lady, clad in simple clothes, said regretfully.

This was to be the source of the inspiration for Infosys Foundation which she today manages to run in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Orissa "with only six hands." So strong has been the influence of the Tatas that when asked by her colleagues as to what she wanted on her retirement, she could only say: "A black & white portrait of Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata and another of JRD Tata in his famous blue suit."

"At Infosys, we have the two biggest and the most expensive boardrooms (of a total of 17) where world leaders like Tony Blair, etc, are felicitated, named after these two great personalities," she says proudly. The Infosys Foundation focuses on two basic things: education and health. "We provide infrastructure to the states for building government hospitals," she says. Asked, how was it helping the poor, given the poor state of affairs at government hospitals, Ms Murthy says: "The poor have no other place to go other than to a government hospital."

The foundation, among other things, also donates books to libraries of schools for the less privileged. "The creation of wealth by legal and ethical means is one part," she maintains. "The distribution of wealth is the other part. The Infosys Foundation focuses on the poorest of the poor." Recipient of several international and national awards for outstanding philanthropic work, the chairperson of Infosys Foundation feels that Indian corporates should "do much more for the society," particularly in health and education. Anybody in her place would be having a I high-flying lifestyle.

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Infosys Core Banking Solutions does not Stand a Chance in World Competition

Infosys is in for a great lesson as it tries to dump in core banking solutions custom built for India on international banking sectors. Infosys, which is dominating the banking software space in India, is bullish on growth in the domestic and global markets in its bid to emerge as a top provider of core banking solutions to banks worldwide.

According to experts, the company filled with inexperience top management are doomed for failure as it tries to sell pre-built software. It is easy to sell "bodies" but it is something else to try and sell pre-built real software.

What the Indian companies have done till this date is to provide cheap India programmers who can sit and code based on specifications from software engineers in America and Europe.

Most of these so called Indian Engineers have degree in Engineering fields other than Computer Science and is driven into software code writing with money and glamour. Mostly they are world's worst software developer. Little they care about documentation and software life cycle.

American companies see excellent software engineers in US educated in America with Masters degrees in Computer Science. Their naïve thinking makes them feel they can get the same in India for pennies on the dollar. They go to India and subcontract code development to reduce cost and increase productivity at the cost of quality.

Infosys's growth came from that. Now that it ventures into real software area instead of supplying so called unqualified cheap 'cyber-coolies', its real capabilities will come out. Now it will face world class software talents. According to international think tanks, Infosys stands no chance.

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Goa should improve intellectual capital: Mohandas Pai

Goa needs to address its ‘limited educational capabilities’ if it is to come anywhere near its dream of luring IT players to this region, said Infosys Director (resources) T.V. Mohandas Pai.

Pai critiqued the view that IT companies would come in if they were merely provided ‘power and land’ and suggested that the region needed to work on the most vital ingredient the state still lacks - intellectual capital.

IT involved ‘building businesses with nothing but what you have in your mind’, said Pai Saturday while speaking at the launch of the Exhibition of Computers and Allied Products organised by the Computer Society of India (Goa chapter).

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Infosys set to enter Nasdaq-100 index

Infosys Technologies is set to enter the Nasdaq-100 when the index comes up for review in December. The Nasdaq-100 includes 100 of the largest non-financial securities listed on the Nasdaq, based on market capitalisation.

Infosys will be the first Indian company to make it to the Nasdaq-100. With a $25 billion market capitalisation of American Depository Receipts (ADRs), the Bangalore-headquartered Infosys is now ranked 98 on the Nasdaq.

Entering the elite group, Infosys will rub shoulders with Amazon.com, Google, Cisco, Red Hat, Autodesk, eBay, Juniper Networks, Yahoo, Netscapes, Oracle and Apple Corporation. Cognizant Technology, which has its biggest operation in India, joined this club in December 2004.

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TCS best employer, Infosys dream company

While Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the best employer, Infosys isthe dream company to work for as well as the top company on brand equity, according to the Best Employer Survey 2006 conducted by IDC-DQ.

"TCS wins the race by outperforming the other 31 contenders, and Infosys remains unchallenged on brand equity and remains the company of dreams for the fifth year in continuation," the survey said.

According to the survey, growth opportunities/career development emerges as the single-largest factor driving job satisfaction.

Satisfaction index ratings are found to gradually increase with number of years of experience.

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Infosys eyes key world markets for universal banking solution

Infosys, which is dominating the banking software space in India, is bullish on growth in the domestic and global markets in its bid to emerge as a top provider of core banking solutions to banks worldwide.

"We are in talks with some more Indian banks and some Russian banks for implementing Finacle Universal Banking Solution to help them achieve greater process efficiency," said Infosys VP & Business Head-Finacle Merwin Fernandes.

He said Infosys has bagged core banking solution (CBS) implementation contracts in 15 banks in India out of the 24 banks that have implemented the technology in the last three years for seamless real time integration capabilities.

"We have about 66 per cent market share in banking software in India," he said, adding that Infosys is in talks with some more banks for implementing CBS.

The clients of Finacle include ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, ABN Amro, UTI Bank and SBI's overseas operations, to name a few.

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Infosys Consulting Hiring More Senior Level People

Infosys is overhauling its hiring practice to beef up its consulting business. From the existing pyramid staff structure, the Bangalore-based IT major is shifting towards the diamond pattern by going in for more senior-level executives.

S Gopalakrishnan, president, COO and deputy MD of Infosys, said: "The profile of people we are hiring for our consulting business has changed. We are now hiring more senior-level people and are happy with this change, as we are getting quality people in our quest for gaining a unique position in the global consulting arena."

Infosys Consulting is going in for this change to bring in more thought leadership, which is one of the critical factors for a consulting practice to succeed.

Infosys said its growth rate might come down if the US economy, as predicted by IMF, slowed down in the next one year.

"There are two schools of thought on this. One talks about the impending slowdown, while the other says growth will continue. If the US slowdown happens, our growth rate will come down too. But growth will be there," said COO and Deputy MD S Gopalakrishnan.

He also said there would be pressure on global corporations to cut down their costs during a slowdown, which could, however, be offset by outsourcing work to cost-effective destinations.

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Elliptical Spaceship Buildings in Infosys Pune

Infosys Technologies is expanding in Pune. The company will be opening the first of its two new buildings at Hinjewadi that resemble spaceships on Tuesday. Infosys director and CFO T V Mohandas Pai will be present for the function that also marks the celebration of the 11,000 headcount in Pune.

Designed by Hafeez Contractor and constructed on 1.5 million sq ft,the five-storeyed building will accommodate around 2,000-odd techies. Together, the two buildings will have around 3,500 professionals.

“Infosys is known for its innovation. This is just another attempt to bring in an element of novelty,” said Priti Rao, senior VP and head of the Pune development centre. She was speaking about the elliptical shape chosen by the company for the new buildings.

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Schlumberger & Infosys announce global alliance for E&P

Schlumberger and Infosys announced today that they have formed a global alliance to provide comprehensive information management solutions that integrate upstream technical and business processes for oil and gas companies.

The alliance would address a wide array of solutions, primarily focused on the integration of Exploration and Production (E and P) petro-technical data and applications, including unstructured data, with financial and human resources back-end systems, in order to streamline operational and strategic business decision making processes, a company statement said.

The alliance combines the market leading E and P domain expertise of Schlumberger with the Global Delivery Model (GDM) pioneered by Infosys to create an industry unique resource, it said.

Infosys and Schlumberger would build on the successful working relationship the two organizations have developed over the last several years, it said.

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Croatian bank HPB chooses Infosys's Finacle Universal Banking

Croatian domestic bank Hrvatska Postanska Banka has selected Infosys Technologies' Finacle Universal Banking Solution to drive its technology-led transformation initiative.

Infosys said that the Finacle core banking solution will replace the bank's legacy system and help strengthen its competitive position by enabling innovation, greater process efficiencies as well as by meeting the new regulatory requirements, including Basel II. Hrvatska Postanska Banka (HPB) will also deploy the Finacle e-banking and treasury solutions.

Finacle already has a strong presence in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

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