Rediff Report Says
With top IT destinations including Bangalore and Mumbai facing infrastructure problems, Coimbatore is slowly emerging as a preferred destination for leading information technology firms among second-rung cities.
A host of top-rung IT firms, such as Cognizant Technology Solutions, Spectramind, 24/7 Customer, have already announced their expansion plans in Coimbatore.
Coimbatore enjoys the advantage of the presence of 19 engineering colleges in and around the city that churn out over 6000 engineers every year.
The city also has over 70 arts and science colleges and 14 polytechnics, said Lakshmi Narayanan, president and CEO of Cognizant, which is setting up a development centre in Coimbatore, employing 400 people in the first year of operations.
"The Coimbatore facility can also attract good talent from Kerala and Tamil Nadu," he said.
The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, the nodal agency to coordinate IT investments in the state, is developing 40 acres of land in Coimbatore for setting up an Information Technology Park. The park would have a built up area of 2.50 lakh sq.metres.
"We don't want Chennai to get overcrowded and face infrastructure problems like Bangalore," said K S Lakshminarayanan, chief technical officer, Elcot, explaining the Corporation's initiative to promote second tier cities such as Coimbatore, Hosur, Tiruchirapalli and Madurai.
Already, Tata Consultancy Service, e-Brahma, KG Infotech, Pricol Instruments and other smaller IT firms operate in Coimbatore. "The city has excellent infrastructure, including power, roads and good public transportation," said Cognizant's Narayanan.
Though Karnataka was also promoting second-rung cities such as Mangalore and Mysore, they are no match to the natural advantages offered by Coimbatore, he added.
Coimbatore was well connected by air, rail and road. "Coimbatore is one of the few tier-2 cities with an international airport with reasonably good domesticconnections," he said.
During 2004-05 fiscal, the software exports from Tamil Nadu were expected to cross Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) mark, with almost the whole contributed by Chennai.
Officials said this would change in the coming years with Coimbatore contributing a significant portion to the overall IT exports from the state.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Saturday, March 05, 2005
The story of India's richest woman
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon has risen from middle class background to India's richest woman by sheer hardwork and grit.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw should have been afraid. Every day for three months in 1985 she waded through a crowd of angry employees to get to her office at Biocon India, a maker of enzymes in Bangalore. This was her payback for hiring uneducated employees.
After they joined a communist labor union, she retaliated by automating the plant. The crowd outside burned her in effigy.
"I didn't think they'd hurt a woman," she says. But her detractors have certainly tried to hold her back, making it about as tough as possible for a woman to find her way.
Still, over the last two decades Mazumdar-Shaw, now 51, has turned a small enzyme manufacturer into one of India's premier tech companies. It netted $30.5 million on revenue of $122 million for the fiscal year ended Mar. 31.
Read the full story here.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw should have been afraid. Every day for three months in 1985 she waded through a crowd of angry employees to get to her office at Biocon India, a maker of enzymes in Bangalore. This was her payback for hiring uneducated employees.
After they joined a communist labor union, she retaliated by automating the plant. The crowd outside burned her in effigy.
"I didn't think they'd hurt a woman," she says. But her detractors have certainly tried to hold her back, making it about as tough as possible for a woman to find her way.
Still, over the last two decades Mazumdar-Shaw, now 51, has turned a small enzyme manufacturer into one of India's premier tech companies. It netted $30.5 million on revenue of $122 million for the fiscal year ended Mar. 31.
Read the full story here.
India offers Venezuela refinery stake, eyes oilfield
Yahoo reports :
India will offer Venezuela equity in a refining firm and take a stake a Venezuelan oilfield to cement growing ties between Asia's third largest consumer and the World's No. 5 exporter, top officials said on Friday.
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), which is bidding for foreign oil assets to secure energy supplies, is likely to take a 49 percent stake in the San Cristobal oilfield, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
In return, Petroleos de Venezuela would be offered equity in ONGC's refining subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Aiyar told reporters after meeting Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez.
"MRPL can process Venezuelan crude. In April, a delegation will go to Venezuela to discuss various issues including the quality of crude oil and the volume available," Aiyar said.
Earlier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country was keen to begin long-terum crude supplies to India.
"We want to have a long-term agreement for crude oil with India," Chavez told a forum of Indian business leaders.
India's sole private refiner, Reliance Industries started importing Venezuelan crude in recent years but state-run firms have not processed oil from the OPEC member.
"Tomorrow, we will sign agreements with the prime minister for energy cooperation. We want to start to supply petroleum in a permanent way, the same as we do with the United States," Chavez said.
Aiyar said India's strong ties with Venezuela will help Indian firms penetrate the Latin American region.
India, which imports 70 percent of its crude needs, consumed 2.46 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2004 and is forecast to use 2.53 million bpd this year, estimates from the International Energy Agency show.
The country is likely to import 85 percent of its needs in the next two decades as its economy grows 7-8 percent a year, encouraging Indian firms to bid for foreign oil projects.
ONGC is competing with Chinese companies in the race for foreign petroleum assets.
In January, China signed energy accords with Venezuela that aimed to make the largest oil consumer in Asia a major player in the oil and gas industry.
Venezuela ships more than half its daily output to the United States in a decades-old energy relationship.
But Chavez, a fierce critic of Washington, has made clear he wants to diversify overseas energy ties to reduce its economic dependence on the American market.
ONGC's overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh, has stakes in oil and gas projects in Myanmar, Sudan, Russia, Libya and Australia and recently signed a $40 billion deal to import LNG from Iran.
India will offer Venezuela equity in a refining firm and take a stake a Venezuelan oilfield to cement growing ties between Asia's third largest consumer and the World's No. 5 exporter, top officials said on Friday.
State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), which is bidding for foreign oil assets to secure energy supplies, is likely to take a 49 percent stake in the San Cristobal oilfield, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
In return, Petroleos de Venezuela would be offered equity in ONGC's refining subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Aiyar told reporters after meeting Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez.
"MRPL can process Venezuelan crude. In April, a delegation will go to Venezuela to discuss various issues including the quality of crude oil and the volume available," Aiyar said.
Earlier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country was keen to begin long-terum crude supplies to India.
"We want to have a long-term agreement for crude oil with India," Chavez told a forum of Indian business leaders.
India's sole private refiner, Reliance Industries started importing Venezuelan crude in recent years but state-run firms have not processed oil from the OPEC member.
"Tomorrow, we will sign agreements with the prime minister for energy cooperation. We want to start to supply petroleum in a permanent way, the same as we do with the United States," Chavez said.
Aiyar said India's strong ties with Venezuela will help Indian firms penetrate the Latin American region.
India, which imports 70 percent of its crude needs, consumed 2.46 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2004 and is forecast to use 2.53 million bpd this year, estimates from the International Energy Agency show.
The country is likely to import 85 percent of its needs in the next two decades as its economy grows 7-8 percent a year, encouraging Indian firms to bid for foreign oil projects.
ONGC is competing with Chinese companies in the race for foreign petroleum assets.
In January, China signed energy accords with Venezuela that aimed to make the largest oil consumer in Asia a major player in the oil and gas industry.
Venezuela ships more than half its daily output to the United States in a decades-old energy relationship.
But Chavez, a fierce critic of Washington, has made clear he wants to diversify overseas energy ties to reduce its economic dependence on the American market.
ONGC's overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh, has stakes in oil and gas projects in Myanmar, Sudan, Russia, Libya and Australia and recently signed a $40 billion deal to import LNG from Iran.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The spirit of Kamatchi
Subroto Bagchi of MindTree Consulting writes in BusinessWorld India about A journey of a destitute, young mother that began in 1926 carries lessons in leadership and decisionmaking. Read the real life story (Requires BusinessWorld India's Free Registration). For people who don't have patience to register, please read ahead :
Kamatchi was born in 1898 in Kattikulam - now in Tamil Nadu. Those were the days when a female child was raised with the sole purpose of getting her married off. So was Kamatchi. By stitching together subsequent events in her life, we gather that by the time she was twenty-five, she had five children from her husband, Thalakaswami. He did not care much for her, and one day just went away.
The eldest daughter was all of twelve and the youngest was two and a half years old when Kamatchi decided to take charge. We do not know how but she left Kattikulam and finally landed up in Madras in a state of destitution. She looked for work - not an easy thing in 1926. Around the same time, there were recruitment agents looking for rubber plantation workers for British clients. Kamatchi signed up and sat in a sailboat with the five children in tow, and arrived at a rubber plantation to become a 'tapper'. As Kamatchi went to work, the oldest daughter took up the task of mothering the other four. Two of these were the in-between sons who started going to school. Kamatchi and her brood braved on under a hutment of a swampy rubber estate until 1945. Then came the Japanese, and took away the two boys as slaves to build the bridge over the river Kwai in Burma. This was called the 'death railway' because people seldom returned, falling to the rampant bouts of cholera, typhoid and malaria.
The war was over and the Japanese retreated, but Kamatchi's little boy never came back. The older son somehow did and went on to complete his higher education, eventually becoming a headmaster. On his return, he took complete charge of the surviving siblings, and asked Kamatchi to retire. In 1966, she passed away, a single mother - leaving behind her legacy in Malaysia, a country with the highest number of people of Indian origin. Kamatchi's son, in turn, carried on her lineage. One of his sons, Dr Vignesh, was narrating this fascinating story of courage as he was driving me to the venue of the Malaysian-Indian Economic Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
He grew up to qualify as a veterinary practitioner. All his siblings are in the mainstream of Malaysian society today. I asked him about his recollections of Kamatchi. When Dr Vignesh was a boy, Kamatchi's sunset years had begun. Life in the rubber estates had left her an asthmatic. But she remained until her last, the matriarch who was a go-getter, who knew no fear, a motivator and a fighter. Though she believed in God, she was non-ritualistic and exhorted her children to rely on self-help. She used to say: "You have to take charge; God does not come through the tin roof to dole out bounties."
We study leadership and decision-making in business - a subject that fascinates us. We debate if leaders create circumstances or vice versa. We talk about decisions and momentous ones, with the power to create generational impact. In all this, we analyse character in leadership, and use analogies from political history and military conquests because business leadership hasn't been in existence long enough to create narratives with directional value.
My mind goes back to 1926. I see a twenty-five year old, illiterate woman - nah, girl. She is with five children; the youngest by her bosom. Six human frames and a small bundle of cloth, representing her departure from the past. What would have happened if Kamatchi had stayed on in Kattikulam, bemoaning the runaway husband and seeking the alms and mercy of village elders? What would have happened if she had killed her children and herself? What if she had abandoned them? I shudder and seek solace in the miracle of now.
In all this, what was the most important decision that Kamatchi took? For me, it was the one to dislocate herself from Kattikulam. That single decision changed the fate of three generations. It was the potently unsafe option. Kamatchi did not go to business school but lived the saying that 'the safest place for a ship is the harbour'. But it was never built to stay there.
Kamatchi was born in 1898 in Kattikulam - now in Tamil Nadu. Those were the days when a female child was raised with the sole purpose of getting her married off. So was Kamatchi. By stitching together subsequent events in her life, we gather that by the time she was twenty-five, she had five children from her husband, Thalakaswami. He did not care much for her, and one day just went away.
The eldest daughter was all of twelve and the youngest was two and a half years old when Kamatchi decided to take charge. We do not know how but she left Kattikulam and finally landed up in Madras in a state of destitution. She looked for work - not an easy thing in 1926. Around the same time, there were recruitment agents looking for rubber plantation workers for British clients. Kamatchi signed up and sat in a sailboat with the five children in tow, and arrived at a rubber plantation to become a 'tapper'. As Kamatchi went to work, the oldest daughter took up the task of mothering the other four. Two of these were the in-between sons who started going to school. Kamatchi and her brood braved on under a hutment of a swampy rubber estate until 1945. Then came the Japanese, and took away the two boys as slaves to build the bridge over the river Kwai in Burma. This was called the 'death railway' because people seldom returned, falling to the rampant bouts of cholera, typhoid and malaria.
The war was over and the Japanese retreated, but Kamatchi's little boy never came back. The older son somehow did and went on to complete his higher education, eventually becoming a headmaster. On his return, he took complete charge of the surviving siblings, and asked Kamatchi to retire. In 1966, she passed away, a single mother - leaving behind her legacy in Malaysia, a country with the highest number of people of Indian origin. Kamatchi's son, in turn, carried on her lineage. One of his sons, Dr Vignesh, was narrating this fascinating story of courage as he was driving me to the venue of the Malaysian-Indian Economic Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
He grew up to qualify as a veterinary practitioner. All his siblings are in the mainstream of Malaysian society today. I asked him about his recollections of Kamatchi. When Dr Vignesh was a boy, Kamatchi's sunset years had begun. Life in the rubber estates had left her an asthmatic. But she remained until her last, the matriarch who was a go-getter, who knew no fear, a motivator and a fighter. Though she believed in God, she was non-ritualistic and exhorted her children to rely on self-help. She used to say: "You have to take charge; God does not come through the tin roof to dole out bounties."
We study leadership and decision-making in business - a subject that fascinates us. We debate if leaders create circumstances or vice versa. We talk about decisions and momentous ones, with the power to create generational impact. In all this, we analyse character in leadership, and use analogies from political history and military conquests because business leadership hasn't been in existence long enough to create narratives with directional value.
My mind goes back to 1926. I see a twenty-five year old, illiterate woman - nah, girl. She is with five children; the youngest by her bosom. Six human frames and a small bundle of cloth, representing her departure from the past. What would have happened if Kamatchi had stayed on in Kattikulam, bemoaning the runaway husband and seeking the alms and mercy of village elders? What would have happened if she had killed her children and herself? What if she had abandoned them? I shudder and seek solace in the miracle of now.
In all this, what was the most important decision that Kamatchi took? For me, it was the one to dislocate herself from Kattikulam. That single decision changed the fate of three generations. It was the potently unsafe option. Kamatchi did not go to business school but lived the saying that 'the safest place for a ship is the harbour'. But it was never built to stay there.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Azim Premji's 8 Steps to Excellence
Among others, Wipro has recently won the prestigious 'Risk Management Award,' instituted by the Financial Times-The Banker magazine. What is that which makes this company so successful? "An obsession for excellence," says Azim Premji, Chairman & Managing Director, Wipro Limited.
Excellence endures and sustains. It goes beyond motivation into the realms of inspiration. Excellence can be as strong a uniting force as solid vision.
Excellence does not happen in a vacuum. It needs a collective obsession as I have experienced the benefits of excellence in my own life. Excellence is a great starting point for any new organisation but also an unending journey. What is excellence? It is about going a little beyond what we expect from ourselves. Part of the need for excellence is imposed on us externally by our customers. Our competition keeps us on our toes, especially when it is global in nature.
But the other driver of excellence is internal. I have found that excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your team. This is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence.
Azim Premji lists the 8 Steps to Excellence
1) Create an obsession with Excellence
2) Build a collective Self-Confidence
3) Understand the difference between perfection for its own sake and excellence
4) Realise that we cannot be the best in everything we do. Define what we are or would like to be best at and what someone else can do better
5) Create processes that enable excellence
6) Create a culture of teaming
7) Invest in excellence for the future
8) Excellence requires humility
Read Azim Premji's 8 Steps to Excellence
Excellence endures and sustains. It goes beyond motivation into the realms of inspiration. Excellence can be as strong a uniting force as solid vision.
Excellence does not happen in a vacuum. It needs a collective obsession as I have experienced the benefits of excellence in my own life. Excellence is a great starting point for any new organisation but also an unending journey. What is excellence? It is about going a little beyond what we expect from ourselves. Part of the need for excellence is imposed on us externally by our customers. Our competition keeps us on our toes, especially when it is global in nature.
But the other driver of excellence is internal. I have found that excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your team. This is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence.
Azim Premji lists the 8 Steps to Excellence
1) Create an obsession with Excellence
2) Build a collective Self-Confidence
3) Understand the difference between perfection for its own sake and excellence
4) Realise that we cannot be the best in everything we do. Define what we are or would like to be best at and what someone else can do better
5) Create processes that enable excellence
6) Create a culture of teaming
7) Invest in excellence for the future
8) Excellence requires humility
Read Azim Premji's 8 Steps to Excellence
Thursday, February 10, 2005
BlackBerry, for the people on the move
With the introduction of BlackBerry, the email mobile which uses GPRS for sending/receiving emails by AirTel, the indian businessmen and top executives can be always connected to their enterprise information on 24x7 basis.
The Advantages to the BlackBerry users are :
• Quick sharing of information
• Effective management of e-mail
• Accepting meeting requests while out of office
• Easily accessible web information
• Promptly respond to urgent messages
Read how BlackBerry has stormed the Indian Corporate World.
The Advantages to the BlackBerry users are :
• Quick sharing of information
• Effective management of e-mail
• Accepting meeting requests while out of office
• Easily accessible web information
• Promptly respond to urgent messages
Read how BlackBerry has stormed the Indian Corporate World.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
ClamWin - A Free Open Source Antivirus for Windows
ClamWin has been selected as Project Of Month for February 2005 by sourceforge.net. For more information, visit ClamWin's website
India's IT Leaders talks
At Nasscom 2005 in Mumbai, India's IT leaders talk about the future...
Read Infosys's Narayamuthy on Brand Building
Read Wipro's Azim Premji's views on Future for Indian IT
Read Infosys's Narayamuthy on Brand Building
Read Wipro's Azim Premji's views on Future for Indian IT
B-schools can't teach you common sense
Salil Kapoor Head, Marketing, LG Electronics says:
A B-school education helps you grasp concepts and in analysing situations. But it does not prepare future managers for the practical part of business.
I believe that in other countries, especially in the West, management students enjoy longer and more effective interaction with industry. But essentially in India most students come in with no work experience and therefore, there is no sharing of experience with their peer groups.
I had already worked for four years when I joined the part-time MBA programme at Delhi University's Faculty of Management Studies. That held me in good stead.
I am convinced that freshers cannot relate fully to what they are taught -- they can't visualise the situations that are being explained in class.
And it doesn't help that the people teaching them have no practical experience of corporate life, either. Most of the teaching fraternity has little experience of real business.
And research projects are very different from actual work with industry. I earnestly believe that all lecturers at management institutions should be practising managers.
Read B-schools can't teach you common sense
A B-school education helps you grasp concepts and in analysing situations. But it does not prepare future managers for the practical part of business.
I believe that in other countries, especially in the West, management students enjoy longer and more effective interaction with industry. But essentially in India most students come in with no work experience and therefore, there is no sharing of experience with their peer groups.
I had already worked for four years when I joined the part-time MBA programme at Delhi University's Faculty of Management Studies. That held me in good stead.
I am convinced that freshers cannot relate fully to what they are taught -- they can't visualise the situations that are being explained in class.
And it doesn't help that the people teaching them have no practical experience of corporate life, either. Most of the teaching fraternity has little experience of real business.
And research projects are very different from actual work with industry. I earnestly believe that all lecturers at management institutions should be practising managers.
Read B-schools can't teach you common sense
ICICI's K V Kamath on How to manage change
ICICI Bank's MD and CEO Mr. K.V.Kamath's interesting prescription on How to manage change ?
1) Learn how to deal with people who are stagnating
2) Look for proxies, observing what happens elsewhere
3) Bias for action
4) Organisational structural changes
5) Timing and how you deal with uncertainty is an important part of success
6) Simplify the complex
7) Be bold
8) Indian Managers Paradox - Employee Productivity vs Technology Productivity
9) 90-day rule
10) Put ear to the grapevine
11) Mix entrepreneurship in a professional context
12) Identify the leaders from the crop coming in
13) New Ideas
Read more on "How to manage change"
1) Learn how to deal with people who are stagnating
2) Look for proxies, observing what happens elsewhere
3) Bias for action
4) Organisational structural changes
5) Timing and how you deal with uncertainty is an important part of success
6) Simplify the complex
7) Be bold
8) Indian Managers Paradox - Employee Productivity vs Technology Productivity
9) 90-day rule
10) Put ear to the grapevine
11) Mix entrepreneurship in a professional context
12) Identify the leaders from the crop coming in
13) New Ideas
Read more on "How to manage change"
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Azim Premji's Four Pillar for Creating a world class firm
Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro says :
To create a world class firm
1) Quality is the first pillar and it can be seen through the eyes of the customer.
2) Importance of choosing a direction and sticking to it.
3) Creating an enterprise that is sensitive to various cultures.
4) World-class enterprises need world-class leaders.
Read the text of lecture on "Creating a world class enterprise with diverse growth engines" organized by Confederation of Indian Industry, in New Delhi.
To create a world class firm
1) Quality is the first pillar and it can be seen through the eyes of the customer.
2) Importance of choosing a direction and sticking to it.
3) Creating an enterprise that is sensitive to various cultures.
4) World-class enterprises need world-class leaders.
Read the text of lecture on "Creating a world class enterprise with diverse growth engines" organized by Confederation of Indian Industry, in New Delhi.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Want to suceed ? Harvard guru's tips
Mr. Robert S Kaplan along with Mr.David Norton has developed "Balanced Scorecard" Concept to stir up your organization.
The world is changing with trade barriers disappearing and competition becoming fiercer than ever.
Robert S Kaplan says that to succeed, you have to change the way you operate. Measure performance, think strategy and use the Balanced Scorecard to stir up your organisation. It's worth it.
They have five simple mantras to create a strategy-focussed organisation:
i) Translate strategy to operational terms,
ii) Align the organisation to the strategy,
iii) Make strategy everyone's everyday job,
iv) Make strategy a continual process, and
v) Mobilise change through strong, effective leadership.
Read Robert S Kaplan's interview
The world is changing with trade barriers disappearing and competition becoming fiercer than ever.
Robert S Kaplan says that to succeed, you have to change the way you operate. Measure performance, think strategy and use the Balanced Scorecard to stir up your organisation. It's worth it.
They have five simple mantras to create a strategy-focussed organisation:
i) Translate strategy to operational terms,
ii) Align the organisation to the strategy,
iii) Make strategy everyone's everyday job,
iv) Make strategy a continual process, and
v) Mobilise change through strong, effective leadership.
Read Robert S Kaplan's interview
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Compassionate Capitalism & How to build a great Company
Mr. N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies says on Compassitionate Capitalism....
"Embellish the spirit of capitalism with fairness, decency, transparency and honesty, and the result is compassionate capitalism."
Read also his ideas on how to build a great company
"Embellish the spirit of capitalism with fairness, decency, transparency and honesty, and the result is compassionate capitalism."
Read also his ideas on how to build a great company
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
BSNL goes broad band
It is a very happy beginning that the public sector giant BSNL has launched broadband access across many cities and towns. The package for Home and Business users are attractive. I am planning to get a Home Package.
Emergic is Wisdom
Emeric.org, the thought blog of Rajesh Jain(Founder of IndiaWorld.com) is a collection of wisdom about technolgy and people. Please read regularly.
Monday, January 17, 2005
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