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India - News
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News Snippets - March
2001 Global slowdown to help India - LA Times India bucks Asia's slowing trend - ET Only 26% of Indians are poor - TOI Canada to restore relations with India - Reuters Guyana President confident of re-election - CNN Ravi Suria moves on - NY Times Vitalspring expands its reach - Washington Post Commerce One acuires Exterprise - Mornongstar NASDAQ comes to India - TIME UK Indian makes a mark - IANS Clinton to visit India - Associated Press Gopichand wins All England Badminton title - Reuters
The slowing U.S. economy is hurting the rest of the world and that, in turn, means less business flowing back through California's harbors and airports. But, those familiar with India's budding computer software industry believe it could actually benefit from the economic squeeze hitting the global IT sector, mainly because it offers relatively high-quality solutions at costs its American competitors can't match. "We polled most of our large customers and find that there is still an increase in IT spending," noted Nandan Nilekani, president and chief operating officer of Infosys Technologies, a Bangalore-based software company. In a slowing market, however, India's gain could spell losses for American competitors and workers. IBM Corp. just announced plans to add 2,000 programmers to its India staff.
India bucks Asia’s slowing trend, says poll MUMBAI - LEAVING a difficult year behind and propelled by a strong reform-focused federal budget, India should achieve a faster pace of growth in the next financial year, a quarterly Reuters poll on Tuesday predicted. And it may be the only country in Asia to do so. The poll of 10 research houses forecast India’s GDP would grow by 6.3 per cent in 2001/02 (April-March), marginally higher than the 6.0 per cent official forecast for the current year ending March 31.Other Asian countries are forecast to post slower growth in 2001, with some like Hongkong, Singapore and South Korea seen decelerating sharply. India’s growth rate is higher than all nations except China, whose GDP is forecast to grow by about 7.7 per cent in 2001. Setting India apart are its low dependence on exports compared to its neighbours and a higher sensitivity to global oil prices, which have softened of late. Economists said "Software exports, the driver of the country’s high growth services sector, may be hit by the large exposure to the US market, but analysts said India’s low cost advantages will cushion the impact."According to Saumitra Chaudhari, economist with rating agency Icra, India is still below its growth potential of seven per cent, which it achieved during the mid-1990s. The federal budget for 2001/02, unveiled last month, proposed sweeping labour reforms, tax cuts and privatisation plans. Only 26% Indians are poor, claims plan panel NEW DELHI - The percentage of people living below the poverty line in the country has come down to 26.10 according to estimates for the year 1999-2000. This means a substantial drop of nearly 10 per cent from the poverty estimates of 36 per cent in 1992-93. The latest estimates released on Thursday by the Planning Commission are based on a large sample survey data of consumer expenditure compiled by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) between July 1999 and June 2000. The NSSO is an expert body and it is a big exercise they have undertaken. Canada to restore most relations with India OTTAWA, Canada - Canada promised on Tuesday to lift most of the political and economic sanctions it imposed on India almost three years ago to punish New Delhi for carrying out a series of nuclear tests. Canadian Foreign Minister John Manley told Reuters that Ottawa would restore normal relations with India and resume development aid, although it would maintain restrictions on exports of military equipment. "We've decided to pursue once again full and broad political and economic relations with India, including the encouragement of ministerial visits," he said in a phone interview from London. In a separate statement, Manley said Ottawa would be seeking new commercial opportunities in India, particularly in the information technology sector. Canada has a large Indian diaspora, many of whom tend to vote for the ruling Liberal Party. Last year India provided the second-largest number of immigrants to Canada. Guyana president confident of re-election GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Guyana's 37-year-old Moscow-trained economist-President Bharrat Jagdeo - draws support from Guyana's majority who trace their roots to India - expressed confidence on Tuesday he had won re-election. A government official told Reuters that based on their own extensive exit polls Jagdeo of the ruling People's Progressive Party received 57 percent of the vote. His main rival Desmond Hoyte of the opposition People's National Congress (PNC) had 32 percent. Jagdeo said if the results were confirmed he would try to meet Hoyte, whose support comes from the nation's minority of African descent, to rebuild Guyana after years of racial tension. An
Analyst Skeptical on Amazon.com Moves On Ravi Suria, 30, the convertible bond analyst at Lehman Brothers who shot to fame on his rigorous and skeptical research reports on Amazon.com and other stock market darlings, has left Lehman to join a $4 billion hedge fund in New York City: Duquesne Capital Management, as a managing director. A native of India, Mr. Suria has a background in engineering but became enthralled with finance when he was studying for his MBA. at Tulane University. On March 16, Mr. Suria returned to Tulane to accept the first Rising Tide Award from the A. B. Freeman School of Business. The award, which is to be presented annually, is given to an outstanding alumnus of the school. VitalSpring Expands Its Reach With 2 Deals VitalSpring Technologies Inc., a privately held firm Rockville company that sells access to large databases of health-care information, is set to announce today that it has struck two new partnerships with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), a San Diego-based research and engineering company with a large presence in the Washington area, and Sedgwick-Parekh, a benefits consulting firm in Mumbai, India, whose clients include Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., General Electric Co. and Microsoft Corp. and has also launched a division in India. "The new software tool predicts medical outcomes based on past history, risk factors, medication and treatment patterns," said Sreedhar Potarazu, VitalSpring's president and chief executive. "The biggest challenge for employers is they don't have access to the right information." Sedgwick Parekh, a subsidiary of global benefits consulting firm William M. Mercer, has agreed to distribute VitalSpring's products to its multinational corporate clients in India, the United States and elsewhere. The company, which sells benefits packages to more than 100 major U.S. corporations, will share the revenue with VitalSpring. Commerce One Acquires Exterprise Pleasanton, Calif.-based Commerce One, which develops global e-marketplaces, has announced the acquisition of Austin, TX-based, , president and CEO, Manoj Saxena's Exterprise in a stock transaction worth approximately $75 million. Commerce One will ad Exterprise’s e-marketplace application development products to its current e-marketplace offerings. “Exterprise enables a whole new type of application, based at the e-marketplace, that powers inter-company processes and offers new levels of collaboration between multiple trading partners," said Mark Hoffman, chairman and CEO, Commerce One. The essential value proposition of Exterprise’s e-marketplace applications is that they allow collaboration on both the buy and sell side, through core technology that builds applications in real time. Hey, Big Boy! NASDAQ comes to India NASDAQ, the world's largest stock exchange, came to India this week. Its fourth office outside New York opened in Bangalore, India's software and biotech hub, giving companies an opportunity to understand international stock markets, and gain access to low-cost international capital in unlimited quantities. The tech-laden bourse lists nearly 5,000 companies, has a larger dollar volume, and trades more shares per day than any other market in the world. The presence of an India office is significant, though only three companies have listed so far: software services company Infosys Technologies, portal Rediff.com and Internet Service Provider (ISP) Satyam Infoway. UK Indian makes a mark with 'The Impressionist' LONDON: A 31-year-old Oxford-educated British Indian journalist, Hari Kunzru (son of an Agra-born orthopaedic surgeon), has landed a contract worth 1.25 million pounds for a two-book deal following the draft of a novel he submitted less than a month ago. The draft manuscript that has attracted so much attention is titled The Impressionist, which Kunzru describes as "Midnight's Children meets Tom Jones." Clinton to visit Indian earthquake zone next week AHMADABAD, India - Former President Clinton will spend two days in India's western Gujarat state next week to assess earthquake damage, the U.S. consulate in Bombay said Tuesday. Clinton will be accompanied on his April 3-8 visit by about 20 American business leaders of Indian origin, said Dilip Raval, the Gujarat state government's chief protocol officer. He said Clinton would offer assistance on behalf of the American India foundation, which has been raising money for victims of the devastating quake that hit the region on Jan. 26. Clinton's last visited India in March 2000.
B IRMINGHAM, England – 27 year old, Pullela Gopichand of India won the All England men's singles badminton title on Sunday, beating China's Chen Hong 15-12 15-6 in the final. It was India's first title success at the All Englands for 21 years and a totally deserved one by the world number 10. Earlier in the tournament he had disposed of Olympic champion Ji Xinpeng of China, world number one Peter Gade of Denmark and finally world’s 12th ranked player, Chen in the finals. Without betraying his emotions, Gopi just stood at the centre of the court and raised his fist in the air in silent jubiliation. Coach Leroy D'sa and others rushed in to hug him and then the feeling sank in.India
cricketers end Australian record India have beaten Australia after what correspondents are calling one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of test cricket. The victory, in Calcutta, also ends Australia's record run of sixteen successive test match victories. IBM to invest $100 million in India BANGALORE: IBM, the largest computer manufacturer in the world, will invest $100 million in India over the next two years towards developing its software laboratories at Bangalore and Pune. In addition to this, the company will open a new laboratory at Gurgoan this year. This will be the fifth centre of the company in the country. In line with its growth strategy, the company will induct 1,700 software professionals this year taking the total number of employees in the country to 4,500. It has plans to increase this number to 10,000 in few years time. IBM India, which recorded 27 per cent growth in revenue in 2000, had 45 per cent income from its software services. On export front, the company earned a revenue of $98 million.India
to start production of Akash missile NEW DELHI - INDIA will soon start production of a short-range, surface-to-air missile after a series of successful tests, a defence ministry official said. The missile Akash, with a range 25 km, was tested three times from a launch pad in the Bay of Bengal over the past fortnight. The surface-to-surface Prithvi missile has already been inducted into the army.Khosla presents IIT-Delhi with $5-m IT school NEW DELHI - VINOD Khosla, the guy who founded Sun Microsystems and seeded such Silicon Valley powerhouses as Cisco’s No 1 rival in the router space Juniper and Excite, is donating $5 million for setting up a school of information technology at the IIT-Delhi. Billionaire, Khosla is perhaps the most well known and certainly the richest Indian venture capitalist in the globe. IIT-Delhi’s 'star alumnus' Vinod Khosla's ifame is so well established in the Silicon Valley that when recently Cisco’s acquisitions chief Mike Volpi was asked what would be his No.1 dream acquisition, he had replied, "Vinod Khosla".Mother Teresa Statue Unveiled 14 March 2001, New York Times CALCUTTA, India - A life-sized, bronze statue of Mother Teresa was displayed Wednesday in Calcutta, the city where the late Nobel Peace Prize winner spent most of her life helping the destitute and dying. “When we see the statue we feel she is there,” said Sister Nirmala, the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity who succeeded Mother Teresa. “We are reminded of the love and blessings of Mother who may not be physically among us but guiding us from above.”Czech premier visiting India The Czech Prime Minister, Milos Zeman, has begun an official visit to India aimed at boosting economic and cultural ties between the two countries. Mr Zeman is leading a twenty-member business delegation. Correspondents say he is expected to press India to buy more defence equipment from his country. He is scheduled to hold separate talks with the Indian President, K. R. Narayanan, the Vice-president Krishnan Kant and the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.
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