DQ Top 20 Volume II - Listings, 2014

VOL-2-Listings

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Vol XXXII No 15 I August 15, 2014

The Business of Infotech

Terrific 20s A look at some key technologies, people, and deals that made waves in FY 14 >>17

156 pages including cover

Special Subscription offer on page 144

August 15, 2014

17

Terrific 20s A look at some key technologies, people, and deals that made waves in FY14

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EVENT

regular

Managing Infrastructure in ApplicationCentric World

08 Edit 10 DQ team 12 Short Takes 154 Last Matter

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contents

Top 20 Verticals

T o p 2 0 T- S c h o o l s

17 Moving Beyond Favorites

85 Top 20 T-Schools

As businesses transform, consumers go omni-channel, and technology touches...

The gist of the DQ-CMR T-School Survey surfaces in the fact that a new host of institutes...

Top 20 Disruptive Technologies 35 Tech with the Buzz

97 The Joy of Giving

FY14 had its share of leading edge technologies both in the enterprise and consumer...

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more,” H Jackson Brown, Jr. Here we present...

T OP 2 0 I T E m p l o y e r s

111 Movers and Shakers

India’s IT companies witnessed a growth in the BFSI, healthcare, and pharma space...

This year industry has witnessed huge reshuffling in the top line.

Many senior leaders...

Top 20 Women in IT

61 Gadgets that Impressed FY14

127 Top Women Techies

They came in different shapes and sizes—took the market and consumer interest...

They are powerful. Manage large organizations. Globe trotters.

Achievers. In the male...

Top 20 IT Deals

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Top 20 Movers & Shakers

49 Top 20 IT Employers in India

Top 20 gadgets

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T o p 2 0 CSR INI T IA T I V ES

Top 20 Leadership Mantras

73 IT’s a Deal!

139 Points to Ponder

As the global economy gained some traction, the outsourcing demand picked up...

Here we have compiled list of quotes that reflect how some of the world’s top managers...

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edit

T M Arun Kumar arunk@cybermedia.co.in

WhatsApp is Doing to SMS, What SMS Did to Pager and Telegram

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case study often referred to in the world of business, especially in the digital era, goes famously as “Apple did to Sony, what Sony did to Kodak.” It essentially explains how Sony killed Kodak in the digital camera market, while at the same time Apple beat Sony’s iconic Walkman with its iPod. Alas, the Indian telecom service providers seem to have missed the case as they are now running to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asking the regular to intervene to provide a better level-playing field with Internet companies like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, etc, that offer over-the-top services.

Essentially, what the telecom service providers are saying is that these apps provide services such as voice calling and texting that they themselves offer, riding on their data networks, but the service providers don’t get any revenue out of them. For instance, consultancy PwC estimates that Skype, which offers free Skype to Skype phone calls using Internet, is costing the telecom industry around $36 bn per year globally.

While it may seem a genuine grouse at first glance, it, however, is a misplaced one. What the service providers miss is the fact that that’s the way the world of technology moves. If you don’t evolve your products or services, someone else will and threaten your business. History is full of new technologies that have made older ones redundant and wiping companies out of business.

Nokia missed the smartphone revolution, Blackberry missed the touch-phone boat, and there are many more such examples. But, none of them went crying to the regulator.

And, rather perversely, this seems to be a case of partial or wilfull blindness on the part of the telecom service providers. There were no tears shed, barring the crocodile tears, when SMS’ killed the then nascent pager market in the country or the telegram market. At that time, technology and market forces were heralded the champions.

Like in the jungle, the world of business also has a brutal law—have lunch or be lunch. Thats the name of the game, especially in the fast moving digital era. Instead of running to the regulator, the service providers should introspect and see how they can survive and thrive in this digital era.

As for TRAI, it would do well to stay out of this and resist the urge to intervene in this battle. Shed no tears. Afterall, WhatsApp is doing to SMS, what SMS did to the pager and telegram.

TM Arun Kumar Editor 8

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the dq 20

Editorial

GROUP EDITOR: Ibrahim Ahmad EDITOR: TM Arun Kumar ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Shrikanth G (Chennai), Smita Vasudevan (Bengaluru) CORRESPONDENT: Prerna Sharma SUB EDITOR: Charu Murgai, Ruchika Goel

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Onkar Sharma onkars@cybermedia.co.in

Consumers will be the End Beneficiary of the ICT Standards: DeitY

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ndia is expected to consume $320 bn worth of ICT products annually by 2020. Government has initiated the creation of an appropriate policy ecosystem to ensure that consumers get access to safe and good quality technology products. Keeping this in mind, government had notified the Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement for compulsory Registration Order) in 2012. Though the intent of order is well appreciated by all stakeholders, there are increasing

calls for harmonization of requirements under the order with globally accepted best practices. Given this context MAIT, the apex body representing India’s IT hardware, training and R&D services sectors, in association with the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) organized a one-day program titled “India Standards: A Strong ICT Nation.”

While addressing the seminar, Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, DeitY said “The compulsory registration order, notified by DeitY has ensured registration of products by the manufacturers, both domestic and foreign, thereby, curbing inflow of sub-standard goods. Special measures have been initiated to provide financial assistance to MSMEs and reducing compliance effort with simpler and effective labeling, reduced timelines, and greater transparency.”

Keshav Desiraju, Secretary, Ministry of Consumer Affairs said, “Self registration, as implied by the CRO, is an enormous responsibility in itself. All inclusive growth of the ICT sector depends upon voluntary registration of products and how best we can take this forward. Consumers will be the end beneficiary of the process as standard of products will improve once the registration order is implemented fully.”

Keysight Technologies begins Operations

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eysight Technologies announced the electronic measurement business of Agilent Technologies has begun operating under the Keysight name. It will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilent Technologies until early November when the separation is expected to be completed and Keysight begins trading on the NYSE under the symbol KEYS. Keysight is a market leader holding the number one position in its industry segments of communications; aerospace and defense; and industrial, computers, and semiconductors.

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Keysight’s separation from Agilent was announced in September 2013.

“As we launch our new company, we are mindful of our rich heritage as part of Agilent and prior to that, HewlettPackard,” said Ron Nersesian, Keysight president and CEO. “We are also mindful of our responsibility and commitment to our stakeholders including customers, our shareholders and our employees. We look forward to the many opportunities ahead that will allow us to focus solely on electronic measurement and showcase the leadingedge technologies that our customers have come to expect.”

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Ubank Boosts Customer Base With New Credit Capability Platform

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bank and Nucleus Software Exports have completed the roll out of a new credit and loan system. This initiative, which is part of Ubank’s 5-years strategy to grow its current portfolio to 1.5 mn accounts by 2017, is powered by the best-of-breed lending technology solution–FinnOne. According to Luthando Vutula, CEO of Ubank, “Ubank is the first bank in South Africa to implement FinnOneTM.” The project will also help reduce impairments over a fiveyear period from 2013 to 2017 due to better on-boarding capabilities that limit bad lending. By hosting a number of new products powered by FinnOneTM’s agile technology platform, the project will also deliver a scalable solution for on-boarding to maximise the growth of Ubank’s accounts by 2017. Ubank is committed to the mandate of serving the broader working market in South Africa which has led to a

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strong presence and customer accessibility in select mining, rural and metropolitan communities. The decision to collaborate with Nucleus Software was necessary in order to be able to give effect to this commitment.

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A Spying Campaign with 2,800+ Highly Valuable Targets Worldwide

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aspersky Lab announced the release of a comprehensive in-depth analysis of the malware and command and control (C&C) server infrastructure related to the cyber-espionage campaign known to the company’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) as the Crouching Yeti.

Energetic Bear/Crouching Yeti is involved in several advanced persistent threat (APT) campaigns. According to Kaspersky Lab’s research, its victims appear to be in a wider range of enterprises than was previously thought.

The largest number of identified victims fall into the sectors: Industrial/machinery, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, construction, education and information technology.

The total number of known victims is over 2,800 worldwide, out of which Kaspersky Lab researchers were able to identify 101 organizations. This list of victims seems to indicate Crouching Yeti’s interest in strategic targets, but it also shows an interest of the group in many other not-so-obvious institutions. Kaspersky Lab’s experts believe they might be collateral victims, but it might also be reasonable to redefine Crouching Yeti not only as a highly targeted campaign in a very specific area of interest, but also as a broad surveillance campaign with interests in different sectors.

The attacked organizations are located mostly in the United States, Spain, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Ireland, Poland, and China. Given the nature of the known victims, the main impact for them is disclosure of very sensitive information such as trade secrets and know-how.

IntellioCRM Boasts Simplicity

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romising to bring ease and efficiency to broker’s business—Intellio Consulting launches IntellioCRM solution for Indian Real Estate Consultants.

Tapping the CRM sector, that currently stands strong with revenues worth over $111 mn (Year 2011) and forecasted to grow to $179 mn by 2014 , IntellioCRM is positioned to create a big opportunity in the Indian market. With India -the fastest growing cloud computing market in the Asia Pacific, as its target, the company foresees more scalability and flexibility in business applications.

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Pitched as an intuitive, intelligent, and innovative software IntellioCRM’s features are unparalleled and unique.

Aiming to mobilize the real estate consultancies towards customer relationship management at every level including –enquiries, calls, meetings, follow ups, work in progress, status reports, etc. The software is focussed to introduce a ‘customer-centric approach’ to the otherwise disorganized sector. Facilitating workforce to be more agile with integrated & effective client data administrative techniques.

The software is a browser based Cloud CRM software offering services on SaaS model.

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Startup Village Partners Getit to Help Firms Reach New Markets

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tartup Village, India’s first PPP model mobileinternet technology business incubator, has teamed up with Getit Infomedia to provide technical and marketing support to startups aspiring to make it big in the Indian and Asian markets. As part of the partnership, Getit has launched a ‘ScaleIQ Innovation Zone’ at Startup Village in Kala-

massery which will provide unlimited market access and mentoring to the startups.

“With Startup village attracting applications from across the country, the scale of operations at the village now provides leading technology companies a single window access to talent. We are happy to have Getit on board,” said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman, Startup Village.

Jaspreet Bindra, Chief Executive Officer, Getit Infomedia said, “We will initially select 15 startups from a list of 100 and they will receive mentoring and technical support from us. We will help the companies gain market access through our vast network of consumers and business houses which will help the startups accelerate their growth.”

The startups will also access the company’s expertise, application-programming interface (API), GMT Gateways, etc. Besides these, Getit will provide the innovation zone with equipment including two Apple desktop computers, two Apple laptops, and one high quality printer.

Xchanging Names Richard Cornish as IoT Head

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changing announced that it has appointed Richard Cornish as Head of Internet of Things (IoT) to steer the company’s services in the IoT space and drive strategic growth for Xchanging Technology Services. Richard’s 25 years’ experience in connected technology started with the British Army, using remote sensors for surveillance, asset management, and data gathering. After 10 years of service, he left to join Orange, running its location-based services proposition, which initially focused on delivering telematics services to the automotive sector.

Richard joins Xchanging from Vodafone Group Enterprise, where he worked for four years and was responsible for building and driving Vodafone’s connected products and services. In his new role, Richard will be rapidly building upon the strength of Xchanging’s technology capabilities by spearheading its global IoT strategy and propositions. Richard will report to Alok Sinha, President, Global Application and Engineering Services.

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Moving Beyond Favorites As businesses transform, consumers go omni-channel, and technology touches all aspects of life, the dynamics are set to be redefined

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Top 20 Verticals

Automotive

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he use of technology has been more prominent in the automotive space than most other industries as the products manufactured are more sophisticated and goes through various stages of design, testing, and manufacturing.

According to a report by Center for Automotive Research (CAR), the automotive industry spends around $100 bn globally on R&D. The need for tech skills is also high as the industry is known to be employing more engineers per thousand jobs than other major sectors.

The growing complexities in vehicle design and manufacturing, the rise of automated vehicle technologies and increasing focus on improving overall driving experience is driving a lot more thrust on technology investments by automotive companies worldwide.

There is still a long way to go till we see robot driven cars, but certain autonomous features have already found their way. Automated parking is one example of this that is being displayed in high-end cars like Audi, Lexus, and BMW. Also, it is expected that more and more auto manufacturers will be coming up with diesel cars that will be more fuel efficient, with low operating cost and similar technologies as in nondiesel cars. Technol-

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ogy will clearly have a role to play here.

Banking and Financial Services

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anking has been the veteran vertical in IT. The crises in the Eurozone and the sluggish growth in the United States have slowed down the traction in the banking industry. But things are gradually changing as the industry is showing signs of recovery, and subsequently, IT spending is picking up. Also, the developing economies like China and Latin America are creating fresh opportunities.

According to a report by Celent, IT spending in Banking: A Global Perspective, the total bank IT spending across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific is expected to grow to $188 bn in 2014, an increase of approximately 4.4% over 2013. This indicates the growing emphasis on technology investments in the region.

Globally, there is a lot more focus on new technologies like big data and mobility. Banks are investing big on security solutions and there is an increased focus on improving customer experience across different channels.

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Gartner predicts that by 2016, poor return on equity will drive more than 60% of banks worldwide to process the majority of their transactions in the cloud.

Construction

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ccording to Global construction 2025 study by Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics, the volume of construction output is predicted to grow by more than 70% to $15 tn worldwide by 2025. This is indicative of the enormous scope construction sector presents for IT adoption. Yet the sector’s tech spending has been on the lower side. Gartner had reported sometime back that the IT spending in the construction industry is relatively lower than most other industries. But considering the transformations taking place in the industry, it’s time that construction companies start embracing new technologies.

Just like other industries, emerging technologies like mobility and big data are set to create massive disruptions in the construction space. The Sage 2013 construction industry technology trends survey states that 32% of construction companies are currently A CyberMedia Publication

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look at customized offerings. Social media is being used to connect with customers at a personalized level and the power of data created across different mediums is being harnessed with the use of big data. Improved customer service on different channels is a top priority for e-commerce companies. Many companies are investing in online apps to better serve their customers.

Education

T seeking work outside their geographic region, further increasing the need for mobility solutions.

Going ahead, the industry will be looking at better security solutions as construction workers increasingly use their own devices. Collaboration solutions and SaaS will also see traction.

E-commerce technology market will grow at a CAGR of 20% over the period 2013 to 2018.

There is also a tough competition as lots of start-ups are coming up in the ecommerce space. Personalization is the new trend that is gaining favor as companies

E-commerce

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commerce is one of the most hottest industries right now, as growing consumer demand and explosion in mobile devices result in massive changes. The evolving trends in the e-commerce industry are closely linked to changes in technology. E-commerce companies have realized the value of making their business tech-enabled and are increasingly looking for innovative solutions. Mobile strategy forms the core focus area for companies as they look at reaping benefits of location-based marketing. According to TechNavio estimates, the global 22

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he shifting paradigms in education and the growing popularity of new technologies like social media among students is driving a new wave of IT adoption in the education sector globally. Innovative mediums are finding their way with the use of online learning, hybrid learning and collaborative models.

The fundamentals of education are being reset and that is clearly impacting IT investment decisions.

Rise of data-driven learning and assessment is another trend that is gaining favour. According to NMC Horizon Report: 2 0 1 4 Higher Education Edition, there is a growing interest in using new sources of data for personalizing the learn-

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rachna.panda@redington.co.in

Top 20 Verticals

ing experience and for performance measurement. It is quite apparent that business intelligence and real time business analytics will be driving significant investments in 2014.

Mobile apps is another area that is expected to gain a lot of traction and figures high on the spending list of education institutions.

According to Gartner research, through 2017, K-12 online education spending will increase 25%, while budgetary constraints will keep spending on traditional instructional categories stagnant.

Education technology start ups are seeing a boom time pulling in record investments.

getting more and more connected.

Industry experts suggest that this is just the tip of the ice berg as the industry is set for some major technology led transformations in the near future.

The most prominent example of fashion and technology intersection is in the wearable technology space.

With smart watches and glasses coming up, it will be interesting to see what the next level of innovation in wearable technology is going to be.

Also, 3D printing is expected to bring about massive transformations in the fashion industry.

Technology is creating a great deal of impact in the clothing and textile industry with opportunities for improved designs and innovative fabrics. In the fashion retail space, companies are connecting with customers in multiple ways and on numerous platforms to understand their customers and their needs better. The realization that no single channel is going to work has struck as fashion companies strive to create an omni-channel strategy.

Government

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he government sector is a critical area and holds a lot of scope for IT adoption, yet in most cases its known to be the last one to adopt new technologies.

But the

Fashion

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t’s amazing to see how the fashion industry is embracing technology.

Traditionally, fashion and technology would have been two far and distant things, but with changing times, the two are 24

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Top 20 Verticals

more vulnerable to data breaches.

Hence, healthcare organizations will be thinking seriously about IT risk management. Healthcare IT providers will clearly have a role to play in providing an end-to-end security.

Also, the growing interest among consumers to access health information online is giving rise to a large number of patient portals. Frost & Sullivan predicts that between 2012 to 2017 patient portals will grow by 221%. Telemedicine and predictive modelling are other areas that will be driving IT spending.

public sector opportunity is huge and things are set to change as government entities look at transformations.

IT security is a key priority area for the sector and will be driving significant investments. Cloud adoption is seeing a lot of traction. Cisco indicates that Internet of things is poised to generate $4.6 tn in value at stake for the public sector over the next decade (compared with $14.4 tn for the private sector over the same period).

As the public sector faces IT budgets constraints, adoption of technologies need to more balanced and resources need to be allocated smartly.

Trends like hybrid IT can provide an alternative of managing some part of the work internally while moving rest to the cloud.

Gartner predicts that by 2017, public cloud offerings will grow to account for more than 25% of government business services in domains other than national defence and security.

technologies like analytics and mobility in their effort to improve the quality of medical services. Big data is increasingly being applied to derive valuable information out the humongous amounts of medical data.

It is also being predicted that more number of healthcare organizations will be moving to the cloud in 2014, as it is being argued that storing data on private cloud is safer than storing it locally on any physical device.

Security concerns are also growing as the large amount of sensitive data that the industry generates makes it

Insurance

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nsurance is another stalwart for the IT industry. With consumers taking the intake of social media and mobile devices to another level, Insurance companies are realizing the need for alternate channels strategy to stay competitive. The combined forces of social media, analytics, mobile, and cloud are driving greater IT investments in the insurance space.

It means a change in the role for insurance CIOs as well as they look out for new ways of bringing innovation and cost optimization.

Healthcare

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ver the last few years, healthcare IT has seen a remarkable transformation.

Healthcare organizations are embracing new

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Manufacturing

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The preference for alternate channels hasn’t completely displaced traditional channels, though the degree of focus may differ for different regions. In Asia Pacific region, as insurance companies are trying to attract different segments, it is going to be a mixed strategy. Traditional channel investments will be made to attract the growing middle class segment.

There is also a shift in vendor preference as large size contracts get broken down and allocated to multiple vendors. Discretionary IT spending in the insurance space is predicted to go up in 2014. Gartner Research forecasts spending to grow by 3.6% in 2014 as compared to 2013.

fering them the opportunity to connect and engage with the customers. According to a Mckinsey report on Jewellery Industry in 2020, Online jewellery sales were around four to five percent of the market in 2013, with substantial variations across regions, brands and types of jewellery. This is expected to reach 10% by 2020. For fashion jewellery share of online sales is expected to go up to 15% by the same time.

3D printing is one trend that is expected to create disruptive changes in the jewellery sector. It allows improvement in traditional jewellery production as well as the elimination of traditional steps with direct 3D printed production.

n line with the ever increasing focus on improved customer experience, manufacturing companies are betting big on new age technologies. Modern and flexible IT applications are high on demand, especially customer facing applications like CRM, warranty management applications, etc. According to a TechNavio report, the global manufacturing IT spending market is expected to grow at average of 5.54% over the period 2012 to 2016.

Manufacturers are moving away from traditional IT applications that are complex and fail to support the new business strategy. The industry is opening up to the disruptive forces of mobility, cloud, big data, and social media. Globally manufacturing organizations face an increasing need for business agility and fast decision making capability based on real-time data.

IDC predicts that in 2014 supply chain technology investment will involve modernizing existing systems, while also trying new approaches, and Product lifecycle management (PLM) strategies will become increasingly global, multi-disciplinary, innovation-based, and customer-focused. Plant floor IT investments will

Jewellery

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ewellery and technology, again two traditionally non-connected areas get closer as technology advancements create a profound impact on the jewellery sector. One significant trend is technology infused designs. Designs that combine jewellery and communication devices are unfolding new opportunities in the industry. The emergence of new channels is also making a considerable impact on the functioning of jewellery stores of28

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continue to form a higher share of the overall technology investment portfolio. Additionally, manufacturers will begin to build 3D value chains.

Media & Entertainment

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he media and entertainment industry has grown leaps and bounds over the years, and is currently at the forefront of innovation. Technology clearly has made a lot of things possible which till sometime back was limited only to our imaginations. When we look at the technology needs of the media and entertainment industry, storage appears to be the most important area as

content creation, distribution and conversion creates an enormous need for storage products. The industry presents a huge opportunity for storage solution providers and channel partners.

In its 2013 Digital Storage for Media and Entertainment Report, Coughlin Associates, a data storage consulting firm estimates that there will be a 5.8 times increase in the required digital storage capacity in the entertainment industry between 2013 and 2018. During that time span, entertainment storage revenue is expected to grow 90%, from $6.2 bn to $11.9 bn.

Social media and mobile presents a great opportunity for user-generated content and content repurposing. Many production houses are known to be using Big data to derive market insights and predict the performance of films before release.

Mining

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he evolution of existing technologies and new innovations are expected to have a |

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visible impact on the growth of the mining industry. Just like most other industries, there are new challenges to tackle in terms of cost of production, productivity of workers, identifying new reserves, etc.

Mining industry faces the issue of limited R&D budgets, and is also quite risk averse when it comes to adoption of new technologies. Most of the times, mining companies are relying on cross over technologies from other sectors like automobile and construction. New technology investments require huge capital investments and return on investment is recouped only by two to three years. As the industry faces the challenge of economic pressure and environmental regulations, technology investments are mostly aimed at reengineering processes to improve productivity.

A Deloitte report , ‘Tracking the Trends 2014’, states that using technologies that provide continuous, real time information on the activity and state of equipment, mining companies can improve their decision making and asset performence. It also suggests that beyond automation and remote operations, numerous technologies can help miners keep costs down.

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Top 20 Verticals

Pharma & Life Sciences

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echnology’s impact on the pharma and life sciences industry has been known in many ways. Technology advances are bringing about major transformations in the industry and are expected to take it to an another level in the coming years with some break through innovations. Pharma companies with limited R&D budgets are also adopting new technologies for process efficiencies. Reportedly, companies are moving to enterprise-wide deployment of EDC and electronic systems. With location-based capabilities and more access to mobile devices, pharma and life sciences companies are finding new ways to engage customers and are investing in apps to offer improved services.

Other than that, technology also provides the opportunity to collect patient data real time. Big data is opening up a whole new world of opportunities for the industry. The valuable insights can help in bringing improvements in critical areas like drug development. Interestingly, the industry is slowly opening up to social media to build awareness and share information with the com-

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munity. Drug maker Sanofi creating a Facebook community for diabetes sufferers is a step in that direction and many others are likely to follow suit.

Power & Utility

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ccording to a PWC report, energy efficiency measures, rapid fall in the price of solar modules, the deployment of demand-side management technology, and smart metering or grid deployment are the technological developments that will have the highest impact on the power sector. Other technological changes like Shale gas and electric cars are also expected to make a significant impact in the North American market.

Some of the large power companies globally are expected to reinvent their businesses with the adoption of new technologies. The industry is also taking customer service more seriously by investing in customer-centric solutions. The use of advanced analytic tools will gain prominence as companies look at gaining deeper cuswww.dqindia.com

tomer insights to improve the overall business performance. The industry will be embracing technology advancements like in-memory database technology. According to Deloitte, the technology allows companies to store hundreds of terabytes of data in-memory – more than 10 times what the largest US electric utilities store in data warehouses. Predictive asset maintenance and nanotechnology are other developments that will unfold new opportunities in the power and utility space.

Retail

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etail technology adoption is transforming in a big way with changing consumer behavior and demographics redefining the business models for retailers. The growth of multi-channel retail and consumerization of retail is pushing companies to put in place a digital business strategy. Significant investments are being made in analytics to obtain a single view of the customer from data collected across multiple channels.

Retailers are moving towards predictive technologies to deliver better customer experience and are making technology investments to improve the workforce. One example of this is the use of handheld devices by retail

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associates to proactively serve their customers.

There will be increasing use of cloud technologies among retailers to deliver a seamless customer experience.

Industry experts suggest that there is a lot more to come. IDC predicts that by by 2017, marketing and advertising technology investment in retail will increase by 50%. According to Gartner, by the end of 2017, at least 7 of the world’s top 10 multichannel retailers will use 3D printing technologies to generate custom stock orders.

Telecom

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ith the explosion of communication devices and ever increasing demand from users to stay connected, the Telecommunication space is at the forefront of technology led innovations and new challenges. Telecom companies are looking out for innovative means to tackle fierce competition and shrinking margins. At the same time there is more focus on cost optimization.

It has been reported that the share of IT cost in mobile operators’ total process related cost has been going up. At the same time, competitive pricing and stagnant demand in areas like voice 32

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telecommunication has led to a decline in revenues for many Telecom companies. In a difficult scenario, IT is being looked at more as a business enabler.

Telecom operators have the opportunity to open up new revenue streams through advanced billing and score on customer service with improved customer service management.

It is expected that in 2014 traffic on 2G and 3G networks will see a decline whereas more focus will move to LTE. Network Function Virtualization is another area that will drive technology investments.

IT & ITeS

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he IT and ITeS sector has itself been one of the largest consumers of technology. The

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sector that is broadly comprised of IT services, BPO, software products and hardware is a key driver for technology spending. As the provider of technology or technology enabled services, it is only natural that it stands ahead in the race.

Emerging technologies like big data, social, analytics, and cloud have opened up tremendous opportunities as well as challenges for the sector. Large IT companies are making huge investments in these areas and niche technology vendors are also coming up.

Just like the other industries are gearing up for technology disruptions, companies in the IT/ITeS sector are also making significant investments to beef up their internal technology capabilities as well as their product and service delivery

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portfolio. Organizations are looking at growth through organic and inorganic routes and are entering into partnership alliances to expand their reach.

A lot of investment is being done on R&D as innovation becomes the key to competitive differentiation.

Acquiring the right technology resources and talent also remains a key priority and will drive investments..

Transportation & Logistics

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he huge size of the industry creates a vast opportunity for IT adoption. According to Plunkett Research estimates, in total, core transportation revenues in the US were around $950 bn in 2013. Worldwide, these revenues were approximately $4.5 trillion.

The research also states that supply chain technology has been the fastest growing segment in the information field.

With the growth of omni-channel business environment, the role of transportation has become paramount and there is increasing demand for fleet management solutions with special capabilities.

The report 2014

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Travel Transport and logistics Insights by Ferrier Hodgson states that growth in online retail is having a structural impact on the transport industry as goods are delivered directly from ports or manufacturers to consumers’ homes, rather than via distribution centers and stores.

Emerging technologies are being leveraged to get real-time visibility into logistics in the supply chain and distribution space. The use of GPS technology enables transport companies to monitor the location of the vehicle. Collaboration and business intelligence are other areas where technology will be making a significant impact.

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ravel industry is one of the areas that suffered a lot because of the global economic crisis but the industry is showing strong signs of recovery and technology is playing a visible role in the transformation. There is wider deployment of technology among travel companies in their quest for improved user experience and service delivery.

As more and more travellers access mobile web to search for information and shop for travel products, it’s inevitable for companies to have a mobile strategy in place. Also big data presents a huge opportunity to derive key business insights to drive better decisions.

Many travel companies have realized and are using the power of social media to connect with their customers and reach out to prospective customers.

The use of personal cloud is also opening new opportunity windows as consumers can now access data online from anywhere anytime. Companies have the opportunity to connect real time with their customers, though offering a consistent experience across all touch points will be a key concern. Travel industry will also see a significant increase in the number of virtual agents and the use of artificial intelligence.

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Prerna Sharma prernas@cybermedia.co.in

Tech with the Buzz

FY14 had its share of leading edge technologies both in the enterprise and consumer space. We take a look at the key technology trends that shaped the year

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3-D Printing

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sage of this technology is increasing rapidly. If you think it can only be successful in tech industry, then you are highly mistaken. One can see its adoption in verticals where you can’t imagine. The size of the global market, including 3-D printer sales, materials, and associated services is predicted to reach $16.2 bn by 2018, according to independent research company Canalys. Its estimates show the sector stood at $2.5 bn globally in 2013 and will rise to $3.8 bn in 2014. And in five years the company believes the market will grow by over 500% with a YoY growth rate of 45.7%.

American designers are now working on 3-D printed cars, while in China and Holland, 3-D printers are building entire houses. The first 3-D printed hamburger was recently created in England, heralding the possibility of a man-made food supply.

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Apart from this, doctors are using it for printing skin, kidneys, a replica of a beating human heart. The biggest surprise came when NASA, using Zero-G technology, demonstrated how 3-D printers will one day be used in space.

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Mobile Payments

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ith ever increasing number of smartphones and tablets, the growth of mobile payments market or commonly known as eWallet market is growing by leaps and bounds. Today consumers have options to do their banking transaction with just one click on their phone. Thanks to an increasing number of phones with either secure mobile banking apps, and/or Near Field Communications (NFC) chips.

Apart from BFSI segment, one can see non-bank competitors jump in to the mobile payment race, including Google Wallet and Apple’s Passbook to name a few.

This destructive technology has emerged so wide, attracting not only the attention of Indian consumers but also global investors. IDC reports that in 2013, India ranked as the sixth largest smartphone market, after China, the US, the UK, Japan, and Brazil. It predicts that by 2017, India will become the world’s third fastest growing smartphone market with 459.7% growth between 2013 and 2017. Whereas NFC A CyberMedia Publication

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technology is still at a nascent stage in India, but one can see its adoption in rail ticketing, retail outlets, etc.

Software Defined Network

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ith explosive use of mobile, cloud, and video technologies, demands for new performance, capacity, and service have increased on network. But it becomes difficult for IT teams to meet this ever growing demands with their limited network infrastructures.

The need for SDI is clear as traditional networks have not kept pace with the improvements we have seen in virtualizing computing and storage—so the major shift brought about by SDI is that the network, storage, and compute has become an equal participant in creating technologically seamless IT organizations that can maximize the deliverables on IT spend. As per IDC, SDN is likely to become a $2 bn market by 2016.

The promise of a virtual network infrastructure allowing a business to respond in quick time to changing market requirements is the chief ben-

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efit that can be expected from SDN as per IDC. Experts say that SDN makes the datacenter more customized and efficient. Instead of approaching all applications the same way by using standard, undifferentiated resources, a SDN custom-builds business services by leveraging diverse infrastructure according to workload types, business rules and resource availability. Once these business rules are in place, re-

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sources are orchestrated by patternsbest practices that govern how to build, deploy, scale, and optimize the services that these workloads deliver.

Enterprise Mobility

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n today’s digital world, employees are using devices such as smartphones or tablets, as well as accessing cloud services, to conduct their business on a day-to-day basis.

It allows workers to become more productive and gives them the freedom of using their own devices, but has also given birth to new business practices. It has become easier for employees to work outside the office as they can access secure corporate data to conduct daily tasks with the help of enterprise mobility.

The usage of this technology is not constrained to tech industry but also to other verticals. Today with enterprise mobility, a doctor can access patient files from his tablet while on rounds and an executive can access a presentation from his tablet or phone while traveling.

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It is not confined to mobile workers and mobile devices, but also to the mobility of corporate data. An employee may upload a corporate presentation from his or her desktop to a cloud storage service, then access it from a personal iPad to show at a client site.

Though many benefits are attached to it but also creates security risks. Enterprise mobility management products, such as data loss prevention technologies, are available to help IT departments address these risks.

E-health and E-education

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-health technology provides benefits to different sets of people including patients, providers, and health planners. If a patient want to know about their healthcare costs, information about their own health.

Similarly providers want to save time and money by streamlining communications where as health planner want to strengthen relationships with members and providers while reducing the cost of doing business. All this is possible in just one click. Techniques like improved communication include

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provider messaging, access to electronic medical records, and the ability to access information about alternative approaches to medical treatment. Now patients generally get some minutes of face-to-face time with their physician and through E-health have access to thousands of healthcare Internet sites where they can gain unlimited health information and can review the cost and quality of other providers with their existing ones.

Improved efficiency, reduce administrative costs, facilitate communication, and enhance patient care are some of the benefits which are helping this

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technique to be one of the destructive technology in coming years.

Consumerization of IT

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n recent years, adoption of consumerization of IT has increased tremendously. It refers to a trend in which business employees expect to be able to use personal devices to connect to corporate networks. Today consumers are increasingly using mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers. As a result, many employees are demanding that their employers allow them to use devices they’ve chosen and are comfortable using. With this, corporate IT departments are setting policies, platforms, and security measures to ensure the security of corporate data over a larger number of different types of devices.

Various research show that the majority of companies surveyed already allow employees to use their personal devices for work-related activities.

Consumerization is one such trend that has hit enterprise IT. In other words, consumerization is a phe-

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nomenon that manifests a complete reversal of the direction of technology change. Much of what we have in ICT was invented for the military, then adapted for commercial business, and then simplified for consumer use. But the reverse trend now prevails. Technologies are invented for the consumer, they are then adapted for business, and refined for military use. This is one possible characterization of the trend of consumerization, but there exist many others.

WYOD

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arlier companies were resisting themselves from adopting bring your own devices (BYOD) when it comes to security.

But one particular industry seemingly creating buzz this year: wearable technology. With introduction of smart watches and glasses it is becoming clear that predictions of a wearable tech revolution in 2014 are likely coming to fulfill. Experts believe that it is right for enterprise to upgrade their company’s BYOD strategies, if they have any to support the entry of the devices into their enterprise.

Every coin has two sides, this phrase goes well with wearable devices. On one hand, wearable technologies like Google Glass, the Pebble Steel Watch, etc, adds additional security risks, but on the other hand wearable devices can provide benefits to workers in different industries, from hands free computing and data col-

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lection, to faster communication capabilities. Employers should take a critical look into the pros and cons of each device and determine how this movement can be a beneficial opportunity.

While there are both benefits and risks involved with these new wearable devices, it’s important for every organizations who are thinking to grab this technology and who will open the gates for their employees on use of such devices, should start framing right and flexible policies for the same.

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Gamification

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his year we have seen adoption of gamification technology across the verticals. It is being adopted by enterprises who want to achieve their goal by applying game mechanics gamification taps into the basic desires and needs of the users impulses which revolve around the idea of status and achievement.

The research company Gartner predicts that by 2015, a gamified service for consumer goods marketing and customer retention will become as important as Facebook, eBay, or Amazon, and more than 70% of Global 2,000 organizations will have at least one gamified application. These days companies with different sizes whether SMBs or big MNCs have realized its importance. They use gamification to drive desired user behaviors that are advantageous to their brand. There are many technique of gamification, which a company can adopt to increase engagement by rewarding users who accomplish desired tasks.

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One can see better use of big data in gamification. It is a powerful tool for motivating better performance, driving business results, and generating a competitive advantage. By capturing and analyzing the big data on behaviors, businesses can create a more engaging experience that motivates employees and users and can be ahead of its competitor.

SaaS

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n one side Indian companies are showing signs of increasing focus on core areas thereby increasing dependence on technology whereas on the same time enterprises focused more on RoI. One of the key benefits of SaaS is the lower upfront cost, which results in lower entry barriers for customers looking to acquire software applications. Moreover, customers do not have to fret about maintenance and upgradation since they are taken care of by the vendor, helping them focus on their core areas.

The term ‘software-as-a-service’ (SaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, which also include infrastructure-as-aservice (IaaS),

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platform-as-aservice (PaaS), desktop-as-aservice (DaaS), backend-as-aservice (BaaS), and information technology management as a service. All this are giving birth to Everything as-a-Service (XaaS). All will grow rapidly for small as well as large companies, with many new players in a multitude of business process categories.

These services will help companies cut costs as they provide access to powerful software programs and the latest technology without having the expense of a large IT staff and timeconsuming, expensive upgrades.

The SaaS model is gradually becoming significant in the enterprise computing space, particularly for small and medium organizations.

It promises lesser TCO and greater RoI.

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Augmented Reality

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his technology has created buzz in the industry. Not only enterprises can be benefited with this but a normal tech user can enjoy this invention. Augmented reality is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.

With the help of advanced AR technology the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable. One can simply aim use its smartphone camera at a crowded street to find the stores who have the exact products you are looking for. Or, when you are in a store, use your phone’s camera and AR app to quickly locate the products you need.

AR has slowly and gradually increased its influence into many spheres of our lives, with the major ones being retail, automotive, medicine, education, marketing & branding, as well as gaming. The global revenue forecast for augmented reality in the consumer electronics market, according to a report by Semico is $600 bn by 2016 whereas 103 mn automobiles will also enjoy the perks of this technology by 2020.

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Digital Identity Management

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n this Internet age every other person is using digital media for their day-to-day working. A critical problem in cyber space is knowing real identity of the individual. Even though there are attributes associated to a person’s digital identity, these attributes or even identities can be changed, masked or dumped and new ones created. To solve this issue, digital identity management evolved.

With this software both organizations and individuals can manage their multiple identities across business and personal networks. Next generation biometrics integrated into your smartphone, tablets and other devices, will play a key role in both identity management and security.

Internet of Things

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n today’s Internet of Things era where everything is connected to the Internet, the ever growing volume and variety of digital data

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has become the critical success factor that businesses come to rely on.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is on the threshold of taking-off in a big way.

It’s all set to emerge as a major force in enterprise computing that will expand into a major disruptive trend.

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According to experts, the industry is being transformed by platforms such as cloud, big data, mobility, and social businesses. Data explosion with these emerging platforms need to be matched with solutions that are deployed quickly, more flexible, out-of-the-box, with maximum RoI and efficiency. Experts believe that IoT has all the trappings that will snowball into a major trend and has the ability to disrupt how the Internet is consumed today and might even challenge the very premise of conventional decision making done by humans. Welcome to the world of thinking networks to machine-to-machine conversations to remote diagnostics to self healing networks. The Internet of Things (IoT), which excludes PCs, tablets, and smartphones, will grow to 26 bn units installed in 2020 representing an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 bn in 2009, according to Gartner.

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Advanced Robotics

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dvanced Robotics is one segment that brings a lot of promises attached to it. Though its adaption is less as it was expected but one can see its usage in many verticals. Robot technology is not only entering new industries but it is also entering the domestic field. One can also see its footprint in home security segment automation, where robot technology watches for invaders. If an invader is caught it lets out a scream while calling the police. There may also be robots that will be able to remind you to take your health check up. And you may soon find yourself with some extra hands around the house with robots that can wash windows, vacuum, and even mow the lawn.

Robots are also making their way into the medical field by assisting in high precision sugeries such as gall bladder removals, brian surgeries, and heart bypasses. Robotic cameras are being used in some settings for diagnostics. Pharmaceuticals are also jumping on the robotics band wagon to use robots for testing quality control by food processors to check for bacterial contamination.

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Cloud Telephony

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n cloud telephony, firm’s office communication equipment and the need to hire someone to keep the on-premises phone systems running is replaced by hosted voice applications, has come up as an effec-

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tive tech solution that can help cut working costs, especially for small & medium enterprises (SMEs).

But in other words, cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet.

Whereas cloud telephony specifically means the voice services and more specifically the replacement of conventional business telephone equipment.

Though the international cloud telephony market is expanding increasingly but experts believe that Indian market is still tough to survive. Among its benefits, lower cost attribute as major driving force for this technology. Companies can cut costs with cloud communications services without sacrificing features.

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Next-Generation Biometrics

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iometrics is the science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data. In information technology, biometrics refers to technologies that measure and analyze human body characteristics, such as DNA, fingerprints, eye retinas and irises, voice patterns, facial patterns, and hand measurements.

Today various Biometric authentications such as face recognition, fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, palm recognition, vein recognition, signature recognition, etc, are found to be used in various segments.

The existing methods such as identification documents and PIN are not able to cope up with the growing demand for stringent security, which gives a high growth opportunity for the use of the biometric technology.

This technology is very popular also because biometric characters such as face, fingerprint, hand, and so on cannot be lost, stolen, or easily forged.

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According to Biometrics Research Group the global biometrics market will grow to $15 bn by 2015, from its 2012 estimated value of $7 bn.

The market for automated fingerprint identification systems and fingerprint biometric technologies account for the greatest share of the global biometrics market and is forecast to continue to be the main source of overall market revenues from 2010 to 2015. This sector is valued at $5 bn in 2012 and is expected to reach nearly $10 bn in 2015.

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Smart TV Using Apps

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his technology is very popular in other countries, but still its adoption in India is pretty less as compared to them. According to a study, nearly 25 mn American households have a smart TV, and by 2015 it is estimated that 50% of all TVs sold worldwide will be smart TVs. With this advanced app, one can watch their favorite television programs on their smartphones, tablets, and PCs as well.

And can access programs far beyond a few local channels. But smart TVs also offer plenty of entertainment options in addition to expanded viewing. Smart TVs stream media, act as gaming platforms, and let you browse the Web on a big screen.

Many players have entered into this field but these app vary from manufacturer to manufacturer since each has its own app store, but there are several that are ubiquitous. With them, your smart TV can become a home gym complete with personal trainer, a very local lecture hall, a gigantic jukebox, and a large-as-life videophone.

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Autonomous and Near Autonomous Vehicles

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acebook’s taking over of Bengaluru-based startup, Little Eye Labs marked the social networking giant’s first acquisition in India. The startup was maker of a software tool that helps Android developers to measure, analyze, and optimize their app’s performance.

The deal size was said to be in the range of `60-90 crore.

It was reported that with the acquisition the Little Eye Labs team would move to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The startup would get access to Facebook’s world-class infrastructure and would work on improving performance of the company’s apps.

Industry analysts were convinced that the move is in line with Facebook’s mobile strategy despite the fact that a significant number of its worldwide users access the social networking site on their mobile devices.

It also brought good news for the startup ecosystem in India that is coming up in a big way and is being recognized globally. The fact that a global giant like Facebook was ready to take over just about an year old startup was quite indicative of the

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level of innovation being displayed by small Indian tech companies.

Security Analytics

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cope of big data analytics has been moved one step ahead towards security analytics. Once the data has been captured, monitored, and analyzed properly; it can be used to understand security threats which enterprises were not able to detect earlier with their traditional SIEM approach. With the use of security, one can get clear understanding of what’s

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going on within a company’s network, but also how external data sources can help predict upcoming attacks. Some experts have sounded the death knell for SIEM, while others see the fusion of big data technologies and SIEM as the next evolution, taking security analytics to the next level.

It will help SOC team to quickly determine how an attack happened and it will reduce the ‘attacker free time’—the time between the attacker entering the environment and being detected in the infrastructure—and to put measures in place to prevent similar future attacks.

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Unified Storage

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nified Storage has all the trappings of a trend in making and is all set to disrupt conventional storage topologies. As a concept, unified storage has been talked about for years, but its increase adoption can be seen over the last year.

With increasing data, growing trend, and momentum towards big data, the performance downers can be intelligently managed. For instance, when we talk about big data, the success depends on making data into actionable insights and profit from such insights. So an enterprise, in order to derive benefit from big data, need to adopt unified storage as it makes more sense than banking on heterogenous storage with scattered-across pools of data. However, unified storage alone will not help realize big data, but it is clearly an enabler.

Experts say that there have been discussions around cases where

unified storage can be useful for a big data analytics application that needs data from heterogenous storage sources like file and block storage. In such scenarios, the emphasis is really more about improved

storage manageability than a case for big data.

Big Data Analytics

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his technology has created huge hype in the market. Companies from all the sectors will have to adopt this technology sooner or later.

Big data analytics refers to the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing large sets of data to discover patterns and other useful information. Not only will big data analytics help you understand the information contained within the data, but it will also help identify the data that is most important to the business and future business decisions.

Many big data projects originate from the need to answer specific business questions. With the right big data analytics platforms in place, an enterprise can boost sales, increase efficiency, and improve operations, customer service, and risk management.

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Onkar Sharma onkars@cybermedia.co.in

Top 20 IT Employers in India India’s IT companies witnessed a growth in the BFSI, healthcare, and pharma space in markets such as the US and Europe allowing them to boost hiring trend a bit in India

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

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ata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the leading IT companies that continue to invest in fresh talent for various skillsets and capabilities. Perhaps this is the reason the company is leading in India and globally. It also announced that it will hire around 25,000 fresh engineering graduates through campus placements in the next fiscal as there is a robust demand for IT services across the globe.

In 2013-14, TCS has hired around 50,000 employees of which over 23,000 were fresh engineering graduates recruited through campus placements.

One of the company statements said that “All hiring and subsequent joining of employees is well on track.

We will announce the total number of people required over the next couple of months, but yes, we will hire around 25,000 fresh engineering graduates during the next fiscal.

During the current fiscal TCS hired close to 1,000 people in the US. TCS had a little over 285,000 employees on its rolls as on September 30, 2013.

The company recruited people for various skills including Core Java, PL/ SQL and Java Enterprise Edition. Unlike competition, TCS has successfully retained and expanded its workforce. It is known for smartly utilizing its people.

This is the reason the company stands tall in our list of Top 20 employers.

Wipro

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ipro has more than 50,000 employees in India whereas it has more than 104k people globally. The company continued to hire in FY14 because of the revival in the 50

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US and Europe markets. The company has also attracted good talent from top institutions in the country because of its good workplace environment. The company continued to add new talent to its workforce from premier institutions such as IITs and NITs to build a highly skilled workforce providing future leadership in emerging technologies such as analytics, cloud, mobility and automation. In one of interactions to media, Saurabh Govil, Senior VicePresident for HR at Wipro admitted to hiring around 100 engineers from select IITs and NITs every year.

The engineers hired from these institutes enter Wipro under a different salary structure following training. This enables them to chart a separate career path in the organization.

Wipro wanted to build capabilities in new areas to compete in the market with the new talent in its kitty.

The busiwww.dqindia.com

ness environment for Indian IT is fast changing, with the realization that future revenues will come through building of products, solutions and platforms in areas such as social, mobility, analytics, cloud (SMAC), digital and big data. In fact, Wipro has thus increased the focus by creating separate units for digital, products and advanced technologies.

Besides, the skills that were in demand at Wipro include Core Java, analytics and global delivery. It also added people to its sales workforce.

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Infosys

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nfosys is at number 3 position as far as hiring in 2013-14 was concerned. The company tried to enhance its presence in several markets. But it was the US market which helped the company stay positive.

Amid all the crises, Infosys tried to build new capabilities for cloud, big data and analytics. The company hired several graduates across divisions from IITs and NITs, etc. The skills which were in demand at Infosys include Core Java, PL/SQL and SDLC. The company is looking at expanding its SAP team under Vishal Sikka’s leadership and is planning to hire 5,000 people in the ongoing year. Overall the company is pushing for recruitment drive in this year with expected 16,000 freshers. The new CEO is expected to bring a turnaround in the company and take Infosys into new markets. In addition the company lost a number of people to its competitors. This is the reason the company is focused on rebuilding its sales and marketing team who can identify new customers in Europe and other markets.

In April 2013, Infosys’s then CEO SD Shibulal announced the company would trim fresher hiring for the year, and was looking at a figure of around 10,000 engineers in fiscal 2014, including 5,000 who were given offer letters in fiscal 2013. It was obvious that the company was not able to meet its financial targets.

But Infosys’s hiring target for fiscal 2015 is 5,000-6,000 more than this fiscal.

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IBM

rom finance gurus to tech wizards to marketing experts, IBM is built on a rock solid foundation with huge workforce globally.

A big chunk of its workforce comes from India. At the world’s largest IT and consulting company, freshers and IT experts explore endless op-

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portunities to be a part of new and innovative approaches in technology. The company was the leading recruiter last year which clinched talent from IITs and NITs for a number of projects in India and abroad. Above all, the company was on a hiring spree for solution architecture, big data and cloud computing. In addition, its focus was apparent in pre-sales. But the company also shed a number of people when it sold its server division to Lenovo.

Though its consulting business continue to absorb new talent. But the company laid off people in its restructuring process globally. And the layoffs began from its Bengaluru center in India. It laid off about 15k people. In the restructuring, India was largely affected since more than 100k people are employed India.

To that end, IBM is positioning itself to lead in areas such as Cloud, Analytics and Cognitive Computing and investing in these priority areas. For example, the company has recently committed $1bn to our new Watson unit and $1.2bn to expand our cloud footprint around the world.

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HP

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Y 14 was one of the best years for HP recently as its growth trajectory was up by about 14% in India. It had a direct impact on the workforce numbers and new employees.

The company was upbeat with the One HP. The global leadership restructured the business in order to deliver better results and enhance reach in the tier-2 and -3 markets. It also empowered its partners to deliver integrated services to customers. HP enhanced its workforce portfolio in IT service management and service delivery.

In addition, the company tried to add new flavor to its market and sales departments by adding new talent. It also added people for pre-sales role in India. During the year, it was obvious that the company is aggressive to change its image of a directionless enterprise. The existing and new employees including the customers have started seeing vision in its approach.

On the enterprise side, it was the large transformation and IT modernization projects where the company did most hiring. The company also gained marketshare in the server and storage market as its rival IBM suffered setbacks. As a result, the company was able to reinstate con-

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fidence in customers. Because of its huge presence, the company is expected to improve its employees numbers in the current year.

Oracle

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racle India has more than 31,000 employees in India across division. The company employees huge numbers at its R&D center in Bengaluru. In FY14, the company expanded its reach in the Indian market for its various products, especially engineered systems such as Exadata. Top skills which remained in demand at Oracle were

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enterprise software, SaaS and cloud.

Oracle witnessed growth for its server business for the first time since it acquired Sun Microsystems in 2009.

A large percentage of new customer wins came from competitor replacements, making Oracle the preferred vendor in this category in India. Oracle’s portfolio of engineered systems includes Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, Oracle SuperCluster, Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine, Oracle Database Appliance, Oracle Big Data Appliance and the new Virtual Compute Appliance. The growth in India is aligned with Oracle’s global leadership in Integrated Platform Systems.

Oracle’s global system integrator (SI) partners and OPN members in India have also contributed to this growth.

According to IDC, Oracle is the largest supplier of Integrated Platform Systems with a 48% market revenue share worldwide. Oracle emerged as a leader by displaying 24% growth in its integrated platform system revenue, above the market growth of 8.3%.

Because of the demand in large and midsize companies across telecom, banking, travel, manufacturing, energy, IT services and public sector, the company added people to its workforce from a number of institution.

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TOP 20 IT Employers

Accenture

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ccenture, which has nearly a third of its employee-base in India, continued to aggressively increase its numbers. The management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company added more office spaces in Pune, Chennai, Mumbai and the NCR region. According to an estimate at each location, the company added 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh sq ft space. Thus, a 2 lakh sq ft infrastructure can seat about 2000 people. Which means the company hired close to 10k people for additional space. Besides, it hired people for various other locations in India and abroad.

It is believed that many of the new recruits are laterals with expertise across ERP, CRM, SCM, EAI (enterprise application integration), application maintenance, application development, IT infrastructure, KPO/ BPO, telecom application, consulting, project management, delivery management, business analysis, program management and practice management. Accenture started large scale campus hiring in the country a few years ago. Some 6,000 to 7,000 campus recruits will also join the company this year. India currently is the single

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largest employee base for Accenture, with the headcount expected to cross 80,000 by August.

The company already has a presence in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. Pune is now the city of choice for immediate expansion.

Pune has emerged as a hotspot for many technology companies because of its educational ecosystem, large talent pool, good climate and proximity to Mumbai.

According to the experts, the skills which were in demand at Accenture for new recruits were business transformation, business process design and management consulting.

Besides, the company continue to shape its sales portfolio.

Amazon

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f anyone was under the impression that Amazon will make slow progress in India, its expansion in India in last one year is enough to change it. The company added big numbers to its workforce. Amazon is making big bets in India— a $400 bn retail www.dqindia.com

market which is largely unorganized.

The American e-commerce company is hiring 13,500 people in Hyderabad, where it is building a 1.6 million sq ft campus.

In the next two months, the company is expected to hire nearly 5,000 people taking its headcount to 9,000.

Amazon already has an office in Hyderabad. The retail giant launched a marketplace in India in June last year.

Amazon, which began retailing electronic goods in India, has added new categories such as toys and baby products recently.

Apart from retail, Amazon has a huge hosting and cloud business for which it has hired fresh talent.

The skills which were in demand in the company include distributed systems, scalability and algorithms.

Amazon is one of the American companies which is identifying huge business opportunities in the Indian market and thus investing to expand its presence. It is giving tough competition to Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce retailer. But since the market is untapped it knows the benefits of reaching early to the consumers in all cities possible.

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Microsoft

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icrosoft is one of the leading employers in India, as it continues to attract talent for various divisions and centers.

Microsoft India’s R&D center in Hyderabad continues to hire PHDs and researchers in India. According to the information, Microsoft has hired about 300+ fresh grads this year. Microsoft India employees more than 6500 people in India.

For Microsoft, good talent is of utmost priority, which is why the company offered an Amdavadi boy one of the highest pay packages —$1,80,000 plus incentives. The offer was made by Microsoft to 23-year-old Priyanshu Kumar Jha, who earned a master’s from Singapore. Priyanshu will work for Microsoft’s Bing search engine as development engineer.

At the same time, Microsoft was in news for cutting down people in its global drive to reduce Nokia employee burden. Around 18000 employees were cut down globally. A sizable number was also in India.

All said and done, the company expanded its cloud business, enter-

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prise applications or enterprise software business and mobility where it required new talent.

MphasiS

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phasisis a leading IT solutions provider, offering Applications, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and

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Infrastructure services globally through a combination of technology knowhow, domain and process expertise. Mphasis strengthened its presence through talent management and workforce building in categories such as VAS, GSM, and customer lifecycle management. It added a considerable numbers to its headcount in FY14.

Plus the company witnessed a number of changes at its management level during the year. Rajesh Sawhney was appointed as president, strategic business. Besides, there were other major changes in the core team. The company is a leading player in the local market.

It got a fresh brand identity as it dropped the HP name, further refurbishing signs of its reducing dependency on the parent company.

However, the company grew with merely 12% growth over last year.

In line with Indian IT companies to increase their onshore presence, Mphasis has seen an increase in percentage share of onshore revenue to 42%.

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Larsen & Toubro Infotech

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arsen & Toubro Infotech is a leading global IT services and solutions provider which has a workforce of about 42,000. L&T Infotech offers a fast placed career with global exposure to best business practices and chance. Larsen & Toubro Infotech services include application development, application maintenance and support, application outsourcing, testing services, mobility services, Oracle services, SAP services, etc. In FY14, the company hired professionals and fresh talents for key skills such as EPC, project engineering, etc. The company continues to strengthen its position in the services market and is fast emerging as one of the leading IT companies in India.

During the year, with a view to accelerate growth in IT services space, the company has reorganized its business into three clusters, in form of Services Cluster (comprising Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, Media & Entertainment and Travel & Logistics) and Industrials cluster comprising all manufacturing sectors, while telecom relates to product engineering services.

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In addition, the company ventured into new markets where it expanded teams and added more talent. It hired fresh engineering talent to cater to new markets.

Dell

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ell is one of the prominent companies in India which has presence in multiple verticals such as services, servers, PCs, handheld devices and others. Dell India constitutes a sizable portion of

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its global workforce, particularly the company has added more people to drive its new makeover. The New Dell has tried to resuscitate a new life into all its businesses and expanded into new areas with a number of fresh talent on board from various institutes in India.

In FY14, the company added people to its BPO and services arm in big numbers. While it strengthened its presence with fresh talent. It continue to poach the experienced people. According to media reports, Dell Services is firming up plans to hire more senior executives from India to steer its global business in a bid to make low-cost countries an integral part of its growth strategy.

In addition, Dell tried to catch up in the cloud computing space, analytics, and big data. It added expertise with experts in the industry and looked for people with specific interests. As per LinkedIn data, Dell India was aggressive as far as hiring people for its storage, solution selling and cloud computing, was concerned.

In the new year, the company is expected to continue to hire more people as the competition from rivals stems further.

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Google

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nternet search titan Google inspires millions of students across the globe. So are Indian students who wish to work with Google once in their life time. And Google also realizes the importance of Indian talent in driving its business. Every year, Google hunts for people with unique thinking and creative mindset in several engineering colleges. Equally Google gets heavy turnaround in campus hiring. But the company has always given regard to talent over the top engineering colleges. It even goes an extra mile to offer the best pay to the best person in the industry or the technology schools.

Google India hires people at different as India is one of the largest locations for Google outside the US. In FY14, the company continue to steer its business in various domains such as cloud and thus, added people at its offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Mumbai.

Google which is considered to be one of the best places to work has a

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considerable employee-base in India.

Certainly, its employee numbers are far less when compared to services companies. But students always flock when Google is hiring. The reputation of the company keeps the search giant in the Top 20 Employers list. Also it continues to hire people for its global locations.

Top skills that were in demand at Google, according to LinkedIn data, include distributed systems, Python, Adwords.

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HCL Technologies

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CL Technologies boasts of a workforce close to 83,000 and is one of the employers which every year hires fresh engineering graduates from various institutes in India. So it did last year. But it landed into controversy when fresh engineering graduates hired by HCL Technologies, staged a protest in front of the company’s offices in Noida, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad last year. They demanded that the company convert the offers to actual jobs. The protests were an indication that everything wasn’t right at the company. Meanwhile, there were rumors of company being sold as the company was not able to expand and stay positive with fresh accounts.

Despite this, the company hired engineers to compete in areas and markets. The company also entered in a partnership with CSC to offer joint services to clients in the US. Top skills that were required by HCL were Core Java, SDLC and pre-sales. It is believed that the company will go to campuses for fresh talent in the current fiscal.

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Cognizant Technology Solutions

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ognizant has hired in recent months a number of senior talent at rival companies for what is one of the most rapidly growing spaces in IT — infrastructure management services. Besides, Cognizant has raised employment numbers with bulk hiring at Indian institutions. It is one of the fastest growing among large IT companies in the world and thus added people to its workforce from various engineering colleges in India. In order to cater to its clients in banking and finance as well as healthcare and life sciences space the company has deployed more people. The company employs close 123000 people globally, most of which come from India.

In recent times, the emergence of cloud computing, virtualization and mobility has forced the company to hire talent for the new trends. This has encouraged outsourcing of these services to experts. The company is leveraging on its consulting and SMAC (social, mobility, analytics & cloud) capabilities to deliver infrastructure services. Cognizant has de-

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veloped platforms such as Cloud360, OnTarget and HybridIT to offer cloudbased services to enterprise computing and storage.

Cognizant owns data centres both in the US (Chandler, Arizona and Sterling, Virginia) and Europe (Slough, UK and Amsterdam, the Netherlands), apart from leveraging partner-owned data centres.

Top skills required by the company last year were SDLC, Core Java and PL/SQL.

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Tech Mahindra

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ith a bullish outlook on the Indian IT story and its own hiring plans, Tech Mahindra is bulling in terms of increasing headcount. It has announced that its headcount will cross the 1 lakh level in about a year, from close to 85,000 at present. The company’s aggressive expansion and faith in talent can be ascertained from the fact that it had only seven thousand people seven years ago. But today it has more than 85,000.

The company which also acquired Satyam Computers is planning to hire more people from engineering colleges. It plans to hire people to face the challenges posed by the onset of new customer needs in areas such as cloud, big data, and analytics.

Tech Mahindra is a joint venture between Indian auto major Mahindra & Mahindra and the BT group. So the company is one of the biggest employers in India and the leading IT services company. During the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal, the company hired 1,743 employees.

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Deloitte

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eloitte was also one of the leading employers last year as it wanted to hire people for external audit, management consulting and IFRS. In India, the company offers a range of Audit & Enterprise risk, Tax, Consulting and Financial advisory services across 13 cities for which it continue to hire fresh and experienced talent. The company boasts of an existence for over a century in the Indian professional arena supplementing the technical proficiency of the client service teams to create powerful business solution tailored to the client’s need.

Deloitte focuses on providing quality services whether they are an owner-managed business or a large multi-national corporation. In order to deliver multi-skilled, multi-disciplined services, the company offers clients a wide range of industry-focused business solutions. In FY14, the com-

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pany added people to its consulting business.

It boasts to recruit the brightest and the best—whatever their specialization. It claims to combine the dynamism and fluid-thinking of the young graduate, with the business knowledge and insight of the seasoned executive.

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Cisco

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isco has a huge presence in India as it has customers in all sectors including government, defence, education, telecom, ITeS, BFSI, retail, etc. Employees are of top priority for the company as it entered into aggressive hiring from rivals last year. It poached several Huawei employees but later had to stop poaching Huawei talent since a number of issues relating to the theft of intellectual property emerged. But the company continue to invest in building a quality workforce in India.

Its networking, server and videoconferencing business continue to absorb people. Cisco showed strength in a number of areas. It saw significant market traction in shipping application centric infrastructure enabled platforms. Plus, the company reported strong growth in the data center business. The company is putting a lot of its resources into gaining business from the data center modernization market.

According to experts, the company continues to build capabilities in the Unified Communications space, Cisco Technologies and Routing.

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TOP 20 IT Employers

Genpact

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enpact employs more than 65,000 people as of now, out of which India constitutes a major part. The company every year hires fresh and experienced graduates to handle backend processes for a wide range of US and UK clients. Post the Headstrong acquisition, the company doubled its strength and reached new markets in verticals such as healthcare and pharma, for which it hired new talent.

Genpact is mainly into Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Information Technology (IT) services, domiciled in Bermuda with executive headquarters in New York. The company’s 65,000 employees (2014) serve clients from 25 countries. Genpact’s current clients include more than 100 of the Fortune Global 500.

NV Tyagarajan, President and CEO of Genpact, has led the company since his appointment in June 2011 and continue to add to its employee numbers.

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In FY14, Genpact was in search for candidates for BPO services, transition management, and process excellence. It added people at its Gurgoan office for backend operations, BPO and other departments. In the recent years, the company has increased its employee numbers significantly.

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Adobe

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dobe revolutionizes how the world engages with information and ideas through an array of design products. In the recent years, the company has successfully entered into many verticals and expanded its business. It has also increased its employee strength.

Because of the new business models for its traditional products, it has to hire experts in various capacities in India. According to a survey, Adobe hired professionals in India for SaaS, Enterprise Software and Agile methodologies.

Adobe Systems incorporated award-winning software solutions for network publishing, including web, print, video, wireless, and broadband applications. Its graphic design, imaging, dynamic media, and authoring tools enable customers to create, publish, and deliver visually rich content for various types of media. From rich images in print, video, and film to dynamic digital content for a variety of media, the impact of Adobe solutions is clear to anyone who creates, views, and interacts with information.

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Shrikanth G shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in

Gadgets that Impressed FY14 They came in different shapes and sizes—took the market and consumer interest by storm. Here we present the 20 hot gadgets that shaped the year

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Top 20 gadgets

Apple iPhone 5S

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e don’t want to get into any debates with Samsung or HTC on this count. That Apple iPhone 5S topping the list is not based on market share numbers. It’s about tech and usability quotients. On this count we think iPhone 5S tops the charts. One of the key reason that made iPhone as the ‘ best smartphone available right now is its ability to offer superior user experience. iPhone 5S’ flagship feature—the ‘Touch ID’—its fingerprint scanner worked seamlessly every time even without any millisecond lag. This is not the case with other phones—in which, sometime one are more swipes is necessary.

In addition to iOS 7 and other features like Facetime, Airdrop, iSight camera et al, the 4-inch form factor display makes for holding the phone comfortably in one hand and be able to text and use the phone with relative ease. Moreover, under the hood the powerful A7 chip with 64-bit architecture offers desktop computing performance on a mobile form factor.

Clearly, iPhone created a new premise in terms of form factor and performance. For instance, it’s just about 7.6mm and weighs 112 grams.

At the least if you look at 2013-14, iPhone managed to hold its ground.

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Samsung Galaxy S5

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iving tough competition to the iPhone 5S is Samsung’s newest Galaxy edition-dubbed as S5, though S5 came in Q4 of FY14, it has captured the imagination of the consumers. One of the best Android phones out in the market today, the S5 is a worthy opponent for iPhone and the soaring sales across the world stand in testimony to that. Yet again,

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Samsung is putting the ‘camera first’ approach in its smartphones, for instance, the Galaxy S5 offers the world’s fastest autofocus speed up to 0.3 seconds and the advanced High Dynamic Range (HDR), reproduce natural light and color with striking intensity at any circumstances. Also, new selective focus feature allows users to focus on a specific area of an object while simultaneously blurring out the background. With this capability, the consumers no longer need a special lens kit to create a shallow depth of field (DOF) effect.

The Galaxy S5 offers the most advanced LTE experience and WiFi performance available today, ensuring fast data speed for media consumption and productivity.

The Galaxy S5 supports the fifth generation Wi-Fi 802.11ac and 2X2 MIMO, and supporting the large number of LTE frequency with LTE Category 4 standard.

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Top 20 gadgets

The Pebble Steel Smart Watch

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he year 2013 can be called a year in which ‘wearables’ aka smart watches, ear pods goggles, and wrist bands et al became mainstream. It’s no longer a fiction.

While there are handful smart watches in the market, the pebble products here beg to differ. Developed by Pebble technology, the first smart watch the company launched in 2013 and what is interesting is that the company is being funded by the crowd funding platform—Kickstarter and it raised almost $10.3 mn. In January of this year, the company launched its Pebble Steel smart watch which had a clear ePaper display, week-long battery life, and waterproof design— encased into a slimmer, classic form factor priced at $249—worldwide shipments of Pebble Steel will began earlier this year.

“With Pebble, we created an iconic, colorful, and sporty smart watch,” says Product Evangelist Myriam Joire, “but we wanted to build something even more refined. Pebble Steel cranks the style dial to 11.” Pebble Steel unites modern technology and timeless design, coming in two finishes: Brushed Stainless and Black M a t t e .

Pebble Steel is crafted u s i n g a process called ‘Physical Vapor Deposition’ to provide a tactile, deep black finish that’s also ultradurable.

Clearly, this is one aspiration smart watch!

Google Glass

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learly a disruptive development, Google Glass has captured the

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imagination of the world in terms of its impact and its manifestations still evolving and by the day its potential and scope expands. From surgeons in Chennai beaming to the world a surgical procedure in real time to Virgin Atlantic airlines leveraging Google Glass at London’s Heathrow airport, in an innovative pilot scheme in which the Concierge staff in the airline’s ‘Upper Class Wing’ will be using Google Glass and other wearable technology to deliver the industry’s most high-tech and personalized customer service.

While most of us know what Google Glass is and what it does, and for the uninitiated, it’s a wearable tech gadget with optical head mounted display and users with a combination of swipe and voice commands can do a range of computing and search task and be able to beam HD 720 P videos.

Google Glass is the path-breaking product from Google’s X-Labs, which works on path breaking hybrid technologies aimed at improving the quality of life with technology. Once dismissed as science fiction, the multiple application scenarios of Google Glass are yet to be seen and initial trails across the world are very promising.

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NVIDIA Project Shield

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VIDIA last year announced Project SHIELD, a gaming portable for open platforms, designed for gamers who yearn to play when, where, and how they want. Built with the philosophy that gaming should be open and flexible, Project SHIELD flawlessly plays both Android and PC titles. As a pure Android device, it gives access to any game on Google Play. And as a wireless receiver and controller, it can stream games from PC powered by NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPUs, accessing titles on its STEAM game library from anywhere in the home.

“Project SHIELD was created by NVIDIA engineers who love to game and imagined a new way to play,” remarked Jen-Hsun Huang, Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer at NVIDIA. “We were inspired by a vision that the rise of mobile and cloud technologies will free us from our boxes, letting us game anywhere, on any screen. We imagined a device that would do for games

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what t h e i P o d and Kindle have done for music and books, letting us play in a cool new way. We hope other gamers love SHIELD as much as we do.” Project SHIELD combines the advanced processing power of NVIDIA Tegra 4.

Playstation 4

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ushing console based gaming to a new level, the latest is Sony’s offering Playstation

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4. The new device has generated a lot of interest among gamers and Sony calls PlayStation a system built for gamers and inspired by developers.

Sony called PS 4 as the device for those who live and breathe gaming every day. Andrew House, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment remarked, “With unprecedented power, deep social capabilities, and unique second screen features, PS4 demonstrates our unwavering commitment to delivering phenomenal play experiences that will shape the world of games for years to come.”

Under the hood of the 4 system enables game developers to realize their creative vision on a platform specifically tuned to their needs, making it easier to build huge, interactive worlds in smooth 1080p HD resolution. Its supercharged PC architecture—including an enhanced Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and 8GB of GDDR5 unified system memory—is designed to ease game creation and deliver a dramatic increase in the richness of content available on the platform. The end result for players is an abundant software library, as more than 180 games are currently in development.

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Afinia H-Series 3D Printer

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nother disruptive technology development saw the growing traction over the last year was 3D Printers. Often called as Additive Manufacturing. If one goes by generally accepted definition, 3D Printing is a process of making objects from a 3D model by laying down many successive thin layers of a material.

That said, coming to reality—how real and affordable are 3D printers?

While it will take a while for it to be widely available in India, but across the world there are many vendors offering a range of printers at really affordable price. One such product got our attention. Its called Afinia HSeries 3D Printer is the one that marries function, price and performance and offers a very good end result. It is priced at $1,299. This has been rated as the #1 3D printer in many tech listings and what differentiates

this product is its ease of use and as per the c o m p a n y ’s site it has a easy out of the box set up and comes with features like heated platform, auto leveling platform calibration, and nozzle height detection.

The usage is also economical in terms consumption, for instance, it uses inexpensive ABS plastic filament.

LG G FlexThe Curve Phone

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etting a new milestone in the evolution of the smartphone, LG Electronics in Q3 of FY14 launched the LG G Flex, a curved smartphonethat is the first device to offer such a design in the market.

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etary innovations from other LG companies in the form of the display and battery that have never been seen before. The LG G Flex also boasts new user experience (UX) features that takes advantage of the curved form factor.

“The LG G Flex is the best representation yet of how a smartphone should be curved,” said Dr Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.

“The LG G Flex with its distinctive design, innovative hardware, and consumer-centric UX represents the most significant development in the smartphone space since smartphone became part of our regular vocabulary.”

The vertically curved design of the LG G Flex reduces the distance between one’s ‘mouth to the microphone’ when the device is held against the ear, as traditional telephone handsets used to. The LG G Flex employs a curvature arc that is optimized for the average face, to deliver improved voice and sound quality.

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Google Chromecast

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et another innovation from Google, Chromecast is a thumb-sized media streaming device that plugs into the HDMI port on the TV complimented by a simple mobile app, after this one can send their favorite online shows, movies, music and more to their TV using a smartphone, tablet or a laptop. According to Google, Chromecast works with a growing number of apps, including Netflix, HBO GO, YouTube, WatchESPN and Pandora. The best thing is Chromecast works with devices one already own, including Android tablets and smartphones, iPhones iPads, Chrome for Mac and Chrome for Windows. Browse for what to watch, control playback, and adjust volume using your device.

Chromecast has just completed one year, but can it translate into a mass player?

The opinions are divided. For instance, a latest CNET report quoting a Parks Associates study said that “While Chromecast’s runaway sales leave no doubt about its popularity in stores, some suggest that it may not translate to popularity in the living room.”

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Chromecast a big hit. In February of this year, released the Software Development Kit (SDK) for

developers who want to build Chromecast support into their apps and websites.

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Amazon Kindle Paper White

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aunched in India earlier this year, Kindle Paperwhite is an eBook reader, which is revolutionary in many ways. Despite its limited functionality, it’s a must have gadget for bibliophiles as it makes reading a real pleasure devoid of any typical hassles one encounters reading books on a conventional tablet or PC. For instance, its brilliant no glare screen enables one to read eBooks with ease even under bright sunlight as Kindle Paperwhite has a matte screen that reflects light like ordinary paper so you can read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room with no glare.

And similarly during the night the innovative built-in light illuminates the screen, not the entire room enabling the privacy of usage.

But the key question is if you have a tablet that doubles as eReader why the need for a separate device? The answer is user experience and since it’s a Amazon product makes all the difference as the huge inventory of books in its online store makes for accumulating tons of books you always wanted to acquire. In all, it’s a wellrounded device for the asking and pushes eReading to a whole new level.

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iStick

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his was in the making over the last year and will be available soon. This is a revolutionary device that would please all the iPhone, iPad, and iPod users. Often times due to the limitation of inbuilt native storage, many of the Apple phone and tablet users need to live with storage limitations. While the higher GB version costs a bomb, many users opt for 16 GB versions of iPad or an iPhone. But now for those users the iStick is blessing in disguise. According to the company’s website, it says that the iStick is the world’s first USB flash drive with integrated Apple’s lightning connector. For instance, the iStick allows you to easily, quickly and safely move data between computers, iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches without the need for Internet, wireless networks or the cloud. Moreover, one can also stream tons of movies directly from the iStick onto the iPad, anytime and anywhere.

The iStick is available in different storage capacities starting form 8GB and geos up to 128 GB. This is a revolutionary device because it’s non-network dependent device just like the USB thumb drive.

HTC M8

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aunched at the end of this fiscal year, HTC One M8 was the most anticipated device over the year. It competes head on with iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S5.

According to company sources, the HTC One M8 is the ultimate evolution of the award-winning HTC One (M7). Launching in Gunmetal 68

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Gray with the all-new HTC Sense 6, the new HTC One (M8), boasts a high-quality metal unibody with a ‘Smart Sensor Hub’ that anticipates your needs and uses ‘Motion Launch’ controls to make everyday tasks easier. New Duo Camera technology delivers creative, professional-looking photos and amazing effects, and HTC BoomSound again sets new standards for audio quality on a smartphone. Peter Chou, CEO, HTC said: “In 2013 we introduced the best smartphone in the world, but we never stopped challenging ourselves and the status quo in this category. As pioneers in mobile innovation, we continue to design and build devices that will dazzle, inspire, and transform the smartphone industry.”

Achieving another breakthrough in design and quality with the new HTC One (M8), the phone’s body has been re-crafted to create an even more stunning yet approachable look. The beautiful, durable, high-quality metal unibody flows right up to the 5-inch, full HD (1080p) display.

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Nokia Lumia 1020

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okia established a new benchmark in smartphone imaging with the arrival of the Nokia Lumia 1020, boasting a second-generation 41-megapixel sensor. Unlike any smartphone in the market today the Nokia Lumia 1020 reinvents zoom, enabling people to discover more detail than the eye can see. With Nokia’s innovative PureView technology, including optical image stabilization, the device is able to produce some of the sharpest images possible by any digital camera.

This is made possible by leading hardware technology combined with a new application called Nokia Pro Camera, which makes it easy for anyone to take professional quality images. Either before a picture is taken or after it has been shot, the zoom capability enables people to discover and then rediscover the personal stories each image can tell.

With a beautiful interface that visually demonstrates how settings will affect the final photo or video, Nokia Pro

Camera makes it easier than ever to capture, edit and share photos and videos with unrivaled clarity.

The Nokia Lumia 1020’s 41 megapixel sensor features leading ZEISS optics with six physical lenses, plus optical image stabilization, delivering crystal clear pictures even in low light conditions.

Apple iPad Air

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ow thin can be thinthat too in a tablet form factor?

That’s what Apple attempted to do with its new iPad Air that was launched last October. Apple sources say that iPad Air is a categorydefining device, featuring |

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a stunning 9.7-inch retina display in a new thinner and lighter design.

Precision-engineered to weigh just one pound, iPad Air is 20% thinner and 28% iPad 4, and with a narrower bezel, the borders of iPad Air are dramatically thinner—making content even more immersive.

The new iPad features the powerful and power-efficient Apple-designed A7 chip with 64-bit desktop-class architecture, ultrafast wireless with faster built-in Wi-Fi and expanded LTE cellular connectivity, and the newly-designed iOS 7 featuring hundreds of great new features. “iPad created an entirely new mobile computing experience, and the new iPad Air is another big leap ahead. It is so thin, light and powerful, once you hold one in your hand you will understand what a tremendous advancement this is,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. “iPad Air with its 9.7-inch Retina display weighs just one pound and packs the incredible performance of iOS 7 running on a 64-bit desktopclass Apple A7 chip, and delivers all-day battery life in the lightest fullsized tablet in the world.”

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Apple Mac Pro

Xbox One

et again Apple redefines form and functionality with Mac Pro. In Q3 of FY14 it launched the al new Mac Pro Designed around an innovative unified thermal core, the Mac Pro features the latest Intel Xeon processors with up to 12 cores, dual workstation-class GPUs, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory and thus packing amazing performance in a stunning new design.

“The new Mac Pro is our vision for the future of the pro desktop, everything about it has been reimagined and there has never been anything like it,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. “The new Mac Pro packs up to 12-core Xeon CPUs, dual FirePro GPUs, ultra-fast ECC memory, new PCIe flash storage, Thunderbolt 2 expandability and more into a radical new design that is one-eighth the size of the previous generation Mac Pro.” “From the blazing fast performance of DaVinci Resolve to real-time video

he launch of ‘Xbox One’ late last year garnered a lot of interest.

As Microsoft said that it signals the beginning of a new era for gaming and interactive entertainment. Xbox One boasts of deepest and most varied launch lineup in Xbox history, the new games and exclusive titles look and feel leveraged incredible power of new hardware and the cloud, as well as advanced software tools and exclusive features such as Xbox Live, Kinect and Xbox One SmartGlass that will bring an entirely new world of gaming to life. Xbox One is an all-inone gaming and entertainment with a range of multitasking features.

The Xbox launch lineup of games features 22 titles from some of the world’s most respected developers, as well as 10 exclusive games Microsoft says the consumers will not find anywhere else. The company says that whether it’s experiencing the vivid realism of the racetrack to the visceral brutality of ancient Rome, from the zombie apocalypse to a wildlife utopia, the lineup of Xbox One looks stunning.

Moreover Microsoft has given enough attention to power specifications. For instance, the Xbox One feature next-generation graphics and entertainment. “Killer Instinct” brings the classic fighting action and popular characters of the original franchise exclusively to Xbox One. With its enhanced combat system, players will enjoy intense gameplay and stunning next-generation graphics. Fly through the skies in “Crimson Dragon,” a rail shooting game that takes place on a recently colonized planet populated by dragons. Here one can use the power of Kinect to dodge enemies and communicate with your partner dragon.

With the power of the cloud, you can set course records and play against your friends’ best scores in Rival Mode while they sleep.

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capture with UltraStudio 4K, Mac Pro is a revolution in pro desktop design and performance,” said Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design.

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Sony 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector

Sony early this year showcased the development of its state-of-the-art ‘4K Ultra Short Throw Projector’ featuring a stylish, furniture-like design. Utilizing space itself, it can be placed near most walls and has the ability to cast a 4K Ultra High-Definition image up to 147-inches, turning unused space into a display and introducing a whole new viewing experience in the home.

But it’s extremely expensive right now and it costs around approximately $30,000 to $40,000.

Sources in Sony say that the need for this product is a manifestation of superior technology it continues to evolve, so does the quality of the entertainment experiences in the home.

With higher resolution images and better sound quality delivered across high-speed broadband, the feeling of a live performance in the home is closer to reality than ever before. By taking advantage of these combined developments, and adding in some Sony magic, a new user experience has emerged. Users can enjoy entertainment content without the restrictions of frames, boxes, or screens by utilizing space itself.

Movies, video games, sports and

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photographs take on an air of realism, turning what was once a blank wall into a large as life “entertainment window.”

Samsung Galaxy NotePro and TabPro

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amsung Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO line of tablets, according to the company creates new benchmarks on the tablet space.

Samsung says these devices sets new standards in mobile excellence, equipped with innovative and meaningful technology. Sporting four powerful devices in the lineup—the Galaxy NotePRO (12.2-inch), TabPRO (12.2, www.dqindia.com

10.1, 8.4-inch), Samsung’s Galaxy tablet portfolio re-defines what a tablet can do.

“We created the Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO series to kick-off a year in which Samsung truly establishes its leadership in the tablet market,” said JK Shin, CEO and President of IT & Mobile Division, Samsung Electronics. “This new line offers the best-in-class content consumption and productivity, combining a stunning viewing experience with Samsung’s design legacy. The Samsung Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO truly demonstrate our commitment to providing our customers with extraordinarily versatile product offerings, tailored to tablet users of every description.”

Providing users with an extraordinary display and a matching feature set, the Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO series bring premium style and powerful performance in a single device. Created to satisfy every possible type of user case scenario, the Samsung Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO combine a crystal-clear, WQXGA display for a world-class viewing experience.

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Microsoft Surface Pro 3

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ven though it was a 2014 development and a more recent one, we are including this one as whole of 2013 there was big momentum on this product that finally saw the light of the day. According to Microsoft, the Surface Pro 3 is a tablet and a laptop rolled into one and multiple processor, RAM and storage options intersect with a sleek design that, with a simple snap or click, transform the device from a perfectly balanced tablet to a full-functioning laptop and back again—all in a beautiful package that is 30 % thinner than an 11inch MacBook Air. Its stunning 12-

inch display and new, continuous kickstand provide the screen real estate and multiple viewing angles people need for work and play.

And the new Surface Pen— completely redesigned

with form and function in mind— delivers a precise, luxurious drawing and note-taking experience with a single click of the pen.

The company says that Surface Pro 3 has all the power, performance, and mobility of a laptop in an incredibly lightweight, versatile form factor. It’s a must device for those who want stay in the Microsoft ecosystem and wants to leverage its user friendly apps.

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Intel Smart Ear Buds

n CES 2014, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich demonstrated Inteldeveloped designs for wearable devices including smart ear buds with biometric and fitness capabilities, an always-on smart headset that integrates with existing personal assistant technologies, 72

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and a smart wireless charging bowl. Intel’s Smart Ear Buds provide biometric and fitness capabilities, a smart headset that is always ready to engage and can integrate with existing personal assistant technologies to make the consumer experience more intuitive, and a smart wireless charging bowl. As the name goes, this is one smart ear bud that is aimed at fitness in mind app driven and will nudge the user to make amends, say when he/she is slow on the jogging track or not keeping up with his fitness schedule. Intel wants to make wearables that makes real impact on people’s lifestyle. “Wearables are not everywhere today because they aren’t yet solving real problems and they aren’t yet integrated with our lifestyles,” said Krzanich. “We’re focused on addressing this engineering innovation challenge. Our goal is, if something computes and connects, it does it best with Intel inside.” While early testing happened on this during the last year, Intel is expected to ship this product soon.

Note: The is a random listing of 20 hot gadets in FY14 and not a ranking A CyberMedia Publication

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Smita Vasudevan smitav@cybermedia.co.in

IT’s a Deal!

As the global economy gained some traction, the outsourcing demand picked up resulting in many large strategic deals.

Indian start up ecosystem got a boost as well with acquisitions from global biggies, and the country’s e-commerce funding touched record highs

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Type: Strategic IT Services Deals Bharti Airtel and IBM

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harti Airtel, known to be India’s largest telecom services provider, renewed its outsourcing contract with IBM for five years, reducing the order size by more than half.

According to industry sources, the deal was estimated to be worth around `3,000 crore. As part of the deal IBM will offer infrastructure and applications services to the Indian Telecom major for the next five years.

Bharti Airtel had signed a 10-years contract with IBM in 2004 which was in the range of $2.5 to $3 bn. With the renewal, the deal size has been cut down significantly.

The company also indicated that it will be looking at developing inhouse capabilities and partnerships with other technology vendors. On those lines, a part of the work was handed over to TCS and Tech Mahindra. Industry sources were of the opinion that while Bharti Airtel didn’t plan to pull out of the contract, it wanted more cost efficiency and a multi-vendor experience based on niche specialities.

The deal is considered to be a strategic shift for Bharti Airtel in the outsourcing arena.

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Citigroup & Wipro

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ipro Technologies, won a whopping `2,900 crore worth outsourcing contract from Citigroup. The large-sized deal brought some sigh of relief for the outsourcing company that has been on a rough patch for some time.

As part of the contract, Wipro will be providing infrastructure services and application development and maintenance for Citigroup’s global operations. It was indicated that

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Wipro will be required to set up an offshore delivery center in Bengaluru.

It was a tough fight for Wipro as Indian competitors like TCS, HCL, Infosys and foreign players like IBM, Accenture, Dell and the likes were vying for the contract. Wipro and TCS seemed to have an edge as they already had ongoing large outsourcing deal with the company.

In 2008, Wipro had reportedly acquired City Technology Services for around `775 crore. In 2010, it signed an agreement with Citibank to take over the operations and management of Citi’s data center in Meerbusch, Germany. This being Wipro’s first datacenter facility in Europe, enabled it to offer a complete portfolio of infrastructure management solutions to global clients.

The IT service provider is said to be eying large deals and is optimistic about more business coming from the financial services space.

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RBS & Infosys

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nfosys and IBM together bagged a massive outsourcing contract worth around `2,535 crore to develop the computer system for the UK-based bank, Williams & Glyn’s.

Williams & Glyn’s, which was dormant for about 30 years, is being revived by UK-based lender the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBSG). The bank is part of the RBS Group and is scheduled to launch operations by 2015. It was reported that as part of the contract Infosys and IBM will be building new banking system for Williams & Glyn’s based on RBS’s existing core banking platform.

RBS had earlier confirmed that it would be divesting 49% stake in the bank to a private equity consortium led by US buy-out firm Corsair Capital.

With this, IT services major Infosys added another large contract in its kitty in fiscal year 2014. The company’s profit margin has been under pressure and it’s been facing tough competition from its counterparts like |

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TCS and HCL. The large sized contract hence brought some good news for the company.

MetLife & IGATE

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T services provider, IGATE Corporation, bagged a five-year contract from insurance player MetLife for providing global infrastructure

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services. The deal was valued at over `600 crore.

The company had already completed a ten-year partnership with MetLife providing services across America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. The additional deal will further strengthen the relationship and will include providing complex and mission critical services.

Post the ALICO acquisition, MetLife has been looking at simplifying operations to realize the benefits of its global footprint and reduce operating costs. As part of the Contract, IGATE will work on bringing in greater efficiency and flexibility, in order to drive lower costs and increase business agility for the company.

IGATE’s Senior Vice President Ganesh Iyer had indicated that through the contract it will enable MetLife to transform its service delivery framework from a resource and capacity based model to a scope and service level based one.

MetLife’s decision to strike an additional deal with the service provider in a way indicated that it was happy with the service offered by IGATE over the last 10 years.

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RIICO - ELCINA Electronics Manufacturing Cluster Bhiwadi - Mahindra World City Jaipur

Pr e s e nt

ESDM Investors’ Meet 2014 Enabling Investment, Growth & Prosperity through Electronics

august 26, new delhi India’s “sunshine state” emerges as a key business and industry destination

what’s going for rajasthan…

Strategic Location (Ease of Access): Close proximity to (and comprising 23% of) the Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR), the second largest urban agglomeration of the world.

Quality Infrastructure (Low Set-up Cost): Approx 1,500 km Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) in alignment with the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), of which 46% area lies within Rajasthan.

Skills (Competitive Manpower Costs): Home to a number of medicine, technology and management institutions.

Healthy Industrial Climate (Stable Policy Environment and Good Labour Relations): SEZs, IT Parks and Industrial Estates of Rajasthan host the “Who’s-Who” of industry from around the globe – BASF, BMW, Honda, TTK Healthcare, Federal Mogul, Lincoln Electric, Cap Gemini, Infosys, Mastek, Wipro Technologies and many others.

High Share of India GDP (Captive Market): Rs. 513,688 crore in terms of nominal GDP during FY 2013-14, making Rajasthan 8th largest among India’s “Top 10 States” (Source: Planning Commission of India). Population of nearly 70 million (Census 2011), with a per capita GDP of Rs. 53,735 in FY 2011-12 – an attractive consumer market in its own right. reGister at http://cmrindia.com/esdm-investors-meet-2014_register/, if electronics is a strategic element of your business growth and expansion strategy. alternately, please write to mkaur@cmrindia.com to block your seat.

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Pr i nt an d on li n e M e dia Partn e rs

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Top 20 IT Deals

TNT Express & Infosys

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t was a year of significant deal wins for Infosys. The company won another multi-year outsourcing contract from Netherland-based courier delivery service TNT Express. The deal size was estimated to be around `600 crore. As part of the contract, the IT services major will provide application development and maintenance (ADM) services, expanding its existing scope of work for TNT Express.

It was reported that TNT Express, which focuses on Europe and connecting Europe is eying a target of $220 mn in savings by 2015 through consolidating services, optimizing infrastructure, increasing productivity and cutting down indirect costs.

The company is looking at reshaping its portfolio, divesting its domestic operations in China and Brazil and reducing exposure to intercontinental fixed air capacity. The focus is on more attractive areas like international and special services products, small and medium enterprise customers, higher weight parcels and palletized freight.

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TNT reportedly said that it was investing $200 mn in infrastructure and IT deployments through to 2015, with the aim to automate its depots and hubs. The plan included a new online booking and payment platform to enhance customer experience.

BASE Company & Tech Mahindra

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ASE Company, the subsidiary of KPN Group, and Tech Mahindra signed a five-year managed service agreement for the operations and roll out of the BASE network in Belgium. According to industry sources the deal size was in the range of `300-1800 crore. With this agreement BASE Company is broadened its partnership with Tech Mahindra.

BASE has the aim to cover the majority of the country with LTE by end of 2014. BASE and Tech Mahindra partnership will work on the expansion and improvement of the network and achievement of daily operational excellence in its network systems.

Tech Mahindra will be

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responsible for mobile site upgrades, maintenance, incident handling, site construction and data centre maintenance for multi-vendor 2G/3G and LTE networks.

BASE Company will retain ownership of the network and of the strategic network planning and development.

CEO of BASE Company, Jos Donvil had indicated that transferring the day-to-day network operations to Tech Mahindra will enable the company to reinforce its focus on providing an excellent customer experience.

Airports Authority of India & NIIT

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IIT Technologies bagged a multi-year contract with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for the implementation of Airport Operations Control Centers (AOCC), in partnership with SITA, the global air transport IT and communication specialist. The deal was said to be worth nearly `344 crore. This is said to be the first multi airport project in Asia which will cover AAI, its customer airlines, and its other stake-holders across 10 cities.

As part of the contract, NIIT will implement and integrate the airport management system and resource management system. This will help improve airport management by consolidating multiple sets of information and providing accurate real-time data from just one source.

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The project is a key initiative undertaken by Civil Aviation ministry towards modernization of Indian airports to improve capacity utilization, passenger throughput enhancement, stakeholder management and process standardization. It will be executed within the next 15 months at the airports in Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Thiruchirapalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Calicut, Mangalore, Guwahati, and Jaipur.

The project has a provision for extending the solution to additional 25 airports in India.

contract term will be of four to five years. As part of it, IBM will provide infrastructure management as well as application development and maintenance services.

HP and Wipro were also in the race for the contract which is said to be one of the largest domestic outsourcing deals in recent years.

According to IDC estimates, the domestic IT services market is expected to grow by 8% in 2014. This is not much of an improvement from the 7.5% growth in first half and 6.5% in the second half of 2013. Indian enterprises have been cutting down or deferring their IT spending and investment in infrastructure segments like server, storage and networking equipment has been on the lower side for some time.

A grim economic scenario and subsequent tightening of IT budgets have resulted in falling demand for IT services across verticals. In that scenario, large outsourcing deals like this offer a sigh of relief.

Volvo Car Adani Group & IBM Corporation & Tech Mahindra

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BM won a large IT outsourcing deal from Indian business conglomerate Adani Group estimated to be worth around `300 crore. The

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Tech Mahindra won an application maintenance and development con-

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tract from the Volvo Car Corporation.

Industry sources estimated the contract to be worth around `240 crore.

The partnership was aimed at providing Volvo Cars with a service to maintain and develop a wide range of applications across the business and to develop and implement new applications as part of its drive to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

As part of the contract, Tech Mahindra will provide Volvo Cars with application maintenance and devel-

opment across multiple domains, including manufacturing, product development, marketing, sales and reporting.

Commenting on the development, Vikram Nair, head, Europe, Tech Mahindra had said that the company was selected for its proven track record of delivering large scale application maintenance and development and for its global reach and scale. He added that the contract will be an opportunity for the IT service provider to develop its business in Europe and the company will be looking at proactive investment and recruitment from both local universities and the local business domain pool.

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DNB & TCS

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CS also won a six-year, multimillion euro deal from DNB, a large financial services group in Norway. The exact deal size was not known, but the deal was considered to be one of strategic significance.

As part of the deal, TCS will drive the company’s strategic transformation by leveraging Information Technology (IT). The managed services contract covered delivery of application maintenance and development services across DNB’s IT portfolio, spanning channels, core-banking and master data areas.

Liv Fiksdahl, Head, IT & Operations, DNB had said that selecting TCS as IT partner was an important and concrete step in DNB’s transformation process. It will lead to increased stability in IT operations, high degree of efficiency and easy access to competencies and skills across the entire IT area, which spans various technologies used in DNB’s business units.

DNB was in search of the right longterm partnership that could help in effectively delivering future solutions to customers. And TCS was selected for its capability and experience.

Amit Bajaj, Head, TCS North Europe, indicated that TCS will be working with DNB in its transformational journey towards becoming Europe’s most efficient digital bank.

TCS’s scale of Nordic operations is said to have doubled since 2010 with a significant increase in local hiring.

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Type: M&A & VC Funding deals Tech Mahindra Merger with Mahindra Satyam

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pecialist IT service provider to the Telecom industry, Tech Mahindra completed the merger of Mahindra Satyam with itself, making the Satyam brand a history. Valued at around `5,150 crore, it was touted as one of the biggest mergers in IT industry in recent times. The merger happened four years after the acquisition of Satyam Computer Services by Mahindra Group after the infamous scam by its founder Ramalinga Raju.

The merger materialized after a prolonged legal battle with some creditors and stake holders who opposed the union.

The combined revenue at the end

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of fiscal 2014 based on DQ estimates was around `18,330 crore and the total employee strength was 90,000.

With the merger, Tech Mahindra has been able to expand its reach and better compete with its rivals in the IT services landscape. The parent company has been heavily skewed towards telecom, so the new entity brought in an element of diversification. Its scalability has got enhanced and the company is now in a position to compete for large contracts from other verticals like BFSI, retail, etc. The manufacturing and BFSI verticals have been showing good traction and the combined synergies seem to be working out well.

Hitachi Acquires Prizm Payment Services

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apanese firm Hitachi gained presence in the Indian payment market with the acquisition of

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nounced its plans to position the new company as a core production base for expanding its T&D business in India and the global market, alongside its other bases in Japan, China, Brazil, Russia, and Southeast Asia.

Commenting on the development, Takeshi Yokota, Corporate Vice President, Toshiba, had said that the acquisition is necessary for the company’s global T&D strategy, and Vijai’s products and sales channel provide it with an ideal fit for its T&D business in India and beyond. He added that the acquisition will support the company not only in the Indian market, where it aims to secure a 20% market share within five years, but in reinforcing its position in the global market, by strengthening its worldwide network.

Prizm Payment Services. The deal size was estimated to be over `1,500 crore.

Prizm Payment Services is known to be a leading provider of payment services using ATMs and POS systems to banks and financial institutions in India.

Hitachi entered into a share transfer agreement with the company’s shareholders, including Winvest Holdings (India) Private Limited, Sequoia Capital, Axis Bank and other minority shareholders.

In the previous year, Hitachi acquired eBworx Berhad, a Malaysiaheadquartered financial IT solutions company, which has an extensive track record in Internet and mobile banking systems, credit management systems and other systems, mainly for major banks in Malaysia and Singapore.

Hitachi decided to acquire Prizm Payment Services with the aim of accelerating global development of IT services businesses targeting financial institutions, including ATMs where it has the top share in the Japanese |

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market. By leveraging Prizm Payment Services’ robust customer base of major financial institutions, and knowhow of payment systems, cash operations and management systems for financial institutions, and other expertise, Hitachi will step up development of IT services business in India and globally.

Toshiba Acquired Vijay Electrical

TCS Acquires ALTI SA

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ata Consultancy Services acquired French enterprise solutions provider, ALTI SA, for around Rs585cr. This is said to be TCS’s biggest acquisition deal in Europe so far. The privately-held company was integrated into TCS’ operations in France.

Alti SA is said to be one of the top five system integrators of SAP solu-

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oshiba Corporation acquired a major part of Vijay Electrical’s transmission and distribution business for around a whopping `1,200 crore.

Toshiba indicated that it will establish a new company that will absorb the acquired business, and also integrate Toshiba’s design and manufacturing technologies for T&D systems. The company anwww.dqindia.com

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tions in France. The company has a rich clientele of large French corporations in the banking, financial services, luxury, manufacturing, and utilities sectors.

The World Economic Forum has recognized France as an innovationdriven economy. The country also boasts of a rich IT talent pool and solid infrastructure.

With the strategic acquisition, TCS aimed at leveraging the strong engineering talent in the country for the benefit of its customers in France and other markets globally. The IT services provider also unveiled plans to further activate the capabilities and the talent pool it has acquired, by setting up a new TCS SAP Innovation Center.

N Chandrasekaran, CEO and Managing Director, TCS had indicated that the move will set the platform for its future growth in the region. The synergies between the two companies will add to its strength.

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Tata Technologies Acquires Cambric

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ata Technologies, the engineering services and manufacturing enterprise IT provider, announced the acquisition of US-based engineering services company, Cambric Corporation.

The company reportedly paid approximately `195 crore for the acquisition of the privately-held company.

The partnership was aimed at strengthening Tata Technologies’ global footprint and domain capabilities in the engineering services landscape,

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especially in Europe where Cambric had a strong presence.

The acquisition also enhanced its strength in the global construction and heavy equipment sector. For Cambric, it expanded access to the Asia Pacific region and to the automotive sector.

Cambric had three development centers in Romania with a team of around 450 engineers, and had a rich clientele from areas like heavy machinery, agricultural, off-highway and automotive.

At the end of December 2012, its revenue stood at $25 mn, majority of it coming from the construction and heavy equipment sector.

Commenting on the acquisition, Patrick McGoldrick, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Technologies had said that Cambric acquisition gives it access to specialists in the Con-

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struction, Heavy Equipment and Auto sector, and also to its powertrain expertise. Additionally, Cambric’s customers will have access to Tata Technologies’ footprint in Asia Pacific.

Onmobile Acquires Livewire

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engaluru-based, telecom Value Added Service (VAS) provider, OnMobile Global acquired Livewire Mobile, a mobile entertainment services company for over `100crore. The move was aimed at expanding its mobile entertainment portfolio in North America.

OnMobile already have expertise in providing music services to telecom operators in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. With the Livewire acquisition it has expanded its reach to operators in North America.

As part of the purchase agreement, OnMobile got access to LiveWire’s business assets and some liabilities and stocks of Fonestarz Media.

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The new company called OnMobile Live is a 100% subsidiary of OnMobile, US and focuses on high value subscriber segment.

Mouli Raman, CEO and Co-founder, OnMobile, had pointed out that the acquisition will help the company establish a strong presence in North America. Also, integration of services of both the companies can create a stronger proposition to telecom operators and consumers worldwide.

Although the financial reports for fiscal 2014 states that the company faced some headwinds with its Livewire acquisition and it will take some time for it to break even.

Facebook Acquires Little Eye Labs

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acebook’s taking over of Bengaluru-based startup, Little Eye Labs marked the social networking giant’s first acquisition in India.

The startup was maker of a software tool that helps Android developers to measure, analyze and optimize their app’s performance. The deal size was said to be in the range of `6090 crore.

It was reported that with the acquisition, the Little Eye Labs team would move to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

The startup would get access to Facebook’s worldclass infrastructure and would work on improving performwww.dqindia.com

ance of the company’s apps.

Industry analysts were convinced that the move is in line with Facebook’s mobile strategy that was lagging behind competitors despite the fact that a significant number of its worldwide users access the social networking site on their mobile devices.

It also brought good news for the startup ecosystem in India that is coming up in a big way and is being recognized globally. The fact that a global giant like Facebook was ready to take over just about an year old startup was quite indicative of the level of innovation being displayed by small Indian tech companies.

Google Acquires Impermium

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ust about two weeks after the news of Facebook acquiring Bengaluru-based startup Little Eye Labs broke out, Google announced its first ever acquisition in India. The Internet giant’s move of acquiring the three year old cyber security startup, Impermium, was quite surprising considering the fact that the company has had 141 acquisitions abroad but not one in India before this. The deal size was reported to be around `54 crore.

The entire Impermium team was said to be joining Google’s security team. The company was founded by Vish Ramarao, Naveen Jamal and August 15, 2014

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Mark Risher who were earlier colleagues at Yahoo!.

Impermium’s clients included Tumblr, Pinterest, CNN, Washington Post and so on.

Impermium’s CEO and Co-Founder, Mark Risher, had stated on the company website that it was founded with the mission to help rid the web of spam, fraud and abuse. And the company had worked hard to defend some of the largest and fastest growing sites. He added that by joining Google, the team will merge with some of the best abuse fighters in the world.

The Bitzer acquisition was another example of the growing popularity of Indian start-ups in the global technology landscape. After Facebook and Google other biggies could soon be catching up.

Flipkart Raises Massive Funding

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ndia’s top ecommerce player, Flipkart, saw a whopping $200mn (`1,200 crore) coming in from exist-

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ing investors in a fresh round of funding that happened in July 2013.

The investors included Naspers, Tiger Global, Accel Partners and ICONIQ Capital.

Nearly three months later, the company raised another $160mn (around `960crore), which took the total investment in the round to $360 mn. This is reportedly the single largest amount bagged by an Indian internet business till now. Most of the funding in the second round came from new investors that included Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sofina and Vulcan Capital and so on.

Flipkart’s CEO Sachin Bansal indicated that the fresh capital will allow Flipkart to strengthen its leadership position and will be used to enhance its technology and supply chain capabilities, talent pool and user experience.

By roping in additional funds, Flipkart will be having an edge over its competitors in the Indian market and also the likes of Amazon that are looking at beefing up their India presence.

With its recent acquisition of Myntra, Flipkart has added a lot more diversity and strength to its business. www.dqindia.com

Snapdeal Scoops More Funds

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nother famous ecommerce player Snapdeal scooped $133 mn (around `800 crore) in a funding round led by its existing investor eBay Inc. The company had earlier bagged funds worth $50 mn (`300 crore) in another funding round led by eBay, Russian Venture, Saama Capital and the likes.

Online shopping player eBay had entered the Indian market with the acquisition of online site Bazee.com. The

company has been facing tough competition from domestic ecommerce players like Flipkart. It is also known to have made standalone investments in digital commerce firms like Quikr.

Jay Lee, Senior Vice President and APAC Managing Director, eBay had indicated that the company will be looking at accelerating growth in India and other emerging markets as part of its core strategy for driving global leadership.

For Snapdeal, the fresh investment would offer more strength to compete with its competitors in the Indian ecommerce space. Its competitor Flipkart has been raising huge investments from existing and new investors, so the additional funds would probably help the company to catch up in the race.

Note: The deal sizes are DQ estimates based on industry sources

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Onkar Sharma onkars@cybermedia.co.in

Top 20 T-Schools The gist of the DQ-CMR T-School Survey surfaces in the fact that a new host of institutes have managed to get a place in the top 20 list

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Top 20 T-Schools

1 IIT Madras

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IT Madras topped the DQ-CMR survey on various parameters and clinched the number one position. It is one of the premier institutions in the country that scores high on infrastructure, industry exposure, placements, HR, and faculty. IIT Madras has led the list for the second consecutive year.

An autonomous public engineering and research institution, it is recognized as an institute of national importance by the Government of India.

IIT Madras is a residential institute that occupies a 2.5 km (620 acres) campus that was formerly part of the adjoining Guindy National Park.

The institute has nearly 550 faculties, 8,000 students, and 1,250 administrative and supporting staff.

2 IIT Kharagpur

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IT Kharagpur significantly improved its overall ranking which shows the institute’s endeavors to compete on multiple parameters.

Although IIT Kharagpur was already among the top 10 institutes last year, it has surprised biggies such as IIT Mumbai to secure the second place.

It improved its scores significantly on academic environment which manifests the image it has built among students and the industry. Besides, the institute performed well on infrastructure parameter where it was ranked #3. However, on placement front the institute needs to do a lot as it was ranked at #10. It ranked #6 on industry interface parameter but ranked #1 on HR scroes.

The institution has graduated to a next level with additions to courses, faculty members, seats, and research labs. The students and alumni of IIT Kharagpur are informally referred to as KGPians. Among all IITs, IIT 86

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Kharagpur has the largest campus with 2,100 acres. It is known for its www.dqindia.com

festivals: Spring Fest, Kshitij, and Shaurya.

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Visit: www.techbzar.com

Top 20 T-Schools

3 IIIT Hyderabad

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he International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) ranked at number three in the list. The institute ranked high on parameters such as HR scores, academic interface, industry interface, job placements, and infrastructure. It is an autonomous university which was set up as a notfor-profit public-private partnership (N-PPP) and is the first IIIT to be set up as a research university focused on the core areas of IT, such as computer science, electronics and communications, and their applications in other domains. The institute evolved strong research programs in a host of areas, with computation or IT providing the connecting thread, and with an emphasis on the development of technology and applications, which can be transferred for use to industry and society. This required carrying out basic research that can be used to solve real life problems. As a result, a synergistic relationship has come to exist at the institute between basic and applied research. Faculty carries out a number of academic

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industrial projects, and a few companies have been incubated based on the research done at the institute.

The institute combines pioneering research with top class education.

An innovative curriculum allows the student flexibility in selecting courses and projects. Students, even at the undergraduate level, get to participate in ongoing research and technology development—an opportunity unprecedented in India. As a result, a vibrant undergraduate program co-exists with a strong postgraduate program.

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4 IIT Bombay

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t one point, IIT Bombay used to be always on the number one position, but in last few years it has faced competition from other IITs and T-schools in the country. However, it holds the reputation it is known for and leads in many streams. Top IT companies do not forget to pay a visit to clinch the best talent from this tech school. Many of IITians from IIT Bombay in the last few years have gone out and set up their own businesses and companies. So IIT Bomaby is also considered as a grooming platform for budding entrepreneurs.

In the list it scores competitively on several parameters. It ranks high when it comes to job placement and the faculty. IIT Bombay has a comprehensive graduate program offering doctoral degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Currently IIT Bombay has a total of 14 academic departments, six centers, one school, and three interdisciplinary programs. Over the last 53 years, around 39,000 engineers and scientists have graduated from the institute. Educational programs here extend beyond the physical sciences and engineering into A CyberMedia Publication

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humanities and social sciences such as Economics, English, Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology and into management studies. Over the years, the institute has also created a niche for its innovative short-term courses through continuing education and distance education program.

5 IIT Guwahati

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ndian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati, IITG) has managed to stay in the top 5 list. It has moved up three places as it was at #8 place last year. In the North-East it is one of the best technology schools that trains and produces the best talent for the industry.

However, the institution has tried to change its image significantly in the last few years. It has begun to put in a lot of resources for PhD and doctorate courses. Its scores on various parameters were encouraging. It has a huge campus surrounded in the hills. IITG is officially recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India. A host of festivals and programs are organized within the campus every year that allow them to enhance their knowledge

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and understanding of various careerrelated things.

6 IIT Banaras

Hindu University

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ndian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindus University is a residential and co-educational campus within the larger BHU campus which is spread over nearly 1,300

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acres at the southern end of Varanasi on the banks of the River Ganges.

Based on its consistent performance on several parameters, IIT BHU is able to retain its place among top 10 T-schools in the country. However, it has gone down by one place this year. It has earned a good score on job placement and faculty. Besides, it is known for its innovative approach and research-oriented studies. It has put in a lot of effort to introduce a number of research programs.

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7 Birla Institute

of Technology and Science, Pilani

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n DQ-CMR survey, BITS Pilani has leapfrogged to seventh position from the previous eleventh last year. It is one of the premier institutions in the country that imparts education in different streams and is a name to reckon with when it comes to job placement and research. Its job placement index is always high as it boasts to compete with the best in the country.

The Birla Institute of Technology & Science was established in its present form in 1964. During this period, the institute’s transformation from a regional engineering college to a national university was backed by GD Birla. BITS has established centers at Goa, Hyderabad, and Dubai.

BITS administers the all-India com-

puterized competitive entrance examination, BITSAT (BITS Admission Test). Admission is merit-based, as assessed by the BITSAT examination. The fully residential institute is privately supported.

8 Netaji Subhas

Institute of Technology, New Delhi

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etaji Subhas Institute of Technology is a seat of higher technical education in India and stands at top when it comes to top T-schools in the country. This time, it managed to enter the top 10 club. It was established in the year 1983 as Delhi Institute of Technology with the objective to meet the growing demands of manpower in the emerging fields of engineering and technology with a close social and industrial interface. Over a period of time, the institute has carved a niche for itself, both nationally and internationally, for excellence in technical education and research.

NSIT used technology right from the beginning with a state-of-the-art labs and facilities. It ranks high as far as faculty and infrastructure is concerned.

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9 NIT Karnataka

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he National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) formerly known as Karnataka Regional Engineering College (KREC), is one of the leading tech schools. Students flock to seek admissions in the college for various reasons. It has continuously improved its ranks in the DQ-CMR survey and improved upon parameters like infrastructure, academic interface, HR, and job placements. NIT Karnakataka also managed to secure a place in the top 10 list as it moved from 12th place last year.

Its campus is about 20 kms north of Mangalore city. It was founded in 1960 as KREC while today, it is one of the 30 National Institutes of Technology in India and is recognized as an institute of national importance. It has a suburban campus, in close proximity to the Arabian Sea. National Highway 66 runs through the campus and serves as the major mode of access.

10 Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information

Communication Technology, Gandhinagar

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A-IICT continues to perform consistently in the DQ-CMR survey since it holds the 10th position for the second year in a row. It received the overwhelming response for placements this year that helped it stay in the top list. With a score of 20.08 on placements, the institute leaped to #6 on this category. It scores competitively on infrastructure, academic environment, and industry interface. But if it wants to move ahead in the list it needs to improve its score.

From an IT infrastructure perspective, the institute implemented a centralized storage with a proper backup architecture to save and manage all the relevant data pertaining to online study materials, student forums, and e-books.

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Top 20 T-Schools

11 NIT Rourkela

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ike many other institutes in the list, NIT Rourkela has also enhanced its rankings in the list.

It has secured its place at decent place. National Institute of Technology Rourkela is one of the 30 National Institutes of Technology in India and has been recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007.

Among other things, it is known for its campus and facilities it provides to the students. The campus of the institute is situated at the eastern end of Rourkela steel city, over 1,024 acres of land provided by the Government of Odisha which makes it the largest engineering campus in the country after IIT Kharagpur. The courses are mostly residential on a full-time basis.

It is able to attract a number of companies to its campus for job placements. Plus it has excelled on multiple fronts and tried to enhance focus on research and innovation.

Plus its faculty members come out with research papers on a regular basis.

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12 Institute of Technology, Nirma University

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nstitute of Technology, Nirma Univeristy claims to emphasize on all round development of its students. And its claims are very much recognized when it gets the

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12th place in the Top 20 T-School list. Its seriousness to compete with the best institute in the country is apparent from the leap it has taken from its previous position, i.e, 17th.

It aims at not only producing good professionals, but also good and worthy citizens of a great country aiding in its overall progress and development. It provides a quality professional training to students and prepares them for the roles that can transform the technology sector. In last few years it has endeavored to offer students good infrastructure, faculty and international exposure, etc. The results reflect when its students gets placed in the leading tech companies.

It endeavors to treat every student as an individual, to recognize their potential and to ensure that they receive the best preparation and training for achieving their career ambitions and life goals.

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13 Birla Institute

of Technology, Ranchi (Mesra)

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ITS Ranchi continues to obtain the same rank for the second year in a row. It is a leading institute of technology, located 16 kms from Ranchi, the Jharkhand statecapital, which has been engaged in nurturing minds through a rich heritage of academic excellence. Established in 1955 by visionary-industrialist BM Birla, it is today one of the most premier engineering destinations in India. And because of its name and international linkages, it draws the industry and young minds to its campus. Since the inception of the main campus in Mesra, it has established extension centers in Allahabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Noida, Patna, Deoghar, Lalpur and offshore in Muscat (Oman) and Ras al-Khaimah.

Its job placement scores and industry interface make it a leading T-School.

It is one of the few universities to be accorded a super computer at the core of its ultramodern IT infrastructure. Plus, it provided ‘nursery sheds’ and central designing and

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workshop facilities to young entrepreneurs. It also facilitated the initial project funding.

14 College of

Engineering, Pune

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ollege of Engineering, Pune (COEP) is an autonomous engineering college with an affiliation to the University of Pune. In the DQCMR survey, it ranks at #14 and stands out as one of the leading technology

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colleges in India that provides all kinds of opportunities to students. Its significance can be ascertained from the fact that it continues to be in the top 20 list and holds the 14th rank for the second time in a row. Established in 1854, it is the third oldest engineering college in Asia, after the College of Engineering, Guindy (1794) and IIT Roorkee. At present, the college awards the degree of B.Tech, ie, Bachelor of Technology (earlier the Bachelor of Engineering or the BE) in nine specializations. They were introduced subsequently since the inception of college. The sandwich pattern course was introduced in Mechanical, Electrical, Metallurgy (1974) and Production (1995). In this model, students spend their 5th and 8th semesters working in the industry and gain credit for such work, under the supervision of a faculty member and an industrial manager.

The Master of Technology (M Tech) is also awarded and the research for Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree is also conducted in selected fields.

The students and alumni of College Of Engineering, Pune are colloquially referred to as COEPians. The college’s study model was referred to, in the early 1950s, as the ‘Poona Model’.

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15 Maharaja

Agrasen Institute of Technology

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aharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology (MAIT), New Delhi seems to have improved its scores remarkably as it stole a place in the Top 20 T-School list this year. Last year it was at 21st place.

Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology which is a private Engineering College has improved its standards and infrastructure. One of the leading colleges of Delhi and North India, MAIT has 12 departments (five-Engineering, four-Research, and threeAuxiliary). It is affiliated to the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi. It is considered one of the top engineering colleges of northern India. What brings it to the Top 20 club is its ability to draw employers to its campus.

The college has an active IEEE, CSI, and SAE student wings in the

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college along with the ‘Green Concept’, a green initiative by the students of the college. An Entrepreneurial Development Cell (EDC) has been set up to help the potential graduates with the future options.

Genesis is its annual Management & Cultural festival, organized by MBA Department. Techsurge is its annual inter college technical fest featuring over 70 technical events.

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16 West Bengal

University of Technology

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he West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT, WBUTech or simply UTECH) is a public state university located in Kolkata.

Like Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, it has also leapfrogged from #22 rank last to #16. This brings it to the premier club of Top 20 TSchools in the country.

Founded in 2000, WBUT provides facilities for the pursuit of degree and advanced-level courses in engineering, management and other professional areas through affiliated institutions and in-house departments.

The university has been accorded affiliating university status and is currently functioning through an Advisory Committee constituted by the Chancellor. WBUT currently has 195 colleges under its jurisdiction, with specializations in 29 domains and its horizon encompassing the entire state of West Bengal. It offers courses at B-Tech, M-Tech and PhD level.

It aims at innovation and research.

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17 Amrita Vishwa

Vidyapeetham Amrita School of Engineering

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he Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has also moved up the ladder from #23 rank last year to #17.

With this, the college has surprised many. However, it has outsmarted others in the race to clinch a place in the Top 20 list. The college is based out of Coimbatore and has campuses at Amritapuri, Kochi, Bengaluru, and Mysore. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has emerged as one of the fastest growing institutions of higher learning in India. In less than two decades, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has blossomed into a multi-disciplinary, multicampus center that offers over 150+ undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programs.

It continuously collaborate with top US universities including Ivy league universities and top European universities for regular student exchange programs, and thus, has emerged as one of the fastest growing institutions of higher learning in India.

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Amrita Center for Cyber Security Systems and Networks in the campus promotes partnership between industry, academia and the government to foster innovative research and education in cyber security, thus enhancing knowledge, deriving solutions, benefiting society, and mitigating risks. Besides, it runs various other programs to energize the students and the industry.

18 Galgotia University

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algotia University has secured a place in the Top 20 T-school list in the DQ-CMR survey this year. Besides, it was awarded as the top Indian university for excellence

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in academics and global linkages at the recent DQ Cyber Media ICT Awards 2013. Galgotia University was recognized and feted for successfully differentiating itself from other universities in terms of its global-level academics, international pedagogy and world-class faculty drawn from the world’s finest universities and research institutions. On various parameters, the university has improved its ranks and tried to create a name in the country.

The central library supports the teaching, research and extension programs. It has endeavored to provide the qualified and experienced faculty.

Plus it has tried to improve its image through campus recruitment. It has improved its industry relationship and focused on providing research facilities. It aims to compete with the best T-Schools in the country.

It offers its students Web SIM, a service that stores all student data from personal details to placement details, library information, assignments, holidays information, etc, Galgotia University offers four types of subjects: University Core, University Elective, Program Core and Program Elective. The fully flexible credit-based system enables students to choose their elective subjects independently and provides flexibility to choose their hours of lectures.

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19 SSN College of

Engineering

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ri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering (SSNCE), popularly known as SSN, has managed to move one step ahead in the list from its previous rank #20. It is an engineering institution located in Chennai which is certified to ISO 9001:2000 standard by the National Board of Accreditation.

It has kept its educational and training standards always in high esteem and competed with institutes in India and globally on various fronts. It organizes various student exchange programs for knowledge share and exposure. It has tried to focus on various technical education aspects in last few years and introduced new programs to the curriculum. For software development and IT, the college offers specialization courses in association with industry leaders. Keeping trends such as cloud and analytics, it has started special courses.

A number of tech companies take a tour of the institute to hire the fresh talent. A lot of students have been placed in several IT companies. How-

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ever, it needs to improve its rankings further to nudge up the list fast, since a several other institutes have surpassed it.

20 Thiagarajar College of Engineering

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hiagarajar College of Engineering (TCE) seems to have made a surprise entry into the Top 20 club. However, it is not so surprising since the college has performed in several parameters on par with lead-

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ing counterparts. An autonomous institution located in Madurai, it is affiliated to Anna University, Chennai.

It is one of several educational and philanthropic institutions founded by philanthropist and industrialist Late.

Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar. TCE was established in the year 1957.

The courses offered in TCE are approved by the All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi.

TCE was granted autonomy in the year 1987. The institution offers the Masters in Industrial Engineering among others.

It competes with the leading institutes in the country because of its infrastructure, faculty, industry interface, and HR scores. TCE offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs under both engineering and science streams.

Its focus on research is very well perceived as it has filed patents in several areas. One of the patents was filed by Dr R Vasudevan, Dean, and Professor Department of Chemistry at TCE who developed and patented the ‘Plastic Tar Road Technology’. A several dignitaries have taken the tour of the institution. Likes of APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr Eric A Cornell (Nobel Laureate in Physics) are some of them.

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Ruchika Goel ruchikag@cybermedia.co.in

The Joy of Giving “Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more,� H Jackson Brown, Jr. Here we present some of the leading companies and their CSR initiatives

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Top 20 Socially Responsible Companies

The CSR King: Microsoft

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he Microsoft Community Affairs program works to create a digitally inclusive society through its partnerships with governments, nonprofit organizations, and businesses.

The program aims to empower unemployed youth, marginalized women, and rural communities by connecting them to greater opportunities for education, employment, and entrepreneurship.

Since 2004, Youthspark—Project Jyoti has been on the forefront to achieve Microsoft’s vision of helping India realize its potential. As a part of this initiative, Microsoft India has partnered with more than 14 NGOs across the country to support various programs aimed at empowering underserved individuals especially youth and women through the use of IT. The program is focused on empowering unemployed youth, marginalized women and rural communities.

While the program has its presence in peri-urban and semi-rural areas, there is a special focus on reaching the youth in remote, inaccessible and tribal areas of the country by imparting IT skills training or basic computer literacy—and enabling them to explore employment and sustainable livelihood options.

YouthSpark-Project Jyoti reflects Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to empower the underserved sections of society. Going forward the emphasis of the program will not just be to enhance employability of the youth but also to encourage higher education. In addition, the aim is also to train youth who show an aptitude for business to develop their entrepreneurial ventures.

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Caring and Sharing Tech Czar: Infosys

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t Infosys, the distribution of wealth is as important as its legal and ethical creation. A strong sense of social responsibility is therefore an integral part of their value system. The company is committed to contributing to the society

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and established the Infosys Foundation in 1996 as a not-for-profit trust to support social initiatives. The foundation supports programs and organizations devoted to the cause of the destitute, the rural poor, the mentally challenged, and the economically disadvantaged sections of the society.

The foundation also helps preserve certain cultural forms and dying arts of India. Infosys’ Education

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Top 20 Socially Responsible Companies

& Research group has the pride of anchoring the Infosys Extension Program (IEP), which consists of the Infosys Fellowship Program, Rural Reach program, Catch Them Young and Train the Trainer. Through their Computers@Classrooms initiative launched in January 1999, they donated 2,567 computers to various institutions across India. Additionally, they have applied to the relevant authorities for permission to donate computers to educational institutions on an ongoing basis in the future. Microsoft Corporation continues to participate in this initiative by donating relevant softwares.

Partner in Progress: Cisco

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isco believes that they have a responsibility to conduct their business in a way that it benefits the people, communities, and the planet. It is no longer enough for a business to be only a business—it aims to be a responsible global citizen. The company also believes that technology can play a key role in this and can be a catalyst in improving lives, building communities, and to preserve the environment. Cisco

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supports and partner with non-profits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and governments. They invest through a combination of financial grants, technology and in-kind program contributions, bolstered by employee volunteering and expertise sharing.

Cisco invests in scalable and selfsustaining programs that use technology to meet some of society’s biggest challenges. They deploy their expertise, technology, partnerships, and financial resources to help build thriving, prosperous communities that improve people’s lives and support their business. Their social investment programs focus on education, critical human needs and disaster management, these are areas where they believe Cisco CSR can add the most value and make a significant and lasting impact.

The company has partnered with many government schools and provide basic amenities to children to stay in school such as books, uniforms, stationary, etc. Volunteers also engage to help students learn better by providing science lab, mentoring and tutoring students in subjects where they require support and awarding scholarships to deserving students.

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Empowering the Underprivileged: Dell India

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ell continues to work on empowering the youth in India, and support innovation and educational initiatives. Dell’s CSR program, runs on a vision to put technology and expertise to work, where it can do the most good for people and the planet—its slogan runs as ‘making possible today what was impossible yesterday’.

It did some impressive things. For instance, contributing towards the cause of disaster relief, the company made a corporate donation worth $250,000 towards providing shelter, water, sanitation hygiene support, emergency food supply to those affected by the flash floods in the Uttarakhand region.

The company also partnered with Oxfam India, a fully independent NGO in India dedicated to addressing poverty and injustice, helping them reach A CyberMedia Publication

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The Art of Giving: Genpact

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out to 2,000 affected people in 2,000 households across 25 villages. Dell recently concluded its implementation of ‘Project Aasman’ which is a part of Dell’s Youth Learning initiatives. Dell, has executed this project in partnership with Learning Links Foundation. Project Aasman is Dell’s effort to create a cloud-based collaborative classroom in government schools, equipped with laptops, tablets, interactive boards, projectors and Wi-Fi connection, enabling a virtual learning environment, conceptualized and built to inspire students to innovate, collaborate and learn.

Reinforcing its commitment to encourage and enable free and responsible ways of disposing old equipment, Dell launched 16 electronics recycling collection points for consumers across 13 cities in the country. The program is brand and product agnostic—consumers can now drop off any brand or any type of product to be recycled at the Dell carry-in service centers. Dell is currently on track to recycle more than 1 bn cumulative pounds of e-waste worldwide by 2014. |

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he company says giving is a way of life. In line with that dictum, Genpact empowers its employees to give back to the communities where they live and work. Key themes are environmental conservation, diversity in workforce, community impact programs such as Genpact volunteers, employee payroll donations, disaster relief, social investments, and IT equipment recycling.

For instance, Caring@Genpact, is its one key CSR initiative, that aims to mesh social and environmental principles with operational fabric. The company has institutionalized a culture of giving among their employees through a number of global platforms and programs, such as payroll giv-

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ing and volunteering. They provide employees with a community engagement interface to volunteer for community service events, including those related to the elderly, the differently-abled and children.

Genpact is also committed to safe and environmentally-friendly work practices, keeping employees’ interests as well as those of the planet in mind. Genpact has a global consolidated Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) policy signed by CEO and displayed across every location.

Interestingly women comprise 37% of the workforce at Genpact. They are focused on hiring people with disabilities, engaged in operations and functions ranging from accounting and customer care to hiring and HR shared services. Many of their visually impaired employees have been with Genpact for years, growing into management positions.

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Top 20 Socially Responsible Companies

Motivating to Give: HCL Technologies

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o give back to the society what we received from it has been the constant endeavor at HCL Tech-

The Knowledge Giver: Hewlett-Packard

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he company applies the same passion, energy, and culture of innovation that make HP commercially successful to benefit society and make a difference in the world. By using their broad portfolio, technology, and expertise, they can find ways to help tackle some of the world’s major social challenges. The company partners and collaborates with businesses, governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), thought leaders, social entrepreneurs, and academics to help develop scalable, sustainable solutions.

HP applies their knowledge and expertise to make an impact in education, entrepreneurship, and health, and harness the power of their em102

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nologies. HCLT Foundation is a CSR trust supported by the company. The foundation enables the employees to engage in meaningful community service activities. Community-based programs and activities are planned with a keen focus on sustainabil-

ity and employee engagement. The foundation was formed on the belief that every HCL employee can make a difference and is funded through employee and organizational contributions. All programs are implemented with support from employee voluntary group called the community champions.

The company believes that engaging with communities will help them meet with environment goals, and through communities they can ‘rebalance’ resources for the future.

Their vision is to provide sustainable livelihood and empowerment for less privileged youth and women, provide dignified life for 100,000+ direct beneficiaries; and promote awareness and support causes that are aligned with the millennium development goals.

ployees to support communities worldwide. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is paramount to solving some of the most pressing global problems in our society. The company’s objective is to help transform STEM teaching and learning—from secondary education through the university level—and inspire students to use their technical ingenuity and creativity to address urgent social issues. The HP Catalyst Initiative is a global network of educators who explore new approaches to STEM education.

Entrepreneurs drive innovation, create jobs, and fuel economic opportunity—ultimately helping local communities prosper. HP launched the global training program, HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs (HP LIFE), to help students, aspiring and established entrepreneurs, and small business owners develop IT and business skills to be successful. www.dqindia.com

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The Diversity Player: Intel

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ntel believes in the right to education, and it is committed to investing in girls’ education and women’s economic empowerment by improving education quality, training teachers, and providing tools for personal and professional success. Intel believes education is a fundamental right for everyone, and technology opens doors to opportunity. Through the Intel Global Girls and Women Initiative, they are working to empower millions of girls and women around the world by closing the gender gap in education access, inspiring more girls and women to become creators of technology, and connecting girls and women to opportunity through technology access. Educating girls and closing the Internet gender gap also has an important multiplier effect—expanding opportunities for families, communities, and nations.

For instance, the ‘Girl Rising’ is a global action campaign for girls’ education. It started with a groundbreaking, inspirational film. Now it’s a movement to lift barriers to girls’ education, to drive change and motivate leaders to take action.

they have been consistent with their efforts towards making this world a better place to live in and have contributed towards bettering thousands of lives. The company aims to achieve involvement from their employees equal to or greater than 1.5 times of total employee strength in a given year. They measure the number of beneficiaries and the number of employees involved in each initiative. For example, in the year 201314, they had 214,819 beneficiaries as against 11,213 employee engage-

ments in the community initiatives.

The comparable metrics in the year 2012-13 were 6,200 and 5,750 respectively. KPIT annually allows four logged hours, on a week day to its employees for CSR volunteering that resulted in 13,004 man hours towards community initiatives in the year 2013-14.

KPIT has been awarded the 2013 Cummins’ Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) award for demonstrating core value of community contribution.

CSR by Default: KPIT Technologies

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SR is an intrinsic part of KPIT’s philosophy. Community contribution is one of the seven core values at KPIT and it also finds a significant mention in their mission and vision statement, reflecting their commitment towards it.

The company’s initiatives are categorized into four focus areas: Education, environment, energy, and employee engagement. The biggest achievement for them has been that |

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Socially Committed Citizen: L&T Infotech

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&T believes that the true and full measure of growth, success, and progress lies beyond

Nurturing Lives: Mindtree

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indtree recognizes social responsibility as an integral part of their corporate citizenship.

Driven by their value system, the company is committed to support and nurture societies through innovative solutions to satisfy evolving needs of the society. The company strives to foster a socially responsible corporate culture by introducing a balanced approach to business by addressing social and environmental challenges through required investments, necessary resource allocation and stakeholder engagements.

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balance sheets or conventional economic indices. It is best reflected in the difference that business and industry make to the lives of people.

Through its social investments, L&T addresses the needs of communities residing in the vicinity of its facilities, taking sustainable initiatives in the

areas of heath, education, environment conservation, infrastructure, and community development.

The company proactively provides assistance in situations such as natural calamities and assists victims of nature’s fury or social neglect. Many social initiatives are undertaken in partnership with government agencies and NGOs. At L&T, they have always been conscious of the need to maintain harmony with the environment. The company continuously seek newer environment-friendly approaches in all their operations—energy conservation, exploring alternative sources like wind and solar energy, waste water reduction, etc.

From taking initiatives in building the next generation of productive citizens, empowering women, paying regular visits to old age homes and orphanages, to organizing blood donation camps, the employees of L&T have always believed in truly making a difference to the world in which they live.

lutions for people with disabilities. The Mindtree Foundation has come up with two products for the disabled, namely K(C)ommunication Audio-Visual Interface Device (KAVI) and Analog Digital Theremin Interface (ADITI).

KAVI is a speech-enabled augmentative and alternative communication device that allows people with speech and motor impairments to communi-

cate with others. Persons with musculoskeletal disabilities usually find it difficult to interface with a computer with the standard keyboard and mouse since these require a certain degree of dexterity and control. ADITI assists people with musculoskeletal disabilities, who find it difficult to use a keyboard and a mouse, to work on computers.

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Reaching the Unreached: MphasiS

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phasiS’ CSR approach is strategic to business and aims at enabling people from underserved communities with skills that would lead to their inclusion in socio-economic mainstream of the nation. MphasiS F1 Foundation was set up in 2008 with the vision to contribute significantly to the quality of life in communities where MphasiS employees live and work. MphasiS

F1 Foundation was registered as a Trust in December 2011. This trust has 3 focus areas: education, employability, and entrepreneurship development.

Education: Enable education and skill development by working and supporting projects that educate and empower children and young adults.

Employability: Support projects that aim to impart relevant vocational skills to these communities; Create a career development plan for them; actively encourage and promote employment of these communities both within MphasiS as well as within other organizations Entrepreneurship Development: Aims to break the cycle of poverty; create skilled labor, increased in|

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come, ownership of enterprise; lead to creation of jobs and provide solutions to pressing social problems.

MphasiS also works with NGOs in implementing projects in the communities that it lives and works in. The company seeks to involve employees, clients, and other stakeholders, and encourage them to actively contribute their skills, time, and expertise to such initiatives.

Making CSR Work: NetApp

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etApp as a company believes in giving back to the community and empowers its employees to be responsible citizens of the community. Through its corporate social responsibility program, called VTO on the Go! (Volunteer Time Off) NetApp enables its employees to take five days of paid leave (40 hours) per calendar year, to volunteer their time for social causes they are individually passionate about. NetApp believes in empowering its employees in making their own choices on how to contribute and give back to the community.

Employees are more engaged when

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NetApp supports their efforts and passion towards a social cause.

At the outset of every calendar year the NetApp community Relation’s team charts the events dedicated to a unique theme every quarter eg: elderly care, environment, education, ‘giving week’ to name a few.

A Committed Corporate Citizen: Oracle

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racle is committed to using their resources to increase opportunity, protect the environment, advance education, and enrich community life. Oracle has leveraged its technology leadership to advance education for nearly 20 years. In FY12, they achieved a new milestone—technology education programs now reach more than 2 mn students annually.

Through the Oracle Academy, they grant Oracle software to secondary schools, colleges, and universities in 97 countries. Educators use their products, in combination with the curriculum, Oracle Press books, lec-

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tures, certification preparation, and community resources they provide, to equip students with the technical skills they need to enter the global workforce prepared to succeed.

Each year Oracle donates millions of dollars to non-profit organizations that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

The company also offer grants to or-

ganizations with which they volunteer, helping to improve the quality of life in communities where their employees live and work. In FY11 and FY12, they matched employee donations to 2,800 non-profits and initiated more than 1,000 volunteer projects to support schools, teachers, food banks, the environment, and health and human service organizations globally.

with access to smarter learning environments.

Samsung manufactures eco-conscious products that are not only energy-efficient, but also help to reduce your carbon footprint on the environment. For example, their LED technology helps significantly reduce energy use while materials generate less waste.

The company is proud to reaffirm its commitment to recycling with the Samsung recycling direct program.

Available in all 50 states and with over 500 fixed drop-off locations, their programs make it easy for consumers to conveniently and responsibly recycle their old electronics.

Empowering the Youth: Tech Mahindra

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ducated, skilled, and able men and women are a country’s true strength. Tech Mahindra aspire to see youth that is constructively employed, children who are purposefully engaged and a society that provides equal opportunities to people with different abilities. Through its CSR initiatives, the Mahindra Group commits itself to this.

Tech Mahindra Foundation (TMF) is the corporate social responsibility arm of Tech Mahindra Limited.

Instituted in 2007 as a section 25 non-profit company in India, it has been working tirelessly since then in the areas of education, vocational training, and disability, with a keen focus on corporate volunteering. Through programs that involve both direct and indirect interventions in the community, the Foundation has reached out to more

Touching Lives Digitally: Samsung

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he company’s CSR vision is to build a fabric where people, society, and the environment coexist in harmony. As a part of their CSR efforts, Samsung is committed to transparency and delivering important information to their shareholders to continuously build confidence and trust in them. When students receive smart education and skills training, they’re better equipped for the future.

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than 200,000 beneficiaries since its inception. These programs are run in close consultation with government and non-government partners and maintain a high level of quality to ensure lasting impacts.

The company empowers disadvantaged children through education, especially the girl child; they believe in creating an enabling envi-

ronment that encourages children to come to school, reducing dropouts and providing knowledge systems that facilitate better learning. They also enable the youth to acquire employable market-oriented skills and linking them to potential employers, thereby facilitating development of self-reliant and contributing individuals.

Wipro Cares is currently engaged in 12 projects across India. Through its five healthcare projects in three states of India Wipro Cares is providing more than 50,000 people access to primary healthcare. More than 70,000 children benefit from the six education projects in five Indian cities and one Indian village. Their project in social forestry has helped plant more than 50,000 trees and has at the same time provided livelihood to around 40 farmers. Employee engagement is an integral part of Wipro Cares where they encourage employees to volunteer with their partners, acting thus as catalysts in bringing about positive change. Apart from these core areas, as part of the longterm process that is typically involved in the rehabilitation of communities affected by natural calamities they offer Wipro employees the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the affected communities.

End-to-End CSR: Wipro

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ipro believes it must try to, and can make (some) lasting impact, towards creating a just, equitable, humane & sustainable society. This is reason enough to act.

Wipro Cares engages with communities in their proximate locations. The primary objectives of Wipro Cares are to support the developmental needs of marginalized communities in cities and towns where Wipro has a large presence. The company has four core areas of work—education, healthcare, environment, and disaster rehabilitation. |

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Transforming Lives: UST Global

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ST Global was founded with a mission to transform lives for the better, through active participation in social and environmental causes. This is reflected in their CSR initiatives, which are geared toward making meaningful differences in the communities in which we live and work. The UST Global Foundation brings to life this mission of ‘transforming lives’.

UST Global’s ‘adopt a school’ program has reached out to over 2,000 children from socially impoverished segments of the society by supporting government schools in Trivandrum, Kochi, Chennai, and Bengaluru. Their associates contribute volunteer hours in helping both

students and teachers enhance their knowledge in computer science through various programs. These include activities such as teacher training programs, awareness sessions on agriculture, setting up fruits and vegetable gardens, and cleanup drives within school campuses.

In addition, the associates volunteer to donate study materials, set up computer rooms, school libraries, and also contribute by donating furniture to the government-aided schools.

A unique school program carried out by Color Rose volunteers at the government school, Thoriapakkam, Chennai called Enjoy English. It is a weekly program to enable children to learn English through fun-based activities. Icebreaker games, phonetics sessions, and rhyme recitations are part of the communication class.

Raising the Bar: Zensar Technologies

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ensar Foundation, an independent trust operating under Zensar Technologies, leads the company’s social outreach programs. The company believes that CSR is an essential part of an organization’s functioning. In order to be a sustainable business it must be in harmony with the community and both must grow together.

One of the biggest achievements of the company has been the fact that at this point of time Zensar Foundation has created and is running several demonstrable models which are replicable and scalable—such as the community mobilization program, the English teaching program, the employability program and the volunteering program. They have already shared the English teaching program modules with numerous NGOs and

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Making a Positive Impact: Broadridge Financial Solutions

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roadridge is committed to contributing towards causes for betterment of the community.

The company believes that ‘what you get is what you give’. Hence community development is an integral part of their CSR activities. In line with that the company has initiated various programs aimed at making a positive difference to the society. Some of the major on-going initiatives are—organizing a residential camp for girls who have been involved in child labor, through, supporting a school for differently-abled children; established BREATH (Broadridge Earth Energiz-

er) through which they it undertakes various go-green initiatives helping reduce carbon footprint and conserve the wildlife and environment.

Meanwhile education is also in the forefront of the company’s initiative of contributing to the society. For instance, the company has tied up with MV (Mamidipudi Venkata Rangaiah) foundation whose primary motto is to eradicate child labor and educate children. We have started our own residential bridge camp school. The company conducts computer awareness and basics of computer classes for various categories of students from various sectors like government school students/orphanage school students/poor students.

Note: This is a random listing of 20 companies and their CSR activities and not a ranking.

hope to multiply the impact of Zensar Foundation’s work through continuous and conscious sharing.

Zensar engages in a number of initiatives directed at community transformation, skill training and environment sustenance through Zensar Foundation. Udaan is their flagship program where they address the English proficiency of children drawn from the Chandan Nagar slum community and going to the same municipal school.

Zensar believes that extensive community transformation can only transpire when people from the outside engage extensively with residents within. This volunteer-driven initiative in Chandan Nagar (Pune), undertaken in partnership with the ‘Connecting…NGO’ comprises periodic engagements with neighbourhood residents, house-to-house visits, understanding resident problems, inspiring counter-initiatives and providing them with the confidence to resolve their issues. |

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Movers and Shakers This year industry has witnessed huge reshuffling in the top line. Many senior leaders have climbed the career ladder, whereas some left their position to pursue their passion

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Alok Ohrie Joins Dell India

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fter Sameer Garde’s exit, Alok Ohrie was named as the President and Managing Director of Dell India. Alok will carry the responsibility of further enhancing Dell’s end-to-end solutions capabilities and expanding the company’s strong presence in the Indian IT market.

In this role, Ohrie will be responsible for driving growth for Dell’s India market, developing and delivering endto-end solutions for global and Indian corporations, state, and local governments and the consumer business.

Ohrie, a former Wipro executive, joined IBM in 1995. He left IBM and joined AMD India in 2005 as Managing Director. Three years later, he joined EMC India as President, but returned to IBM in 2010 to head STG business.

—Alok Ohrie President & MD, Dell India

Anirban Dey, MD SAP Labs India Quits

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t came as a shock for the industry when the news about SAP Labs India Managing Director Anirban Dey, popularly known as ‘Andy’ quitting the company spread. Earlier the company had claimed that Dey was leaving due to personal reasons. But the real picture was something else. Dey was involved in sending spam mails threatened to expose the alleged bunglings by a few Indian senior executives of the company through emails to SAP’s top management in Germany.

Dey’s exit comes less than a week after the announcement of former SAP CTO and Board member Vishal Sikka as Infosys’ next CEO. He was associated with SAP Labs since 2008 and was appointed as the Managing Director of SAP Labs India in January, 2013.

—Anirban Dey Former MD, SAP Labs India

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Before being named as MD of SAP Labs India in January 2013, Andy was the Vice President of In-Memory Platform Technologies in Bengaluru, with responsibilities covering research, development, and quality certification for SAP HANA, SAP’s flagship product in the in-memory space.

Meanwhile, Clas Neumann, Senior Vice President and Global Head of the SAP Labs Network will work closely with the SAP Labs India leadership team to ensure a smooth transition till a new MD is appointed.

Ashok Vemuri Joins IGATE as CEO

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he year for IGATE was not less than a roller coaster ride. The company saw the exit of one of its key architects Phaneesh Murthy for not reporting to the company his relationship with a subordinate and in his place Ashok Vemuri, who had

quit Infosys in 2013 joined as IGATE’s new CEO. Vemuri was earlier widely considered a contender to succeed Infosys’ Chief Executive SD Shibulal. Previously, he served as the Chairman of Infosys China and was on the Board of Infosys Public Services. He earlier established and ran the Financial Services and Insurance business for 9 years, making it the largest business unit within Infosys.

Prior to joining Infosys in 1999, he worked in the investment banking industry at Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. Ashok has been widely recognized for his expertise in global sourcing and technology-led transformation.

In his role as Head of America, Vemuri was responsible for Infosys’ business operations in the company’s largest region with $4.7 bn in revenues and he oversaw all facets of the business, from strategic direction to maintaining and improving financial and operational efficiency.

—Ashok Vemuri CEO, IGATE

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Dinesh Malkani Replaces Jeff White as Cisco India Sales Head

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isco India has appointed Dinesh Malkani as the head of its India operations replacing Jeff White who relocated to the firm’s US office for personal reasons.

Malkani will report to Irving Tan, Cisco’s President, Asia Pacific & Japan. Dinesh will lead the company’s efforts to help transform the country’s economy through technology. He will drive Cisco’s senior level external engagement, including those with government and industry associations, to drive growth and market leadership in India and Saarc.

Presently, Dinesh Malkani is Vice President, Sales, Cisco India and

—Dinesh Malkani President, Sales, Cisco India & Saarc

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Saarc. In this role, Dinesh is responsible for Cisco’s enterprise, public sector and service provider business across the India & Saarc regions. In addition to driving sales, his responsibility will be to drive alignment, increase customer relevance and enable a faster response to market transitions.

Dinesh joined Cisco in August 2010 and has led the Asia-Pacific Japan and Korea (APJC) collaboration team to become a market leader in every major category of this business in APJC. He has over 20 years of experience in the IT and communications industry in APJC, having lived and worked in India, China, Korea, and Singapore. Over this period he has held diverse roles such as R&D engineer, SE manager, sales director, general manager, and has gained financial skills in running substantial P&L for large operations.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan Joins Mu Sigma as MD India

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n this year, Dell has seen many exits of its senior leaders who have been the reason of Dell India success story. First, it was Sameer Garde and then Ganesh Lakshminaryanan. The commonality among both these exist was, both of them have grabbed the opportunity outside the IT industry.

Recently Mu Sigma has appointed Ganesh Lakshminaryanan as the Managing Director of its India operations. Mu Sigma mentions that Lakshminarayanan will work closely with the existing leadership team to improve the India delivery function and enable them to scale globally. He will |

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—Ganesh Lakshminarayanan MD, Mu Sigma India

report directly to Mu Sigma founder and CEO Dhiraj Rajaram.

Prior to this appointment, Lakshminarayanan was heading Dell’s Asia Pacific and Japan sales operations for about a year-and-a-half. Before that, he was working as President and Managing Director of Dell India.

He was also apparently involved in starting Dell’s India operations. He has had over 25 years of experience working the technology domain.

He had joined Dell back in 2010 as its VP, Global Consumer, SMB services. In addition to Lakshminarayanan, former Forrester Research executive Tom Pohlmann has also joined the company as its Head of Values and Strategy.

technologies, appointed HCL veteran Neeraj Dutt as Chief Financial Officer on May 6, 2014. He takes over from Arvind Kakar, who has decided to pursue other opportunities. Prior to joining Geometric, Kakar served as the CFO of Max Healthcare Institute, and had also worked with Tata Finance, Max India, and Hero Honda Motors.

He will be responsible for the company’s global financial accounting, planning, legal and corporate governance. Neeraj has extensive

Geometric Appoints Neeraj Dutt as CFO

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eometric which is known for its product lifecycle management, Global Engineering services, and offshore software product development solutions and www.dqindia.com

—Neeraj Dut, CFO, Geometric August 15, 2014

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experience in business plan preparation and execution, controllership, de-merger/carve out, US GAAP, SOX 404, business risk assessment, financial system—transactional/MIS and driving operational efficiencies.

He joined Virtusa Corp. in 2010 as India Controller and was promoted to Asia Chief Financial Officer in January 2012. Dutt started his career as a trainee with Trident Projects in 1996 and then moved on to work with Genpact in 1999 as a Process Associate.

He played various roles in the finance function at Genpact to finally take on the role of Assistant Vice President, Finance in 2007.

Google Plus Boss Vic Gundotra Leaves Google

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his year Google saw the the exit of the man who was the driving force behind the Google+ platform. Vic Gundotra, the VP of Engineering who has been leading

Google+ since its inception left the company after almost 8 years of his association. On April 24, 2014, Vic Gundotra announced his resignation.

He started his Google journey from Google I/O, to all mobile applications till Google+.

Gundotra joined Google in 2007 from Microsoft, and initially worked on the company’s mobile apps, including Google Maps. After that he worked as Vice-President of Social included Google’s social networking and identity service, Google+. He is widely believed to be the man behind Google+, and was responsible for the controversial removal of social features from Google Reader. In addition to his work on Google+, he was also the ring leader of the company’s annual Google I/O developer conference, where he frequently used that stage to take stabs at competitors like Apple.

The new head of Google+ will be David Besbris, currently Google’s VP of engineering. Besbris has also been with the Google+ team since its beginnings, and worked closely with Gundotra.

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Hexaware Hires HCL Veteran R Srikrishna as CEO

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exaware Technologies known for its IT, BPO and consulting services roped in R Srikrishna as its Chief Executive Officer. In Hexaware, he would be focussing on creating an organization that will deliver new-world services to customers in the digital era. Srikrishna replaces PR Chandrasekar, who decided to quit as Chief Executive to pursue other interests; the latter will continue as the company’s vice-chairman. He has been with the company from the last six years in setting the right direction, energy, and structure at Hexaware.

Srikrishna, who has more than two decades of experience in global information services and technology sector, joins Hexaware from HCL Technologies, where he was most recently the President of Infrastructure and Life Sciences Businesses. He brings over 20 years of progressive

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experience in global information services and technology. Under his leadership, infrastructure services business of HCL Technologies banked $1.3 bn business.

Jai Menon Quits Airtel Under Controversial Circumstances

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nder amidst allegations of violating the company’s code of conduct, Jai Menon, Bharti Airtel’s Group Chief Information Officer quit the company. Menon, who first joined Airtel in 2002, was responsible for managing Airtel’s IT infrastructure, including award-

ing contracts to hardware and service vendors.

During his initial stint at Airtel, Menon played a key role in the company’s growth when the company was looking to cut costs amidst falling tariffs. Menon started his career at IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center and became an IBM executive Director in IBM’s Software Group, heading worldwide research-to-market business for nich media. From there, he joined AT&T (formerly BellSouth) as Chief Technology Officer for IT across all lines of businesses.

Menon returned to India and joined Bharti Airtel in 2002 as CIO and Corporate Director, IT. Additionally, he launched Airtel’s Enterprise Business as its Joint President, and subsequently ran Customer Service for India as its Director.

In 2007, he was also made the Group CIO for Bharti Enterprises, which is the parent company of Bharti Airtel. When Airtel expanded to Africa, he was additionally appointed as Chief Technology and Information Officer of Airtel Africa, where he ran Networks and IT, in addition to serving as Bharti’s Group CIO. Recently, Menon moved to HT Media businesses covering news, radio, entertainment, education and digital.

Narayana Murthy Returns to Infosys

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eeping in mind the challenges that the technology industry and to be specific, Infosys was facing and in the interest of all stakeholders, particularly shareholders large and small, Infosys re-appointed retired NR Narayana Murthy as executive chairman of the board for a fiveyear term from June 1, 2013. With his entry, KV Kamath stepped down as Chairman of the board and took up the role of a lead independent director role effective June 1, 2013.

But in a latest development which in a way again surprised the industry, NR Narayana Murthy and S Gopalakrishnan voluntarily stepped down as Executive Chairman and Executive Vice Chairman, res p e c t i v e l y, on June 14,

—Narayana Murthy Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys —Jai Menon Former Group CIO, Airtel

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2014. In order to facilitate a smooth transition of responsibilities, they will continue on the Board till October 10, 2014 as the Non-executive Chairman and Non-executive Vice Chairman, respectively.

In this re-shuffling, Murthy will be designated as Chairman Emeritus with effect from October 11, 2014 in recognition of his contributions to the company whereas KV Kamath will become the Non-executive Chairman of the Board on October 11, 2014.

Nikesh Arora, Google’s Chief Business Officer Quits

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fter Vic Gundotra’s surprise exit, Google faced another setback with the exit of Nikesh Arora, Google’s Chief Business Officer. After almost 10 years,

Arora decided to leave the company to join as Vice Chairman of SoftBank Corp and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media. In his new role, he will report to SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son directly.

Before joining Google, Arora worked for TMobile and also created his own mobile data startup in 2000. At Google, Arora will be replaced by Omid Kordestani, Google’s business founder and head of its sales teams.

Arora joined Google in 2004 and has held various management roles at the firm. He had served as president for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations. Previously, he was president for global sales operations and business development at the company.

Prior to that, he was senior adviser of value creation at Silver Lake Partners. Earlier, he had also served as Chief Marketing Officer and a member of the management board of T-Mobile International AG & Co. In the past, he had also worked at Deutsche Telekom AG, Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, Colgate-Palmolive Co. Arora had also founded T-Motion, a mobile multimedia subsidiary of T-Mobile International.

He had also served as a non-executive director of India telecom major Bharti Airtel from 2008 to 2014.

Nitin Rakesh Promoted to CEO and President, Syntel —Nikesh Arora Former Chief Business Officer, Google 118

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n FY14 Syntel leadership team climbed up the career ladder.

The company elevated Prashant Ranade, Syntel’s current Chief Ex-

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—Nitin Rakesh CEO & President, Syntel

ecutive Officer and President as Executive Vice Chairman of Syntel’s Board of Directors effective April 21, 2014 whereas in his place, the Board of Directors had appointed Nitin Rakesh to the position of Chief Executive Officer and President.

Before rejoining Syntel, Nitin served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company, a financial services company, from September 2008 to September 2012.

He previously developed and led Syntel’s Knowledge Process Outsourcing business from 2002 until 2008, playing a pivotal role in building KPO into a high performing service line.

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with the TCG Group, a transnational Private Equity and Investments firm.

He was also associated with Unit Trust of India in his early career, and was involved in setting up of offshore mutual funds and secondary Market Research Cell, Product Development and Risk Management

Nokia Names Networks Business Turnaround Leader Rajeev Suri as CEO

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ajeev Suri will be the second alumnus from the Manipal Institute of Technology, once an affiliate of Mangalore University, to bag such an eminent position after Satya Nadella.

Finnish firm Nokia appointed Rajeev Suri, the man who led a turnaround at the company’s telecom network business, as the new chief executive. Suri replaces Stephen Elop, who is moving to Microsoft.

Suri is one of those rare top corpor a t e executives who have

—Rajeev Suri CEO, Nokia

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achieved heights without pursuing any MBA/PG degree.

After joining Nokia, he has headed service hubs in India and also headed Asia Pacific operations. He has also held roles across business development, marketing, sales and strategy, from India, Finland, the United Kingdom and Singapore. Nokia’s networks division, where Suri is widely acknowledged to have engineered a comeback, accounted for about 90% of sales from the group’s continuing businesses last year.

Suri has worked in Nigeria before he joined Nokia. He also worked for the RPG Group, and ICL in India and was a production engineer at Calcom Electronics in 1989. At RPG he worked in a managerial position and even at ICL he was involved with strategic planning.

SAP Appoints Ravi Chauhan as India MD

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fter Suprakash Chaudhuri, MD of SAP India quit in April, the company’s search for its new MD ends when Ravi Chauhan step ahead to take this opportunity. The company appointed him as the Managing Director for India. Before this, Chauhan was heading Juniper Networks as the MD for India and South Asia. He quit the company after a stint of 4.5 years.

In his new role, Chauhan will be responsible for driving www.dqindia.com

—Ravi Chauhan MD, SAP India

SAP India’s growth strategy and operations across the country and will report directly to Adaire Fox-Martin, President of SAP Asia Pacific Japan.

Chauhan joins SAP after four years at Juniper Networks, where he last served as Managing Director, India and South Asia. From 2000 to 2009, Ravi held leadership roles at Nortel Networks such as General Manager (Global), Contact Center and Unified Communications Software; Managing Director, India; and Vice President, Enterprise Business, India.

A veteran of 20 years in enterprise and service provider sales and marketing, Chauhan had also worked for four years as country manager for Cabletron Systems, prior to Nortel.

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Sameer Garde Quits Samsung, Joins Philips Healthcare

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t seems Sameer’s hands are full of opportunities, as he is quickly taking new roles in different organizations. Garde joined Samsung India last year to set up the enterprise business for a short duration on project basis.

After successful completion of the assigned project, Sameer resigned.

According to a Samsung spokesperson, both Sameer Garde and Samsung have come to a mutual agreement on this decision since the assigned project has been successfully completed due to his tremendous contribution.

After his exist from Samsung, Sameer decided to join Philips Healthcare as President South Asia. In his new role, Sameer will be responsible for driving and building the healthcare business for Philips in India. He replaces Krishna Kumar who continued to lead Philips Healthcare business following his appointment as ViceChairman and Managing Director,

—Sameer Garde President South Asia, Philips Healthcare

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—Satya Nadella CEO, Microsoft

Philips India in December 2013.

Before joining Samsung, Sameer worked with Dell for 11 years and held many leadership roles with Dell since his joining in April 2004. Before Dell, he also worked in Whirlpool, Pepsi, and Nestle.

Satya Nadella is New Microsoft CEO

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ppointment of insider, Satya Nadella brings a turning point in Microsoft’s leadership. He was elevated as CEO on February 4, 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer. Before becoming CEO of Microsoft, he was Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company’s Computing Platforms, Developer Tools and Cloud Computing Services.

Nadella started his career at Sun Microsystems before joining Microsoft all the way back in 1992. During his journey, he’s held several executivelevel roles, including management of Microsoft’s server and tools division, which generated double-digit bilwww.dqindia.com

lions in revenue, and most recently the company’s Cloud and Enterprise group. Apart from this, Nadella transforms Windows Live Search into Bing, which now provides the informational backbone to a wide range of Microsoft services.

Along with the news of Nadella’s appointment, Microsoft also announced that Bill Gates is stepping down from his long-term position of Chairman of the board to focus more directly on the company, and help Nadella shape Microsoft’s technology and product direction.

Srnivasan Quits VMware , ExRed Hat Arun Parameswaran is India MD

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uring FY13-14, VMware saw the exit of IT veteran T Srnivasan who played a instrumental role in VMware in India. Rumors were

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—T Srinivasan Former MD, VMware India & Saarc

he left VMware to try his hand on enterprise mobile start up.

Post his exit, VMware announced the appointment of Arun Parameswaran to the post of Managing Director, VMware India. He succeeds T Srinivasan, who has decided to step down after five years with the company.

Parameswaran leaves Red Hat India to take up his VMware opportunity on April 24 of this year and will be responsible for the company’s growing business interests in the region.

He will report to Sanjay Mirchandani, VMware’s Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, and will join the APJ leadership team.

With more than 21 years hi-tech experience across Asia Pacific and the US, Parameswaran was most recently GM in charge of Red Hat’s business throughout the Indian sub-continent.

Before that, he was Senior Director, Global Business Development, responsible for building and managing Red Hat’s eco-system of partners across Asia Pacific and Japan. Other roles in the company included OEM Global Alliance Manager and MD of Global Professional Services, as well |

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as leadership of the company’s services business in Asia Pacific.

Thorsten Heins Exit from BlackBerry

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t came as a surprise when BlackBerry announced the sudden exit of its chief executive Thorsten Heins who joined the company in

January 2012. On November 4, 2013, BlackBerry announced that Heins would be stepping down as CEO and John S Chen would replace him.

John S Chen began his career in 1979 as a design engineer with Unisys, where he eventually served as Vice President and General Manager.

In 1991, he joined Pyramid Technology Corporation as Executive Vice President. Chen was elected President, Chief Operating Officer and a Director of Pyramid in 1993, serving until 1995.

In 1997, Chen became CEO and President of Sybase, and in November of 1998 he added the title of Chairman. Under Chen’s leadership, Sybase achieved strong financial performance and shareholder returns, including 55 consecutive quarters of profitability, $2.8 bn of cash generated, and a 28% compound annual growth rate of its market capitalization from a low of $362 mn to $5.8 bn in 2010, when it was acquired by SAP. John is actively involved in international relations. He has testified before Congress on US–China trade relations. In 2005, US President George

—Thorsten Heins Former CEO, BlackBerry

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W Bush appointed him to serve on the President’s Export Council. In 2006, he was appointed co-chair of the Secure Borders and Open Doors Advisory Committee.

Vishal Sikka: The New CEO of Infosys

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ishal Sikka has climbed up the career ladder by joining the India’s second largest IT service company, Infosys. Moving beyond its traditional way, this time, the Infosys management decided to select the first outsider at the helm of the company. Sikka was inducted as a wholetime director of the Board and CEO and MD on June 14, 2014. He took over as CEO and MD from SD Shibulal on August 1, 2014.

On one hand, his entry has taken front seat attention among the IT industry whereas on the same time the company is also witnessing the exit from its executive roles on the board; the company founder NR Narayana Murthy, Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, as well as the step-

— Gurmit Singh MD India, Yahoo!

ping down of the last of the founder CEOs SD Shibulal in August. Murthy’s son Rohan Murty, who joined the company in June last year as his father’s executive assistant, will also step down on June 14.

Before joining Infosys, Sikka was a member of the Executive Board of SAP, leading all products and driving innovation globally. He has worked closely with the leaders of global companies in building breakthrough business solutions. At SAP, he was responsible for all products, from traditional and cloud-based applications to technology and platform products including HANA, analytics, mobile, and middleware.

Yahoo! Appoints Gurmit Singh as MD India Operations

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he entry of Gurmit Singh as MD of Yahoo!’s India business, was one of the biggest step taken by Marissa Mayer. The Sunnyvale, California-based firm has been fighting hard to regain its lost glory under the leadership of its CEO

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Marissa Mayer. To overcome the gap, the company is revamping its products and is increasing its focus on mobile platforms. By acquiring start-ups Mayer has been trying to inculcate new talent and ideas into the company.

So to strengthen its presence in the Indian market, the appointment has been done. Singh will oversee Yahoo’s business in India and will be responsible for its growth in the country. Singh joins Yahoo India from his current position as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Forbes India business magazine, published by media and entertainment conglomerate Network18 Media and Investments. He will report to Yahoo’s Vice-President and Head of India and South-East Asia operations, Yvonne Chang.

With over 20 years of experience, Singh brings with him a deep understanding of the media and entertainment industry in India. Singh has held leadership roles across consumer products, music and entertainment and media sectors, working for companies such as Sony Music, Hindustan Times, India Today Group, Rajshri Media and Marico Industries.

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From Silica to Silicon Rajasthan’s journey to becoming a promising ESDM Destination

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he story of Indian Industry and business can never be complete without an elaborate discussion on the Marwari community and its illustrious achievements. Over the last century and a half, Rajasthan has given this country some of the greatest business minds and entrepreneurs. In the sands of Rajasthan desert, lies the story of the Marwaris. The sand is where they derived their name, Marwaris (of Marwar – that came from ‘maru’ meaning desert). And this sand where no agricultural activity was possible drove them to distant lands in search of opportunity.

Today, in the 21st century, this sand is propelling, and witnessing a revolution that was beyond imagination back then. From Silica to Silicon – Rajasthan’s journey to becoming the next big industrial hub – has been fascinating. This journey is also an outcome of the minds working behind this development process acting as an active catalyst. Government organisations like RIICO, with the support of the state government, has been making an industrial revolution in the State possible.

RIICO – the Industrial Catalyst Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Ltd (RIICO) is as a multi-faceted and dynamic institution for promoting and accelerating industrial development in Rajasthan. From developing industrial land and making it available to the investors, to understanding the industry-specific infrastructural needs of every company that locates in the State, I have seen its role Rajasthan State Industrial Development & Investment Corporation Limited (RIICO), is a Government Company, wholly owned by Government of Rajasthan. RIICO is the apex organization for fostering growth of industrialization in the State of Rajasthan. It is also the Nodal Agency of the State to promote and develop Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in the State.

With 26 regional offices all over Rajasthan, RIICO administers the development of land-related infrastructure for industrialization and continues with its mandate of acquiring and developing more land.

So far, RIICO has developed 324 industrial areas over 72,700 acres of land. Needless to say, this development has been planned and executed without compromising on environmental and ecological aspects in any way.

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Ms Veenu Gupta, Principal Secretary, Industries, Government of Rajasthan and Managing Director, RIICO

diversify over the years. We have been playing the role of an industry support system by not just making industrial land available, but also by providing a variety of technical inputs to the investors in the State.

Already home to pioneering companies from all sectors like, Honda four-wheeler, Honda two-wheeler, JCB, Lafarge, Saint Gobain, Infosys Ltd., Ericsson Telecom, Videocon, Deutsche Bank, Genpact, REIL to name just a few, Rajasthan has shown promising progress in the Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) sector in the last few years.

State Government and RIICO have together taken initiatives to promote and develop this sector by way of creating infrastructure in terms of IT Parks, communication infrastructure (Earth Stations & Optical Fibre based networks), availability of skilled and trained manpower through institutional set-ups and also offering customized packages and incentives for this sector. Over the last couple of decades, India has been the epicenter of consumer demand fueled by a phenomenal GDP growth. With the increase in demand across all sectors, demand for electronic products has registered a significant growth. By the year 2020, the estimated production will reach USD 100 billion but will still be short of the estimated demand by USD 300 billion. This creates a unique opportunity for companies in the ESDM (Electronic System Design & Manufacturing) sector to look at India as their next destination to cater to the domestic Indian demand as well as act as an exports hub. The sector is likely to grow 9.9% CAGR in 2011-15, as per the latest study by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) in partnership with Frost and Sullivan.

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To fuel the growth of the ESDM industries the Government of India has announced National Policy on Electronics (NPE-2012). One of the important objectives of the NPE is to achieve a turnover of about USD 400 billion by 2020 involving investment of about USD 100 billion and employment to around 28 million by 2020. This inter alia, includes achieving a turnover of USD 55 billion of chip design and embedded software industry & USD 80 billion of exports in the sector. Moreover, the policy also proposes setting up of over 200 Electronic Manufacturing Clusters. Another initiative in this direction is Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) Scheme to create world-class infrastructure for attracting investments in the Electronics Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) Sector. The scheme supports grant assistance for setting up of both Greenfield and Brownfield EMCs.

Rajasthan, a preferred investment destination Be it world-class infrastructure or strategic location, large industrial land parcels or great market access, Rajasthan has all the reasons for being the most preferred investment destination.

Availability of quality and continuous power supply: One of the most basic and inevitable prerequisites for setting up an ESDM, or any industry for that matter, is quality and continuous power supply. With firm steps to augment availability of power for industrial, commercial, domestic and agricultural consumption, we in Rajasthan have arrived at a total power generation capacity of over 15000 MW. Renewable energy sources such as the wind power, the solar energy and the biomass are being actively promoted by the State Government.

Low Gestation Period: Another factor that is desired by every investor is a low gestation period. The constant endeavour of the Government of Rajasthan has been to build a favourable investment climate by systematically reducing administrative bottlenecks and easing the process of investment.

A Single Window System is operational as a single point interaction mechanism for entrepreneurs to interact with the State for seeking statutory approvals for their projects.

Reflecting the commitment of the government, this system has been put in place by enacting the Rajasthan Enterprises Single Window Enabling and Clearance Act 2011.

High Employment Potential: To ensure abundant availability of trained human resources, the state’s constant endeavour is to build as well as support the growth of a robust educational infrastructure. In Rajasthan, dependable workforce is available at lower costs as compared to other states in the country. Jaipur, the state’s capital has been ranked no.1 in talent sourcing and employee costs by Hewitt Associates in 2007.

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for higher technical education such as BITS (Birla Institute of Technology & Science) and IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), amongst others. The technical institutes in the State have an intake capacity of over 2.2 lakh students.

Law and order: The law and order in the state is strong with no incidents from its industrial history to point otherwise.

Overall a peace loving state, Rajasthan has always welcomed and accepted people from all parts of the country, of all religions and all nationalities to come and locate here. It is only an outcome of this, that Rajasthan is home to a Japanese Industrial Zone in the Neemrana region.

Market access: 8,380 sq km of Rajasthan falls in the National Capital Region (NCR), which is around 24.5% of the total National Capital Region, the world’s second largest urban agglomeration. Rajasthan shares its border with five major Indian states: Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Industries in Rajasthan have to their advantage, access to this enormous market.

Rajasthan has the second largest network of National Highways in the country with a total road length exceeding 7,000 km. National Highways provide excellent connectivity to cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mumbai, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Agra, Gwalior, Indore, Amritsar. The total road length in the State is approximately 1,92,551 km as on 31st March, 2013.

With nearly 39% of Dedicated Freight Corridor passing through Rajasthan, opportunities for industrial establishment along the route are eminent as the corridor will make Rajasthan easily accessible to western and northern markets. About 60% of the State’s area (in 22 Districts including major districts such as Jaipur, Alwar, Kota and Bhilwara) falls within the project influence area. With this, the State will become an attractive destination for setting up industrial and support infrastructure units.

BHIWADI – An Ideal ESDM Ecosystem We, in RIICO, are not only providing basic industrial infrastructure and term loan but in fact are working to www.dqindia.com

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provide total solutions required by specific segment.

We, are creating basic infrastructure for electronic manufacturing clusters in the Bhiwadi region like Power Sub Stations, Power Lines, Roads, Drains, etc. Besides this, region will offer unique advantage of Technology Centre being established by Ministry of MSME, GoI. This center will offer total solution for die making and manpower training with scope for regular updating in tool engineering and general engineering. This center will also provide technology incubation center services and transfer of technology too. Some international renowned agencies will assist Technology Centre to act as a total Technology Centre, beyond tool room activities.

Electronic products extensively require sheet metal and plastic components which are shaped by dies.

Technology Center at Bhiwadi will prove to be handy for meeting this requirement. Even labour force working on sheet metal and plastic components would get trained in Technology Centre for optimum productivity.

Caparo Fastners, a world known brand for manufacturing and supplying fasteners is located in the same region and can serve the requirements of fasteners.

Most of the electronic products require plastic housing.

World known brands like Mitsui Chemical, Mitsubishi Chemical has established Polymer Compound Units through their subsidiaries in Japanese Zone, Neemrana, which can provide customized polymer granules suitable for specified product. Similarly, Dianichi Colour, again a known brand in its field, can provide coloring polymer compounds required by companies.

There are renowned companies based in Neemrana that can support robotics for process automation. Kokuku Intech, Neemrana, a world leader in rubber seals, can help in providing solutions for rubber seals required in electronic products. The induction furnaces and steel sheet rolling mills located in the region can provide customized sheet metals for specified requirement.

Many electronic products having electro-mechanical components require small bearings. World renowned manufacturers of small powder metal bearings located in Neemrana can supply this product for electro-mechanical component of electronic products.

Most of the electronic manufacturing units require air conditioned atmosphere. The world’s no. 1 company Daikin is also located in Neemrana, which can provide customized solution for air-conditioning. The airconditioning systems manufactured by Daikin (domestic as well as large industrial application), also require electronic components which may provide ready market for other electronic manufacturing units.

Above all, more than 40% of two wheelers and four 126

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100 acres land has been reserved for ELCINA Electronics Manufacturing Cluster to set-up an EMC in Salarpur near Khushkheda in Bhiwadi region. wheelers of the country are produced within 50 km radius of Bhiwadi region which provides an excellent and large market for automotive electronics.

A population of more than 100 million with high per capita income than national average within a radius of 150 to 200 km of Bhiwadi region provides an excellent market for consumer electronics.

Above advantage coupled with almost uninterrupted power supply and logistics support of Delhi-Mumbai Freight Corridor for domestic and overseas supply of goods makes NCR region of Rajasthan an excellent location for electronic manufacturing units.

We welcome companies conceptualizing the electronic ventures, to join hands with us and create world-class electronic manufacturing cluster, to serve domestic and overseas demand of this sector.

Other major growth drivers The huge and growing automotive industry based in and around the State is a major growth driver for the ESDM industries set up in Rajasthan. Rajasthan is also emerging as the most favoured destination for solar, power and ceramic & glass sectors. Input requirement of numerous companies in these industries will be a ready market for ESDM players that choose to locate here.

Policies and Incentives by GoR •

• •

Rajasthan Government is making all efforts to promote and develop IT Sector (including Electronics) with its IT Policy 2007 and Rajasthan Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy 2010. IT & ITES is a thrust sector for development under Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy 2010.

These policies are aimed at giving thrust to the IT/ ITeS sector including Electronic Hardware.

New Rajasthan Industrial & Investment Policy, with emphasis on Electronic System Designing & Manufacturing, is in offing.

As the ESDM sector grows to new frontiers in India, Rajasthan is positioned to offer the players in this sector unparalleled advantages to locate here, grow and benefit.

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Charu Murgai charum@cybermedia.co.in

Top Women Techies They are powerful. Manage large organizations. Globe trotters.

Achievers. In the male dominated techdom we present 20 women who are impacting the technolgy business

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Top 20 Women in IT

Roshni Nadar

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trained classical musician, Roshni Nadar is the only child of HCL group founder Shiv Nadar.

An alumnus of the US-based Kellogg School of Management, she joined HCL Corporation and Shiv Nadar Foundation in 2009. Within a year of her joining HCL, she was elevated as Executive Director and CEO of HCL Corporation.

At HCL, she is driving strategic decisions regarding the overall direction of the Corporation which includes the key areas of determining its governance structures, treasury, risk and portfolio management, and the diversification plans of HCL. Before entering her father’s business, Roshni’s first job was at Sky News in London and CNN America as a news producer.

In some interviews, she admits that Philanthropy is at the top of her priorities now and it would remain so in the future as well. She is also a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation which has established educational institutions across the country. She got married to Shikhar Malhotra in 2009 and has a son named Armaan.

Debjani Ghosh

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n 18-year Intel veteran, Debjani Ghosh heads sales and marketing efforts for South Asia region. Based in India, she is responsible for establishing new growth areas for Intel in Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Afganistan, and Sri Lanka.

In one of the interviews, she said that when she joined Intel, she was asked what she wanted to do 20 years from now. She said she wanted to run Intel in India, and she did it in 17 years.

Ghosh joined Intel as a Marketing Communications Executive charged with developing consumer marketing program in India. Subsequently, she set up and managed Intel’s education programs across the

—Roshni Nadar Executive Director and CEO, HCL Corporation

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Asia Pacific region. Before assuming her current role, she had served as Southeast Asia Marketing Manager, as Country Manager for Malaysia, and most recently, as Director for Southeast Asia. Before joining Intel, she spent 3 years with Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency.

Ghosh is the chair of the IT Committee at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Vice President of the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology. She is also a trustee of the Nasscom Foundation. In 2013, she was ranked among the 25 most powerful women in India.

—Debjani Ghosh Sales and Marketing Head, South Asia, Intel A CyberMedia Publication

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Vanitha Narayanan

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ppointed to the leadership position in January 2013, Vanitha Narayanan is the face of IBM India since then. She is the Managing Director of IBM India and the Regional General Manager for India/ South Asia and is responsible for all of IBM’s sales, marketing, services, and global delivery operations including operations in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Prior to this, she has served as the Vice President of Communications sector, Asia Pacific, and the Global Vice President for IBM’s telecom solutions offerings.

She joined IBM in the US in 1987 as a trainee and has over 25 years of experience working with multiple client sets and in several countries. Vanitha is a member of the National Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14. She is a member of IBM’s Integration and Values Team which is comprised of senior global executives who are selected by the IBM Chairman.

She has a Masters in Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Madras and a Masters in Business Administration in Information Systems from University of Houston.

—Vanitha Narayanan Managing Director, IBM India

agement, operations, compliance and governance across the services business. Her key focus is on driving operational efficiency through a ‘high

Rama Sivaraman

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key member of Polaris’ leadership team in India, Rama Sivaraman is an industry veteran having rich experience spanning software development, project management, business process consulting and implementation, people and performance management across the world.

She is the Global Head of Operations, FT Services, Polaris India.

In her current role, she manages various functions such as quality, HR, finance, training, resource man|

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—Rama Sivaraman Global Head of Operations, FT Services, Polaris www.dqindia.com

performance workplace’.

Sivaraman holds a BE degree in Electronics and an MBA degree from College of Engineering, Anna University. A Certified Function Point Specialist and a Certified Quality Analyst, Sivaraman has provided process consulting services to several global organizations and spoken at several forums like Nasscom meet at Chennai, Chennai SPIN, and Woman in IT conference of CSI, and many other similar key conferences.

She has presented several papers at the prestigious Global SEPG conferences organized by the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. She is also a Convener of WG10 ISO India Mirror Committee (IMC) and represents India at the international meetings.

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Kumud Srinivasan

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olkata-born Kumud Srinivasan has been with Intel for over 27 years and has held several business and information systems positions within Intel’s manufacturing and information technology organizations. In 2012, she was appointed as President, Intel India. She is the first women president of Intel in India.

As president of Intel India, she is responsible for overall strategy, engineering, and innovation for market development, and relationships with the government, industry, and academia.

Earlier, she was Vice-President and General Manager of IT for Silicon Software and Services, and also led Intel’s internal full-service consulting practice. She is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of MokaFive,

an emerging leader in the growing desktop virtualization industry.

Srinivasan earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Calcutta University in 1981 and a master’s degree in information and library science from Syracuse University in 1984.

Neelam Dhawan

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he Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard India, Neelam Dhawan’s journey is an inspiration for thousands of young girls looking for a career in marketing.

Started as a trainee executive with HCL, she went on to work with companies like Compaq, IBM, Microsoft.

In 1999, she joined HP as VP, Customer Solutions Group. She rejoined the company in 2008 on a much more challenging role of a Managing Director. At HP, she has the responsibility of revenues and profitability.

She was also the Managing Director of Microsoft India from 2005 to 2008.

Neelam holds a bachelor’s degree

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in Economics from St. Stephen’s Collage, New Delhi and a Masters in Business Administration from the Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi. In some interview, she admits choosing to do an MBA rather than a Masters in Economics was one of the turning points in her career. She was featured as the 37th “Most Powerful Women in Business” in the entire world in the Fortune’s annual global list in 2009.

—Neelam Dhawan Managing Director, HP India www.dqindia.com

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Nandita Gurjar

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he Global Head Education & Research at Infosys, Nandita Gurjar was in news in 2013 when the company had a major leadership reshuffle. She replaced Srikantan Moorthy who was earlier heading the Education and Research and has been appointed as the new Global head of Human Resources. She joined Infosys in 1999 and founded the learning and development unit of the company.

Nandita’s previous role was Group Head, Human Resources since 2007, where she focused on making Infosys the preferred choice of global talent.

She has also been the face of Infosys in the United States, a major client base of the information technology major. She was appointed member of Infosys Executive Council in 2011 and helps drive the strategic imperative of the Infosys vision of Building Tomorrow’s Enterprise.

Nandita is a member of World Economic Forum—Global Advisory

—Nandita Gurjar Global Head, Education and Research, Infosys

Council on New Models of Leadership. Nandita was awarded the Human Capital Business Leader of the Year Award by the Singapore Society of Human Resource Management.

The HR practices she instituted have been recognized by international forums such as American Society for Training & Development, and Workforce Optima.

Nandita holds a bachelor’s degree in literature from Nizam College, Hyderabad, India and has a master’s degree in psychology from Osmania University, India. She is among the company’s highest paid executives.

Aruna Jayanthi

T —Aruna Jayanthi CEO and MD, Capgemini |

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he Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Capgemini India Aruna Jayanthi has over two decades of experience in the IT services industry and has worked in both multinationals and pure-play companies.

At Capgemini, she is responsible for leading the consulting, technology www.dqindia.com

services and outsourcing services for the company that has about 40,000 employees.

Prior to the role of CEO, Aruna was the Global Delivery Officer for Capgemini Outsourcing, where she improved quality, productivity and profitability of Capgemini’s outsourcing operations worldwide.

After being appointed as Capgemeni’s CEO, she has quickly made her mark in the world of Indian business. At the India Today Women Summit 2013, Jayanthi was awarded with India Today Woman in the Corporate World. She was also ranked #3 in Fortune India’s list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2012 and was also featured prominently in Business Today’s list of Most Powerful Women 2012 consecutively for two years. In one of the interviews, she says that at Capgemini she wants to transform the Indian affiliate to be more of an end-to-end business solutions provider from being a backroom player.

Aruna Jayanthi is an alumnus of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and from there she received her Master’s in Management Studies in Finance in 1984.

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—Ireena Vittal, Board of Directors, Wipro

Ireena Vittal

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reena Vittal, a former partner with McKinsey & Co, is an independent director with IT major Wipro. She is an acclaimed strategic consultant on emerging markets, agriculture, and urban development and joined the Wipro Board of Directors in October 2013.

She has over two decades of experience as a recognized thought leader to consumer facing companies looking to build large scale, profitable businesses in emerging markets. She was a founding member of the economic development practice and the global emerging markets practice at McKinsey and has worked with governments and public institutions to design and implement solutions for inclusive urban development and sustainable rural growth in India.

Vittal is an independent director on the Board of Titan Industries and Axis Bank, among others. She has a

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graduate degree in Electronics and completed her Masters in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Padmasree Warrior

by Forbes. Warrior received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1982. She holds masters in chemical engineering from Cornell University.

Fortune Magazine called her one of four rising stars on its Most Powerful Women list. She is charged with aligning technology development and corporate strategy to enable Cisco to anticipate, shape, and lead major market transitions. She helps direct technology and operational innovation across the company and oversees strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, the integration of new business models, the incubation of new technologies, and the cultivation of world-class technical talent.

In her previous role, Warrior served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and also co-led Cisco’s worldwide engineering organization. In 2005, The Economic Times ranked Warrior as the 11th Most Influential Global Indian.

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isco Chief Technology and Strategy Officer Padmasree Warrior was born in to a Telugu family in the city of Vijayawada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. She is also the former CTO of Motorola.

R e c e n t l y, she was listed as the 71st m o s t powerful woman —Padmasree Warrior in the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, Cisco world

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Top 20 Women in IT

Rashmi Sinha

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n Indian-American businesswoman Rashmi Sinha is the CEO of San-Francisco-based world’s largest slide-sharing site SlideShare. The website gets an estimated 58 mn unique visitors a month, and has about 16 mn registered users.

Born in Lucknow, Rashmi grew up in India and earned a PhD in cognitive neuropsychology at Brown University. Sinha is married to Jonathan Boutelle, who is the co-founder and CTO of SlideShare. They live in San Francisco. In 2008, Rashmi was named one of the World’s Top 10 Women Influencers in Web 2.0 by Fa.st Company. In 2009, Playboy Magazine named her one of America’s Top 10 ‘Sexiest’ CEOs. In 2012, Sinha along with her brother sold the the company to professional networking site Linkedln for about `640 crore.

—Rashmi Sinha Co-founder, SlideShare 134 | August 15, 2014

Kirthiga Reddy

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he head of the fastest growing social networking websites in the country, Kirthiga Reddy joined Facebook as its first employee in India. It is under her leadership, that the site set up its first office in India in Hyderabad in 2010. That time, the website had 8 mn users in the country of 1.2 bn population. Today, it has crossed the 100 mn active users’ mark. India is the second largest user base in the world, after the US. Reddy was working with the US-based Phoenix Technologies when Facebook offered her the job.

Reddy has finished her computer engineering from MGM College of Engineering, Naded.

She holds an MBA from Stanford University and an MS in computer engineering from Syracuse University. She is the first in her family to get a technical and business degree in the United States.

She has also worked with noted companies such as Silicon Graphics and Motorola. In one of the interviews, she says that she has big plans at Facebook. And wants to see the India operations as one of Facebook’s global centers of excellence.

—Kirthiga Reddy Operations Head, Facebook India www.dqindia.com

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Daisy Chittilapilly

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he Director, ITS and Cisco’s head of ITS business across the India and Saarc region, Daisy Chittilapilly is responsible for driving strategy for the IT services, a key vertical for Cisco in India. In addition, she would also be focussing on strong partnerships with industry players to jointly develop solutions and go-to-market strategies.

A 19-year old industry veteran, Chittilapilly has rich experience in the technology industry. She has been with Cisco for over 10 years and has held key positions across sales management in Enterprise and Commercial business, strategy and operations and played a key role in achieving several strategic wins for Cisco India.

Prior to joining Cisco, Daisy worked with Wipro Info Tech, in a range of sales management sales. Daisy is a B.Tech (College of Engineering, Trivandrum) and holds a Post Graduate Certificate in General Management (XLRI, Jamshedpur).

Radha R

R

adha has 20+ years of IT industry expertise with deep understanding of the Consumer Product Goods (CPG), Manufacturing, Retail and Travel & Transportation Industry. As the vertical head, Radha has established long-term strategic relationships with some of Mindtree’s largest global clients.

She has played a decisive role in leading Mindtree’s engagement with Bain & Company in carving the strategic roadmap to transform Mindtree and make it ready for 2020. Radha |

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—Daisy Chittilapilly Director, ITS, India and Saarc, CIsco

joined Mindtree in 2001 and played diverse roles in shaping the organization. She set up and grew the Global Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing business. She then started and nurtured the Analytics business which is today one of the fastest growing businesses of Mindtree.

Radha joined Mindtree from IBM, where she was responsible for the IBM Software Partner program. She served IBM in various capacities and in diverse roles encompassing Sales, Marketing and being responsible for various business lines of IBM. Radha holds a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and amanagement degree from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bengaluru.

—Radha R Vertical Head, Mindtree www.dqindia.com

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Payal Koul Mirakhur

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ayal joined Aricent in 2001 when the company was named Hughes Software Sys-

tems.

She has held a number of positions of increasing responsibility leading business development, key accounts and most recently as business group leader for Europe. Payal was named to her role as Chief Strategy Officer in April, 2014. Prior to Aricent, she worked at Wipro, GE Capital and Alcatel in various sales and business management roles.

Payal holds an engineering degree

from the Cummins College of Engineering, Pune University.

Manisha Sood

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ith over 25 years of experience in business development, Manisha Sood is a noted name in the tech industry. Today, she is with Microsoft and is responsible for leading the sales and marketing function of the small and medium enterprise business within India.

Earlier, she was with SanDisk where she was the Country Manager and Director for the India and Saarc region for over six years.

—Payal Koul Mirakhur Chief Strategy Officer, Aricent 136

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She has been in country head roles for over a decade-and-a-half.

Prior to SanDisk, Manisha worked with Kodak India as General Manager, Digital Capture and Home Printing for 10 years and with Modi Olivetti as Business Manager. Manisha has over two dozen leadership awards and is awarded with the honor of Top 10 Most Influential People in Photography award five times in a row for her tremendous contribution to the Indian imaging sector.

Manisha holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Bombay University and a Diploma in Computer Science from IITC Mumbai.

—Manisha Sood Director, SMB, Microsoft www.dqindia.com

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Darshana Pai

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arshana Pai is the Vice President and Head of the Hyderabad Delivery Center for Virtusa Corporation, a global business consulting and IT outsourcing company.

At Virtusa, she heads the delivery operations at the company’s Hyderabad development center, focusing on customer satisfaction, delivery excellence and employee engagement.

Prior to Virtusa, she was the vertical delivery head, transportation and government, Wipro Technologies.

Apart from that, she has worked with many other noted companies including

Capgemini, Satyam Computers (Now Tech Mahindra), and Patni Computer Services.

Recently, she has been awarded as the Best Woman Corporate Leader in a US company in India by IACC (Indo American Chamber of Commerce). She received the award for her contributions under the criteria of promoting Indo-US Trade, FInancial Excellence, Corporate Social Responsibility, Development of Human Capital and —Darshana Pai, Vice President, Head of Hyderabad Delivery Center, their impact on the reVirtusa Corporation spective markets.

In one of the interviews, she admits is responsible for product and engithat joining Capgemini Consulting as neering functions. Formerly, she was delivery head for UK was one of the VP of Engineering at Marketplaces critical decisions in her career as this at eBay. She managed the product was her first step towards taking a and technological assets and was leadership role. involved in improving the site experiShe has done Masters in Tech- ence and web services for sellers and nology from IIT Mumbai and there- buyers, the shipping, transactions after joined Patni Computers as a and payments. Prior to joining eBay, developer and worked there for 8 she led technology teams at several years. companies, including Oracle.

She is a seasoned technology and product executive with 21 years of experience in software development, specializing in online commerce and n Indian payments. She was recently recogAmerican nized by the Silicon Valley/San Jose c o m p u - Business Journal as a Woman of ter scientist Influence for 2011. In one of the inRaji Arasu terviews, she has described India as is the Chief being a better place than the United Technology States for women entrepreneurs, Officer and with a higher percentage of educated Vice Presi- women coming out of colleges with dent of eBay STEM qualifications than in the Unitsubsidiary, StubHub, ed States.

She has a Bachelor’s degree in the world’s largest ticket retailer. She took over as Computer Engineering from Pune CTO in 2011, where she University in India.

Raji Arasu

A

—Raji Arasu Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, StubHub |

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Swarupa Sanyal

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warupa Sanyal, 42, better known by her nickname Sasha, is the Head of Strategy and Corporate Initiatives, Genpact.

As the Strategy Leader for Genpact, Sasha is responsible for building and executing Genpact’s five-year financial blueprint and capability strategy for industry verticals, horizontal solutions and service offerings, and geographies.

In her 10 years at Genpact, Sasha has held additional roles of increas-

ing responsibility including business development for the financial services vertical and as the Digitization Leader. Sasha joined Genpact from EXL where she held various management roles in operations and transitions and was the Relationship Manager for EXL’s largest insurance client. Prior to EXL, she spent five years as an IT consultant at Ernst & Young where she was part of a team that was responsible for the start-up of the firm’s operations in India Sasha has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Southern Methodist University.

Virginia Sharma

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n avid blogger and an active member of various CMO advisory councils, Virginia Sharma is a noted name in the tech industry. Recently, after a long stint of 15 years at IBM, she left the company and joined LinkedIn Asia Pacific as Director of Marketing for Talent Solutions.

At LinkedIn, she would be responsible for developing data driven and digital demand generation campaigns to grow the LinkedIn Talent Solutions business in the region. Sharma has held

—Swarupa Sanyal Head of Strategy and Corporate Initiatives, Genpact 138

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various global and regional marketing roles. In 2008, she became one of the youngest executives at IBM. During her stint at IBM only, she was awarded the Top 25 Outstanding Marketing Leaders of India and the Indy’s “Marcom professional of the Year” award in the IT and Software Category by CMO Council and CMO Asia. She also served as Chairperson of the Data Driven Marketing and Adverstising Conference in June 2013.

Under her leadership, IBM has also won several awards and received recognition for various digital marketing campaigns, particularly social media.

She also holds an MBA from New York University in Finance and Entrepreneurship. She enjoys running, golf, sailing and travel.

Note: This is a random listing of 20 tech women and not a ranking

—Virginia Sharma Director, Marketing for Talent Acquisition, LinkedIn www.dqindia.com

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Shrikanth G shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in

Points to Ponder Here we have compiled list of quotes that reflect how some of the world’s top managers have empowered their organization and made a difference

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Top 20 Leadership Mantras

The Value Driver —NR Narayana Murthy, CoFounder/NonExecutive Chairman, Infosys

‘P

owered by Intellect-Driven by Values’—that was once the tag line of Infosys. In the heydays of the outsourcing boom—this had an instant connect in the market and conveyed the core values the company stood for. Notwithstanding all the management changes and the attritions in the past—the core values and ethics Infosys and his cofounder Narayana Murthy stood for will be etched in the annals of Indian outsourcing. As he once remarked, “I want Infosys to be a place where people of different genders, nationalities, races, and religious beliefs work together in an environment of intense competition but utmost harmony, courtesy, and dignity to add more and more value to our customers day after day.”

critics—HP is on a rebound. What Whitman ushered in is the much needed focus on to HP. She once remarked, “A business leader has to keep his organization focused on the mission. That sounds easy, but it can be tremendously challenging in today’s competitive and ever-changing business environment. A leader also has to motivate potential partners to join.”

The Revivalist and Eternal Optimist— Meg Whitman, CEO, HP

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—NR Narayana Murthy Co-Founder/NonExecutive Chairman, Infosys

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hitman scaled eBay from just 30 employees it was in 1998 to 15K employees and revenues in excess of $8 bn. And she took over HP couple of years back when it was at the crossroads—too many businesses has brought in a midlife myopia across the board. But today Whitman had silenced the

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—Meg Whitman CEO, HP

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The Power of Simple —Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple

O

ne of the biggest takeaways out of Jobs life and career is his core philosophy of ‘making things simple for the user’. And that has been his guiding management principle at Apple and he managing the band of extraordinary engineers at Cupertino who came out with path breaking products. At the heart of all those wonderful iDevices is the dictum of Jobs who said: “My mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

—Steve Jobs Co-Founder, Apple

Getting IT Done— FC Kholi, First CEO of TCS

O

ften called as the ‘Father of Indian IT outsourcing’ Kholi’s vision created the outsourcing platform and pillars for what we refer today the Global Delivery Model (GDM). Kholi’s key management mantra has been ‘Quality’ of delivery and nothing else. In one of the conversations with Dataquest a decade back, Kholi said, “I have a feeling that we will continue to do very well in the software segment. The IT industry will definitely move up the value chain, but if we want to really bail out the software industry, it has to look inwards and increase focus on the use of software within the country.”

—FC Kholi First CEO of TCS

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Top 20 Leadership Mantras

Passion ‘Works’— Ginny Rometty, CEO, IBM

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inni Rometty, now at the helm of IBM, once said, “And the reason I came to IBM was I think—I always say at a really early age, I learned you’ve got to be passionate about what you do. No matter what it is, you put too much, your heart and soul in it; you have to be passionate about it. You make too many sacrifices.” The key takeaway from Rometty is ‘passion’ and that leaders like her believe will see through the company in time of turbulence and boom. She is spot on when she remarked—“growth and comfort do not co-exist.”

—Ginny Rometty CEO, IBM

The Collaboration Expert— John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems

J

ohn Chambers is Chairman and CEO of Cisco. He has helped grow the company from $70 mn when he joined Cisco in January 1991, to $1.2 bn when he assumed the role of CEO, to record revenues of $48.6 bn in FY13.

How did he do it? After the early 2000 dot.com bust he reinvented Cisco and since then his leadership style has changed from ‘central’ to more collaborative. He once said to Financial Times, ‘The hardest thing you do as a leader is to change something that is working well. And yet I believe that companies and leaders who do not change will get left behind. And so I had to move from a command-and-control leader (to collaborative).”

—John Chambers CEO, Cisco Systems

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Feedback Matters—Elon Musk, CEO, Space X and Tesla Motors

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e has been dubbed as an eccentric genius to path breaking innovator to technology idealist. But Musk has come a long way and probably one of the hottest CEOs in the world. But underneath his flamboyance lies a great passion—a Jonathan Livingston Seagull attitude that makes Musk different from all other CEOs. Musk’s success can be attributed to what he once said and he brings the same passion to work. “You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that’s wrong with it and fix it. Seek negative feedback, particularly from friends.”

—Elon Musk CEO, Space X and Tesla Motors

Task Master— Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle

E

—Larry Ellison CEO, Oracle

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llison might not be the most liked CEO in the Silicon Valley, but his empire in Redwood Shores near San Francisco stands in testimony to the ‘tech czar’ he is today and millions of businesses today run on Oracle solutions. From a small start up decades back, Ellison had built a company that makes some of finest enterprise IT products. So despite his blunt management style what makes Ellison tick is his no frills management style. Writes Rachel Mendleson, of Canadian Business.com, “What makes Ellison so successful, even though he’s a narcissist visionary and really not very good at working with people, is that he understands himself, and he understands who he needs to work with.”

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Top 20 Leadership Mantras

Never Say Die —Michael Dell, Founder and CEO, Dell

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e built Dell from scratch and redefined distribution by propagating the ‘direct religion’. But 2013 was one of the most testing times for Michael Dell and his company as he and the shareholders were involved in a protracted battle over Dell going private. But ultimately Dell took the battle lines and pulled a coup of sorts and steered Dell into a private entity. It’s purely his grit as he once remarked, “There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed.”

—Michael Dell Founder and CEO, Dell

The Organic Guru— Marc Benioff, Founder, Salesforce.com

W

hen Mark Benioff said, “We have created a culture of acquisition instead of innovation. It’s a lot easier just to write big checks than it is to innovate.” In ways it was true. This has been by and large his philosophy at sales force innovating and coming up with inspiring home grown solutions. In a short span of 13 years or so Benioff, has created a multi-billion dollar enterprise and even competes with his former boss at Oracle Larry Ellison. His quest for innovation and his foresight that ‘on demand’ delivery of services via the cloud gave him the edge to be one of the pioneers in the cloud.

—Marc Benioff Founder, Salesforce.com

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Only the Paranoid Survive—Andy Grove, Former CEO, Intel

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ndy Grove is a treasure trove when one wants to learn from his professional and personal career. Under his leadership Intel became the World’s largest chipmakers breaking many records and ushered in multi-processing as we know it today. In his book, ‘ Only the Paranoid Survive’, Grove attributes his success to the philosophy and strategy he learned the hard way as he has steered Intel through a series of potential major disasters which he calls inflection points or SIPs—the moment in any business when massive change occurs.

Probably one of the biggest management mantra out of Grove is when he said, “The lesson is, we all need to expose ourselves to the winds of change.”

—Andy Grove Former CEO, Intel

The Acceleration Officer—Francisco D Souza, CEO, Cognizant

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ooking at Francisco’s career many management tips can be derived.

He has steered Cognizant from mid-sized IT company to what it is today—in the ivy league of Top 5. So what is the trick? In an earlier conversation with Dataquest he said, “The tech recession in 2008 pushed me to re-examine everything we were doing.

As a result, we took a very deliberate approach to the downturn-we called it ‘shining through the fog’. We invested and innovated throughout the recession so that we could emerge stronger.

No wonder Cognizant today is multi billion dollar entity.

—Francisco D Souza CEO, Cognizant

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Top 20 Leadership Mantras

Empowering People— Azim H Premji, Chairman, Wipro

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remji has been driven by one basic idea—to build an organization deeply committed to values, with the firm belief that success in business eventually but inevitably follows. Unflinching commitment to values continues to remain at the core of Wipro. Premji strongly believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things when organized into highly charged teams, and takes keen personal interest in developing leaders and teams. Wipro’s business success has been driven by keeping the customer at the core of everything it does. Combining its deep expertise in technology with an equally clear understanding of customer industries.

—Azim H Premji Chairman, Wipro

The Strategist— Sunil Bharti Mittal, Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises

—Sunil Bharti Mittal Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises

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ittal in an interview to Knowledge@Wharton said: “I think, two or three things. I have realized very early on is that you need to tie up with some large entities—much, much larger than yourself.” That in a way defines Bharti-Airtel today—a multi-billion telecom behemoth. How did Mittal do this? He believes that staying ahead of times and scaling up fast is the mantra.

In the telecom business it was an early mover and came out with services and products that were way ahead of times.

He observed in Wharton, “If you’re caught between speed and perfection, always choose speed, and perfection will follow.”

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Change Manager— Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo!

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f at all the one lesson one can learn from Mayer’s career in Yahoo! so far is that organizations need to be lively and buzzing with people and ideas. She made some controversial moves when she took over Yahoo! as its CEO. Banned Telecommuting, and encouraged good creative talent and made Yahoo! much more livelier place to work. She remarked aptly that, ‘Really in technology, it’s about the people, getting the best people, retaining them, nurturing a creative environment and helping to find a way to innovate. While the industry watches how the strategies of Mayer will impact Yahoo!, but there is wide consensus that Mayer is creating a well meshed organization.

—Marissa Mayer CEO, Yahoo!

Making IT Work— Bill Gates, CoFounder, Microsoft

—Bill Gates Co-Founder, Microsoft

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f you thought great entrepreneurs had Ivy League education, just look at the academics of Bill Gates.

Gates once said, “I failed in some subjects in exams, but my friend passed in all. Now he is an engineer in Microsoft and I am the owner of Microsoft.” In a way that was one key management lesson and a takeaway as recruiters across organizations should ponder about. Education not always brings out the best; it’s the vision and ability to innovate. As Gates aptly says, “If you give people tools, and they use their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.”

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Top 20 Leadership Mantras

Looking Beyond— Ursula Burns, Chairman and CEO, Xerox

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s I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve come to appreciate—and really value—the other attributes that define a company’s success beyond the P&L: Great leadership, long-term financial strength, ethical business practices, evolving business strategies, sound governance, powerful brands, values-based decision-making,” remarks burns. Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern, Burns was named Chief Executive Officer in July 2009 and shortly after, made the largest acquisition in Xerox history, the $6.4 bn purchase of Affiliated Computer Services, catapulting the company’s presence in the almost $600 bn business services market and extending the company’s reach into diverse areas such as IT outsourcing.

—Ursula Burns Chairman and CEO, Xerox

The Unconventional Manager—Jeff Bezos, Founder, Amazon.com —Jeff Bezos Founder, Amazon.com

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uilding an online behemoth like Amazon.com and creating an ‘everything store’ was not an easy task.

But Bezos had done that and he is a supply chain maverick. Of the many insights, if we were to learn one key management lesson from Bezos’ career is his customer first approach literally. He once observed, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” He says, “We have had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.

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Fresh Thinking— Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

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adella is expected to usher in fresh thinking to Microsoft, which badly wants to re-invent.

And Nadella says, “Be passionate and bold. Always keep learning. You stop doing useful things if you don’t learn.” So the last part to me is the key, especially if you have had some initial success. It becomes even more critical that you have the learning ‘bit’ always switched on. Probably one of the most powerful mantra Nadella has said so far is when he observed, “Our industry does not respect tradition—it only respects innovation.”

—Satya Nadella CEO, Microsoft

Real Leadership —Larry Page, CoFounder, Google

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he leader in Page amply got demonstrated when he said, “My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, and that they feel they’re having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society. As a world, we’re doing a better job of that. My goal is for Google to lead, not follow that.” Yet another key learning from Page is a practical business model devoid of rhetoric.

He says, “Invention is not enough.

You have to combine 2 things: Invention and innovation focus, plus the company that can commercialize things and get them to people.”

—Larry Page Co-Founder, Google

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Industry/Event Report

Prerna Sharma prernas@cybermedia.co.in

Managing Infrastructure in Application-Centric World

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oday every other organization is dipping its toe in the cloud. But at the same time managing the whole infrastructure in an application-centric world is a difficult task.

To discuss this upcoming trend, Dataquest CIO series 2014 was held in association with Cisco in Bengaluru recently in which the issues and challenges attached to it were discussed amongst the IT heads of leading companies across verticals.

With the adoption of cloud, mobility, social media, new apps are finding their way into enterprises and large organizations. At the same time the infrastructure that is there in these organizations to support these kind of applications is probably not keeping pace with the changing applications.

Trends that will Rule

Sharing her experience, Eugenia Corrales, Vice President & General Manager, Computing Systems, Cisco said, “Today we see infrastructure converging, which involves network, storage, and compute. All these three elements are coming together on one platform. This trend will ease the usage as well as the operational cost.”

According to her, apart from big companies, there are some new players who are putting their toe in public cloud space. Besides, there is a lot happening in public cloud space, but that is constrained due to lack of clarity, regularity aspect, data sovereignty, and data privacy issues.

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Panelist discussing on the topic ‘Managing Infrastructure in Application Centric World’

Challenges

Today businesses are demanding different applications like cloud-based applications and mobility-based applications, which IT is not able to deliver at the speed the business wants.

As a result, businesses sometime bypass the IT and get their own application and start running them. In turn, it brings pressure in the entire internal IT of the company.

Ranjith Parat, Head-IT, Texas Instruments, talked about the challenges they used to face earlier. Being a part of infrastructure team, it was always a challenge to deliver a fast server and storage for their internal customers. So to tackle this issue they built a private cloud for themselves, thus being able to deliver on the requirements faster than with the traditional approach. www.dqindia.com

Saji TS, GM, Enterprise Cloud Computing, Wipro Infotech, talked about some concerns. “Today critical applications are loaded in the machine which are huge in size and a lot of concerns are there—whether it is meeting security aspect or availability aspect.”

Like it or Leave it

Even if the companies want to adopt cloud technology in their organizations, they restrict themselves from adopting this technology. Some of the CIOs believe that concerns like where it is deployed, how it is deployed, who is consuming it and if there is compromise then what is the impact of it are some of the worries that stop them in taking the cloud plunge.

Debasis Mishra, Head-IT South Zone, Hindalco Industries, mentioned A CyberMedia Publication

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Industry/Event Report

From L-R : Eugenia Corrales, Vice President, Datacenter Business Unit, Cisco; TM Arun Kumar, Editor, Dataquest

how they are studying closely cloud technologies as vritualization and the many benefits it can provide. But at the same time, going to cloud is one of the challenges for them as security is one of the major concerns. He raised the discussion by highlighting that every CIO must understand what has to go in cloud with minimum impact, how and when confidential data has to be segregated.

A Step towards Cloud

Another interesting point was raised

by Rajesh Rege, Director & Country Head, Datacenter and Cloud Business, Cisco India & Saarc. “Firstly we understand private cloud in your data center where applications are built for optimal workloads and secondly if you are able to build that optimal workloads then from where will you get the extra capacity? Based on validation, one can choose where does

workloads elastically extend to. This is where we are working on hybrid cloud.

The same available network fabric can be extended and can provide that isolation, so in that time you workload is moved but your data is still there in your location,” he explained.

The CIOs felt that the service provider should provide a level of confidence that there is data segregation and various security measures are built in, so that technology can provide the framework and means to make it happen.

They added that one has to see what kind of SLAs the service providers are ready to sign and in case the SLA is not going according to the plan what kind of recourse you have. So combination of this can build necessary confidence to create the environment.

When CIOs agreed that another major concern for them was performance, Rege mentioned if performance and response time is key to the business, which are there in the application layer, then that is one of the important considerations. “The moment you put that with ESP, you will lose the control. One should have strong agreement with them around that. In Cisco we analyze how much data is transferred, how much is the analysis, what is the kind of work load as virtualization is very powerful and flexible. So our team can find out both the ways,” he added.

Outlook

To sum up the whole discussion, Rege talked about how customers are showing interest in this technology and how new players are entering into this market. “There is a lot of adoption by customers on private cloud that essentially span the whole area of building more efficiency by virtualizing as much as they can. At the same time, awareness is there that not everything can virtualized and that there are many applications that can better run on bare metal,” he said.

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last matter

Ed Nair ednair@cybermedia.co.in

The E-commerce Wars

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he din of online retail war between Flipkart and Amazon is deafening, the stench nauseating.

Because big money is involved, the matter has been in the headlines in media everywhere.

Decidedly, this amazing two-sided war is interesting on many counts. The two sides are driven by entirely different objectives, different paths to success, and different prospects of failure.

For Flipkart, this war manifests the unholy greed of the investor community for higher valuation.

For Amazon, it is about conquering one of the largest e-commerce markets in the world. Flipkart is fraught with fear of foreign invasion and hence has been seeking favors on the policy front, albeit covertly. To gather scale, Flipkart is also getting into an acquisitions spree. Amazon too is lobbying with the government and cozying up to smaller e-commerce companies to become part of its network.

Amidst this war is the threat of disintermediation of many of the middle-order traders and even manufacturers with online presence. The fear is unfounded; if people are able to read irreversible trends into the future. Organized retail, online stores of manufacturers, online marketplaces, and inventory-based e-commerce will have to coexist.

What happens to the buyer? For the buyer, Flipkart’s facade of national pride alone won’t cut it.

Indian buyers are also xenophiles; Amazon is a very endearing proposition and would score many points there. It won’t happen like in China where the local stuff wins. But in the end the buyer has it all with two large e-commerce options.

The other biggest beneficiaries of this war are product suppliers—manufacturers, SMBs, designers, et al. It would also lead to streamlining of supply chain and logistics in the country. All this would translate into new opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Flipkart and Amazon would compete on the basis of range of products available, product delivery, and pricing. The macroset for all this could be clubbed under customer service. The competition between Amazon and Flipkart will set a very high floor for customer service levels. Again, the buyer would be the biggest beneficiary.

While these two players battle it out in the market, there’s clearly one big differentiator that separates the two. Technology. Amazon’s source of strength is that it is actually a giant technology company. If Flipkart has to outdo Amazon, it will have to be on the technology front. For that, Flipkart will also have to out-think Amazon.

This is where the ‘India’ part of Flipkart comes in. Can India’s prowess in technology help Flipkart overpower Amazon?

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Posting Date: 3&4 and 17&18 of every month. Posted at Lodi Road HPO