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Chandigarh, April 23 Despite the growing global backlash against outsourcing of call centres and back office operations to India, the country has emerged as the global hub for corporate back-office services. ‘Attrition a pain
in BPO industry’s neck’ The business process outsourcing (BPO) seminar brought many a doyen from the IT world to the City Beautiful, including the vice-president (Transition) of Wipro Spectramind, Ms Anita Perumbilavil. Legal tussle
over, Infosys plans to move in Decks have been cleared for the Information Technology giant Infosys to set up its promised 22-acre campus in Chandigarh upcoming IT’s park. Originally the work was to start in March last year. A legal hurdle that had been delaying matters has been removed.
NRI deposits with unauthorised persons invalid |
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SIDBI to set up
credit rating agency for SME In an attempt to provide better access to institutional funds to the small-scale sector, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is setting up a specialised credit rating agency for the credit-starved sector. Mumbai, April 24 India’s foreign exchange reserves continued their upward swing, crossing $ 117 billion mark with further inflows of $ 1.53 billion for the week ended April 16. Allahabad Bank
plans debit cards, 350 ATMs Allahabad Bank, targeting Rs 1,00,000 crore business by March 2006, would be setting up another 350 online ATMs throughout the country by this June. Samsung gives Rs
10 lakh to disabled The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for the Disabled (NCPEDP) was today presented a cheque for Rs 10 lakh by seven members of the Team Samsung family.
Mutual funds best for charitable trusts
DGCA should check
worthiness certificates 
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‘Tri-city’ has a vast BPO potential, says Karnik Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 23 “The US slowdown can be beneficial to us as the US corporates would look for cost-cutting measures which could give us more outsourcing opportunities,” he said while adding that outsourcing does not mean job losses to their people but creation of jobs on the contrary as the volumes grow,” he added. Mr Karnik said to maintain the competitive advantage Indian companies have to move to product building and keep up the momentum. He emphasised on the need to tap the human resources systematically, which is the basic raw material in the IT sector. While focussing on the upgradation of infrastructure, he expressed the need to ensure that the quality of graduates in software and other streams continue to maintain the same level of proficiency and quality training was imparted to them. “We also need to ramp up the numbers of M.Techs and Ph.Ds that our higher education churn out today if we are to tap the opportunities in the high end computing, both software and hardware. Another important aspect, he said was of improving the quality support infrastructure, such as power as poor supply only reduces our cost efficiency. The Nasscom chief said while
they had so far been projecting India as a favourite IT destination they
were now promoting new IT centres in 13 cities, including Chandigarh,
Jaipur and Pune apart from the metropolitans cities like Bangalore, NCR
and Hyderabad, which were already way ahead. The Chandigarh tri-city
region, comprising Chandigarh-Panchkula- SAS Nagar, is poised to grow as
a BPO/ITES and IT destination.
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‘Attrition a pain in BPO industry’s neck’
Chandigarh, April 24 The company
has no near-future plans to descend down here to start off a BPO unit
here even though the city has charmed this Wipro lady. “I can’t say that
I am altogether new to the city, as I have been hopping in and out of
it. The city is very clean and an ideal place for setting up a call
centre. But we don’t plan to start our operations from here in very near
future,” she says. An engineering graduate from Delhi College of
engineering and an IIM, Kolkata, alumni, she says the slew of
anti-outsourcing Bills introduced in the US is nothing but poll
rhetoric. “The noise will peter out, slowly. If Indian BPOs are a losing
proposition then why did IBM buy out Daksh in $-280 million deal?” she
questions and agrees that this, on the other hand, projects the
vulnerability of the Indian call centres to some extent. “But, overall,
the industry is booming,” she adds. She avers that the gender ratio in
Chandigarh call centres show that girls of this region are pretty much
advanced and forthcoming as compared their counterparts in other parts
of the country. “Call centres have focused on metros. Now they are
spilling over to non-metro-strategically-located cities. That way
Chandigarh holds a lot of promise,” she reiterates. She says that the
current pain in the industry’s neck is the high attrition rate. “The
overall attrition rate in the industry stands at 60 per cent nearly
while ours is 38 per cent. Even this is too much.” One novel way is to
have an unwritten pact with other call centres. “That way hop-skip crowd
may get discouraged,” she says. |
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Legal tussle over, Infosys plans to move in
Chandigarh, April 24 Sources have indicated that Infosys
will be conveying its decision to the Chandigarh Administration within
the next few days. The company’s legal advisors are presently said to be
going through an order of the Supreme Court that will pave the way for
their entry into Chandigarh. The Chandigarh Administration and Infosys
had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2002. In the
meantime a legal hitch occurred when a group of persons who had applied
for the industrial plots way back in 1981 but were not allotted land
decided to move the court. They petitioned before the Supreme Court
claiming that the Administration was allotting land to the IT companies
while ignoring their claims. The Administration held back the allotment
of land. Sources said Infosys kept the issue in abeyance till the matter
was sub judice. After the Supreme Court in an order came out with a
list of persons who are to be allotted industrial plots as per the 1981
scheme, Infosys planned to move in. Within three years, the company
plans to have a centre where it will employ 2,400 persons. Also the
campus of Infosys will be the anchor for the main campus of the IT park.
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NRI deposits with unauthorised persons invalid Mumbai, April 24 Following a review of the guidelines, RBI has decided that deposits by NRIs with persons other than ADs or authorised banks by debit to non-resident ordinary (NRO) accounts may continue, provided the amount deposited with such entities does not represent inward remittances or transfer from NRE/FCNR(B) accounts into this account. RBI, in a notification, said all persons
other than ADs or banks may continue to hold and renew existing deposits
held in their books in the name of NRIs on repatriation or
non-repatriation basis, as the case may be. — PTI |
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SIDBI to set up credit rating agency for SME
New Delhi, April 24
“The credit rating agency will be the first of
its kind in the country which will address only the SME sector. The
SIDBI Board has already approved the proposal. In all likelihood the
agency should start functioning within the next three to four months,”
SIDBI Chairman and Managing Director V K Chopra told The Tribune. Mr
Chopra said the agency would be set up in association with Punjab
National Bank (PNB) and an established credit rating agency with SIDBI
providing the nodal support. Absence of a credit rating agency has been
one of the biggest deterrents for the growth of the small-scale sector
in the country and has often been cited by many as one of the reasons
for poor availability of institutional funds to this segment. For the
manufacturing sector already several credit rating agencies are
functioning such as ICRA, Crisil etc. Mr Chopra said the proposed SIDBI
promoted agency would provide appraisal reports for the SME sector using
several parameters. Moreover, a specialised credit rating agency under
the aegis of leading banks would minimise the fear of accountability
among bank officers, he said. SIDBI is also considering creation of a
technology bank, which would provide the database of appropriate
technology for the benefit of SME sector. |
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Forex reserves vault up
Mumbai, April 24 The
country’s foreign exchange reserves increased from $ 116.06 billion to $
117.59 billion during the period under review, according to Reserve Bank
of India’s weekly statistical supplement issued here today. In the
previous week ended April 9, forex reserves had swelled substantially by
$ 3.37 billion, boosted by inflows in public offerings of state-owned
undertakings, including ONGC. |
Allahabad Bank plans debit cards, 350 ATMs
Kolkata, April 24 The bank, aiming at less than
one per cent NPA level by March 2005, has 100 ATMs spread across the
country, Bank’s Chairman and Managing Director O. N. Singh said here
today. The bank would also simultaneously introduce debit cards and
has tied up with VISA International for the purpose, he said. “We
are also in talks with several banks like Punjab National Bank and
Bank of India to utilise their existing ATM set-up,” he said. The
CMD said the bank would also set up 100 core banking branches
throughout the country by March 2005 and the figure would reach 400
March, 2006, to cater to the needs of the customers. “We have also
earmarked Rs 300 crore investments in the IT plan to connect all the
branches ,” he added. Mr Singh, who was speaking on the occasion of
140th Foundation Day of the Bank, also announced a slew of new
products. These include free personal accident insurance of Rs 1 lakh
from Rs 5,000 average balance for savings bank depositors, gold and
silver card scheme for privileged customers, Kisan Shakti Yojna and
opening of rural boutiques for quick dispensation of rural and
agricultural credit.
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Samsung gives Rs 10 lakh to disabled
New Delhi, April 24
The money was raised from the auction of cricket
memorabilia of these players. The cheque was jointly presented to
NCPEDP executive director Javed Abidi by Indian vice-captain Rahul
Dravid, Mohammad Kaif, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble,
Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan. At a function here to felicitate the
victorious Indian team here, the company also announced the induction
of two new faces — Irfan Pathan and Parthiv Patel. The funds will go
towards providing scholarships for disabled youth in the
country. Samsung is already running a Samsung-NCPEDP Scholarship
programme for the disabled as part of it Digitall Hope Programme. —
UNI |
by K.R. Wadhwaney DGCA should check worthiness certificates
In the vital highly-sensitive aviation sector, even
Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) wakes up from its deep
slumber only after the ‘damage is done’. It has suspended the licence
of Bangalore-based Agni Aviation, the firm that owned the ill-fated
Cessna-180, which crashed recently, killing film star, Soundarya, and
three others near Bangalore. During the last three to four years,
more than half-a-dozen corporate aircraft have crashed, killing
several promising persons, including Madhavrao Scindia. But the
authorities continue to be lax with the corporate civil aviation
because it is controlled and managed by influential and wealthy
industrialists and politicians. According to aviation experts, the
sector is totally in disarray. Airworthiness and air safety, norms are
not adhered to, pilots operate these flights with ‘expired licences’
and maintenance of these small private aircraft is only for
namesake. Under the open-sky policy, it is understandable to allow
corporate houses to acquire their own small aircraft. Aircraft, even
small ones, are sturdy. But their sturdiness is valuable only when
right people are entrusted with the responsibility to operate
sensitive machine. Any small snag, if left unattended to, may cause
crash and such crashes bring disrepute to the country. The DGCA has
served notices on five other small operators asking them to produce
air-worthiness certificates of their fleet. Actually, the DGCA should
check recheck certificates of all small operators. This exercise
should be undertaken regularly without any fear and favour. Only when
this is done, there is a possibility of reducing such crashes. |
bb
FIIs’ investment
BSNL CDMA
Glaxo’s plot SAIL seminar
Hutch
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Despite the growing global
backlash against outsourcing of call centres and back office operations
to India, the country has emerged as the global hub for corporate
back-office services. The ITES-BPO sector in the country grew by 59.1
per cent in 2002-2003 and is further expected to grow by a robust 54 per
cent this year with forward projections in excess of $ 9-12 billion, by
2006 while employing more than 4 lakh persons. At a press briefing after
the inaugural session of the BPO seminar organised here, Mr Kiran
Karnik, President of the National Association of Software and Service
Companies (Nasscom) said here today though American companies have taken
the lead in harnessing India’s potential, many European and ASEAN
countries are also looking at it as a preferred destination not just in
terms of cost but also in terms of quality processes that India and
outsourcing has to offer. While India is doing well in the call centre
business, it should not let go off the opportunities in the IT enabled
services space, he added. There is need to move up the value chain and
develop more intellectually challenging software products which need
brand building.
The
business process outsourcing (BPO) seminar brought many a doyen from the
IT world to the City Beautiful, including the vice-president
(Transition) of Wipro Spectramind, Ms Anita Perumbilavil.