Bangalore, June 9
India's IT bellwether Infosys Ltd is bracing up to face the twin challenges of commoditization and scalability from its global clients under its new management.

"With demand shifting from horizontal offerings to industry-specific offerings, our clients are looking for transformation partners to help them reduce capex (capital expenditure) by converting it into opex (operational expenditure) to increase their RoI (return on investment," Infosys' new chairman K.V. Kamath said Saturday.

In his maiden address to shareholders at the company's 31st annual general meeting of fiscal 2011-12 here, Kamath said Infosys had embarked on 3.0 version to address the twin challenges and enable it to achieve high quality, and industry-led growth.

The $7-billion company doled a whopping Rs 47 per share of Rs 5 at par as total dividend, including a final dividend of Rs 22 per share, a special dividend of Rs 10 per share and an interim dividend of Rs 15 per share in October 2011.

"Our building tomorrow's enterprise strategy continues to see good traction with our clients as we are executing it with our 3.0 version. We have to, however,align our offerings closely to the business priorities of our clients," Kamath told the investors.

Keeping in view the paradigm shift in clients' business requirements, the global software major has regrouped its service offerings into four heads — financial services and insurance, manufacturing, energy, utilities, communications and services and retail, consumer packaged goods, logistics and life sciences.

Allaying apprehensions of some shareholders who expressed concern over the blue chip's performance and operations during the fourth quarter (January-March) of the fiscal under review (FY 2012), Kamath said even in the face of an uncertain global economic environment the company grew 23% year-on-year in topline (revenue) and posted 22% YoY growth in net profit, with operating cash flows growing at 24% YoY.

The absence of co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy at the AGM was felt conspicuously, as this is the first time that as chairman emeritus, he could not be present as he was away in the US. He had never failed to preside over the company's annual meetings regularly over the past 30 years. — IANS

New Delhi, June 9
Jindal Steel Bolivia, an arm of Jindal Steel & Power, said Saturday it may abandon its investment plan of US $2.1 billion (about Rs 11,550 crore) in Bolivia for setting up a steel plant due to nonfulfilment of contractual obligations by the South American country.

"Jindal Steel Bolivia has sent a letter to Government of Bolivia, on June 8, conveying its intension to terminate the contract for investment of $2.1 billion, due to nonfulfilment of contractual obligations on the part of the Bolivian government," the company said in a statement.

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) had signed a joint venture contract with the government of Bolivia, in 2007 to invest $2.1 billion for setting up an integrated steel plant of 1.7 million tonnes per annum capacity, including ore mining, pelletization (10 million tpa) and DRI (6 million tpa).

According to the contract, Bolivia was to sign an agreement for supply of natural gas required for the project —10 million cubic meters per day (mcd) within 180 days of signing of the contract. The same has not been signed till date, JSPL said in the statement.

“However, the government of Bolivia is now willing to commit only 2.5 mcd of gas (as against total requirement of 10 mcd) from 2014 onwards due to non-availability of gas in the country”, it said, adding the company is being asked to make investment as per capacities originally envisaged under the contract.

It added the Bolivian government did not provide substantial land for the project until 2010 and, therefore, work on the project could not start early.

“According to the terms of joint venture contract, we have served our intent to terminate the contract and the Bolivian government has 30 days time to resolve the issues failing which JSPL can terminate the contract within 7 days thereafter”, the statement added. — PTI

Chandigarh, June 9
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is conducting an independent probe into the role of auditors and chartered accountants in the alleged Rs 870 crore Reebok fraud case. Though Reebok India, owned by German sportswear major Adidas, is yet to respond to the clarifications of the fraud that the company claimed was detected in the last month, ICAI says it will send the firm a second reminder on June 13, seeking some clarifications regarding the matter.

ICAI, the body that regulates auditors and accountants in the country, is looking at any instances of professional negligence by chartered accountants and auditors in the company. Talking to The Tribune here on Saturday on the sidelines of a national conference on “empowerment of profession”, ICAI president Jaydeep N. Shah said the body had also sent letters to audit firm N. Narasimhan & Co, the auditor of Reebok India.

"From what has appeared in the media and from the information gathered from Gurgaon police, we feel that there is strong possibility critical lapses in the way the company's auditors functioned," said Shah.

"Without the knowledge of the auditors, both internal and statutory, such huge misappropriation of funds is impossible”, he said, adding ICAI’s best bet was to get information from Reebok India, which is why the former was still waiting before proceeding against the auditors and former Reebok India COO Vishnu Bhagat.

Talking about the ICAI, Shah said he was looking at setting up more “centres of excellence” after the first one was opened in Hyderabad. "We’ve already bought land for these centres in Jaipur and Bangalore and are very keen on setting up another centre in Chandigarh," he added.

Shah also said ICAI was now looking at training independent directors in state-owned firms for corporate governance. ICAI has already run some training modules for officers in Tamil Nadu, and these will soon be replicated in most central public sector enterprises, where bureaucrats act as independent directors.

Talking about allowing of limited liability partnership in audit firms, Shah said there were clear indications that the Companies Bill, which calls for amendments in the Companies Act, will be passed in Parliament’s upcoming monsoon session, thus paving the way for allowing such partnerships.

Shah added implementation of the global accounting standards is expected to be on schedule and ICAI would likely be adopting these by April 2013.

A bailout for Spain's teetering banks, once requested by Madrid, could amount to as much as 100 billion euros, two senior EU sources told Reuters on Saturday.

Spain has not yet made a formal request for European aid but it could come during a conference call of euro zone finance ministers, the sources, who were both on an earlier call to discuss the technicalities of a rescue, said.

"A decision on Spain will only be taken ... by the ministers (in a second call). Madrid has not officially asked for help yet," one of the officials said. "The statement will mention 100 billion euros as an upper limit."

The Eurogroup of finance ministers is scheduled to begin its call at 1400 GMT. Earlier, its chairman, Jean-Claude Juncker, called for a "quick solution". — Reuters, Madrid

Q: The term of my Public Provident Fund account ended on March 31 this year. Thereafter I had written to the authority concerned for continuing the account without further subscription for five more years. I remember having read in one of your earlier newspaper columns I can withdraw any amount from my PPF account but only once year. Recently when I visited the PPF office I was told that I could withdraw only 60% of the funds in my PPF account on March 31, 2013. I tried to get details on the matter from the RBI on their website but without any success.

Can I fully withdraw and close my PPF account any time before the end of the extended period, according to the rules? From where can I get the relevant government notification on the procedure that I can show to bank officials?

— Senthil

A: According to Sec 9(3) of the PPF Scheme, at its maturity an account can be continued for a block of five years. This facility is available for any number of blocks on the expiry of each of the extended periods. The continuation can be with or without any more deposits into the account. Once the account is continued without any contributions for one year, the subscriber cannot change over to a with-contributions extension. [Notification F.3(6)-PD/86 dt 20.8.86].

A subscriber continuing his account with fresh subscriptions can withdraw up to 60% of the balance to his credit at the commencement of each extended period in one or more installments, but only once a year. On the other hand in the case of account extended without any contributions, withdrawals can be effected in installments, not exceeding one in a year. The balance will continue to earn interest till it is completely withdrawn.

Now, coming to the lacunae in your own case:You have given in writing to continue the account without further subscription for a period of 5 more years. There was no need to give any such intimation to the bank. Only the intention to continue the account with contribution requires the declaration to be filed in the prescribed Form H. This form should be filed before the first deposit is made for the first year. In its absence, the account will be treated as without-subscription extension. Fresh deposits in such accounts will enjoy neither the deduction u/s 80C of the Income Tax Act nor the interest [MoF (DEA) 7/21/88-NS-II dated 10.8.90].