The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Plan in place for struggling Infosys, but no fast returns

Bangalore, September 8
Infosys Ltd, the company that symbolized India's rise as an outsourcing powerhouse but has struggled this year, will have to wait longer than expected for returns from a remodelled strategy.

The $7 billion company based in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, has missed sales targets, lost market share, put off an annual pay rise and seen its stock battered this year.

"The realization of the benefits will be delayed short-term," said S.D. Shibulal, the company's chief executive officer, referring to the "Infosys 3.0" strategy that the company says will better position it for the future.

It was a rare acknowledgement for a company famous for hitting or beating its targets.

Under the strategy, Infosys will focus more on higher-value software and consulting that can be applied across clients and less on labour-intensive plain vanilla outsourcing services.

The problem is Infosys is shifting gears at a time when its corporate clients in the United States and Europe, including its core financial services base, are tightening their belts, dealing with fewer vendors, and taking longer to make decisions.

Industry-watchers say Infosys' position as a premium player, which allowed it to charge more and earn fatter margins, is a liability in this market, to the benefit of rivals like TCS and HCL Tech.

"It’s a challenging environment," Shibulal said in an interview in the tree-lined 80-acre campus on the outskirts of Bangalore that serves as Infosys headquarters.

Infosys' troubles have spurred criticism of everything from its method of choosing CEOs to its pricing strategy to what is seen as an insular and risk-averse culture. — Reuters

Wait gets longer than expected

n Infosys will have to wait longer than expected for returns from a remodelled strategy.

n $7 bn software major based in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, has missed sales targets, lost market share, put off an annual pay rise and seen its stock battered this year.

London latitude
London’s India House a shadow of its former self
shyam bhatia

How the mighty have fallen in London, where India House, which used to echo to the commands of political giants like Vijaylakshmi Pandit, Krishna Menon and P.N. Haksar, is now a shadow of its former self.

Despite a newly arrived and widely respected high commissioner, Jamini Bhagwati, the building remains shabby looking from both the outside and inside; in fact the grey walls with elephant motifs have a lackluster feel that repel rather than invite the attention of the outside world.

Invitations to India House functions seem to be less frequent and the functions themselves have a distinct lack of pizzazz.

By all accounts the staff at India House is simply responding to the way their work is perceived in Delhi for whom London is currently less important than it used to be. In other words — to use a more polite expression — using our best diplomats to engage with the British political and diplomatic establishment is way, way down in India's priorities.

This apparent downgrading of India's diplomatic mission is in part a reflection of the diminished importance of the UK, India's former colonial master, which no longer rules the waves.

It does not require a genius to understand the greater significance ion the 21st century of countries like the United States, Russia, Germany, China, perennially hostile Pakistan and even oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Far more than the UK, political and economic decision taken in the capitals of these countries may and often do affect the day to day life of Indian citizens.

Inevitably, ambitious IFS officers seek postings in those other capitals that are likely to enhance rather than hinder their careers. Many of these officers are classy professionals, easily among the best in the world, but too few are currently posted to London. At the last count there were only three or four attached to the Indian high commission. Most of the rest of the staff are seconded from other ministries on temporary assignments to London.

Those IFS professionals who should be posted to London choose to overlook the language and cultural advantages of being posted to the British capital, the historic mother capital of the English speaking world, a key city within the EU and the heart of a country that is still a permanent member of the UN Security Council. For them there are other considerations to be taken into account when choosing a foreign posting, including education and housing.

Not all state-run schools are of inferior quality, but all too often that depends on the area of London where the school happens to be located. Small wonder then that high quality IFS officers of young or early middle age, when offered a choice, prefer to take themselves and their families to those parts of the world that are politically more important and offer better living conditions than London.

The lack of interest in a London posting is nowhere more evident than in the high commission's press and information wing, which is supposed to deal with overseas Indian journalists and the British media.

Previous luminaries who have been in charge of this wing have included such literary and media stars as Khushwant Singh, but in more recent years the job has been allocated to those suffering from serious medical problems (good quality private health care is available for all diplomatic staff), or less ambitious types who work on a 10.30-4pm basis.

Meanwhile the press and information wing has perfected another technique for keeping its distance from the Indian overseas media This consists of sending out round robin messages to Indian journalists via the Indian Journalists Association, or IJA. Small wonder that life continues to drain out of India House.

Several coal blocks may be reallocated to Coal India
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 8
As the Inter Ministerial Group (IMG) on the allocation of coal blocks rounded up its three-day review meeting, reports suggested that a number of undeveloped blocks may be deallocated and handed over to Coal India Ltd for the public sector undertaking to start immediate work on them.

The three-day meeting which came in the backdrop of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report which stated that undue benefits to the tune of Rs 1.86 lakh crore were extended to private firms on account of allocation of 58 coal blocks to them, heard the explanations of 25 private companies for the delay in the development of the coal blocks and would now give its report to the coal ministry in the next two days for further action.

Reports said a dozen coal blocks may be deallocated as there had been no development work on them even after the stipulation time had elapsed long time ago.

On the final day of the hearing five more companies appeared before the IMG to present their side.

The IMG, which had sent out “show cause” notices to at least 25 firms for not starting production from the allocated mines, yesterday heard from eight coal block allottees including ArcelorMittal, JSPL, Reliance Power and DB Power among others.

The coal ministry is looking to complete the deallocation exercise of deallocation of the coal blocks by September 15 in a bid to placate opposition parties.

Euro crisis to worsen, Greece may exit: Borg

Stockholm, september 8
The eurozone crisis will get worse before it gets better and Greece could exit the single currency bloc within a year, Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said on Saturday.

"I don't think we've seen the worst yet in countries like Spain and Greece. They have such serious problems that Europe is going to be in a very difficult position during the next six to 12 months," Borg said.

The Swedish finance minister, whose country is not a member of the eurozone, said he would not be surprised if Athens had to leave the 17-member euro bloc in the foreseeable future.

He stressed that while there was "much support" for the country in Europe, "we can't rule out the possibility that Greece will end up in a situation where it in practice leaves the euro in six, nine or 12 months."

"Banks in Europe are prepared for problems with Greece," he said, all the while acknowledging that "it could get a lot messier in Europe." — AFP

Telecom user base declines for first time, drops by over 20 million

New Delhi, september 8
Telecom subscriber base fell to 944.81 million in July from 965.52 million a month ago, the first ever decline in the country.

The subscriber base report for July released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) shows that overall telecom user base of the country dropped by 20.71 million subscribers over June.

"This is the first time we have seen decline in overall subscriber base," a TRAI official said.

The decline in total subscriber base for the first time was led by the wireless segment where users declined by 20.61 million.

The biggest loss in user base came from Reliance Communications that lost 20.48 million users, followed by Tata Teleservices, Uninor, Videocon, Loop and MTNL.

RCom said the drop is due to removal of inactive customers from its user base.

"With an objective to release the substantial blocked resources of number series and in context of DoT's stringent guidelines on issuance of fresh numbers, the RCom has decided to deactivate the inactive prepaid subscribers who have not had any usage in the last 60 days," a RCom spokesperson said.

The total subscriber base of RCom declined to around 134 million in July from over 154 million in June.

Tata Teleservices lost over 2.4 million wireless customers, Uninor lost over 1 million subscribers, Videocon 0.41 million, Loop Mobile and state-run MTNL each lost around 0.15 million subcribers in July.

Bharti Airtel, however, lead the growth in mobile subscribers in July by adding over 1.5 million new customers, taking its total subscriber base to over 188 million. — PTI

Should Apple acquire Pandora?

New York, September 8
Apple Inc's potential launch of an online streaming music service ignited anew concerns about Pandora Media's business prospects.

Shares of Pandora, which streams music online, tumbled after the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is in talks with record labels to launch a similar service.

The news served as a reminder for investors that Pandora faces competition from Sirius XM Radio, Clear Channel and Spotify as they battle for listeners in the burgeoning online streaming radio market. Representatives from Apple, whose talks about a streaming service are said to be in the "early stages". — Reuters

BRIEFLY

MUMBAI
Re ends higher for 2nd day:Gaining for the second day, the rupee closed higher at 55.40 against the US dollar due to stronger domestic equity markets and a robust euro. On Thursday the Indian currency had closed at 55.61 against the greenback.

Mumbai
HC rules in favour of Cipla: The Delhi High Court has ruled in favour of local drugmaker Cipla in a patent infringement case filed by Switzerland's Roche Holding AG over Cipla's cancer drug Erlocip, a senior executive of the company said. The ruling comes a week before the Supreme Court is due to begin hearing a patent plea by another Swiss drugmaker, Novartis AG, over its cancer drug Glivec. That case is expected to set a precedent for the Indian drug market, where major western companies are fighting to protect their intellectual property.

New Delhi
Govt seeks bids for PSU sale: The department of disinvestment has invited bids from merchant bankers for further divesting government's stake in two navratna state-owned companies — National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco).