Monthly Archives: June 2011

Award for Tiger Conservationist

Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All, , , ,
Noted tiger conservationist Sanjay Gubbi has been honoured with the Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award for 2011.
 

P V Jayakrishnan, Chairman, Central Empowered Committee on forestry matters, which is also investigating the mining issues in Karnataka, presented the award to Gubbi for his exemplary work to save tigers in the Western Ghats of Karnataka for over two decades.

 

Gubbi, who holds a Master’s degree in Wildlife Biology, has been instrumental in several of the important victories for wildlife, especially tigers in Karnataka. He played an active role in the campaign to close highways for night traffic in Nagarhole and Bandipur.

Sanjay, who works for the Wildlife Conservation Society-India Programme as the Assistant Director (Conservation Science and Policy), was also instrumental in halting unscientific harvesting of bamboo from Bhadra Tiger Reserve during the mid-90s.

He had a major contribution to ensure Kudremukh National Park got a breather from the mining activities that were stopped by a Supreme Court judgment. He also works towards improving benefits for lower level field staff of the Forest Department. The award was instituted by Carl Zeiss in 2001.

 

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / April 09th ,DHNS

 

BIA Flies Home an Award

Business & Economy, Records, All,
Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) has bagged the title of the Best Emerging Airport – Indian sub-continent for the second consecutive term.

Airports from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were in the fray for the Emerging Markets Airports Awards.

BIA was declared the winner after the tabulation of the poll results from industry chiefs and leaders across the world airports.

The award presentation ceremony was hosted in Dubai on June 1, with senior decision-makers from the airports fraternity, Civil Aviation Authorities, Airports and Aviation suppliers.

G V Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director, BIAL, said the award was the testimony to the promise that the airport holds for the future.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / June 06th, 2011 / DHNS  Jun 05th

 

My Aim is to Play for India

Sports, , ,
Raring to go: Tennis champ Nikshep at a practice session in Bangalore. Photo: K. Murali Kumar
Raring to go: Tennis champ Nikshep at a practice session in Bangalore.
Photo: K. Murali Kumar / The Hindu

A local lad who has been making waves in the national junior tennis circuit, is the 13-year old B.R. Nikshep. He has just won back-to-back the Asian Tennis Federation’s under-14 titles at Hyderabad and Pune. Now ranked No. 6 in the under-14 category on the national ranking list, he has been training with Subash Das at the Subash Tennis Academy at Central College courts. “He is hardworking and focussed and possesses an all-round game. I don’t see any weakness in his technique,” vouches Subash.

Nikshep traces his fledgling career for his readers: “I began playing tennis after watching French Open on TV in 2004. I am grateful for the support of my parents, who spend time and money on my game and of course, my coach, who is my pillar of strength.”

Last season, Nikshep won the national under-12 title and a number of Champion Series titles. Besides singles, he loves playing doubles. “He is playing well at the net now and has improved his serve and volley game, which makes him a natural for doubles,” observes Subash. Nikshep is in Class 9 at Sri Vani High School. He goes to Tennis Excellence on Hennur Main Road for match practice. Though it is a taxing schedule, he enjoys his workouts. His passion for the game is further fuelled by his yearly trips to the Chennai Open. “I love watching the big stars at Chennai ATP Open. I really cherish the time I watched Rafael Nadal there,” says Nikshep.

Off to Mumbai for the national series, Nikshep will follow that up with the Super Series event in Chandigarh. Shobha, his mother, though supportive, admits it is tough on their purse to train Nikshep. His father, Ravi Kumar, is a marketing officer and his younger brother has just started playing the game.

Nikshep dreams of a slot in the Indian Davis Cup team. “That’s my aim, play for India,” he says, before sauntering off to practice.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / Kalyan Ashok / May 11th, 2011

The Beginning of an Era

Business & Economy, , , , , , , ,
All eyes on you: Infosys' attempt to maintain continuity while managing change is reflected in the elevation of S. Gopalakrishnan (left), CEO and MD, to Co-Chairman. S.D. Shibulal, COO, will take over the former's duties. File photo: G.R.N. Somashekar
All eyes on you:  Infosys’ attempt to maintain continuity while managing change is reflected in the elevation of S. Gopalakrishnan (left), CEO and MD, to Co-Chairman. S.D. Shibulal, COO, will take over the former’s duties.
File photo: G.R.N. Somashekar / The Hindu

The company is in its third stage of evolution: Infosys 3.0

A change at the top of any large and successful corporation always appears cataclysmic to those outside it. Infosys Technologies Ltd., which unveiled a ‘leadership succession plan’ on Saturday, was no exception.

The stepping down of its “iconic” Chairman, N.R. Narayana Murthy, heralds the end of an era spanning three decades in which Indian companies established themselves as the preferred choice of global corporations seeking to outsource work offshore.

Child of the boom

Infosys was unique in the sense that it was truly a child of this boom. It saw the opportunity, built a viable model for this task and quickly scaled it up to make it a viable proposition for the large corporations to outsource their work here. Of course, there were other companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, which had been in existence well before the IT services boom had even started. Wipro, too, had started business in the IT space, but it had its eyes set on the hardware space. The point is that among all the IT biggies, Infosys was the only company that was truly a child of the outsourcing boom.

It’s complicated

Although it is tempting to relate Infosys’ current challenges to the impending departure of Mr. Murthy and several of his colleagues, the reality is much more complex.

The company’s strenuous attempt to portray the transition as one which will maintain continuity while managing change is reflected in the elevation of S. Gopalakrishnan (the current Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director) to the position of Co-Chairman of the Infosys board, while appointing an ‘outsider’, K.V. Kamath, a banker, as the new Chairman.

A new era

Much as the media likes to identify the change of guard at Infosys with the beginning of a new era, the fact remains that the new era is much more than merely the departure of these founders. Infosys today, is undoubtedly under pressure, just as the rest of the business is. Margins have been dipping even as wage costs have been rising, but the biggest factor since the global meltdown has been the increasing risks associated with uncertainties in the global economy.

Industry leaders were smug initially, claiming that the virtual collapse of the businesses since 2008 would only spur more outsourcing. Companies, driven by the cut-costs-at-any-cost frenzy, would give them more work, they argued. The sceptics, who argued that business would be more difficult in an uncertain world, were simply silenced.

The turn of events in the last year shows that not only has ‘robust growth’ not returned, but volatility and unpredictability, best exemplified by the currency gyrations, remain the biggest risk for companies in this business.

Difficult environment

In the last four years, Infosys’ revenues doubled — from $ 3 billion to $ 6 billion — while the number of employees increased from 72,000 to a little over 1.3 lakh at the end of the last fiscal. It is evident that it is going to become more and more difficult for Infosys to maintain this rate of growth.

Infosys has always been regarded as a company that does not condescend to work on small margins or deal sizes. But in a difficult economic environment, the scope for such deals would become lesser, as Infosys has seen in the last few quarters.

Infosys, in the last few years, has also attempted innovative pricing solutions such as the one by which it only seeks a fraction of the cost that its solutions save for clients.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan pointed out that consulting and value-added services now contribute about one-fourth of the overall revenues. In addition, application development and maintenance contributes about 40 per cent to revenues.

Chief Operating Officer S.D. Shibulal, who takes over Mr. Gopalakrishnan’s duties from August 21, outlined his vision in taking the company to the third stage of its evolution — Infosys 3.0.

The first stage was about developing the Global Delivery Model, the second was about integrating the model with the company’s consulting practice and expanding the scope of Infosys’ services and the third would be “about evolving our model further to remain relevant to clients, said Mr. Shibulal.

Meanwhile, the industry awaits with interest the reorganisation of the company’s business divisions, which Mr. Shibulal expects to complete in two months.

 

http://www.thehindu.com / V. Sridhar / Bangalore / May 03rd, 2011

 

World Trade Centre in Bangalore

Business & Economy, Records, All, , , ,

An exclusive view of a World Trade Center in Bangalore on Wednesday. Photo:G R N Somashekar

An exclusive view of a World Trade Center in Bangalore on Wednesday. Photo:G R N Somashekar

Bangalore, known as the silicon capital of the country, has joined the global network of World Trade Centres with the establishment of a World Trade Centre, a global hub for international business in the city.

The Bangalore-based leading developer Brigade Group, on Wednesday announced that it has obtained license from World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) to classify and manage their one million square feet office tower here as the World Trade Centre (WTC).

With this, Bangalore becomes the second city in the country to have a WTC with the first being located in Mumbai and joins the global network of World Trade Centers currently located in 100 countries.

The WTCA, headquartered in New York city, was established in 1970 as a non-profit organisation to promote growth of international trade by establishing WTCs throughout the world.

“A World Trade Centre is a symbol of International Trade Services like trade information, global networking with WTC clubs, exhibit facilities, consulting services, administrative support, export/import assistance, teleconferencing facilities, translation/interpretation, trade mission office service,” Robert J Frueh, Director of Member Services, World Trade Centres Association told reporters here.

A WTC certification is awarded after rigorous assessment and scrutiny by the WTCA, whose primary objective is to promote prosperity through trade, he said. One of the criteria for the certification was it shares the vision for global trade and have the support of the community.

The WTC was expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2011, said M R Jaishankar, Chairman and MD of Brigade Group.

Mr. Jaishankar said it would take a call on going in for a qualified institutional placement (QIP) “at an opportune time.”

“We will come out with a QIP at the opportune time and subject to the right market conditions,” he said.

The company plans to raise Rs. 750 crore through the QIP for its projects and land banks and would hopefully take a call on it by the end of the year, he said.

“Right now the there is no great appetite for real estate share,” he said which was evident by the fact though some firms had not come up with issues despite SEBI clearances.

The company was also in talks with Private Equity partners for sale of stakes in two of its projects, “The talks are on but it is not at the advanced stage.” Currently, they were in talks with two—three PE partners, he said.

The company might even look at scaling down the QIP of Rs. 750 crores by 30 to 40 per cent if it is able to get the right private equity partners, he said.

The dilution of stake would be in the range of 25 to 50 per cent for each of its project.

Commenting on real estate prices, he said that there already had been a jump of 30 to 40 per cent demand in South India following economic recovery. He expected prices to go up by 10 to 15 per cent in the next couple of months.

 

source: http://www.thehindu.com / PTI/ Bangalore Aug 25th, 2010

 

Seeking Symphony

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, , , , ,

Music Director Amit Anand who recently released his album

Music Director Amit Anand who recently released his album “2way”.
Photo: K. Gopinathan / The Hindu

PASSIONS Engineering student Amit Anand dreams of conducting orchestras and is rising, note by note

At 21, if you’ve already decided that college bands are passé and music should be, like Bach said, the recreation of the soul, you should be headed in the right direction. Amit Anand putting his heart and soul into his music is trying to make inroads into the music industry brimming over with newbies by the minute.

It’s a tough call, considering his parents also expect him to anchor himself securely as an engineer. The final year medical electronics student recently, along with friend-lyricist Vinay Kumar B.S. cut a Kannada album “2Way”. He’s already feeling the irony of the industry — he’s had to hand out more free copies of the CD than he’s had people buying them; he’s flattered that websites have already pirated his music and made it available free on the Internet…but what the hell, no one will buy now. He recorded a lot of the analog bits in his home studio, raised money from his father and friends, sponsorships, and put together the album of eight songs that treads across jazz, blues, hip hop and many other genres.

Trained in western classical piano, Amit comes from a family of musicians — his father plays the guitar and tabla, his mother is an AIR artist, his mother’s sister Chandrika Gururaj is the famous Kannada playback singer. “Indian classical music has been in my family right from my grandfather. I thought ‘That’s anyway in my blood’ and decided to give western classical symphonies and orchestras a try. It’s my dream to conduct a symphony.”

Self-taught on the keyboard, he’s been learning the piano for the last three years. “I’m not happy with the band culture happening in colleges. Once a person matures in music, I feel there should be a strong reason for doing music. I want music to do good for the world, not just me,” says Amit.

He’s had his fair share of experimentation. At one point Amit had a band that played in ISKCON called Yugadharma — “They had this idea that people don’t turn to God because its boring. So they used rock music to attract youngsters to God. But there, people objected saying ‘Why bring God into club and rock kind of music?’” It was on this stint that he went to a recording studio and met music makers Pranav Iyengar and Hriday Goswami (they later collaborated with him on the album). “With Pranav I got an opportunity to do jingles for radio and TV and corporate jingles for companies. I also did background scoring for Kannada TV serials, where you compose bits for various emotions…”

Amit says he did audition to get into A.R. Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, playing two of his compositions on Rahman’s piano — he had to give it up because the cost was too high and there was pressure on him to complete his engineering.

He now hopes to study music arrangement and composition in a university abroad. “I want to work with A.R. Rahman, Yuvan Shankar Raja and then come back to the Kannada film-music industry. If ‘Mungaru Male’ set a benchmark, everyone has stuck by it; there have not been too many changes after that.” He’s keen on learning the technicalities of making music for the movies before he steps into the field.

To listen to excerpts from Amit’s album, check www.facebook.com/2waythealbum

source: http://www.thehindu.com / Bhumika K / Bangalore May 31st, 2011

A Mute Witness to History

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, , , , , , , , ,

MANGALORE:

St Paul church with a massive orthodoxical Anglican architecture, a tall belfry and chiming clock, has been a witness to history, writes Ronald Anil Fernandes
A partial view of the St Paul Church located next to Nehru Maidan in Mangalore.There are umpteen number of Catholic and Protestant churches in the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. However, St Paul’s Church is the oldest Protestant church of coastal districts (perhaps in Karnataka too). 

Located between State Bank of India and Nehru Maidan, the only Anglican church in coastal districts has a wonderful history. As it had military-related initiation, St Paul’s church is also called as garrison or military church! It is also interesting to note that the church was built using prison labour!!

It is a fact that Mangalore was a place of attraction and a wellknown port-town and trade centre right from the beginning of Christian era, winning the notice of Pliny and Ptolemy. But it was the West Asian trade which made Mangalore a seductive destination after 11th century, as mentioned by Ibn Battuta among others.

However, the entry of the Portuguese as belligerent commercial competitors to the Arabs made Mangalore a reluctant battleground, bearing the full brunt of the Portuguese aggression to grab the profitable spice and rice trade from the Arab control.

The Portuguese fleet, under the command of Admiral Diego de Silvera, attacked and captured the militarily strategic fort of Mangalore in 1568 and built their own fort called Fort of St Sebastian at the place where now stands the Deputy Commissioner’s office. They maintained power up to 1763 when Hyder Ali of Mysore captured Mangalore and built a naval dockyard.

Subsequently, in 1768, Mangalore was captured by the English army.

The changing fortunes of their contests against Hyder Ali had their bearing on the town which changed hands more than once before the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784 secured its possession for Tipu Sulthan. Mangalore was an important location for Tipu Sulthan — both commerical as well as military, which was duly noticed by the British.

In the Anglo-Mysore war of 1799, Tipu’s headquarters, Srirangapatana, was besieged and it fell to the English forces commanded by Col Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo. Col Wellesley was the brother of the British Governor General of India Richard Wellesley, the second Earl of Mornington.

On Wellesley’s recommendation, the Governor General of India appointed Capt Thomas Munro (later Sir) to take charge as the first Collector of Canara and establish British suzerainty from June 1799.

Need for a  chapel

When the garrison was increased in 1837 during the Coorg rebellion, there was a need for a resident chaplain.

As soon as the chaplain arrived, there was pressure to build a church to cater to the needs of British soldiers (citizens). As a result, Rev R W Whitford, the then chaplain, made an application to the Military Board for a church. The Board in turn, passed the recommendation to the government and it was sanctioned.

“It was to accommodate 120 persons and to cost Rs 5,128. Since the budget amount was not sufficient, it was decided to reduce the seating capacity of the church to 100 members. Rev Alfred Fennel who succeeded Rev Whitford in 1842 initiated the work on the church. The building was completed and furnished before Bishop Spencer’s arrival in January 1843 and was consecrated on January 5, 1843,” according to a souvenir in commemoration of the 160th anniversary of St Paul Church.

T R D Andrews, one of the oldest members of the Church and Anglo-Indian, aged 77, who served the church in various capacities including the secretary decades ago, recalled that the only English speaking Anglican church in the region never allowed (in earlier days) Germans (non-British) to climb the pulpit. Presently, he runs a diesel injection workshop in Pandeshwar.

Only clock tower

After the demolition of clock tower in Hampankatta, the only remaining ‘clock tower’ is that of St Paul church. The church tower which incorporates a clock, with its two dials, was made in Basel Mission workshop in Mangalore and was installed by the German missionaries.

The clock functions accurately even to this day. Incidentally, Basel Mission missionaries were also worshipping at St Paul’s Church till Shanti Church (now Cathedral) was established on Balmatta Hill in 1862. St Pauls, a rightful member of Anglican family joined the Church of South India in 1947 and continued to be a part of North Kerala diocese. From 1971 onwards, it is under Karnataka Southern Diocesan administration.

Records of notable officers

St Paul church has a tradition of close association with the Karnataka Theological College (KTC) whose faculty has been seconded as Honorary Presbyters. In fact, the Church meets the spiritual needs of local and visiting Christians from other parts of the country and abroad, who reside at Mangalore for short periods, including students who study at local professional colleges. There are 115 families in the church, said the present Presbyter Rev Prem Kumar Soans, who took charge about 18 months ago.

Interestingly, the church contains records of some of the notable officers of the East India Company who fought and laid down their lives from 1855 and the burial register from 1859. But Rev Soans is apprehensive and said that all records may not be preserved as he could not find a record pertaining to a marriage held in 1963.

On the other hand, KTC Archives Assistant Benet Ammanna said that the Archives have a list of noteworthy personalities who were buried in the cemetery belonging to St Paul Church, located at Old Kent Road. It is an exclusive resting place for the people of British origin who left their homeland never to return again.

It includes Brigadier General John Carnac, Commander-in-Chief of forces at Bengal, who defeated Shah Zaddar in the year 1761. Carnac died in Mangalore on November 29, 1800, when he was 84 years old.

 

Bangalore Clinch Title

Sports, , , , ,
Bangalore’s three-man team comprising R Satya, Abhishek Baadkar and Mallikacharan Wadi posted a thrilling 4-3 win over Kolkata ‘A’ in the penalty kicks competition of the 35th SJFI National Convention in Pune.
Conducted at the Bharati Vidyapeeth University grounds on Saturday, the Bangalore team stormed into the final with a comfortable 3-0 win against Nagpur ‘A’ in their semifinal while Kolkata posted a hard-fought 5-4 win against Mumbai ‘A’ before going down to the former in the summit clash.

In the inaugural free throws competition, Indore registered a 1-0 tie-breaker win over Chandigarh-UP to clinch the crown.

Results: Penalty kicks, final: Bangalore (R Satya, Abhishek Baadkar, Mallikacharan Wadi) bt Kolkata ‘A’ (Nilankur Das, Arup Chatterjee, Dipankar Guha) 4-3. (Semifinals): Bangalore bt Nagpur ‘A’ 3-0; Kolkata ‘A’ bt Mumbai ‘A’ 5-4.

Free throws, final: Indore: 1 bt (via tie-breaker) Chandigarh-UP: 0.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Agencies / Pune June 04th, 2011

 

Bangalore, Mysore get Women Mayors

Uncategorized, ,
The Bangalore and Mysore city corporations Friday got women mayors, the former from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the latter from the Congress.
 

R. Sharadamma, 45, elected for the first time to the BBMP (Greater Bangalore City Corp), was elected mayor unopposed as the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) did not field a candidate.

 

Sharadamma is the fifth woman mayor of Bangalore though she gets the credit of being the first woman mayor of the BBMP. The BJP is controlling BBMP for the first time.

Pushpalatha Chikkanna, 40, of the Congress defeated her BJP rival to become the fourth woman mayor of Mysore, about 140 km from Bangalore. Her husband Chikkanna had earlier been the Mysore mayor. A Congress-JD-S coalition rules the Mysore city corporation.

 

Source: http://www.deccanherald.com / IANS / April 29th, 2011

 

High-tech Bangalore Arrived on a Bullock Cart

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, , , , , , , ,
The who-is-who of the global tech industry have turned India into their second home 
The satellite dish being unloaded at Texas Instruments, Bangalore in 1985.India’s IT capital Bangalore, which is keeping US President Obama awake at night, literally began its high-tech journey on a bullock cart. 

The first satellite dish in the country that helped a technology company set up round-the-clock communication link with its US offices arrived on a bullock-driven cart in 1985.
It also helped ) become the Texas Instruments (T) the first multinational to set up a software design centre in India and pioneer the country’s IT revolution 25 years ago.

TI’s communication director, K S Narahari, who stumbled upon this photograph recently, is not sure what prompted TI to use a handcrafted bullock cart to carry a state-of-the-art satellite dish to its office at Sona Towers on Miller’s road.

But undeterred by the country’s prevalent means of transport, other big-name tech companies followed TI, and a sizeable chunk of India leaped forward from the bullock-cart era to information-technology age. “India was an attractive destination as it had a good pool of engineers who were available at nearly one-fifth of US salaries,” says Praveen Bhadada, manager of Zinnov consulting.

The sensational success of the tech industry in India has also made it a highly visible target for anti-outsourcing campaigners from Obama to Ohio governor Ted Strickland, feel many experts.

Widespread presence

The who-is-who of the global tech industry have turned India into their second home. Every fourth employee of IT giants IBM, Oracle and Accenture is in India. Cisco has built its second headquarters in Bangalore and has reportedly shifted 20 per cent of its top executives to the city. Alcatel-Lucent is planning to invest $500 million to set up its global services base in India.

Last week, Capgemini announced that it will make India its global innovation hub. By the end of this year 35 per cent of its employees will be based in India. TI’s largest office outside USA is in India. Other global brands, Microsoft, Yahoo, Adobe and Google have a similar story to tell.

India’s technology industry grew slowly in the 1980s and 1990s. Most companies either did piece-meal, low-technology work or body shopped their employees to clients abroad. But after the liberalisation of the economy in early 1990s, several Fortune 100 companies gradually woke up to the low-cost talent pool available in the country and started setting up captive units. “This was a key event that started building brand India,” says Amneet Singh, vice president, Everest Research.

The Year 2000 or Y2K crisis was the next key milestone in the growth of Indian IT industry. Due to a limitation in software it was predicted that most computers would recognise the 2000 as the year 1900 and trigger a widespread breakdown of all industries that ran on computers — from airlines to banking.

To fix the problem, businesses had to get their entire software rewired. The process was laborious and expensive. It was also tailor-made for Indian companies who could deploy their armies of low-paid engineers working in India on the task.

The year 2000 set in peacefully and opinion is still divided if it was Indian engineers who stalled the crisis or whether the problem itself was overstated. But the crisis helped Indian companies build their credentials as trusted and economical service providers who could do large scale projects.

But India was still far from emerging as a tech dynamo. “Nobody had an idea about the technology revolution in the making,” says Amneet Singh. It took another crisis to give Indian firms their big break.

Outsourcing a boon

The dotcom crash and the recession at the beginning of this decade triggered a tidal wave of outsourcing and the Indian tech industry went on steroids. The number of MNC units in India more than tripled from 150 in 2000 to the present 650, says Praveen Bhadada.

About 2,30,000 engineers are working on multinational technology projects in India, making them the largest high-tech workforce outside USA. China with a similar tech work force of 1,80,000 engineers is a distant third. Other emerging countries like Philippines and Ukraine are reportedly 10 years behind India in high-tech work.

“Of the 650 multinational centres in the country, about 10 to 15 per cent are doing highest level of technical work while the majority is still focused on enjoying the cost benefits offered by the country. But the innovative companies have become a role model for others,” says Praveen Bhadada.

The technology revolution, more importantly, transformed home-grown IT companies such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS, HCL and erstwhile Satyam into global players.

For example, founded in 1981, Infosys took 19 years to touch $100 million annual revenue. But riding on the outsourcing wave its revenue grew by 40 times to reach four billion dollars by 2008.

Other Indian firms grew at a similar speed. The Indian IT industry expanded from $150 million in 1990-91 to the present $50 billion, redefining India’s stature in the world and triggering a backlash against outsourcing in the West.

“On the downside (of India’s growth), it has become a political nightmare and the culture clash, while much better than it was 10 years ago, will never really go away altogether,” says, Esteban Herrera, vice president, Horses for Sources.

Indian companies also transformed the outsourcing industry, by shifting work to India and driving down the cost. Before Indian firms arrived, “Deals were huge, lasted a very long time and tended to favour the seller. Delivery was on shore,” says Esteban Herrera.
“Competition from Indian firms made the industry better. It became more global, more customer-friendly, far more efficient, more flexible and cheaper,” he adds.

The Indian success triggered a stampede among outsourcing leaders to expand in India. IBM’s India employees grew 15-fold from 4,900 employees in 2002 to 73,000 in 2007.
Whether Obama likes it or not, India’s future in high-tech work is unshakable. “Of the global 1,000 R&D spenders, only 270-280 are in India,” says Praveen Bhadada. “There is lot of room for expansion,” he adds.

“There is room to grow the outsourcing business by 20 to 30 times,” says Amneet Singh. “The catch is Indian firms have to become more innovative than they have been so far,” he concludes.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / By M A Arun / Sept 23rd, 2010