US President George W Bush’s reported comments on the US looking at the possibility of increasing the number of HI-B visas — granted to Indian professionals to work in the US — has received an enthusiastic response from Nasscom.

The Nasscom President, Mr Kiran Karnik, told Business Line, ” We welcome such an initiative. This step would be mutually beneficial to both the countries.” He said that last year the senate immigration Bill that dealt with the issue could not be converted into legislation due to problems of illegal immigrants.

Read More @ The Hindu Business Line January 27, 2007

Shedding its image of a brick-and-mortar organisation, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is all set venture into the digital era.

The corporation is close to signing a Rs 1100 crore Electronic Data Management System (EDMS) contract with a consortium-led by global IT major Hewlett-Packard (HP) that will transfer it to the paperless world by 2010.

HP will lead a consortium of IT firms, including Mumbai-based Vakrangee Softwares for three-and-a-half year that would entail digitalization of its 20 crore policies. The global IT major would also have to rollout LIC’s EDMS initiative and computerize all its 2,048 branches.

The technical and commercial evaluation process has been completed, and a formal announcement would be made sometime later sources close to development said.

IT majors Wipro, Electronic Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and hardware major CMS Computers were the other bidders for the project.

Read More @ Business Standard (26 Jan ’07)