NEW DELHI, Dec 23 Asia Pulse – Software giant Infosys (BSE:500179) on Thursday once again toppled Tata Consultancy Services (NSI:TCS) (TCS) from the top spot among Indian IT companies in terms of market capitalisation.

Though stock markets closed on a firm note after witnessing choppy trade, buying was seen in heavyweights stocks from the IT sectors.

Taking advantage of favourable conditions prevailing in the bourses, Infosys moved ahead of TCS with a market capitalisation of Rs 811.72 billion (US$17.9 billion) compared to Tata group entity’s Rs 808.32 billion.

Infosys now occupies the fourth position in terms of overall market capitalisation after Oil and Natural Gas Company (NSI:ONGC), Reliance Industries (NSI:RELIANC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NSI:NTPC) in that order.Share price of Infosys gained 0.34 per cent to end at Rs 2,982.75 while TCS bucked the trend in the market losing 0.15 per cent to end the day at Rs 1,750.85.

Barring TCS and Patni Computer (BSE:532517), all the top IT companies ended in positive territory at the close of trading hours on the BSE and NSE.

TCS lost ground on profit taking after recent sharp surge in the stock which had pushed up on December 14

IBM that offers end-to-end solutions from hardware to software, services and consulting, is planning to start its operations in Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Interestingly, some 200 odd native Gujarati employees of the company located at IBM Pune establishment, have requested IBM management to consider their plea to start operations in Gujarat.

Its not the company, but employees who are eager to work in Gujarat and employees are none other but more than 200 Gujaratis working with IBM in other parts of country, informed company sources

According to Anupam Saxena, director of Infocity, Gandhinagar, IBM officials have initiated talks with the Infocity officials for the proposed shift of operations to Gandhinagar.

“We were trying to bring IBM in Gujarat since couple of years but company was never so keen to start its operations in Gujarat and now a strength of more than 200 employees wants to come back to their motherland for which company has decided to meet our officials,” claimed Saxena.

He added that negotiations are going on and very soon concrete decisions will be taken.

Similar to IBM, another Pune based company Cybage Software Private Limited, has more than 40 per cent Gujarati employees.

“Talks with Cybage are under process. Around 1200 people are working in the company and out of them around 400 are Gujaratis who are eager to shift to Gujarat,” said Saxena.

Even IT companies are seeing that in Gandhinagar infrastructure is available at low cost compared to Banglore, Pune and Gurgaon where the power failure is a major problem.

“In other cities Gujaratis have to hire a flat on rent and savings are almost zero but if they shift back to Gujarat, they can stay with their family and can save money,” explained Saxena.

While talking about other companies, Saxena said that recently MphasiS opened its BPO based on domestic call center in Ahmedabad and for international call center they are planning to start their operations Infocity after March 2006.

“By next fiscal they have plan to start 1,000 seating capacity office at Infocity. They will be starting international call center over here,” he added.

Source: Buisness Standard

BS Corporate Bureau in Mumbai

Infosys Technologies is planning to increase its headcount at its Orissa development centre at Bhubaneswar to 4,500 personnel and invest Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) over the next few years.

The increased focus for the centre is under the company’s expectations of tier-II cities becoming growth engines for the IT industry in the country.

“Tier-II cities such as Bhubaneswar will be the growth engines for the IT Industry in India. We have taken a lead in this direction by investing more than Rs 135 crore (Rs 1.35 billion) at our Bhubaneswar centre. Realising the potential of the city, we plan to increase our headcount to over 4,500 over the next few years with an added investment of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion),” Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy said.

At present, the development centre employs over 1,720 personnel and contributes about 80 per cent of software exports from Orissa, making it the largest exporter from the Bhubaneswar Software Technology Park of India (STPI).

The Bhubaneswar centre entertains multi-million dollar clients from Canada, Europe and North America. With a total built-up area of over 46 acre, the centre has the capacity to accommodate over 3,300 software professionals.

The centre, which has entered into its tenth year of operations, had also spend over Rs 5.5 crore (Rs 55 million) for various initiatives like primary education, healthcare and rehabilitation of the underprivileged in the state.

Ack : ~ Rediff

MUMBAI:
European banking major ABN Amro is in the finals stages of selecting its IT vendors for a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar contract. For the first time, Indian vendors have emerged as front-runners for a large portion of the contract.

The domestic vendors being considered for various components of the deal are Infosys, TCS and Patni. The local operations of IBM and Accenture could play a major role if these companies are selected.

The mega deal is said to be one of the largest in Europe as European banks, unlike their American counterparts, are not used to outsourcing. The deal also has a large offshore outsourcing component of more than $500m spread over five years.

The final negotiations are being carried out and the share of individual vendors is expected to be announced in a couple of weeks, according to a spokesman for the bank in Amsterdam.

The bank had invited bids for three areas within its IT department almost a year ago. The final vendors for each of these three areas — IT infrastructure, application support & enhancement and application development outsourcing — have been finalized.

IT infrastructure will involve the basic network, servers and other hardware within the company. ABN has finalized IBM and HP for this portion of the deal. In software application support & enhancement, ABN has identified Indian vendors, TCS and Infosys.

In application development outsourcing, which will have an offshore component, more than five vendors have been finalized, namely Patni Computers, TCS, Infosys, IBM and Accenture.

The domestic software services industry is seeing this as a major stage since Indian vendors, for the first time, are competing evenly in a large outsourcing deal. The overall deal involves a fairly important and large onsite presence and Indian vendors have emerged as front-runners.

Moreover, short listing IBM and Accenture for application development outsourcing in a category dominated by Indian vendors is seen as a sign of the times. The development centers of IBM and Accenture in India are seen as much bigger competition than their capabilities in Europe or the US.

Accenture’s operations in India have been ramped up, with aggressive recruitment and hiring. Its local operations already employ more than 11,000 people after less than four years of operations. IBM acquired more than 6,000 people through its acquisition of Daksh last year.

The capabilities that these two companies have acquired or built are now being used to pitch for the outsourcing deals.