Industry Updates : ITeS / BFSI Sector

31 May 2011: HSBC appoints Chetan Patni as MD and head of equities

Global banking major HSBC announced the appointment of Chetan Patni as the Managing Director and Head of its equities business in India.

Patni, who was earlier the co-head of the business, will now be responsible for growing the scale and the market share for the Indian equities business of HSBC. He has over 19 years of experience in equities, both on the buy and sell side, and has worked with organizations such as JP Morgan, DSP Merrill Lynch and Zurich Asset Management in India.

28 May 2011: Infosys CEO designate Shibulal to bring back Basab Pradhan as global head of sales

Infosys is set to appoint Basab Pradhan as the global head of sales next month. This appointment is seen as CEO designate SD Shibulal's first big move in the company as he tries to fire up the sales engine, at a time when Infosys is struggling to fend off rivals such as TCS and Cognizant.

Basab Pradhan is not new to Infosys and was in fact head of sales in 2005, before he quit and founded Gridstone Research. But, he quit the startup during the downturn in 2009 and has been an independent writer and consultant in the last two years.

26 May 2011: Dick H Mody joins Morgan Stanley as Exec Director Sales

The Indian broking industry is experiencing a significant churn as foreign and domestic financial institutions jostle for a larger share of the capital market business in Asia's third-largest economy. After Jefferies and Goldman Sachs, global investment bank Morgan Stanley is in the news for 

hiring Dick H Mody to head sales.

Mr Mody joins Morgan Stanley as executive director — sales and will primarily cater to European clients. He was head of equity sales at Deutsche Securities since 2008. Prior to his stint at Deutsche, Mr Modi headed the sales effort for Morgan Stanley in the US for more than four years.

27 May 2011: Hero Group forays into domestic outsourcing biz

The Hero Group, which owns and manages HEROtsc, one of the UK's leading business outsourcing firms, today announced its foray into the domestic outsourcing business in India.

Hero BPO has been set up as a new flagship customer support centre in Gurgaon and would provide back-office and contact centre services to domestic clients, it said.

Hero Corporate Service Ltd Chairman Sunil Kant Munjal said the foray is a part of the company's plan to "unlock opportunities and deliver value" in the country's booming service sector.

Verticals such as financial services, insurance, telecom, travel, e-commerce and the hospitality sectors are expanding at breakneck speed, but are finding it increasingly difficult to ramp up their support operations. These are the verticals we would like to co-partner and support," he said.

This is Hero BPO's second centre in Gurgaon; the first unit caters to the international market. The company is also looking at other locations for building additional centres in the future.

The BPO arm of the Hero Group currently employs over 4,000 people globally, with revenues exceeding Rs 400 crore.

  

25 May 2011: India is at the heart of Accenture operations: CEO Pierre Nanterme

Consulting and technology giant Accenture houses around a third of its employees in India.  Accenture CEO Pierre Nanterme described India as the heart of Accenture and said the company's employee base in India would be 70,000 by August this year, the highest in any one country. The US has the second largest employee number at around 30,000. Accenture globally has 215,000 people. 

The $22-billion Accenture's strength in India shows yet again how critical the country has become to the world's technology giants. IBM does not reveal country figures, but is estimated to be the second biggest IT employer in India, after TCS. Capgemini has a third of its employee base in India, higher than in its home country France.

"The quality of engineers in India is spectacular. In the West, with an ageing population, there is a significant shortage of people with skills in maths, science and engineering," Nanterme said.

He said India is now at the heart of Accenture's global operations in technology, innovation and industry expertise, and at the forefront of R&D in key industry drivers including cloud computing, analytics and mobility.

25 May 2011: Religare Capital Markets appoints head of institutional equities, India

Religare Capital Markets Ltd (RCML), the investment banking and institutional securities arm of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL), has announced the appointment of Gautam Trivedi as MD and head of institutional equities, India. Gautam  joins RCML with over seventeen years of financial services experience, most recently at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for seven years, latterly as MD and head of sales in India.

25 May 2011: Goldman Sachs steps up India focus; ropes in Morgan Stanley’s ex-ED PV Krishna

Global investment banking major Goldman Sachs has appointed PV Krishna as head of equity capital in India as part of its efforts to drive business growth in Asia's third largest economy.

Krishna was earlier executive director of global capital markets at Morgan Stanley. He will join Goldman Sachs as a managing director.

  

23 May 2011: HSBC India appoints Aditya Gahlaut as head of business banking 

HSBC India announced the appointment of Aditya Gahlaut as Head of Business Banking for HSBC in India. In this role, he will be responsible for providing strategic direction and day-to-day management of the group's SME business in India. Gahlaut joined the HSBC Group in 2000 and has had experience across the commercial banking, corporate banking and retail banking businesses.

    

20 May 2011: DuPont Apollo, Wipro EcoEnergy ink film supply agreement

Hong Kong-based DuPont Apollo Ltd has entered into a strategic supply agreement with Wipro EcoEnergy, a part of India's Wipro Ltd, to supply high- performance silicon-based thin film to the latter's upcoming grid-based solar power projects.

Under the terms of this supply agreement, DuPont Apollo will provide Wipro EcoEnergy with thin film photovoltaic (PV) modules. The first phase of the supply agreement will be completed by first quarter of 2012.

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Industry Updates : IT Sector

30 May 2011: Hexaware Technologies bags Infrastructure Management contract of over $25 million 

Mid sized IT firm Hexaware Technologies Limited has bagged a 3-year Remote Infrastructure Management (IMS) contract worth more than $ 25 million from an existing client. The annuity deal, will increase its share revenues from this existing client. 

Hexaware will manage all aspects of infrastructure support for this client whose footprint covers the America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. The company expects to deploy 150+ employees on this engagement globally.

27 May 2011: Polaris Software gets $55 mn deal from RBI

Banking and insurance software provider Polaris Software Lab Ltd said it has received a $55 million contract to implement its banking product across India's central bank, sending the company's shares over 3 per cent up.

Polaris will implement its product, Intellect Core Banking System, to help integrate and automate banking operations in all the regional offices of the central bank.

26 May 2011: iGATE Patni secures 5-year contract from Serco

 iGATE Patni, an integrated technology and operations brand providing business outcome based solutions, has secured a five-year contract for delivery of SAP-based operational, maintenance and support services to Serco's existing and prospective customers. The partnership will include services such as support desk operations, ticket handling and user profile management.

25 May 2011: Imec signs R&D partnership with Wipro Technologies

Belgium-based Imec  made an entry into the Indian market with the establishment of Imec India here after signing an R&D partnership agreement with Wipro Technologies, the consulting and outsourcing business of Wipro Ltd.

Imec is an independent applied research organisation that carries out research activities in semiconductors, nanotechnology and nanoelectronics, delivering industry relevant technology solutions, a company statement said.

Imec and Wipro have created a joint initiative to co-innovate and build next generation intelligent systems, called Applied Research in Intelligent Systems Engineering.

24 May 2011: ITC Infotech announces strategic partnership with SAP 

ITC Infotech, a global IT services and solutions company and a fully owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd. announced a strategic partnership with SAP India Pvt. Ltd to become a solution reseller for SAP Business ByDesign.

With this partnership, ITC Infotech is now entitled to market, sell and deploy SAP Business ByDesign as well as offer additional services.

24 May 2011: Nucleus Software ties up with Wipro Technologies 

Nucleus Software Exports Ltd said it has partnered Wipro Technologies to jointly provide product-led customised solutions to banking clients.

Nucleus' lending and cash management product portfolio, in conjunction with Wipro's system integration, programme management and peripheral service offerings, will result in a robust proposition for the end-customer.

24 May 2011: Clarity on new IT rules soon, says Som Mittal

Som Mittal, president of Nasscom, India's industry lobby representing the $76 billion outsourcing sector, says the government is expected to clarify on new rules in the IT Act within few weeks.

"The intent of government is to protect privacy and this is an interpretation issue, nothing else," he said. The new section 43A of the Indian IT Act, notified last month, states that a corporate shall have to obtain permission through letter or fax or email from each client before collection of sensitive information.

Thus, BPOs will have to inform the client regarding purpose of usage before collection of such information, if they go by the new IT rules 2011.

Sensitive personal information here refers to financial details related to bank account, credit card or other payment instruments. A large number of BPO firms in India have clients such as American Express, Citibank, HSBC and Bank of America and collect financial information before carrying out any transactions.

23 May 2011: Mahindra Satyam merger with Tech Mahindra may take place in April-May next year 

Mahindra Satyam's merger with parent firm Tech Mahindra may take place in April-May next year, its chairman Vineet Nayyar said. However, this may be delayed as it is a legal process which has to go to two high courts, he hinted.

21 May 2011: Infosys to start new campus in Shanghai; to invest $125-150 million 

Infosys Technologies said it plans to invest between USD 125-150 million in its new campus in Shanghai, China with an overall seating capacity for 8,000 employees.

20 May 2011: Symantec to acquire Clearwell Systems for $390 million 

IT security company Symantec Corporation announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Clearwell Systems, an eDiscovery company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec will acquire Clearwell for a purchase price of approximately USD 390 million, net of Clearwell's existing cash balance of approximately USD 20 million.

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Mancer at "Annual Skills Summit 2011"

The first Economic Times-Times Jobs Annual Skills Summit took place at The Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi, on Friday, May 27th. The initiative sought to identify the problem areas and helped find solutions to these by bringing together the industry, policy makers and opinion leaders. 

The Summit was inaugurated by Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for HRD, Govt. of India. The summit focused on the skill gaps in the employable workforce in the ITeS, IT, Manufacturing and Infrastructure segments.

Participants of the Skills Dialogues included NASSCOM, NSDC, Wipro BPO, HSBC Service Delivery, Firstsource Solutions, EXL Service, Hays Business Solutions, Quatrro BPO Solutions; HCL Technologies, Vertex, Aegis Global Academy, 24/7 Customer, Apollo Health Street, ADP Solutions and GENPACT, to name a few.

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