Source:Thedailystar.net

A conclave of global executive search firms Monday said India’s booming services and software industries need more than two million professionals by 2010 and many could come from overseas.Tom Fuller, managing director of the US-based Espen Fuller consultancy firm, said India’s outsourcing industry needed 1.4 million professionals alone, while its burgeoning information technology sector would need an additional 800,000 skilled workers in the next three years.

“A growing number of global managers are attracted by exciting professional opportunities being presented by India,” Fuller told heads of international consultancy firms attending an annual convention in this Arabian Sea resort.

India’s outsourcing industry could process 30 percent of US bank transactions by 2010, more than triple the current figure, says the industry’s main lobby group National Association of Software and Services Companies.

Foreign financial institutions and firms have been moving back office, call centre and other software-related work to India to take advantage of its English-speaking, lower-paid employees and cut costs.

India’s business process outsourcing sector, which includes customer call centres and services such as accounting and payroll management, has created about 100,000 jobs in the past two years alone, more than doubling the industry’s total workforce to over 170,000.

The meeting, which ended Monday in the Goa capital of Panaji, also said India had become a paradise for professional head-hunters.

“India is becoming the most attractive destination to scout for young talent,” said Sherlin Shakel, managing partner of Britain’s Highfield consultancy firm.

“And Indian business schools are meeting the global requirements by producing managers who are most sought after worldwide,” Shakel told reporters.

Economists also say India will soon represent two-thirds of the international “offshore market” — jobs done outside a client’s region.

Peter Mukherjea, head of the India-based INX Global Executive search firm, said India would also need more top executives than it currently had to spur economic growth beyond the current nine percent.

“India would need over 1,000 chief executive officers across industries, many of them in new sectors such as special economic zones, aviation, airport management and retail,” he said on the sidelines of the conclave.

The convention included representatives from companies from 27 countries including Australia, Britain, France, Germany, India, Italy, Singapore, Spain and the United States, organisers said.

Source: www.business-standard.com

As Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, aggressively expands its base in China, in what could be termed as, a major IT-related deal ever signed by a Chinese Bank, TCS has clinched a $100-million Bank of China deal, for providing technology solutions over a 5-year span.

Calling in bids to revamp its IT infrastructure, Bank of China, the country’s second-biggest lender, with the largest global network amongst all the Chinese banks, is looking at integrating its international network’s IT requirements.

Sources view this huge opportunity as a coup of sorts, as bagging the international network deal, provides TCS with an extra edge to possibly get a deal for Bank of China’s mainland operations, as well. So far, Chinese banks have refrained from outsourcing their IT development requirements to external vendors.

Since, Chinese banks have been leery of trying off-shoring / outsourcing, Indian vendors have showed great keenness to snag even a small portion of the current project, touted to be one of the largest in Asia, covering hardware, software and networking equipments, according to sources.

Operating in China since the last five years, TCS has formed a close relationship with Chinese trade finance and software products company - China Systems, and will be providing a range of banking solutions, presumably, BANCS, its core banking solution to Bank of China.

A number of major Indian IT companies, including TCS, Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, NIIT and i-Flex, have begun to set up bases in China, in order to serve multinational customers and target the Chinese software market, including Japanese and South Korean markets, as well.

TCS’ $100-million Bank of China deal comes close on the heels of its announcement early on this month of a seven-year, $65 million agreement the Indian IT major announced with Somerfield, a British small-format food retailer, to provide a full range of managed IT services.

Source:Times of India

Indian IT firms have begun to storm the $1-million bastion in a spectacularly big way, as they mine a greater wallet share from the same client. Today, Indian Tigers, such as, Infosys have clients that contribute 47% of over $1-million to their annual revenue, while its 41% for Wipro, and similarly, TCS commands 34%, with even smaller players like Hexaware grabbing a cool 26%.

So far, it’s Infosys that has taken the lead, the biggest success story so far, with revenue per client ratio of $4.5-million, followed by TCS’ $3.8-million. Conducting global research on IT services, HSBC reports, the ability to mine existing clients and generate existing business has been a key driver of revenues for Indian IT vendors. Client mining has not only helped in increasing visibility, but has also rationalised sales and marketing costs, as vendors use their existing relationships for incremental revenue generation.

A two-fold change is perceptible, the first of existing clients outsourcing higher-end high-cost work requiring fewer bodies, and the second that a larger volume of engagement is taking place all over. “The proposition in terms of low cost and higher skills makes for a compelling story and helps in bagging a bigger share of their clients,” says Ashish Basil, Partner - Transaction Advisory Service, Ernst & Young. Moreover, increasingly clients are beginning to consolidate their vendor base to include just 2-3 players.

In a bid to tap this market, Indian IT firms have begun to increase the services offered in their portfolio, whether in terms of consulting, value-added services or niche offerings. “Indian IT companies are moving forward step by step from mind share to market share and finally wallet share,” confirms Ambarish Dasgupta, Executive Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A step in the right direction, in order to attract high-end IT work, Infosys set up its consulting arm in 2004; even as, Indian IT companies are beginning to aggressively expand their overseas presence by way of acquisitions, so as to help break into a new skill set.

One such example, in all Wipro has made six acquisitions since December 2005, acquiring several small to mid-size IT firms, such as, NewLogic, MPower, Saraware, and the latest Enabler in Portugal. Increasingly, Indian IT service firms are pursuing a judicious mix of near-shore consulting and off-shore development model, with Infosys recently announcing, its brand positioning mandate was proof enough that Indian IT companies are looking at re-creating and re-positioning their brand as high-end service providers.

There is, no doubt, the picture for the Indian IT industry only gets brighter, as Indians prove they too have it in them to go for the jugular vein like the West, albeit in an ethical and civilised manner. They have begun to take over the Western world, buying out firms and paying more than top dollar for them, unlike the West that went on a looting and plundering rampage, destroying nations, ancient civilisations, economical, societal, educational, cultural, environmental, dietary structures that had proved their worth through centuries. Trying to impose a new order, their handiwork has seen to it that this Gracious and Bountiful Mother Earth will not be able to withstand the ravages of Western human and natural exploitation for far too many years, leading to wars as food and water supplies become scarce. It has been predicted that the next World War i.e. No. 3 will be over water, already a scarce commodity.

The developed West after ravaging Nature and the lands they colonised has been and is responsible for a major part of carbon emissions. Now, that the sceptre of global warning stares one in the face, the West typically unfair tries to hold back developing nations from fulfilling their economic potential, without curtailing its own. But, that is the West for you! Rapaciously greedy, outstandingly selfish, viciously vindictive, maliciously evil! And, China, a great favourite of the West till the latter learnt the hard way and realised that Indians were easier to deal with, is already ensuring that all nations, whose rivers and rivulets have their source in Himalayas and beyond i.e. Tibet, will soon find themselves starved of water, rivers and riverbeds drying out to mere trickles, their only hope the rains of the monsoon season, as they wait for them to replenish their once plentiful supplies.

You may well look astonished, but read Claude Arpi’s (a well-known and respected Sinologist)article(http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/oct/27spec.htm, http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/aug/11claude.htm,) on why China took over Tibet, why it is building a nuclear dam in the vicinity, a dam that will stop all waters flowing to India, Burma, Thailand et al, as it diverts all waters to water-starved China. Pause for thought, can anyone be smugly unconcerned about any action of the West or China? The answer is no, both races are two sides of the same coin, never to be trusted. Always, they have their own axe to grind and it is time naïve Indians woke up to the fact and looked after theirs and their own! In fact, read all of Claude Arpi’s article concerning China (http://www.claudearpi.net/index.php?nav=articles&id=3&lang=1) and you will find why the West has always been attracted to the Chinese. They are so alike, perfect doppelganger images of each other, and to quote a very apt proverb, Birds of a Feather Flock Together! Now, you know the West’s fatal attraction for China and its inhabitants as opposed to its aversion to India.

Highly emotional , spiritual India, so different from the materialistic, cold blooded West and China, where is the common ground for them to have a meeting of the minds. But, how can a meeting of minds take place, as Indians stubbornly hang on to their ancient cultural and spiritual mores, refusing to replace their culture or religion for that of the West, unlike the Chinese, who have given up Buddhism for Christianity, their native dress for Western attire, their moral code for a westernised one. The only meeting of the minds that is taking place now that India is becoming an economic success story is the material gains to be made by western firms setting up base in India, which has also led the Chinese to suddenly proclaim: ‘Hindi Chini, Bhai, Bhai!, very Nehruvian in style.

Friends, Indians, and Countrymen! The wake-up call sounds loud and clear, pay heed and do not let the past repeat itself! While, we trade services and products in this age of globalisation, ensure that we do not sell out our country and our countrymen again! Take a leaf out the West’s and inscrutable China’s book, making ‘Your dollars are very welcome, but you and yours are not!” a maxim you reiterate silently, even as you smile and do business with them! And then, India will be the biggest success story,