Source: www.hindu.com

With the US market showing signs of saturation, India is keen to tap the vast business opportunities offered by Europe for the export of computer software and IT enabled services, the leader of an Indian industry delegation said here.

The 20-member delegation of chief executives and top-level managers of companies representing a cross-section of India’s IT industry has been exploring new business partnerships in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and is currently visiting Brussels.

“The German market so far has been largely unexplored by Indian IT companies and they should make serious efforts to enter the market and to consolidate their existing presence because the business opportunities in this country are immense,” said S R K Prasad, who led the delegation on a two-week tour said.

The time was very opportune for Indian IT companies to enter into outsourcing deals, joint ventures or other business tie-ups with German companies because they were showing a strong interest in cooperating with Indian companies in various sectors of the IT industry, Prasad, Managing Director of the Kasbah Systems Software in Coimbatore, told PTI.

The visit by the Indian IT delegation to Europe was organised by Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council as a follow-up of India’s successful marketing campaign at the world’s largest computer and IT fair Cebit in Hannover in March.

Source: www.newswiretoday.com

Indian vendors have a huge emerging opportunity in bioinformatics services from pharmaceutical companies in customization of existing products and creation, licensing and manipulation of databases.

Contract research assignments usually generate large amounts of data, leading to problems in data storage, management, retrieval, and analysis. The application of IT to the life sciences sector - bioinformatics, assumes increasingly higher significance as the use of bioinformatics tools lower costs, improve efficiency and reduce development-to-launch timelines.

Indian vendors have a huge emerging opportunity in bioinformatics services, customization of existing products and creation, licensing and manipulation of databases. However, they face certain critical challenges like the lack of standardization in service platforms and modular systems, problem of market / data heterogeneity, and an acute shortage of qualified manpower. They would also need to find a niche focus, in order to move higher up the value chain of services.

However, Indian bioinformatics vendors are aware of these challenges, and have started improving their processes to succeed as preferred outsourcing partners to global research clients. They have enhanced investments in innovation and are also forging partnerships with reputed academic institutes to ensure a healthy flow of employees. Poonam Bhana, analyst at ValueNotes, estimates that “the bioinformatics outsourcing services sector in India will grow at 25% CAGR over the period 2007-2010.”

ValueNotes has launched “CRAMS Insights” - a bimonthly newsletter as an update to the report “Pharma Outsourcing in Drug Discovery & Development: Contract Research Opportunity in India”. The newsletter focuses on shifts in business models, M & A trends, emerging technology platforms, service capabilities of vendors, and a macro level view of the Indian pharmaceutical business against a global backdrop.