Source: www.indiaprwire.com

QuEST, a leading provider of outsourced engineering services and manufacturing, and Global Services, the leading global media platform on outsourcing have launched a micro-site dedicated to Engineering Services Outsourcing .

Engineering services outsourcing is considered the next wave in domain specific knowledge outsourcing after IT outsourcing and BPO, and studies estimate the market for such services out of India could grow from $1 billion in 2006 to $40 billion in 2020.

Apart from regular news updates on the industry, the ESO micro-site will contain research articles by industry analysts and consultants, and will feature customer case studies. Editorial control rests with Global Services. The micro-site will be linked from the QuEST and Global Services websites.

“We noticed that Engineering Services Outsourcing had seen a lot of traction off late, but seemed to lack in awareness because of its specialty. We saw an opportunity here to play a role in filling that niche space with knowledge and were encouraged by QuEST’s willingness to sponsor the initiative. We will endeavor to provide a platform that will engage the ESO community and bridge the existing gap,” said Satish Gupta, head of sales and marketing at Global Services.

Says Vijay Menon, vice president of marketing at QuEST, the site sponsor: “Engineering services outsourcing is distinct from IT and BPO outsourcing, and QuEST is delighted to support this initiative to create a credible and independent forum where all the stakeholders—buyers, sellers, analysts, consultants, and industry observers—can meet to exchange notes and gather information on ESO.”

Source: in.reuters.com

MPM Capital, a U.S.-based life sciences venture fund, plans to invest in one or two local firms in the next six months marking its India entry, its general partner said on Wednesday.

With more than $2.5 billion committed capital under management, MPM Capital will tap its $550 million Bioventures fund for the India investment, William Greene told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.

“We are beginning to focus on India and China,” Greene said. “In the next months, I would like to see 1-2 investments in India … about $20 million is the kind of byte size we are looking at.”

MPM would take anywhere between 10-40 percent stakes in the firms and was open to a broad spectrum of life sciences companies, especially those offering discovery outsourcing and contract research and manufacturing services, he said.

“Services in general are pretty interesting. Medical devices sector could be very interesting in the longer term.”

MPM was also open to investing in research and development companies working on developing new molecules, he added.

“My enthusiasm for the opportunity in India is quite big.”

Investments in lifesciences sector in India were low, and he saw a large potential here, he added.

Healthcare and life sciences accounted for about 4.6 percent of the $9 billion investments from venture capital and private equity in India in Jan-Sept, said Arun Natarajan, chief executive officer at Venture Intelligence, a private equity deals tracker.

Source: money.cnn.com
Sets up a World Class dedicated Operation Technology Center (OTC) for the Bank

iGATE Corporation , a Pennsylvania corporation and a global provider of IT and BPO services, today announced that the Company’s offshore subsidiary, iGATE Global Solutions, Ltd. (”iGS”) signed a key technology services agreement with the Union Bank of California, the 25th largest bank in the US based on assets.

In accordance with the agreement, iGS has initially set up a 100 people Operation Technology Center (OTC) for the bank at its software development campus in Whitefield, Bangalore, India. iGS currently provides a full range of IT services spanning Application Development and Maintenance, Infrastructure Management Services (IMS), Data Warehousing, Quality Assurance, Business Intelligence, Consulting and technology work.

“This is an exciting partnership for us and we are proud to be associated with Union Bank of California and to help them enhance their process and service capabilities. We are especially pleased that they chose us after working with a few other IT vendors. This partnership also gives us confidence that our integrated Technology and Operations (”iTOPS”) model is gaining more acceptance and momentum,” said Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, of iGS.

“We were looking at opportunities to re-engineer our processes and alter our customer-facing and the core back-office processing tasks. As iGS clearly understands technology and operations and is the only Company in India with integrated Technology and Operations capabilities, we found a lot of synergy and decided to work with them,” said James Yee, Executive Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, Union Bank of California.