Indian Economy-News & Updates

[Justin Joseph]

L&T first pvt firm in India with Rs 1,00,000-cr order book

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the largest technology, engineering and construction company in India, has accumulated an order book worth over Rs 1 lakh crore.

“We are the first private sector player in the country to achieve this feat,” said A M Naik, chairman and managing director of L&T, after receiving the annual ‘Best Company of the Year’ award of Business Standard here yesterday.

The government-owned power equipment maker, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), is the only company ahead of L&T in this regard, with an order book of over Rs 1.5 lakh crore, said sources.

A M NaikThe $8.5-billion (Rs 38,300 crore) turnover L&T had reached an order book position of Rs 91,104 crore as on December 31, 2009. Of this, the engineering and construction sector’s contribution was Rs 89,375 crore. It got another lot of orders worth more than Rs 9,000 crore in the past two-three weeks. The current order book position of the construction division alone was close to Rs 60,000 crore, said sources.

L&T’s operations are mainly grouped under engineering and construction, electrical and electronics, and machinery and industrial products.

“While public sector players such as BHEL get orders from the government by default and due to the ongoing huge power generation capacity addition programme, companies like L&T must compete with several international players to bag orders,” said an industry expert.

However, gross sales revenue for L&T during the quarter ended December 31, 2009, was six per cent lower at Rs 8,139 crore against the corresponding period of the previous year. This was despite 22 per cent growth in order inflow during the period.

L&T reasoned that sales revenue was subdued as a result of slower progress of certain jobs due to various extraneous factors, as well as the effect of delayed financial closure on a few infrastructure projects. Deferment in release of some high-value customers’ orders, including those in the hydrocarbon upstream sector, also resulted in lower sales during the quarter.

“Typically, our projects are executed over a period of 24-36 months and the order book position is poised for more growth,” said a company executive.

Today, the company said it had won a design and build order worth Rs 566 crore from software firm Cognizant Technologies Solutions India for construction of their campus at Chennai and a Rs 280-crore order for constructing multi-storied residential apartments at Gurgaon in Haryana.

Recently L&T had won a Rs 1,013-crore turnkey project for redeveloping four oil well platforms in the second phase of Mumbai High North (MHN), and an order worth Rs 2,035 crore from ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals (OMPL), to construct a petrochemical aromatics complex to come up at a special economic zone in Mangalore.

A week ago, L&T’s construction division had bagged six orders aggregating Rs 1,181 crore for construction of power transmission lines and substation works, which included three orders worth Rs 741 crore from the Gulf markets. Larsen & Toubro (Oman) LLC, a subsidiary of L&T in Muscat, also bagged a Rs 668-crore order recently for constructing various buildings and infrastructure projects in the Sultanate of Oman.

L&T first pvt firm in India with Rs 1,00,000-cr order book

 

[Justin Joseph]

‘Scope bright for India-Oman tie-up’

KOCHI: Ambassador of Sultanate of Oman Humaid Al- Maani said that there were many fronts where joint investment by Oman and India was possible.

Interacting with the business community in Kochi on Saturday, Al-Maani said that programmes to promote the tourism and health sectors in Kerala should be given importance.

“Food security is the top priority for the Oman Government.

Around 80 percent of the seafood consumed in Oman is from Kerala. The health sector is registering an overall growth in Asia, and it is evident in Kerala as well,” he said.

“The government wants private players to take the lead in the education sector.

So, there are huge investment opportunities in the sector,” Al-Maani said.

Oman, which has entered into Free Trade Agreements with countries like China, Singapore and Australia, plans to extend such partnerships.

Though some of the traders who attended the programme stressed the need for starting a consulate in Kerala, Al-Maani said that the chances of it happening soon were rare.

Khalid Al Jabri, Cultural Attache, Oman Embassy, also participated in the interactive session organised by the Kerala Chamber of C o m m e r c e a n d Industry(KCCI).

KCCI chairman K M Abdulla, who presided over the meeting, presented a memento to Al-Maani. KCCI vice-chairman P Unnikrishnan Nair proposed a vote of thanks.

?scope-bright-for-india-oman-tie-up?

 

[Justin Joseph]

State Bank to hire 15,000 Business Correspondents

Mumbai: In order to expand their presence in the rural areas, State Bank of India (SBI) plans to hire 15,000 Business Correspondents (BC), who will help the people in rural area to open a bank account. SBI's move is in tune with the Budget decision to provide banking facilities in all domiciles with more than 2,000 people.

"It is not possible for banks to open branches in every village, so Business Correspondents and Business Facilitator (BF) model would help in taking banking facilities to every part of the country," said O P Bhatt, Chairman of SBI. The BCs can act as a mini-bank branch with facilities of cash withdrawals and deposits up to Rs 10,000. The BC is connected to a local branch that supervises the functioning of all BCs in the area, the Chairman added.


SBI has covered more than 50,000 un-banked villages, including North Eastern, Eastern and Central parts of the country. Currently, the bank spends Rs. 115 on each account managed by the BC and the return may be around Rs. 3, as the average bank balance of a BC account is estimated to be around Rs. 30.
The bank has 35 lakh BC accounts and plans to open one crore such accounts by next fiscal. The total deposits from BC accounts have risen from Rs. 13 lakh to Rs. 6.29 crore in January 2010, in a matter of two years. In the next three years, the bank plans to mobilise Rs. 60 crore and make the whole BC/BF model profitable. The bank is also seeking assistance from Nabard.

The prime role of the BCs would be to accept deposits and remit money. They will also provide basic financial services like insurance to the low-income rural people who are outside the banking network. Apart from opening more branches, the bank will serve the customers better by leveraging other channels like ATMs, Internet banking and mobile banking.

State Bank to hire 15,000 Business Correspondents - SiliconIndia

 

[Justin Joseph]

Yahoo India to hire 300 R&D staff

Bangalore, March 31,dhns:
Yahoo India R&D centre in Bangalore will hire 300 people in the first quarter of 2010-11, its Vice-President and CEO (R&D ) Shouvick Mukherjee told Deccan Herald.

It had hired 500 people last year to take the India team strength to 2,000.

Stating that the centre will remain as a hotbed for global innovation, he said that Yahoo has invested in specialist talent in key areas like product managers, user experience designers, architects, developers, programme managers, quality engineers, service engineers and researchers to build a world-class team in India.

He added, that it will continue to focus on consumer products and drive key technology infrastructure like cloud computing, data and Yahoo platforms.

Yahoo India to hire 300 R&D staff

 

[Hutchroy]

Gujarat's non-major ports post 35% growth

Sikka handles almost 50 per cent cargo of state’s non-major ports.

Steering past the slowdown, ports controlled by the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) posted 34.60 per cent growth in 2009-10. They handled 206 million tonnes cargo as compared to 153 million tonnes in 2008-09.

“We have achieved a record growth of 35 per cent in cargo handling. Gujarat’s non-major ports are reaching new heights,” said Pankaj Kumar, chief executive officer and vice-chairman, GMB.

The Indian port sector was hit badly by recession last year. All non-major ports of Gujarat that are regulated by GMB posted 4 per cent growth in 2008-09 in terms of cargo handling.

“This was, however, higher than the national average of 2 per cent,” said a GMB official.

The growth was driven by Navlakhi, Magdalla, Jaffrabad, Sikka, Pipavav and Mundra ports.

The traffic at Navlakhi, Magdalla, Jafrabad, Pipavav and Mundra ports achieved growth of 57 per cent, 13 per cent, 16 per cent, 76 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, in 2009-10, said a GMB statement. The traffic at Navlakhi increased from 2.83 million tonnes to 4.46 million tonnes, while that at Pipavav rose from 2 million tonnes to 3.56 million tonnes, the release stated.

One of the main drivers of growth was Sikka port, operated by Reliance Industries. The traffic at Sikka rose from 65 million tonnes to 107 million tonnes, a growth of about 64 per cent. The new Reliance refinery at Jamnagar that added about 29 million tonnes annual refining capacity emerged the main growth driver, accounting for over 50 per cent of the cargo handled by the state’s non-major ports, said an official.

Container traffic at Pipavav and Mundra also rose. The containers of both 20 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) and 40 TEU showed 90 per cent growth in terms of tonnage at Pipavav port. At Alang Recycling Yard, there has been a rise of 50 per cent in steel recovered.

GMB has already started the process of setting up cluster-based marine shipbuilding parks. Recently, the state government approved three projects. To strengthen the road network around ports, concrete works are being taken up in phases. GMB ports have handle a variety of cargo, which is unique in the country. They have container terminals, LNG terminals, dry bulk and liquid bulk cargo terminals, car terminals, terminals for handling of over dimensional cargo, deep water berths/jetties and shipbuilding yards.

In 2009-10, shipyard projects worth Rs 4,662 crore were sanctioned for Gujarat. These included the Rs 600-crore AFCONS Infrastructure project, the Rs 1,200-crore Dahej shipyard (developed by ABG), the Rs 2,800-crore Jindal shipyard that is coming up in Vengani near Dahej, the Rs 31-crore Bedi port, being developed by Parekh Marine, and the Rs 1,200-crore Bharti shipyard at Mahuva

 

[Chanakyaa]

The Indian Information Technology industry accounts for a 5.9% of the country's GDP and export earnings as of 2009, while providing employment to a significant number of its tertiary sector workforce. More than 2.3 million people are employed in the sector either directly or indirectly, making it one of the biggest job creators in India and a mainstay of the national economy.

In March 2009, annual revenues from outsourcing operations in India amounted to US$60 billion and this is expected to increase to US$225 billion by 2020.

The most prominent IT hub is IT capital Bangalore. The other emerging destinations are Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, NCR and Kolkata. Technically proficient immigrants from India sought jobs in the western world from the 1950s onwards as India's education system produced more engineers than its industry could absorb. However, there are severe skills shortage among engineers, especially who lack in soft skill and technical skill, as a result engineering graduates remain unemployed after being pass out from college or university. India's growing stature in the information age enabled it to form close ties with both the United States of America and the European Union.

Each year India produces roughly 500,000 engineers in the country,[1out of them 25% to 30% possessed both technical competency and English language skills, although 12% of India's population can speak in English out of 100. India developed a number of outsourcing companies specializing in customer support via Internet or telephone connections.

By 2009, India also has a total of 37,160,000 telephone lines in use, a total of 506,040,000 mobile phone connections, a total of 81,000,000 Internet users—comprising 7.0% of the country's population,and 7,570,000 people in the country have access to broadband Internet— making it the 12th largest country in the world in terms of broadband Internet users.Total fixed-line and wireless subscribers reached 543.20 million as of November, 2009.

The Top Ten IT Majors ::

1. TCS LIMITED

Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) (BSE: 532540) is a software services and consulting company headquartered in Mumbai, India. TCS is the largest provider of information technology and business process outsourcing services in India.[1] The company is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange of India.

TCS is a subsidiary of one of India's largest and oldest conglomerates, the Tata Group, which has interests in areas such as energy, telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing, chemicals, engineering, materials, government and healthcare.

Data :

• Revenue US$ 6 billion (2010)
• Net income US$ 1.25 billion (2009)
• Total assets US$ 4.36 billion (2009)

2. WIPRO LIMITED

Wipro Technologies Limited (BSE: 507685, NYSE: WIT) is a giant information technology services corporation headquartered in Bangalore, India. According to the 2008–09 revenue, Wipro is the second largest IT services company in India and employs more than 98,391 people worldwide as of 2009.[2] It has interests varying from information technology, consumer care, lighting, engineering and healthcare businesses. Azim Premji is the Chairman of the board.

Data :

Revenue US$ 4.98 billion (2009)[1]
Net income US$ 0.82 billion (2009)
Total assets US$ 5.38 billion (2009)

3. INFOSYS LIMITED

Infosys Technologies Limited (BSE: 500209, NASDAQ: INFY) is an information technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. Infosys is one of the largest IT companies in India with 104,850 professionals (including subsidiaries) as of 21 December 2009.[2] It has offices in 22 countries and development centers in India, China, Australia, UK, Canada and Japan.

Infosys was founded on 2 July 1981 in Pune by N. R. Narayana Murthy and six others: Kris Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, S. D. Shibulal, Ashok Arora and K. Dinesh,[4] with N. S. Raghavan officially being the first employee of the company. Founders started the company with an initial investment of INR 10,000 [5]. The company was incorporated as "Infosys Consultants Pvt Ltd." in Model Colony, Pune as the registered office[6].

In 1982, Infosys opened an office in Bangalore which soon became its headquarters.[7]
Infosys headquarters in Bangalore, India

Infosys went public in 1993. Interestingly, Infosys IPO was undersubscribed but it was bailed out by US investment banker Morgan Stanley which picked up 13% of equity at the offer price of Rs. 95 per share [8]. The share price surged to Rs. 8,100 by 1999. By the year 2000 Infosys's shares touched Rs. 15,600 before the catastrophic incident of 9/11, changed all that.[9]

According to Forbes magazine, since listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange till the year 2000, Infosys' sales and earnings compounded at more than 70% a year.[10] In the year 2000, President of the United States Bill Clinton complimented India on its achievements in high technology areas citing the example of Infosys.[11]

In 2001, it was rated Best Employer in India by Business Today.[12]. Infosys was rated best employer to work for in 2000, 2001, and 2002 by Hewitt Associates. In 2007, Infosys received over 1.3 million applications and hired fewer than 3% of applicants.

Data :

Revenue $ 4.663 billion (2009)[1]
Operating income $ 1.374 billion (2009)[1]
Net income $ 1.281 billion (2009

 

[Chanakyaa]

4. NIIT

NIIT is a leading Global Talent Development Corporation, building a skilled manpower pool for global industry requirements. The company which was set up in 1981, to help the nascent IT industry overcome its human resource challenges, has today grown to rank among the world’s leading talent development organisations offering learning solutions to Individuals, Enterprises and Institutions across 40 countries.

NIIT’s training solutions in IT, Business Process Outsourcing, Banking, Finance and Insurance, Executive Management Education, and Communication and Professional Life Skills, touch five million learners every year. NIIT’s expertise in learning content development, training delivery and education process management make us the most preferred training partner, worldwide.

5. SATYAM LIMITED

Mahindra Satyam (BSE: 500376, NYSE: SAY) (formerly known as Satyam Computer Services Ltd) was founded in 1987 by B Ramalinga Raju. The company offers consulting and information technology (IT) services spanning various sectors, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange (India) and Bombay Stock Exchange (India). In June 2009, the company unveiled its new brand identity “Mahindra Satyam” subsequent to its takeover by the Mahindra Group’s IT arm, Tech Mahindra.

Top Ten List ::

(in Rs mill)

1 TCS LIMITED 97,272
2 WIPRO LIMITED 82,330
3 INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED 71,297
4 SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LIMITED 35,209
5 I-FLEX SOLUTIONS LIMITED 11,386
6 TATA INFOTECH LIMITED 9,743
7 CMC LIMITED 8,074
8 MPHASIS BFL LIMITED 7,657
9 MASTEK LIMITED 5,670
10 NIIT LIMITED 3,984

 

[indian_warrior]

excellent work buddy.

- Warrior

 

[indian_warrior]

60billion is only indian company or it includes MNC operation in india like (IBM, Oracle etc)

 

[Chanakyaa]

Indian ONLY.

 

[Cityboy]

Great info. Another rocking thread 4m feel series.

 

[RobbieS]

Not to dampen our spirits, but I really wish the IT sector can expand to more Tier B and C cities. Currently they employ only about 2 million of India's workforce which is just not enough for a country of 1.2 billion people.

 

[Chanakyaa]

All the development and shine is due to the liberlazation started in 1992.

This mind blowing result is that of just 2 decades period ... India has over 6 IT hubs soon it will expand...

Jai Ho.

 

[liteon]

you called that strength with only $60 billions total for the industry?

 

[ek_indian]

you called that strength with only $60 billions total for the industry?

What is this "Only" 60bollion dollars. It has been only 20 years and we are on this stage. With the time, the industry would be growing.

This industry is giving handsome salary. So what's wrong in this. You may have a valid point but considering the timeframe and growth chart, I would term as exceptional.