China muscle on global business

Interesting article on China


Yahoo's Chinese partner may try to block Microsoft buyout

Yahoo's Chinese partner, Alibaba Group, may try to block Microsoft's hostile takeover of Yahoo, according to Reuters and a report in the Wall Street Journal. By itself, that won't block the buyout, but it certainly could force Microsoft to hand over more cash.

According to Reuters, Alibaba Group, which is 39% owned by Yahoo, is not pleased with the Microsoft takeover attempt. Citing a source within Alibaba, Reuters says, "The problem is a perception by Beijing authorities that an important Chinese firm could come under the control of Microsoft Corp, which has a reputation of using monopolistic tactics."

Reuters says that the source said that Alibaba hasn't yet been involved in the Microsoft-Yahoo talks, "but would get involved as negotiations get more serious." Reuters adds:

Foreign control of large companies in key or strategic industries is a politically sensitive issue for Beijing, which has forced many prospective buyers to cut their intended stakes or simply delayed the application process indefinitely.

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, says that the Alibaba Group is concerned enough about the takeover bid that it has "hired advisers to help it negotiate for expanded management independence" if Yahoo is bought out by Microsoft.

In other words, it would want to be as free of Yahoo as possible.

It's not likely that this, on its own, will kill the deal. But the fact that the world's most populous country, with the fastest-growing economy and Internet presence, has come out against the deal, can't be good news for Microsoft

Dhoni to earm more than Ambani for IPL initiative

Intersting article on the current state of Indian cricket

Dhoni to be paid more than Mukesh Ambani for IPL
21 Feb, 2008, 0248 hrs IST, TNN

NEW DELHI: The chief executive officer of the Men-In-Blue Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has been bagged for Rs 6 crore for the domestic cricket league, has overtaken Mukesh Ambani, chief of India’s largest private sector company, in terms of compensation.

The comparison is not apt but on a per hour basis Dhoni will be paid more than Mr Ambani for the duration of the tournament. Here’s how. M S Dhoni was roped in through an auction to represent the Chennai team. At Rs 6 crore for the tournament, which will be spread over 44 days of cricketing action in the 20-20 format of the game, Dhoni would be encashing roughly Rs 56,818 per hour.

This discounts actual time that Dhoni spends on the field for Chennai, which would peg the actual per hour figure much higher. As against this, Mr Ambani, who drew Rs 30.46 crore in the last financial year through salary, perquisites and commission from Reliance Industries, would have earned about Rs 34,771 per hour. That translates into a differential of 63.4% in the hourly package that M S Dhoni would draw.

We are, of course, not accounting for the dividend payout to Mr Ambani as the promoter of Reliance Industries. In the same vein, we are not factoring in what M S Dhoni earns from his position in the international cricket team of the country, nor are we including the money accrued to the cricket player through brand endorsements.

Obviously, Mr Ambani’s total annual earnings, including dividends, is in a different (higher) league from the Indian captain or indeed any other player. Mr Ambani regularly figures in standard lists of the world’s wealthiest tycoons.

If we extend this logic of hourly earnings to the world of Bollywood, it appears that Mr Dhoni’s pay cheque might be bigger than that of the highest paid stars on the silver screen, be it the Khans or the Bachchans. The biggest stars are believed to command somewhere around Rs 5-10 crore per movie. Accurate figures are not available given the structure of the industry. The one big contract where Hrithik Roshan was supposed to sign up for a three movie package with Adlabs for around Rs 35crore, didn’t finally go through.

Assuming a movie project takes on average three months to complete, even at Rs 10 crore a movie, the highest paid Bollywood star would be pocketing roughly Rs 46,296 per hour. This would be about a fifth of what Dhoni would get.

sdg

Wipro strings largest IT deal for $600 mn
7 Aug, Source: Economictimes.com

BANGALORE: There’s no stopping Wipro’s acquisition juggernaut. The Indian IT giant unveiled its biggest buyout to date, and the largest for the Indian IT industry.

Wipro Technologies has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Nasdaq-listed Infocrossing for $18.70 per share, pegging the enterprise valuation of the IT infrastructure management services firm at $600 million, including $60-million debt, in an all-cash deal.

This marks Wipro’s 12th acquisition in the IT space and the ninth in the past 24 months alone, in what is being famously tagged as ‘string of pearls’ strategy.

The entire process of acquiring Infocrossing is likely to close by December 2007, and the acquired entity will be merged with Wipro’s subsidiary in US — Wipro Inc. This buyout brings in a revenue of $232.4 million with 900 people spread across five locations in the US.

Wipro, for the first time, is in process of acquiring a publicly-held company.

“This acquisition is a perfect fit for our technology infrastructure services (TOS) and gives us an undisputed lead in remote infrastructure management services,” said CFO Suresh Senapaty. The current global IT infrastructure market is estimated to be around $150 billion. Around $70 billion is projected as offshorable.

However, the operating margins of Infocrossing, which range between 10% and 14%, does not exactly match up to the Wipro Technologies’ margin of around 25%. However, Mr Senapaty said there are lots of synergies between the companies, and the margin difference will be mitigated in the next 2-3 years time.

It may be mentioned that Infocrossing reported a net income of $8.5 million on a topline of around $230 million in 2006. The price paid by Wipro is 13% premium over the six-month average of Infocrossing’s stock value. Mr Senapaty said this would be a one-time transaction and the tender offer would be announced later.

On this transaction, Wipro was advised by Citigroup while Infocrossing was backed by Credit Suisse Securities, which made its presence felt in yet another bulge-bracket Indian cross-border transaction after advising Tatas’ in Corus and Bhumi Resources deals.

For Wipro, the IT infrastructure business touched $260 million at the end of FY07 with over 300 clients, including 200 in India. The company is expecting the business to go over $1 billion in the next 24-36 months.

Wipro Technologies’ president of enterprise solutions, Sudip Banerjee, said Infocrossing will able to get them large TOS deals and be more competitive. “Earlier, there were some deals, particularly in the infrastructure management space that we could not bid for because of some gaps in our offerings,” he added.

Commenting on the acquisition, Infocrossing’s CEO Zach Lonstein said, “The management team is intact, and this acquisition brings in additional capability to expand globally.” The operations of Infocrossing will be run independently and the business integration with Wipro Technologies will happen over a period of time.

Infocrossing has five data centres in the US. Wipro officials said that only 50-60% of its capacity were being utilised, giving additional scope for more business. Infocrossing has 190 clients with 95% repeat business.

“TOS, which includes IT infrastructure services, grew 75% in the past year. This acquisition broadens the data center and mainframe capabilities of Wipro Technologies to uniquely position us in the remote infrastructure management space. Through Infocrossing, we are deepening our presence in the US,” said Wipro’s president - global IT service lines, Suresh Vaswani.

Besides the infrastructure management services, Infocrossing also brings in additional capability in the healthcare sector. Wipro BPO chief executive, TK Kurien, said Infocrossing allows it to provide end-to-end solutions, adding, “it gives us beach-head into a segment which has been typically shut for offshore players.”

Wipro’s largest IT acquisition till date is the $100-million buyout of Spectramind, while the biggest overseas buy was the $59-million acquisition of NewLogic. The only other acquisition the company has made in the Infrastructure space was of cMango for $20 million in April 2006.
Source: Economictimes.com

Wipro has been in the news lately for all the right reasons. From charting out a professional succession plan for Premji to its several acquisitions, the company is all geared up to take on the IBM's and EDS's. The company also garnered a decent PAT even after the rupee hit high levels. This company is definitely implementing a well thought strategy and only time will tell if it leaves the other Indian players behind to emerge as a winner to capture the next wave of outsourcing contracts.

The Business side of Google

An interesting take by Ovum on Google, Take a read

How loudly will Google’s cash talk?
July 27, 2007
By Jan Dawson/Ovum

Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, sent a letter to the FCC reaffirming its position calling for net neutrality in the forthcoming US spectrum auction, which it hopes to bid for if the conditions are right. It also offered a $4.6 billion surety payment to guarantee that Google will pick up certain spectrum if over-burdensome rules put off all other bidders.

While Google clearly hopes this will deal with an objection some have raised - that the Commission (and therefore the US taxpayer) might not receive as much from the sale of the spectrum if stringent rules are applied to it - some have understandably suggested this may be seen as a bribe on the part of Google to adopt its rules.

Of course, there's another side to this debate, too. The wireless carriers who currently make a business out of heavily subsidizing exclusive handsets in return for two-year commitments to their service plans have every interest in perpetuating that model, and have so far resisted calls for wireless net neutrality.

Verizon has been strongly opposed to any form of neutrality provisions in the rules, while AT&T's position has been a little more nuanced, supporting some of Google's proposals while ultimately suggesting that it should bid for and win the spectrum itself if it wants to see a neutral approach to the spectrum.

At this point, the most important thing is for the FCC to determine what the rules will be quickly, giving all parties enough time to build business models for the use of the spectrum by the time of the auction - and all parties appear to agree on this.

However, on virtually everything else there is still a gulf between Google and its supporters and the wireless carriers, with the FCC stuck in the middle. The FCC is stuck with a conundrum here: it favors a light regulatory approach, which would suggest as few rules as possible.

On the other hand, it also favors intermodal competition (competing infrastructures, rather than competing services over regulated infrastructure), and would love to have a third 'pipe' to the home emerge in the form of wireless, in addition to the current duopoly between cable companies and telcos.

At all costs, the FCC must see beyond the dollar bills Google is waving around in support of its proposals and determine which outcome is most likely to produce both the best price for the spectrum overall and provide a platform for the next wave of wireless services in the US.

It should err on the side of less regulation, but provide incentives for open and flexible use of the spectrum - many of Google's other proposals around the structure of the auction are actually very sensible.

Ultimately, if Google's proposed business model is really as attractive as it suggests, it ought to be able to win the auction and push forward with that business model with its own spectrum, rather than enforcing the same business model on all other participants in the auction. But whether the FCC will be brave enough to resist calls for favorable treatment for one business model under the guise of 'what's best for consumers' remains to be seen.
Source: telecomasea.net and OVUM


The beauty of Google is its ability to potray itself as a Child but act as an adult. I've heard amazing stories aboout the university like atmosphere at Googleplex and also the wonderful new products they plan to come up with. The company is flush with new money with market cap exceeding $140 billion. Thats a lot of money to make in les than 10 years. I believe the extra funds and culture puts google ahead of other telecom companies who plan to bid for the new licences.

Indians happy with less

indian CEO's earn less that other BRIC CEO's
Source: livemint Date: 26th July. 2007

New Delhi: As the debate over CEO salaries in the country continues, a new study says Indian top managers are paid nearly $30,000 (Rs12,30,000)a year less than their peers in the emerging BRIC countries.
After factors such as tax and cost of living are taken into consideration, corporate India’s top brass can boast of an average disposable income of just $92,750, lagging behind top managers in other fast growing economies like Brazil, Russia and China. The three countries along with India are collectively known as BRIC countries.
While Russia’s managers stand tall with a disposable income of $1,57,348, Chinese managers rank second with $1,26,281 and those from Brazil rank third with a disposable income of $1,23,766 per year, Global management consultancy firm Hay Groups latest World Pay Report said.
All the three BRIC nations except India managed to reserve their place in the top 20 countries listed by the World Pay Report, while India was way behind and managed 36th rank in the list of global pay stakes for 47 countries.
India’s large base of skilled talent has made the management pay somewhat immune to the global market despite the impressive economic development in the country.
“India benefits from a large tier of well educated, English-speaking local talent, making management pay more immune to the international market,” the World Pay Report said.
The top management cadre of corporate India can expect better pay packet in the future. The report said managers’ pay in India is increasing between 15-20% so it is unlikely to stay at the bottom of the pay table for long.
The report compiled the detailed cross-country pay information. This report defined pay as total cash, which is equal to base salary plus any annualised short-term variable incentive.

Tata's conquering the world

Read this news that recent;y appeared on Economictimes
Tata shortlisted for Jaguar, Land Rover deal

LONDON: Ford Motor Co on Thursday said it has shortlisted candidates interested in acquiring its two marquees, Jaguar and Land Rover, and India's Tatas are reported to be amongst the top contenders.

"We are now exploring in greater detail the potential sale of the combined Jaguar Land Rover business with selected parties who have expressed interest," Ford Motor Co spokesperson John Gardiner said in an e-mailed statement.

He, however, said no final decision has been made yet "in relation to Jaguar Land Rover's future".

Gardiner said Ford was pleased with the positive expressions of interest in the business and also with the strength and quality of interested parties it had received.

Asked about industry news in India, which suggested Tata Motors was amongst the top contenders, he declined to comment stating the company would not comment on names, numbers or origins of any interested parties.

He said the objective of the marquees sale would be to enable Ford to concentrate on its core business strategy, while "ensuring Jaguar and Land Rover has the ownership, technology and investment structure it needs to allow it to reach its full potential".

On labour issues, he said the company was ensuring very close communication with its union during "the process to determine the best future for Jaguar, Land Rover and Ford Motor Co".
Source: Economictimes.Date: 26th July ' 07

Tata has been doing extremely well in terms of putting their globallization plans into action. They ate up Tetley, then Corus and now this one. Way to go

A note on life

I'm back to Blogsville after a resonably long hiatus. Actually i have been thumping posts during this time but they lie safely in my laptop. Wrote them in the middle of nowhere and so couldn't upload them.
Spent the New yrs at Pune with old friends. The gathering was fun but the music at Pyramyd Lounge, Pune sucked big time. Felt cheated after paying 1800 bucks for all that crap.
Things have eased up big time on the work front. My team is steadily growing and is expected to explode in the coming months. There are also a couple of very interesting assignments lined up. My official laptop is still lying in some port in Europe. Hoping to get a mail from the purchase dept announcing its arrival.

Googledom

, Just completed reading " The google story" by David Wise. Quite an eyeopener on how Serjey and Larry managed to make their dreams into a $80 billion giant. The journey from the Stanford lab to the gates building to the garage to googleplex is worth a read however, some portion of the book might have been better with a more detailed take. Take the case where Overture sues Google for infringement of its propriety ad selling mechanism. Felt somehow lost as I had no idea who was Overture and why on earth did they not capitalize on their patented solution or the case where the founders had no interest in hiring a CEO but were being forced by Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital. Somewhere the seriousness and implications of Larry's and Brin's decision on Googles future was not really discussed to extent that would have made a serious reader satisfied. Anyway's heres my 10 point gyan to anyone interested in knowing a bit about Google and its founders.

1)Google is a mis-spelt word. The original word is Googol which means 1 followed by 100 zeroes.

2)Larry Page's brother Carl page also sold his internet company during the dot com era for an eye popping $500 million.

3)Google's ad model was originally developed by a company named Overture ( Now a Yahoo company)

4)From their original hostel at Stanford, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were shifted to a newly constructed building named William Gates building.

5)Though a tech company Google followed the practices of media companies during its IPO. To protect itself from unwanted takeover threats the company issued class A and B types of shares. Valued similarly the two classes of shares differed only in their voting rights. The company also developed an auction based system of allotting its stake to prevent unwanted volatility just after listing.

6)Google had lost the Amazon Europe ad deal to Yahoo. Larry and Serjey were traveling on their private jet when they got this news. With much persuation the founders arranged a secret meeting with Amazon's CEO. Google raised its bid to such a level that Yahoo was eventually forced to back out of the deal saying that it did not make business sense for the latter.

7)Google's inhouse chef Charlie Ayers is one of the few chefs in the world who became a millionaire by selling personal Google shares given to him.

8)Its very rare to find Kleiner Perkins and sequoia capital investing in the same venture. Larry and Sergie played a sleek game pitting the two VC'c against each other resulting in the two firms investing $12.5 million each.

9)Google has a policy where employees are allowed to spend 20% of their time persuing their interests. Googlenews, Gmail and a host of other applications are a result of employee ideas which originated during this 20% time.

10)Google has one of the largest hardware infrastructure and computing power in the world. This can be gauged from the fact that the company crawl the entire web and saves it in its computers. When a user searches for something, the google computers searches through the saved pages and throws out relevant results within seconds.

The Blog Block

MSNIts difficult to ignore a phenomenon...Comeonguys..How many of us like to be left behind when the rest of the world choose to do something really cool. Blogspot caught on exceptionally well among bloggers than other blog sites like Yahoo blog or the MSN alternative however, recent situations like the Mumbai blasts have been a perfect reality check for the "follow the herd" group.

Its been almost a week that I havent had a chance to see my blog. Though an occasional blogger, I like to see my baby everyday atleast a couple of times. With the Indian government deciding to come down heavily on blog sites for fear of spreading communal discord "blogspot" was the first and obvious choice to be axed. I'm still a tad surpriised at the inconsistencies in implementing the ban on blogs. I am unable to access my blog when I use a reliance broadband connection however, my page pops up just fine when I use my airtel connection.

Its high time that Indian's start doing things keeping the ultimate result or goal to be achieved in mind. I really dont understand the use of some ISP's blocking blogsites while some others allowing them.

Freelancers Dilemma

Life has all sorts of ways of throwing you down just when you manage to get a hold on the road ahead. Happy was I doing my normal course of work at Valuenotes when I was pulled up for co-ordinating interviews for freelancers that VN planned to hire for a project. What!! me..... interview freelancers.................!!!! where's the time!!!!!!!! How many!!!!But!! if ?? I dont know how many such questions popped out but work is work babes. Karna to padega......

Orkutting around

Last week was one of most pleasant weeks for me in recent years. Why so? you may ask. I'll say " I discovered Orkut". Though pretty late to discover this wonderful networking tool, I am satisfied by the new finds that I made. Hardeep, Salil, Sushant, Assem, Reshma just to name a few...all long lost friends floating in cyberspace. I'm amazed how easily I found out these guys whom I had last met really looooooooooooooooooon ago. I also managed to hook up to several engineering friends who were lost after my "Bharti" days. Life's also been hectic due to the ongoing world cup. I come back from office and till 2 AM I'm just hooked to the television. After that I crash and before I know I have to be rushing back to office. I'm not complaning just reviewing my small life................

Pune - Kolkatta - Sahibganj - Sakrigali

Im back to my office chair in pune...My Kolkata trip was very different the past. Here's a brief recount of the happenings in the last 2 weeks.

11th May - Reached Kolkata at 5 in the morning. Taxied myself to Salt lake. Lots of food, pampering, sleep, television et all.. Woke up in the middle of the day to find that CPM had managed to garner an astounding win. Lot of hulla gull here n there.

12th May - Woke up to see most of the dailies throwing away praises at wholesale quantities at Buddhadeb babu..Tata's announced plans of setting up their 1 lakh car manufacturing facility in the state. Videocon too spelt out grand plans as well as some foreign steel company whose name i cant recall. Buddha on his part portrayed the perfect "Bhardralok" by downplaying his role and toying the fine line between party ideology and capitalism.

13th May - Again lots of Buddha here and there. Calcutta dailies commented CPM for trying to balance socialistic values with capitalist necessities. Isn't moving with the times considered a normal phenomenon in today's times??? then why this hullaboo about understanding the need of the hour??? I guess doing normal things these days gets people lot of positive airtime and editorial pages. Evening descended and I was on my way to Howrah with mom to catch the train to Sahibganj.

14th May - ( 5.00 AM) - The Howrah - Gaya express which normally reaches Sahibganj at 5.30 A.M decided to take it easy this time. We reached Sahibganj at 6.00. I have never really been to small towns in my life. Life has always been between the four cities Mumbai - Pune - Kolkata and Delhi so the first thing that makes me uncomfortable in chotta places is the lack of dust and car honkings. Pretty much the same happened here. Though the air was cool the people seemed pretty different. In Bihar villages you will rarely come across some one who has a decent amount of idle fat hanging from his/ her waistline. Is it the lack of Mcdonald's or more manual work done by people in this side of the country, I really dunno. Having managed to amass a good quality of " CHARBI" I was clearly a standout.

Out of the station we managed to convince a jeepwala to drive us to the Sakrigali ashram for 150 bucks. The road I must say was better than than what I had heard or expected. It took us close to 45 mins to reach the final destination

Amar Kolkatta

Lull has set in again at subhanko.blogspot.com. My colleague Amit (kumaram.blogspot.com) has been pestering me for quite sometime to update my bloggy, but laziness as always won the onesided battle.

I will be in Kolkatta from the 9th of May to the 25th. This is my second visit in a year. The last time I went there was in October, 05. Kolkatta is surely rocking nowadays...with Rajarhat becoming the g-spot of IT companies and huge malls, Iinoxes coming up all over the city the place is undergoing a pleasant positive transformtion. Good ol CPM sems to have finally agreed that change is the only thing that's constant. Lets hope that the momentum continues. My only concern is the sweaty h eat which is just unbearable..

Table Tennis Blues

Thats my new racket, The Stiga "Revtech". Cost me 1500 bucks but I'm not complaining. I have been putting off my splurging instincts for sometime but, I just couldn't control this one. Opportunity presented itself in the form of the Inter IT company TT championship in Pune.

ABN Amro Bank N.V.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Limited
Allahabad Bank
American Express Bank
Andhra Bank
Bank of Baroda
Bank of India
Bank of Maharashtra
Barclays Bank PLC
BNP Paribas
Calyon Bank
Canara Bank
Canbank Mutual Fund
Central Bank of India
Centurion Bank of Punjab Ltd.
Chescor International Limited
Citibank NA
City Union Bank Limited
Corporation Bank
Dena Bank
Deutsche Bank AG
Deutsche Securities India Private Limited
Development Credit Bank Limited
Dhanalakshmi Bank Limited
Dresdner Bank
DSP Merill Lynch Limited
Exim Bank
Federal Bank Limited
GIC Asset Managementt Co. Limited
Gilt Securities Trading Corporation Limited
Great Eastern Shipping Co. Limited
HDFC Bank Limited
Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp.Limited
Housing Development Finance Corp. Limited
ICICI Banking Corporation Limited
ICICI Securities Limited
IDBI Capital Market Services Limited
IDBI Ltd.
Indian Bank
Indian Overseas Bank
IndusInd Bank Limited
Infrastructure Leasing & Fin Services Limited
ING Vysya Bank Limited
Internationale Nederlanden Bank
Jammu & Kashmir Bank Limited
JP Morgan Securities India Private Limited
Karur Vysya Bank Limited
KBC Bank Limited
Lakshmi Vilas Bank Limited
Life Insurance Corporation of India
Mashreqbank PSC
National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Dev.
National Housing Bank
New India Co-operative Bank Limited
Reliance Industries Limited
SBI Capital Market Services Ltd.
SBI DFHI Ltd.
SBI Funds Management Limited
Securities Trading Corporation of India Limited
Societe Generale
Standard Chartered Bank
State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur
State Bank of Hyderabad
State Bank of India
State Bank of Indore
State Bank of Mauritius Limited
State Bank of Mysore
State Bank of Patiala
State Bank of Travancore
Syndicate Bank
DBS Bank Ltd.
The Sangli Bank Limited
The United Western Bank Limited
UCO Bank
Union Bank of India
Unit Trust of India
United Bank of India
UTI Bank Limited
Vijaya Bank



NCRP08

A foreign MBA or a Indian one.

India is a land of abundance. Abundance of brains and intelligence. Wherever you are go here the competition seems to get tougher and tougher. A common chain of thought that most youngsters out here have is doing an MBA just after their graduation. Can we blame them for their ignorance or hastiness? When you have to fight so much for you basic necessities, where is the assurance that two or three years down the line these guys and gals will be in a position to dedicate two years or is it their fault that the kind of jobs that people get just after their graduation is just not fulfilling enough with equally frustrating salaries. Though IT companies provide a decent salary youngsters are faced with an identity crisis in a pool of 30000 other techies. Those who are lucky enough to get that golden PSU or cushy government job are happy to stick there but even for them things are changing. With privatization sweeping the shores of PSU’s it will not be long before government employees start working equally hard as their private counterparts.

An MBA opens many doors --------------------That’s what people in India think and that’s exactly what that MBA does for them. But guys and gals abroad come with a different mindset. For them an MBA is a tool of making a new door that was never present.

Finally Chidambaram Tells India its Future

Finally, The budget has been announced. This was a very special budget. I say this because somehow here was a budget that was challenging India on its face to grow faster and better than what it had grown last year. Indian's who have always been shy of winning on global front have never been so optimistic. Most of the people in my office were eagerly waiting for Chidambaram's speech and today almost everyone except me had a copy of The Economic Times and Business Standard with them. From what I hear people are not really dancing with joy with this years budget nor are they cribbing too much. Talk of being indifferent.

Telecom companies it seems aren’t too pleased with what FINMIN has given them. Their rationale for disappointment is that when they already have to pay a high Access Deficit Charge, double tax and high licensing fees why should they be subjected to the 12% service tax. Something good that PC has done here is sanctioning more money for its rural telephony programme. Now Ramu can also give his chameli a cell phone and they can be in touch if Ramu goes to the town.

Pharma companies were expecting some nice goodies but had to do with only a few sops. I hear that drugs for life threatening diseases like Aids and Cancer will become cheaper.

The increase in the service tax to 12% is what is pinching most of people around. The argue that now they have to pay more for the dosa or the burger that they eat out. "SMOKING BEAUTIES" have also shown their discontent with a couple of them saying “ BACCHE KI JAAN LEGA KYA” on being asked how a 5% hike in cigarettes will affect them.

After software it’s now the turn of the hardware industry to get their long due 21 gun salute. This segment is slated to get some help by way of reduced customs duty etc. I am not complaining, as lately I have been thing of getting a comp.

More updates as an when I get the news. BAH BYE

Budget Calls

Its again that part of the year when the Indian stock market will do its most famous yo-yo game. Why you ask?? Arre yaar today PC is gonna announce his plans for the next year. With India growing at a frenzy pace and the whole world watching it this is one thing that I bet most of us will be eagerly waiting to see. I recollect what a ruccus all the new channels created last year with the withdrawal tax. I bet this year the FM is gonna again give a similar if not a better kind of Googly.

My wish list for this yrs budget
- Cut off the fringe benefit thing.
- Please invest some money to improve these roads.
- I need my fan to move in summer so can we have some more Power projects.I dont
really mind if my fan is being powered by a thermal plant or a nuclear reactor.
- IIT's,IIM's and NIT's are doing pretty well in making sure that those who have
it in them but could not clear those nerve wracking entrances go to second rung
schools and thereby loose out on the depth and breadth of a world class
infrastructure and faculty. So without wasting time the centre must start more of
these schools.

Pharma Karma

This is an excerpt of my thoughts on a case study given to us at office. Hope ita nice read for all the "pharma news" starved ppl


The Indian Pharmaceutical companies should focus their strengths on new drug discovery Research

Over the years India has gone from strength to strength in establishing itself as a pharmaceutical powerhouse. Statistics show that the top ten pharma companies as well as the top ten biotechnology companies have since achieved credible mass and are in a position to make substantial investments that is a necessity for setting up facilities for new drug development. As on 2004 the top 10-pharma companies had total revenues to the tune of $ 4 billion while the top biotech companies had revenues of $0.5 billion.

A closer look at the exports graph gives a clear indication as to what the need of the hour is? Over a period of 5 years pharmaceutical exports have grown at a cumulative rate of just 4%. To sustain any industry it is very important to have original, indigenous products. If companies do not take the effort to discover new drugs and molecules then they would always remain at the vagaries of the US and European pharma companies.

A revenue stream of attacking drugs, which will go off patent, should not be totally ruled out. This is because in the years that these drugs were under patent new technologies and molecules have been discovered which now allow companies to manufacture the same drug at faster and lower rates. There is also a huge readymade market for these kinds of cheap drugs in Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and South America. These cost sensitive regions have been deprived of the benefits of many drugs due to their high costs.

However since the process of manufacturing low cost generic drugs demands companies to heavily depend on may factors like reapplication of patent by the original company, country specific patents, lawsuits, delays etc the risk associated with such a business model is huge and the whole process is time consuming. Hence though companies can have some portion of their business as manufacturing low cost generic drudges but the ultimate aim should be to discover new drugs and molecules.

India as a country has the following characteristics

Strengths
Skilled workforce with proviciency in IT and biotechnology
Cheap wages
A matured pharmaceutical market where the companies have the required expertise and experience.
A diverse flora, fauna and ethnicity offering a numerous genetic pool.

Weaknesses
· Too much dependence on generic drugs
· Lack of initiative by Indian companies to discover new drugs
· Dependence on decisions given by patent tribunals. Many a times due to intense competition a company has to invest on machinery and people before the actual patent
expires. If for some reason the product does not get held up the Pharma companies incur heavy losses.

Threats
· Competition from countries like China which too offer similar incentives to pharma MNC’s


India’s pharma revolution took a giant leap in the 90’s when Indian companies started exporting drugs to different countries. This was followed by the new patent regime and increase in the brand equity of Indian pharma companies. Manufacturing Bio generics was of special interest to Indian companies since this business required low capital and with several bumper drugs slated to go off patent companies did not want to miss any action. India’s skilled and cheap labor was also a deciding factor. Currently the bio generics market in India is close to Rs 1,357 crores and this is slated to increase to Rs 1,864.3 crores by the year 2007.

Many Indian companies have come out with generic versions of high demand drugs. Due to advancement in technology and processes the new drugs discovered are much cheaper than their earlier versions. The cost sensitive developing nations like Asia, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, which have lenient clinical regulatory systems offer a huge untapped market for the Indian generics companies. A closer look at the Indian biotech sector also reveals 16 companies, which have revenues of more than Rs 50crores. Hence due to presence of scale, skill and a ready market I agree with the author’s opinion of India emerging as a generic hub.

I Dont But I have to

"I Dont But I have to" How many times have we said this to ourselves. Now we still have the luxury of running away from things we dont like but, what if a situation arises where we cant get away. How about GLOBAL WARMING...... Scientist have begun to get pretty alarmed thinking about the grave consequences that this thig might propose. They say its not too loong( by this they mean not really the oft understood 500 yrs) but in the next few hundred years two possibilities would arise
(1) We would al be floating
(2) We would all be burning.

Just two week in to the Pune summer and I have begun to take this thing seriously..

The Valuenotes Search Bar

Today is an eventful day. After starting my google blog almost 6 months back. There a new addition. The VN Search Bar. An amazing thing and I'm very impresed with it. Have a look. Its at the right side of the page.

starting my blog

Welcome to my blog.its been quite sometime that i decided to start writing my thoughts ...but being the lazy creature that i a m , it finally took almost 3 months to get the act together..in the last 2 yrs all that i have done in life is SSSSUUUUUUUURRRRRFFFFFFFFF and my blog will have some good links(i like them!!) about these subjects