Infosys to invest Rs 500 crore in Orissa  
May 30, 2008
Source: PTI

BHUBANESWAR: IT major Infosys today said it would invest Rs 500 crore in Orissa for setting up an SEZ in IT and ITeS sectors and take care of children's mid-day-meal scheme and healthcare services. 

"We have proposed to set up an IT SEZ in Bhubaneswar. The project will require 50 acres of land", T V Mohandas Pai, Director HR, ER and administration and member of board of Infosys, told reporters here. 

Pai who along with prominent cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty and employment planner Manish Agarwal, met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here, said they made a presentation before the government outlining their development plan for IT sector and allied service in the state. 

Pai who had been funding mid-day meal for 10,000 school children in Nayagarh district, also agreed to extend the programme to Gajapati and Kandhamal districts, official sources said. Besides, 30,000 children in Puri district were also getting midday meal in Puri district. 

"We have been spending Rs 6.50 per child to provide quality food," Pai said pointing out that Infosys had spent Rs 5.5 crore towards its corporate social responsibility. 

Shetty, who had been providing health care service to BPO staff, urged Patnaik to allot five-seven acres of land in the city for setting up a 1,000-bed heart hospital. 

As the city was gradually becoming a IT hub of Eastern India with almost all major players opening their development centres, employees required quality heath service, Shetty said. 

"We have also requestedthe state government to help Shetty set up a heart hospital here", Pai told reporters.  

Mistral to represent Altium in India      
May 30 , 2008 
SOURCE: REUTERS

Mistral Solutions Pvt Ltd, a provider of technology solutions and services in the embedded space, said it has been appointed as a value-added reseller by Altium Ltd for their unified electronic product development solutions. Mistral will represent Altium in India and provide technical and sales support for Altium Designer and Altium’s Innovation Station, which combines Altium Designer with the Desktop NanoBoard reconfigurable hardware development platform. Altium Des igner is a unified electronic product development solution that allows engineers to take a design from concept to completion within a single application. Altium is a developer of electronic product development solution. It is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. 

Short-term credit crunch to impact business: TCS  
May 30, 2008 
SOURCE: INN

LONDON: India's top software services exporter, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), expects a short-term impact on its business from the global credit crunch, a top company official said on Wednesday. 

A S Lakshminarayananan, country manager for UK and Ireland told reporters at the sidelines of a business summit, that the company had not yet felt any impact, however. "It's coming. I think it's bound to come because people are cautious," Lakshminarayananan said. 

"To me it seems a lot of talking down happening. There is a cautious approach," he said. TCS, along with rivals such as Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Technologies Ltd, has won large outsourcing deals from overseas clients looking to cut costs. 

The financial services industry accounted for about 41 percent of TCS's worldwide revenues in the fiscal year 2007, while the UK accounted for about a fifth of global revenues. With many banks announcing huge asset writedowns and losses, software companies could potentially experience delays in fresh orders, specially from financial clients. 

"In the short run it's going to be an issue; people are unsettled, management changes are happening ... That will have a short-term impact," he added. 

TCS employs about 4,000 people in Britain, and Lakshminarayananan said the headcount was expected to grow despite the short-term uncertainties. "But once the dust settles, companies are going to invest for revenue growth and look at ways to take costs out," he said. 

TCS counts Lloyds TSB Group, Morgan Stanley and French insurer AXA SA among its clients. "There are some good contracts that we have won recently, and those are ramping up," he added. 

Earlier this week, TCS announced a five-year $100 million deal with privately held European chipmaker NXP Semiconductors. "Even companies that are in a healthy state are worried because of the uncertainty," he said. TCS shares gained 4.5 percent to Rs 1,009.70 on Wednesday, outpacing a 1.5 percent rise in the benchmark BSE. The shares are down 6.8 percent in 2008.