High UK exposure may pose risk for TCS  
March 12, 2010
Source: PTI

HYDERABAD: CBI, probing the multi-crore financial fraud in Satyam Computers, today alleged doctors were prolonging the treatment of the company's former chairman B Ramalinga Raju only to delay the trial in the case.

Raju, the prime accused in the scam who is suffering from Hepatitis-C is currently undergoing treatment at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS).

A senior NIMS doctor last December recommended immediate in-patient treatment of Raju for 6-8 weeks, which he said was not possible on out-patient basis.

The special court trying the Satyam scam cases here last month ordered the NIMS director to file a detailed report on the current status of Raju's health after he did not appear before the court in view of his treatment.

Following the directions, the professor and head of gastroenterology department of NIMS Dr Ajit Kumar, who filed a report last week before the court, today filed another report saying "The treatment of Raju needs to be continued as in-patient for further four-six weeks, as he carries very high risk for morbidity on out-patient management."

Strongly reacting to the report, CBI's deputy legal advisor B Ravindranath said, "Initially they (NIMS doctors) said, Raju requires 6-8 weeks treatment, but now it's over four months that Raju is in the hospital. The treatment is being prolonged for delaying the trial in the case."

Following the objections, special judge B V L N Chakravarti, directed the prosecution to show legal provision, in case the accused is not produced and posted the matter for March 18.

Meanwhile, the court also extended the judicial remand of all the 10 accused till March 18.

Meanwhile, CBI filed its counter reply before the court saying it does not have any objection regarding the petition of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that sought permission to allow it to record the statements of four Satyam accused.

In its application last week, the ED sought to examine V S Prabhakar Gupta, who was posted as senior vice-president- cum-global head of internal audit cell in Mahindra Satyam, G Ramakrishna, then vice-president (finance), D Venkatapathi Raju (senior manager finance) and Ch Srisailam (assistant manager) in Satyam Computer Services Ltd (SCSL).

Gupta, who filed an application today said, he was ready for the examination by the ED.

After this the judge asked the three remaining accused to file their counters and adjourned the matter to March 18.

Referring on the miscellaneous petitions, filed by relatives of some of the accused seeking defreezing of their accounts, the judge asked the wife of PriceWaterhouse auditor S Gopalkrishnan, to file documents on the evidence of source of income held in the joint account in a private bank here.

When Gopalkrishnan's wife sought the court's direction to defreeze her joint account, the judge asked her on the balance and also sought to know the source of the income in the account.

In her reply she said the balance in the account was Rs 50 lakh and obtained through salaries and mutual funds.

Infosys seeing increase in deal inflows
March 12, 2010
Source: PTI

MUMBAI: Software major Infosys Technologies today said more IT deals were coming in the past two quarters as all major markets are back on the path of economic recovery.

"What has changed in the last two quarters is that the markets have improved and deals are coming back. We see more deal flows," Infosys CEO and MD S Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of a CII meet here on Wednesday.

IT companies were hit hard during the global economic slow down, the worst in the past 60 years, triggered with the fall of US-based Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

As the deal pipeline is improving, the IT major is looking at diversifying its business worldwide.

"The recovery is led by the US and other emerging markets such as India and China. The US contributes 60 per cent of the total business. Clearly this is having more impact on the Indian IT services. Proactively we are investing more on diversifying our business," he said.

At present, the company's revenue distribution is 60 per cent from North America, 25 per cent from Europe and the balance from other parts of the world.

"In five-years from now, we see the revenue distribution at 40 per cent from North America, 40 per cent from Europe and 20 per cent from rest of the world," Gopalkrishnan said.

Pricing would remain stable, he said. On the increase in minimum alternate tax announced in the Budget, he said that his company would not be impacted by it.

When asked if volatility in the currency movement would affect business, he said one per cent appreciation or fall in currency would affect margins by 0.40 per cent.