Stronger rupee to further hit exports: Goldman Sachs

June 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Wipro chief Azim Premji has asked the Indian IT industry to get ready to face the global competition, and not fall into a mind trap of 'India Advantage'. "We have talked a lot about India advantage.

February 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian software and services industry is expected to grow 16 percent this fiscal and log revenues of $60 billion despite the global slowdown, a top lobby for the industry said Wednesday. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) said in its report that together with the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, the revenues are expected to top $71.7 billion with a growth of 17 percent.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government expects to raise as much as Rs.35,000 crore ($7.2 billion) from auction of third generation (3G) spectrum, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Monday while presenting the budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha. The estimated figure, included in the receipts from the "other communications services" category in the budget, is higher than what Communications and IT Minister A.

January 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The auction of third generation (3G) mobile services, which are slated to take place according to the revised time schedule, may be further delayed as the industry still is not ready. 'The government is ready for the auctions but it is the industry players who demand more time from us,' a Department of Telecom (DoT) official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

January 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - IT solutions provider NIIT Technologies Wednesday said its net profit dipped 52 percent to Rs.16.8 crore (Rs.168 million/$3.36 million) for the third quarter ending Dec 31 from Rs.34.7 crore (Rs.347 million/$6.94 million) in the same period last year. However, the company's revenues rose six percent to Rs.248.5 crore (Rs.2.49 billion/$480 million) for the quarter, as compared to Rs.233.8 crore (Rs.2.3 billion/$460 million) in the same period last year, a company statement said.

February 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Terming the Satyam Computer Services scam a 'singular case', a senior Singapore diplomat said here Tuesday that India would be able to face up to the crisis and emerge 'stronger' from it. 'What happened to Satyam came as a surprise and shock, but we are pleased at the speed of the Indian government that has replaced the board with very credible and highly respected individuals,' Tommy Koh, ambassador-at-large at Singapore's ministry of foreign affairs, told reporters.

June 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The IT and IT enabled services (IteS) industry in India is expected to grow 10.8 percent to touch Rs.309,573 crore ($64 billion) in 2009, the slowest in the last five years, a report released here said. "The domestic market is estimated to grow at 10.2 percent to touch Rs.109,406 crore, while exports will likely grow at 11.2 percent to cross Rs.200,000 crore, the report by market intelligence firm IDC said.

February 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The perpetrator of the Rs.70-billion (Rs.7,000-crore/$1.43 billion) accounting fraud at Satyam Computer Services will not go scot-free, Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee said here Thursday. 'In the recent past, we have seen an unfortunate case, a failure which has attracted considerable attention,' Mukherjee said in his address at the 81st annual general meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

May 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - BigAdda, the social networking website belonging to the Anil Ambani group, Fropper, a dating site and Indyarocks, an entertainment-based social network, are among the top 25 Indian Internet start-ups ranked for the first time by leading technology magazine Dataquest. The rankings prepared with the help of Indianweb2.com that tracks Indian start-ups in the technology space, is an interesting mix of social networking sites, tool makers, rating sites, and creators of close-knit online communities and mobile applications.

May 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India Inc believes the move by the Barack Obama administration to reduce tax breaks for US firms that ship jobs overseas will hit American companies more than impact on the Indian outsourcing industry. 'It's a more US-US issue rather than one aimed at stopping outsourcing, or off-shoring, or anything to do with India,' said Som Mittal, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), a representative boddy for the industry.

April 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - As India seeks to emerge upfront in today's knowledge economy, the national elections will give its verdict on whether information technology can help politicians reach out to their vote banks, as US President Barack Omaba did last year. And Dataquest magazine, in its cover story on this aspect in its upcoming issue, feels it is the growing realisation of the power of IT that prompted the two main political parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress - to give significant importance to it in their manifestoes.