IT Park/IT SEZ Project Hyderabad

[rizwan3]

Polaris to buy Indian assets of US-based firm

CHENNAI: Polaris Software Lab plans to acquire the Indian assets of the US-based firm Catalytic Software, according to at least two persons involved in the transaction.

The deal is unusual because it involves only the transfer of real estate and not business or employees of Catalytic, which is in the process of winding up its operations in Hyderabad, the officials involved in the discussion told ET on conditions of anonymity.

The deal will give Polaris access to Catalytic’s development centre and prime land at Srikakulam, close to the city’s new airport at Shamshabad. Polaris is likely to pay around 50 crore for the facility and it will take a couple of weeks to complete this deal. When contacted, Polaris CFO R Srikanth denied any such plan and said such talks are speculative.

Polaris, which plans to expand in Hyderabad by acquiring this facility, currently has over 9,000 employees on its rolls and has fixed a hiring target of 2,000 for the current financial year.

“Polaris may have agreed to buy the company to acquire the land because if the campus has tax benefits it cannot be simply traded between two parties. Instead , Polaris might choose to buy the company itself, which is almost a shell company in this case, to get the land,” said an analyst tracking Polaris, who did not wish to be named.

Separately, the company is also trying to off-load its businesses and employees in the country to another Hyderabad-based software company, Prithvi Information Solutions. A spokesperson for Prithvi, when contacted, said: “Negotiations are currently on, so we cannot comment on the nature or structure of this transaction.”

The US offices of Catalytic and top officials in its India operations could not be reached for reactions on both these deals but a senior official at Catalytic’s Hyderabad office said: “There were more than 200 employees at this facility six months back, but now it’s dwindled to over 100. We are hearing that talks are on with Polaris and Prithvi.”

[hyd]

kokapet sez is getting first company CBay.
Hope rest will follow

Originally Posted by rizwan3

Polaris to buy Indian assets of US-based firm

CHENNAI: Polaris Software Lab plans to acquire the Indian assets of the US-based firm Catalytic Software, according to at least two persons involved in the transaction.

The deal is unusual because it involves only the transfer of real estate and not business or employees of Catalytic, which is in the process of winding up its operations in Hyderabad, the officials involved in the discussion told ET on conditions of anonymity.

The deal will give Polaris access to Catalytic’s development centre and prime land at Srikakulam, close to the city’s new airport at Shamshabad. Polaris is likely to pay around 50 crore for the facility and it will take a couple of weeks to complete this deal. When contacted, Polaris CFO R Srikanth denied any such plan and said such talks are speculative.

Polaris, which plans to expand in Hyderabad by acquiring this facility, currently has over 9,000 employees on its rolls and has fixed a hiring target of 2,000 for the current financial year.

“Polaris may have agreed to buy the company to acquire the land because if the campus has tax benefits it cannot be simply traded between two parties. Instead , Polaris might choose to buy the company itself, which is almost a shell company in this case, to get the land,” said an analyst tracking Polaris, who did not wish to be named.

Separately, the company is also trying to off-load its businesses and employees in the country to another Hyderabad-based software company, Prithvi Information Solutions. A spokesperson for Prithvi, when contacted, said: “Negotiations are currently on, so we cannot comment on the nature or structure of this transaction.”

The US offices of Catalytic and top officials in its India operations could not be reached for reactions on both these deals but a senior official at Catalytic’s Hyderabad office said: “There were more than 200 employees at this facility six months back, but now it’s dwindled to over 100. We are hearing that talks are on with Polaris and Prithvi.”

[rockystone]

First Signs Of Life At Facebook India Office

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/29/facebook-india/
watch this video its very interesting


Hot on the heels of Facebook overtaking Orkut as India’s most prominent social network with 21 million vs. 20 million unique visitors in July, the company opened up its much anticipated office in Hyderabad earlier this week. Facebook Hyderabad will be Facebook’s tenth international office.

Headed by Kirthiga Reddy and Manoj Varghese, the Indian Facebook team will include more sales and operations as well as multi-lingual support staff in order provide round-the-clock international support.

From the Facebook blog:

The new offices come at a significant time in our international growth. Seventy percent of the people using Facebook are outside the U.S. and are accessing the service from more than 70 languages. In India alone, we’ve seen rapid growth and now have more than 8 million people there actively connecting on Facebook with their friends, family, and other people they know, both within India and around the globe.

Hyderabad, India’s “City of Pearls,” is often called “Cyberabad” as it is the Indian base of many other technology companies including Google, Microsoft, Oracle HP, Dell, Motorola, IBM, HP and Amazon. Social gaming giant Zynga also recently set up an outpost in Bangalore, in an effort to capitalize on the sizable Indian market.

Video of the traditional Indian opening ceremony, above. Highlights include American Facebookers awkwardly dancing Bollywood-style and an impressive Facebook cake.

Update: According to Facebook, the video and hoopla signify the office arrival of the initial Facebook Hyderabad landing team. The “official” Facebook Hyderabad launch date will be in September.

[rockystone]

Wipro Commences Operation at 40 Acres Gopanapalli SEZ Campus, Hyderabad

(Excl Ventures News.)

After Months of delay, Wipro has commenced operations at Gopanapalli SEZ Campus, beside Gachibowli Financial District in Hyderabad

Wipro was allotted land in Gopanaplli by APIIC to set up IT Campus in 2005-06 The company applied for SEZ on 40 Acres and the SEZ was notified by the Central Govt in 2007 vide Notification 2112(E)



The Campus construction commenced in 2007 and was completed in early 2009. However since, then there has been no activity at the campus. Wipro Sources at Gopanaplli campus has confirmed that the campus has gone operational from 25th August. Staffing will be scaled upto 250 people in 3 months time.

The Wipro Campus is 1KM from Gopanaplli T Junction and is beside the proposed 120 feet ring road which connects ORR at Vattinagulapalli to Gopanaplli / Gachibowli.

The Campus is 1KM from the upcoming campus of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR) at Gopanapalli.

Comment :
The operationalization of the Wipro Campus should result in improvement of road network at Gopanapalli, soon.

[rizwan3]

Originally Posted by hyd

kokapet sez is getting first company CBay.
Hope rest will follow

Whr Did u get the information...?

[rizwan3]

Navayuga-ITI consortium bags TNEB contract for Rs 307 cr

Hyderabad, Aug. 31

The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) has awarded the Rs 307-crore project of networking 110 towns in Tamil Nadu through Information Technology infrastructure to the consortium of ITI Ltd and Navayuga Infotech Pvt Ltd.

The TNEB has issued the letter of intent (LoI) to the consortium, awarding the contract.

Navayuga Infotech, part of the Hyderabad-based diversified conglomerate CVR group, formerly known as Navayuga group, is a full-service IT outsourcing company.

The project of TNEB, includes design, engineering, supply, installation, integration, testing, commissioning and facility management service of system integration project, covering software, hardware, field survey and networking.

The consortium will have to complete implementation of the system in a pilot area at Bhavani within 12 months from the date of award of the contract. For all other identified project areas, the consortium has to complete the implementation within 18 months.

[rockystone]

Eyeing talent, AppLabs plans $50-mn US buyout


AppLabs, the world’s largest independent software testing quality management company, which has its global delivery centre in Hyderabad, is planning to acquire a US-based company for about $ 50 million (approximately Rs 235 crore), according to its founder and chairman Sashi Reddi.

"The move is primarily targeted at acquiring talent pool in a short while, going back again to the old challenges. One significant acquisition in the US helps us plug a key requirement (workforce) for the company," he told Business Standard, while declining to draw any time line for closing the deal.

AppLabs had earlier acquired three companies — KeyLabs for $7 million in 2005, IS Integration for $37 million in 2006 and Hyderabad-based ValueMinds for an undisclosed sum in August 2010.

The over $100-million company, has raised $17 million from global venture capital funds such as Sequoia Capital and Silicon Valley Bank to fund these buyouts. "The proposed acquisition will be funded through internal accruals and debt from banks and large private equity players," Reddi said.

AppLabs currently employs a little over 2,000 globally, of which 1,650 work out of its Hyderabad centre. Reddi said the debt-free company was expanding its presence in Hyderabad and was taking more space at the DLF special economic zone here at a cost of Rs 12 crore.

"I can picture that we can add probably more than 11,000 people in the next 12 months," he said, adding the new facility would be fully operational by the end of this December.

Reddi said there was a change in the mix of people that the company was taking because of the bigger companies that it was currently working with. The new recruitment at AppLabs, will include 60 per cent freshers and the rest laterals.

Stating that the global software testing market was estimated to be $6 billion and growing at a rate of 20 per cent, which is far higher than the growth of the general IT services market, he said the growth could be achieved if the testing moves from inhouse to outside.

"But where is it going is the question .. whether it is going to big systems integrators, specialised firms like AppLabs or testing tools vendors. In this space, we are seeing a strong growth in the US, with the geography contributing two-thirds to our revenues," he said, adding that when the company competed now for business, it was always against Tier-I players IBM or Cognizant.

[rizwan3]

Our strategy's to both build & buy: CA Tech's McCracken


The $4.2-billion New Jersey-based CA Technologies has made news quite a number of times this year. First, with a brand name change, its third in four years. Then, with its string of acquisitions in the security and cloud space. It made its third acquisition this week —credit card authentication firm Arcot Systems, founded by Ram Varadarajan — for $200 million. CA Technologies’ CEO William E McCracken, 67, who took over the reins in January this year speaks to ET about his vision for the company, the acquisitions, India plans and role in the Unique ID project. Excerpts:

CA has already bought three IT companies in the past eight months. Can we expect more buyouts this year?

Large companies are stacking both hardware and software and bundling them for customers. Do you think bundling of IT services with hardware creates a risk of vendor lock-in?

Bundling of software with hardware by a vendor does create some risk of a lock-in for the customer. CA is vendor-neutral and platform agnostic. Our solutions work across platforms. We are not going to try and sell customers hardware and throw in software. We sell software and the services to deploy it.

What are CA’s India plans for the next two years? How do you plan to engage large Indian IT players?

The Indian market is unique for us at CA Technologies. The India Technology Centre in Hyderabad develops about 30% of CA’s global products. It is our largest such facility in the world, and employs over 1,600 people.We have invested about $30 million in capital expenditure to build a new state-of-the-art facility which will house another 1,000 employees. It will be ready in 2010. We are increasing our coverage across government, telecom, defence and BFSI verticals. CA recognises the critical role that large IT firms such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL play to meet the needs of large enterprises globally. Therefore, we have launched a new programme called Indigo. It focuses on partnering with top 6 Indian IT firms around the world. India is the only market, outside US, where we have adopted this approach.

[rizwan3]

‘State set for greater strides in IT sector'

Government focus on facilitating its growth, says Special Secretary

HYDERABAD: Special Secretary, Information Technology, M. Gopikrishna on Thursday said the State government was focussed on facilitating growth of the sector by attracting companies to set up their facilities in the State.

Addressing representatives from the IT industry at a seminar on ‘Bridging the gap between IT service management and Integrated ALM/SDLC' organised for the launch of a software solution from U S-based Kovair Software, he recalled how Hyderabad had overtaken Bangalore and reeled out statistics.

Software exports

Mr. Gopikrishna said Hyderabad's software exports had grown from Rs. 200 crore in 1998 to Rs. 32,000 crore last year. The number of companies too, had grown from just 194 then to 1,200 now and the headcount too had grown from 12,000 in the past to 2,50,000, he said. The political vision of successive leaders and infrastructural support had made Hyderabad a preferred destination, he said. The 700-odd engineering colleges were churning out about 2.5 lakh engineering graduates.

Ramesh Bhandari, MD of Pegasys Information Technologies, that has partnered with Kovair Software for distributing the product in India, said his company would focus on promoting its software as a service (SaaS) solutions for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), Systems Development Lifecycle and IT Service Management (ITSM). Kovair's product was in the form of a web-based single repository for multiple applications.

Sky Basu, Kovair's Chief Technology Officer, said the product had several advantages as it was web-based and ensured substantial reduction in costs.

[ranga]

Wah!!! Hyderabad overtaken Bangaluru in IT ???????? is it true?????Is it jumbling figures reeled out by the BEWAQOOF official ?????

[rizwan3]

CA Technologies to hire 900 people over next 3-5 years

HYDERABAD: IT management software and solutions firm CA Technologies plans to add 900 people over the next 3-5 years at its India Technology Centre (ITC), taking the total headcount to 2,500.

"The Indian market presents a unique opportunity for us. The ITC in Hyderabad develops about 30 per cent of CA's global products and employs over 1,600 people," CA Technologies Senior Vice-President Sanket Atal said. "Over the next 3-5 years, we expect the headcount to reach 2,500 at the ITC," he added.

CA Technologies invested about USD 30 million to build the new facility. Apart from Hyderabad, the company has other technology centres in Beijing, China and Prague, Czech Republic.

"There will be fresh recruits from top institutes like IITs and IIMs as well as lateral hiring (which) will help us add to the headcount," he said.

The company recently appointed Atal as the Senior VP of the ITC. He will take over the role from William Bauman, whose term ends in January next year.

Atal will be responsible for coordinating business functions at the ITC, including product development, product management, customer support, services, HR and finance.

CA Technologies is focusing on government, telecom, defence and BFSI verticals as major growth areas for the firm. The Nasdaq-listed company is eyeing a 50 per cent growth in operations in India.

[rockystone]

Satyam targets campus recruits in hiring spree

Mahindra Satyam will go on a hiring spree over the next twelve months and for the first time in more than two years the information technology company plans to visit campuses next year to select fresh IT graduates.

“We are going to recruit close to 3,000 employees across various technologies and competencies. The hiring will begin in the next three months and will be spread over one year,” MV Sridhar, head of sports marketing, told Financial Chronicle. Sridhar is in charge of recruitment in the company, which is part of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) group

The company decided to increase the headcount after winning more than 35 new clients and securing extension of contracts with existing clients such as GE and GlaxoSmithKline.

Recently, the Hyderabad-based company won a multi-million deal from a large health insurer. It is one of the three companies that have been selected to weed out duplicate identities in the Union government's unique identity project.

“The recruitment process will commence simultaneously in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. We are looking to hire mostly for domains such as SAP, enterprise solutions, Oracle and business intelligence,” Sridhar said.

Mahindra Satyam has vacancies in its engineering and infrastructure management verticals, for which it will recruit staff after the first phase.

The company’s headcount had plunged after M&M took the reins of the company in 2009 after an accounting fraud by its founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju, which left Satyam on the brink of collapse. At present, it employs 30,000, down almost 30 per cent from Raju’s time.

About 7,000 employees were retrenched as the new management tried to resurrect the company while battling the global economic crisis and the impact of the fraud at the same time.

As part of its revival, Mahindra Satyam has teamed up with Tech Mahindra, another IT firm from the group, to execute projects. Tech Mahindra, which has a long association with British Telecom, is handling telecom projects given its expertise in the domain.

The two companies have also set up joint taskforces to handle issues related to infrastructure, human resources, technology and purchases.

[rizwan3]

Business Octane opens its fifth executive experience center in Hyderabad
September 15, 2010
Business Octane an enterprise-class productivity enhancing solution provider today announced the opening of their fifth executive experience center in Hyderabad.

New Delhi, Delhi, September 13, 2010 /India PRwire/ -- Business Octane (www.businessoctane.com), an enterprise-class productivity enhancing solution provider today announced the opening of their fifth executive experience center in Hyderabad. The experience center is strategically located in one of the prime locations of Hyderabad called Gachibowli, and is a 6000 sq feet facility. The facility further strengthens Business Octane's commitment to drive wide-spread adoption of Immersive Telepresence in India. Business Octane, which is headquartered at Gurgaon, currently has executive experience centers in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

The new facility will fortify Business Octane's South India operations. The center will house multiple immersive telepresence suites to help scale teams to support client engagements. CollaboratorHYPERMAX an immersive telepresence collaboration suite is now up and running in the new facility. The state-of-the-art Suite creates a truly immersive telepresence collaboration experience with up to 15 participants from each location and also ensures instant mega management reviews, on demand, by empowering enterprise-wide teams to easily connect up to 600 people across 40 locations at the same time.

The facility will soon come up with other immersive telepresence suites to show-case to customers the complete bundle of telepresence offerings under the company's two domains of collaboration and learning. The Telepresence Suites will also serve as public telepresence rooms giving enterprises in one of the leading metropolis a cost-effective, highly advanced broadened collaboration ecosystem to instantly connect with their distant counterparts, anytime on demand.

"We want to make Business Octane the most preferred enterprise productivity enhancing partner for our clients. We have plans to increase our pan-India presence significantly, our new facility at Hyderabad is an important step in supporting our vision", said Mr. Sanjay Bansal, Chairman of the Board & Managing Director, Business Octane. He also added, "We have high expectations from the Hyderabad market and foresee a positive traction from this city."

The new facility expands the company's support to enterprises nationwide to help them collaborate with their teams from anywhere, anytime on demand. The use of telepresence will help enterprises collaborate with their internal and external stakeholders across all locations in a truly immersive environment with high definition video, stereo spatial audio, true to life images with excellent eye contact and media rich capabilities to share content real time.

Major MNCs in India have their offices in Hyderabad and the metropolis is rapidly becoming an important commercial hub in India. With companies looking for improved technologies to streamline collaboration with remote teams, immersive telepresence is need-of-the-hour to help break the emerging barriers of distance.

[razzy]

Infosys, Satyam, Cognizant to set up units in SEZs

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Sept. 17

The Unit Approval Committee of Andhra Pradesh IT Special Economic Zones Development Commissioner has approved Satyam BPO, Infosys Technologies and Cognizant Technology Solutions to set up their new facilities in different SEZs in the State.

“Put together, these units will employ 6,800 people in a total space of 5.50 lakh sq ft,” Ms K. Ratna Prabha, Principal Secretary (Information Technology and Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh), said here in a press release.

The new unit of Satyam BPO, which would come up at Satyam Computer Services' facility at Madhapur with an area of 1.60 lakh sq ft, would seat 2,700 employees.

The second unit of Infosys Technologies would be opened at its Pocharam SEZ in an area of 2.75 lakh sq ft, housing 2,750 employees.

Cognizant expansion

Cognizant Technology would set up a 1.12-lakh sq ft facility at DLF SEZ here as part of its expansion plan. It would employ 1,400 people, she said.

“The unit approval committee had sent letters of permission to these companies, giving go-ahead to their expansion plans,” she said.

“The performance of IT sector in the State during 2010 has been quite encouraging. The IT firms have revived their hiring plans,” she said.

[rizwan3]

Approvals for BPO units in AP SEZs

Hyderabad, Sept. 17

The Unit Approval Committee of Andhra Pradesh IT Special Economic Zones Development Commissioner has approved Satyam BPO, Infosys Technologies and Cognizant Technology Solutions to set up their new facilities in different SEZs in the State. “Put together, these units will employ 6,800 people in a total space of 5.50 lakh sq ft,” Ms K. Ratna Prabha, Principal Secretary (Information Technology and Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh), said here in a press release. The new unit of Satyam BPO, which would come up at Satyam Computer Services' facility at Madhapur with an area of 1.60 lakh sq ft, would seat 2,700 employees. The second unit of Infosys Technologies would be opened at its Pocharam SEZ in an area of 2.75 lakh sq ft, housing 2,750 employees. Cognizant Technology would set up a 1.12 lakh sq ft facility at DLF SEZ here as part of its expansion plan. It would employ 1,400 people, she said. “The unit approval committee had sent letters of permission to these companies, giving go-ahead to their expansion plans,” she said. “The performance of IT sector in the State during 2010 has been quite encouraging. The IT firms have revived their hiring plans,” she said. — Our Bureau

[rockystone]

good news...c-bay has started construction in kokapet sez...the 1st comany to start in kokapet sez...we hope that others wil follow

[rizwan3]

http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/22/stor...2260230400.htm

CIVPL lays foundation stone at SEZ

Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD: The foundation stone for the office building of CBay Infotech Ventures Pvt Ltd (CIVPL) was laid by Nadir Godrej, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Godrej Industries at the Special Economic Zone, Kokapet here on Monday. According to a press release issued here by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), those present on the occasion included Ratna Prabha, Principal Secretary (IT&C), B.P. Acharya, Principal Secretary (Industries and Commerce) and Rajeshwar Tiwari, HMDA Commissioner.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Godrej said, “The SEZ project of 120 acres being developed by HMDA specifically for the IT industry is a very impressive project and CIVPL being the first company to begin its construction shows the commitment of both the government and the company to develop Hyderabad as a preferred destination for IT & ITeS industry”.

First phase

In the first phase of this project, CIVPL plans to construct 2 lakh sft office space and the total development is to be around 6 lakh sft of constructed space in three modules.

[rockystone]

DST Worldwide Services Inaugurates New Offices in Q City

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, Thursday, September 23, 2010 -- (Business Wire India)



DST Worldwide Services is celebrating new India offices in Hyderabad’s IT corridor. The firm provides technology development, support, processing and consulting services to a variety of industries, including financial services and healthcare.

The company has chosen spacious, eco-friendly premises strategically located in Q City in Gachibowli. Mr. Steve Hooley, President and COO of DST Worldwide Services’ parent company, DST Systems, was in Hyderabad today to inaugurate the facility.

“This attractive office space reflects the well-earned success and growth of DST Worldwide Services,” said Mr. Hooley. “I’m pleased to be here in Hyderabad to mark this exciting occasion.”

“DST Worldwide Services is committed to delivering excellence to our clients,” said Tilak Panjabi, Country Head, DST Worldwide Services. “In order to sustain the momentum of our growth and to provide our associates with a high-quality work environment, we chose these offices in the prestigious IT corridor. We’re very proud to dedicate this facility today.”

[rizwan3]

Progress Software to expand R&D centre at Hyderabad
K Rajani Kanth / Hyderabad September 24, 2010, 0:52 IST

Progress Software Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed provider of infrastructure software products, is in the process of expanding its India research and development (R&D) centre at Hyderabad to accelerate development of newer versions of its new Responsive Process Management (RPM) suite.

The company has a global R&D strength of 700, of which 180 professional are based out of its 40,000-sft Hyderabad centre. It is now acquiring more space and hopes to go in for recruitment to fill this up by December. Once through, the Hyderabad centre will house 60 per cent of the company's global R&D staff, Rob Levy, executive vice-president and chief product officer of Progress Software, told Business Standard.


“RPM for us is a big opportunity and the market for this type of solution, according to IDC Research, is expected to be greater than $10 billion. Even capturing a part of it will be good. In order to do this, we need to grow,” he added.

Progress RPM suite is a human-centric platform providing business users with real-time visibility into business processes and systems, including legacy processes both inside and outside the business. The RPM suite is the first product developed by the company while the three existing products — Apama, Actionall and Savvion (with development centres in Mumbai and Coimbatore) — had been acquired.

“As the chief product officer, I always look for acquisitions. We will start talking about RPM’s Version-II beginning next year when we will think about what technology we need to acquire,” Levy said, adding India was a market with a lot of technologies and many opportunities for acquisitions.

[rockystone]

Virtusa @Hyderabad: Virtusa gets Technology Center in Hyderabad


Posted: 29-Sep-10 in Business by IBNS

Virtusa has invested approximately Rs. 75.30 crores in setting up the new center.

The ATC, whose inauguration ceremony was graced by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah is built on over 6 acres of land, and when fully built out would provide a 6000 seat capacity.

Speaking at the inauguration, Kris Canekeratne, Virtusa’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “India is a key part of our global operations and we are proud of this milestone in our decade long association with Hyderabad in addition to our presence in Chennai. Our new Advanced Technology Center reflects our commitment to Virtusans in India who are part of our One Global Team focused on accelerating business outcomes and consumer experiences of our Fortune 1000 client base.”

The Hyderabad campus will provide diverse technology solutions and service global clients across many industries, including, banking, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, technology and healthcare