Hyderabad Small & Large scale Industries updates

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IVRCL won't bid for new BOT projects after posting Rs 124 crore loss

HYDERABAD: Infrastructure firm IVRCL has chalked out a multi-pronged strategy that includes a holiday from bidding for new build-operate-transfer (BOT) road projects to stay afloat. "The strategy includes staying away from bidding for new BOT road projects for three-to-six months, monetising existing road projects and real estate assets, downsizing the manpower, spreading the construction business to overseas markets, strengthening manufacturing operations and focus on large amount of receivables," said chairman E Sudhir Reddy.

IVRCL, in which the Subhash Chandra-promoted Essel Group acquired a 10.2% stake in March, posted a loss of Rs 124 crore for the extended 15-month period ending June. Reddy cited problems with national highway projects such as delays in land acquisition, right of way, cautious approach of lenders and delayed payments as some of the reasons to go in for the holiday.

He said the period of the holiday could be extended if required.

"Meanwhile, we will complete the existing road projects in the order book and keep monetising as and when they are completed and begin toll collections. This will help us to get back our equity and transfer the debt burden into the books of the buyers," said Reddy.

"The company is targeting expansion of its construction business to overseas markets, aiming to report at least 50% of its revenue from overseas operations in four-five years," he said.

At present, the company does not earn anything from its overseas construction business. The group's chief financial officer R Balarami Reddy said the company sold its stake in one of the road projects during the last quarter for Rs 231 crore, making a profit of Rs 117 crore.

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Mahindra Satyam launches 'HealthConnection'

Hyderabad: IT service provider Mahindra Satyam on Tuesday announced the launch of 'HealthConnection', a health insurance exchange (HIX) solution that complies with US Affordable Care Act requirements for establishing health insurance exchanges for businesses, employers and individuals by January 1, 2014 deadline.

According to a release issued by MSat, HealthConnection incorporates "solution accelerators" automated tools to help plan and deploy rollouts for key components.

This includes enrollment, plan comparison, and premium billing both for the individual market and Small Business Health Options Programme (SHOP) to ease implementation.

HealthConnection is based on proven components from hCentive's WebInsure state platform and CSC's Premium Billing System 360?SM with a consumer-centric focus to ease the insurance purchasing process from both agency and consumer points of view, it said.

HealthConnection enables government agencies to focus efforts on helping citizens rather than technical complexities of implementation and provide an easy-to-use self-service portal and a multi-channel system that enable citizens to choose the right plan for individual situations.

Arvind Malhotra, Senior Vice President, Strategic Accounts, Mahindra Satyam, said with the US Supreme Court ruling, the race is on to build state-wide health insurance exchanges by the deadline.

"HealthConnection allows government agencies to rapidly and reliably meet ACA requirements with the flexibility to adjust to evolving federal requirements. By partnering with industry-leading software and solution vendors, we have developed a low-risk, robust approach to implement an exchange," Malhotra added.

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Peepul Capital may invest Rs 500-1,000 cr in Deccan Chronicle

Peepul Capital LLC, a Hyderabad-based private equity fund, is likely to invest Rs 500-Rs 1,000 crore in debt-ridden Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL), which publishes English newspapers Deccan Chronicle, Financial Chronicle and Asian Age, and Telugu daily Andhra Bhoomi.

When contacted, Peepul Capital Managing Director C Srinivasa Raju said the company was willing to invest in Deccan Chronicle Holdings. However, he declined to specify the amount. “Our investment in DCHL would be from our $700-million fund (which includes $100 million of its own money). Since our firm has both dollar and rupee funds, it (the investment) will be a combination of both currencies,” he said.

Peepul Capital is the first company to evince interest in investing in DCHL, which accounts for debt of about Rs 5,000 crore.
Raju said it was likely the deal would take time to materialise. “I think the investment process into DCHL will take a long time because they don’t have a balance sheet. Unless there is a balance sheet, no fund can invest. Probably, they would call for expressions of interest from three to four investors like us. I think it would take at least three to six months from now,” he said.

Peepul Capital, which typically commits between $15 million and $25 million of equity in each transaction, has, so far, invested $450 million from its fund. Its investments include those in Hyderabad-based animation company DQ Entertainment, multi-lingual news agency IANS India Private Limited, Associated Broadcasting Corporation, which runs regional television news network TV9 and Visage Media Services, a strategic partner of Getty Images.

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PEBS Pennar bags Rs 60-crore orders

Contracts include orders from Aditya Birla Group's Ultratech Cement and Kirloskar Pneumatic

Pre-engineered building solutions provider, Pennar Engineered Building Systems Limited (PEBS Pennar), a subsidiary of Hyderabad-based, Rs 1,440-crore Pennar Industries Limited, has bagged orders worth Rs 60 crore.

The contracts include a repeat order from Aditya Birla Group’s Ultratech Cements for design, manufacture, supply and installation of three buildings to be used for storage of limestone, additives and stock piles at Malkhed in Karnataka, an order from Kirloskar Pneumatic for its 8,300-square metre manufacturing unit near Pune, and an order from Rohan Builders for a manufacturing unit meant for Japanese company Nippon India Corporation for their upcoming project at Shirwal in Maharashtra.

“The new contracts take the total order book of the company to Rs 260 crore. We will continue to capitalise on our design and engineering strengths through a strong marketing and sales team,” said PV Rao, executive director of PEBS Pennar.

PEBS Pennar had established its manufacturing facility near Hyderabad in 2008 with an initial capacity of 30,000 tonne a year, which was expanded to 60,000 tonne in FY2011. The company is now in the process of further expanding the capacity to 90,000 tonne to meet the increasing demand.
The company, which has plans to set up a manufacturing facility in north India in a couple of years, closed FY12 with gross revenues of Rs 280 crore. With firm growth strategy in place, it projects revenues of Rs 500 crore by FY14, the company said in a release on Friday.

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Hyderabad-based institute to help in aquifer mapping

HYDERABAD: Concerned with a depleting groundwater table, the ministry of water resources has directed its attention to detecting groundwater reserves.

As part of a mission designed by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) here has embarked on a project which will set the methodology and suggest techniques to be used for carrying out aquifer mapping in the country.

The project 'Aquifers Characterisation Using Advanced Geophysical Techniques In Representative Geological Terrains of India' of NGRI involves aquifer mapping in six representative areas of the country. "The ground surveys have already begun. For the first time, airborne surveys will also be taken up from January next in the project areas," NGRI director Mrinal K Sen told TOI. He said there were results from pilot studies that have been previously conducted in some hard rock and sedimentary alluvium terrain and it is these areas that were selected for aquifer mapping.

At a cost of Rs 27 crore, the aquifer mapping will be taken up in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. NGRI is also in consultations with officials of the Danish embassy in New Delhi for expert assistance.

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Vimta Labs fails to execute Rs 30 cr projects

Coupled with global economic slowdown and the regulatory approvals in India, Hyderabad-based Vimta Labs Limited, a contract research and testing company, has failed to execute projects worth Rs 30 crore during the last financial year.

Regulatory approvals affected Vimta's topline by Rs 30 crore. "We failed to execute projects worth Rs 30 crore last year due to delay in getting approvals and some regulatory issues," Vimta Labs chairman SP Vasireddi told Business Standard.

"Clinical research is a lengthy process. You need regulatory approvals from importing the samples to conducting the research. The current regulatory market is not proactive in the country, which in turn affecting the clinical research market," Vasireddi said. In India, Drugs Control General of India (DCGI) is the apex body which provides approvals for the projects.

According to Marketresearch.com, a market research agency, the clinical trial industry in India is expected to touch $1.09 billion by 2014, from the $400 million market in 2010.

"India was in the global map for clinical research activities in the last couple of years. But now, global customers are moving away from India and investing in other Asian markets including China, Vietnam and Thailand," Vasireddi said.

According the company annual report, the company gross revenue for the year 2010-11 stood at Rs 96.04 crore, as against Rs 55.41 crore in previous year. During the year, the domestic sales have gone up by 32 per cent with a reduction of export sales by 13.76 per cent as compared to the previous year.

The reduction in export sales is stated to be "predominantly due to unprecedented regulatory developments in clinical research industry causing inordinate delays in receiving clearances which has resulted in execution of projects for overseas customers,"

During the first quarter of this financial year, Vimta has come out of red and reported Rs 48 lakh net profit, recovering from Rs 1.44 crore net loss in the corresponding quarter last year. Its total income grew 7.5 per cent to Rs 26.38 crore, as against Rs 24.54 crore.

Pointing out to the growth in revenue, Vasireddi said, "The business has picked up in the first quarter and also the market condition is getting better. In the first quarter itself the market is picking up." going by its number, it is expected to cross Rs 100 crore revenue mark by end of this financial year.

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CarZ to raise Rs 120-cr investment by February

CarZ, a Hyderabad-based start-up company offering multi-brand auto solutions such as car repairs and servicing, plans to raise Rs 120 crore (approximately $25 million) by way of private equity (PE) investment by February 2013.

“We are currently under discussions with multiple PE investors from India as well as abroad, who have shown interest in us. We may raise the money from a single investor or multiple investors, but nothing has been finalised,” Venu Donepudi, co-founder and managing director of CarZ, said.

Currently, the company has 16 CarZ outlets across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. “We plan to add another 34 with an investment of Rs 45 crore over the next two years across the southern and western Indian markets including Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu,” said Donepudi.
“Each of the 1,000-sq yard CarZ outlets requires an investment of about Rs 1.2 crore. So, part of the second-round funding will be used for setting expansion of these outlets and to have a pan-India presence,” he added.

CarZ, which commenced operations in February 2010 from Hyderabad, raised $5 million (Rs 22.5 crore) in series-A round funding from IndoUS Venture Partners this year. Multi-brand car servicing stations are catching up in India, as the after-market services networks for many of the auto needs of the customers. Currently, only one-third of the cars that are sold go back to the dealerships, post-warranty.

“The company targets to achieve Rs 20 crore turnover by the year-end. We have been growing at 400 per cent year-on-year, and we expect a similar growth to follow in the coming years,” said Donepudi. CarZ has also forayed into Kerala by opening its first outlet in Kochi, its 16th outlet in the country. “We plan to open six more outlets in Kerala over the next year,” he added.

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Mahindra Satyam launches retail management solution

Hyderabad: Mahindra Satyam has launched business insights solution REIMS (Retail Enterprise Information Management System) for global retailers.
According to the company, the new product will enable global retailers improve decision-making processes.

Mahesh Vasudevanallur, Head - Retail and CPG Practice, Mahindra Satyam said REIMS is a cloud and mobile-enabled solution spanning several process areas including assortment and merchandising, supply chain management, warehouse

management, category performance analysis, customer analytics, multi-channel web, mobile and social media analytics.

"In the last few years we have seen dramatic changes in the Retail landscape. There are mountains of raw data stored in different pockets throughout the retail business – with diverse supply chains, volatile customer needs and extensive product lines," Vasudevanallur said.

Mahindra Satyam's Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Practice currently serves over 20 of the Fortune 500 customers. The company has a strong presence across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

"Discussions with our customers have been focussed on transforming "gut feel" and "siloed" decisions to fact-based cross-functional business insights which can lead to smarter and wiser decisions.
"REIMS solution is armed with proven accelerators and assets for each step of BI analytical life cycle leading to a faster, risk-free deployment," Vasudevanallur added.

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Y-Axis to invest Rs 20 cr for expansion

Y-Axis, a Hyderabad-based overseas career consultant, is planning to invest Rs 20 crore to expand its operation across India over the next 12 months.

Launching its X! Travel Club, a multi-brand one-stop overseas travel consulting travel store, at Hyderabad, Sabina Xavier, co-founder and chief operating officer of Y-Axis, said, "We have lined up investments to set up eight such stores across the country over the next 12-18 months, and to increase our brand presence through aggressive advertising and marketing."

The projects will be funded through internal accruals, she told Business Standard.

X! Travel Club focuses on building strengths in providing new experiences like yachting, golf, cruise holidays, caravans, around the world across Singapore, Malyasia,Thailand, Dubai, Egypt, London, Istanbul, etc. "We are upbeat about the new travel club concept that is targeted at the Indian customised travel class," she said.

"With an expected 50 million Indians opting to travel abroad by 2020 from the current level of 16 million, the travel club expects substantial customer footprints for its services," said.

Currently, Y-Axis s operational across 20 company owned office in India with 500 trained travel experts. Currently, it gets travel related 20,000 enquiries per month.

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IVRCL bags projects worth Rs 959 crore in India and abroad

HYDERABAD: Beleaguered Hyderabad-based infrastructure player IVRCL Ltd on Monday said it had bagged orders worth Rs 959 crore from India and overseas markets. While the company has bagged orders worth Rs 596 crore from overseas markets like Kenya and Kuwait, and the rest are for water and power projects in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states.

While IVRCL has bagged orders worth Rs 471.52 crore from the National Irrigation Board of Nairobi, Kenya, for the Bura irrigation and settlement rehabilitation project, it has got a Rs 124.70 crore project for the construction of irrigation water tank along with building and infrastructure in Kuwait.

In India, the company's water division has got projects worth Rs 314.75 crore. These include work on the transmission main pipeline from Mallah in Bharatpur to Kumher, Deeg, Kaman, Pahari, Nagar and RWSS for 97 villages from Mallah Head Works under Chambal Dholpur Bharatpur project with operation and maintenance for 10 years on a turnkey basis. The company has also got a project for cluster distribution system of 71 villages under the Pokaran-Falsoond-Balotra-Siwana Lift project on a single responsibility basis.

IVRCL's power division has bagged a Rs 48 crore project for construction of transmission lines in Bhopal circle on a total turnkey basis from the MP Power Transmission Company Ltd.

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Gradiente Info to buy Hindi channel for Rs 50 cr

Gradiente Infotainment Limited, a Hyderabad-based media and entertainment company, is in the process of acquiring a Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) for Rs 50 crore, according to chairman and managing director Vimal Raj Mathur.

“We are currently in negotiation with three Hindi GECs and expect to close a deal shortly. The re-christened channel will go on air in January 2013,” he told Business Standard.

The publicly-listed company is re-entering film production, a business it had left a few years ago. The company had, till 1996, produced three Hindi films including ‘Warrant’. It is now lining up three feature films – one in Telugu and two in Hindi – across action and romantic-comedy genres, each with a modest budget of around Rs 6 crore.
“While the Telugu film ‘Gud Morning’ is completed, the two Hindi movies are in the scripting stage. They will go on floor from October, and will be ready for exclusive multiplex audience release by March 2013,” Mathur said.

Gradiente is initiating a fund-raising exercise for its proposed acquisition of the Hindi channel, for film production and for constructing a corporate office with an investment of Rs 20 crore. Mathur said the company would go in for a preferential issue to raise about Rs 30 crore next month, Rs 100 crore via long-term debt and the remaining through internal accruals.

Looking beyond national boundaries, he said, the company had also initiated talks with digital media houses based in Hong Kong and Singapore for joint venture projects.

“We expect to forge tie-ups with these entities shortly,” he said, adding that the company was optimistic about the near future and had targeted a turnover of Rs 50 crore for 2013 fiscal, as against Rs 37 crore last fiscal.

Gradiente Infotainment Limited’s scrip is currently trading at Rs 8.30 on the BSE, up 2.60%, over the previous close of Rs 8.09.

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L V Prasad Eye Institute signs MoU with AP Govt to establish newborn eye screening & ROP control

L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad, a not-for-profit, non-government, public-spirited, comprehensive eye care institution has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, to establish newborn eye screening and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) control in the state. This will help to identify serious eye problems in the newborn that often get diagnosed very late and to eliminate ROP blindness.

ROP is one of the major emerging causes of childhood blindness in India and leads to incurable vision loss in prematurely born and low birth weight babies. WHO has identified ROP as one of its key areas for preventing childhood blindness under its Vision 2020, Right to Sight programme.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch of the Neonatal Eye Screening and ROP Control in Andhra Pradesh (NES & ROP-CAP) Programme, Dr T Geeta Prasadini, in-charge director of Public Health, Government of Andhra Pradesh said, “The Government of India has allotted Rs. 168.80 lakhs towards the Programme Implementation Plan for the Year 2012-13 to establish Newborn Eye Screening and the ROP-CAP programme in the state for this period. With the programme implemented under the able guidance of LVPEI faculty, we are happy to extend support to ensure that no newborn baby including premature babies in Andhra Pradesh be needlessly blind or visually impaired by 2020.”

The objective behind establishing Neonatal Eye Screening (NES) and ROP-CAP includes: Regional Institutes of Ophthalmology (RIO) use portable equipments for ROP screening and prophylactic laser treatment, community NICU based centres for screening, training and education of manpower at LVPEI and NES for all newborns in the state community delivery centres.

General ophthalmologists, retinal surgeons, paediatricians, neonatologists and the nursing staff involved, from the Andhra Pradesh, will be trained and empowered in the diagnosis and management of premature babies for ROP and screening for all other newborns for any early onset eye problems. Training will also be imparted to paediatricians and the concerned nurses to identify babies at risk and facilitate speedy referral to trained eye and retinal surgeons. The training will be conducted at LVPEI and at the district level through CME programmes/workshops focusing on increasing the awareness on ROP and neonatal eye problems.

Other common conditions affecting any newborn include corneal infections and opacities, congenital cataracts, lid and lacrimal system abnormalities, glaucoma, tumours and globe malformations and the emerging epidemic of ROP.

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Celkon aims to become 2nd largest smartphone seller in India

Aiming at becoming the second-largest smartphone seller in India, homegrown dual-SIM mobile handset maker, Celkon Impex, is expanding its portfolio with two new smartphone devices across different price points. The company, at present, sells six smartphone models.

According to third-party data, around 50.2 million phones were shipped to India in the first quarter of 2012, of which 47.5 million were feature phones and 2.7 million smartphones. Samsung is currently leading the pack in the smartphones segment, followed by Micromax.

“Our idea is to play across the price points. We will be rolling out two smartphone launches – A22 with a 4.5-inch display and dual-core processor for sub-Rs 9,000, and a smartphone device for sub-Rs 4,000 next month,” Murali Retheneni, executive director of Celkon, told Business Standard.

The Hyderabad-based company, which claims to be the number one mobile devices seller in Andhra Pradesh, and third across the country, is also betting big on the tablet PC market. The company today introduced its second tablet Cel-Tab CT2, which is says is the first SIM-based tablet launched by any Indian brand.

“Taking advantage of the plummeting technology acquisition costs, we are planning to launch a nine-inch tablet in October in the price point of sub-Rs 10,000 in October,” he said, adding that the company was targeting to sell 50,000 smartphones and an equal number of tablets a month, thereby taking its total sales (including feature phones) to one million units a month by the first quarter of next year.

Stating that smartphone penetration in developed countries like the US and UK was at 40-50% right now, while it was less than 10% in BRIC countries in terms of volumes, Murali said the industry expected this to grow to the level of 20-25% in the next couple of years.

“We have just started selling smartphones and tablets in the market. We expect these two categories to account for 20% of our revenues by the end of March 2013,” he said, adding that the company garnered revenues of Rs 326 crore in the last financial year, and was progressing towards almost trebling it this year.

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NCC planning to churn assets, divest stake in matured projects

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 27:
NCC Ltd has hinted at unlocking value by churning of matured assets within the portfolio.

The Hyderabad-based diversified infrastructure company said the company has built a significant portfolio of assets in roads and power generation over the years.

EQUITY SALE

While returns on developmental projects are back-ended, the company plans to unlock value and monetise some of the projects by equity sale.

Addressing the 22nd annual general meeting, NCC Chairman Emeritus, A.V.S. Raju, told shareholders during the first quarter ended June 30, 2012, that the company achieved a turnover of Rs 1792.96 crore with a net profit of Rs 20.34 crore, against a turnover of Rs 1601.83 crore, and a net profit of Rs 31.28 crore for the corresponding quarter of pervious year.

PROFITABILITY

He said the interest and input costs continued to impact the profitability during the first quarter.

During the quarter, the company secured new orders worth Rs 2,100 crore and the order book now as of June end was Rs 20,520 crore. In spite of tough conditions, in the last fiscal, the company bagged new orders worth Rs 10,117 crore.

The company attributed pressure on profits to steep increase in interest cost, increase in input costs such as steel and cement.

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SmartTrak to treble production capacity

SmartTrak Solar Systems, a Hyderabad-based startup that manufactures solar tracking systems and solar weather stations, is looking at expanding the production capacity at its Hyderabad plant from the current 300 Mw to 1,000 Mw a year, according to director Bhagawan Reddy.

“The success of such technologies depends on government policies. We are closely observing the policies, and once they are clear and our order book swells, we will go in for the expansion in the next six months,” he told Business Standard.

SmartTrak, which so far had invested Rs 2 crore in its manufacturing facility, is planning to further infuse Rs 4 crore for the expansion. It is talking to private equity and venture capitalists to raise funds for the same, he said.
The company’s solar tracking systems comprise an in-built algorithm, which calculate and follow the course of the sun in advance, and move and arrange the solar panels accordingly.

The company has already implemented a 3-KWp (kilowatt-peak) dual-axis tracking system at Hyderabad-based Signion Systems, and two 6.5-KWp dual axis system at a solar power plant near Anantapur in AP.

Stating that the company had an order book of 20 dual-axis tracking systems valued at Rs 1.5 crore, and was expecting Rs 12 crore worth of orders during this year, Reddy said they were targeting to garner revenues of Rs 15 crore by March 2013, as against Rs 12 crore last year.

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Mytrah Energy to double wind farm capacity; to add 294 MW by June

HYDERABAD, OCT 3:
Independent power producer Mytrah Energy Limited is set to double wind power generation capacity by June 2013 with the addition of 294 MW to its existing capacity of 316 MW.

The AIM London Stock Exchange-listed IPP is investing Rs 2,000 crore in the ongoing capacity addition. It has thus far invested Rs 2,400 crore in setting up wind farms across four States in the country from 2010.

FINANCING

The company raised about $115 million through mezzanine financing (a hybrid of debt and equity financing, typically used to finance expansion projects) in 2011. Its investors include India Infrastructure Fund, IDFC and PFC. “Apart from this we raised about $263 million as senior debt,” Ravi Kailas, Chairman of Mytrah Energy, based in Hyderabad, said. (Senior debt is money that a company must repay first if it goes out of business.)

Addressing a press conference, Ravi Kailas said the company will add 24 MW within weeks and another 270 MW, now at various stages, by mid-2013, thereby doubling capacity.

“This will make us the largest wind energy-based IPP in the country,” Vikram Kailas, Managing Director, said.

LONG-TERM PLANS

“The IPPs long-term plan is to create wind power farms with a total installed capacity of 5,000 MW at an outlay of Rs 30,000 crore by 2017. Funding is not a problem. We already have begun to make profits within two years. In the first half of this year, we had a turnover of Rs 165 crore and a net profit of Rs 40 crore. As we add capacity, the cash flows will enable us to take up new projects,” Ravi Kailas explained.

The equity component of Rs 600 crore for the Rs 2,000-crore expansion has been tied up.

The debt component will be closed shortly, Vikram Kailas, said.

A tariff of Rs 4.50 and above per unit works out as viable for wind projects, they said.

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Heard on the street: IVRCL gains on talk of Essel Group raising stake

Shares of Hyderabad-based IVRCL jumped 4.6% to Rs 50.80 on Wednesday on speculation that Subhash Chandra promoted Essel Group, which holds 12.27% stake in the company, may raise its stake.

Grapevine has it that the Essel Group through its holding company Asian Satellite Broadcast may acquire 6.23%, or Rs 1.66 crore shares, from HSBCBSE 0.24 % through a block deal in the next few days. While an email query to the Essel Group did not elicit a response, a company spokeswoman said, "We decline to comment on market speculation."

In March, Essel Group had acquired 10.2% in Hyderabad-headquartered IVRCL through secondary market transactions and subsequently increased it to 12.27%.

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Mahindra Satyam raises salary 7-12%

Hyderabad-based consulting, IT services and engineering solutions provider Mahindra Satyam has started doling out wage rises in the range of 7-12 per cent for employees across the board.

"The process began last week. The letters are being sent out in batches, and quite a few business units have already received them," a Mahindra Satyam spokesperson, wishing not to be named, told Business Standard.

While declining to disclose the percentage of wage hikes given to offshore and onsite staff, the spokesperson said that the hike was effective from October 1, 2012.

"The hike will be applicable to all the 33,000 associates (employees) who are on roster as on December 31, 2011."

The company has 36,000 employees on its rolls as on June 2012.

The average employee utilisation, both onsite and offshore, was at 76 per cent.

The attrition rate in the June 2012 quarter was 13.5 per cent, as against 17.3 per cent a year ago.

This is the second consecutive year that Mahindra Satyam had delayed its salary hike by a quarter.

Inciting fears of lay-offs, the company had pushed its salary hikes from July to October last year. In October 2011, the company had given wage hikes of 12 per cent for offshore employees and 2.5 per cent for onsite staff.

"Mahindra Satyam on its compensation and benefit is still running at about 70 per cent, which is one of the highest in the industry.

"Most other companies in the peer group are running between 55 per cent and 60 per cent on that cost," C P Gurnani, CEO of Mahindra Satyam had said in a call in 2011.

"So, within the budget available, it was more important to give a higher percentage hike than to give it for the full nine months of the balance year.

"And, we took a poll from our employees and most of them favoured the higher percentage hike than to get a lesser percentage hike for 9 months only.

"It was a consultative inclusive decision with our employees and I am happy that our employees have supported us," he said.

Mahindra Satyam's scrip is currently trading at Rs 114.45 on the BSE, up 0.13 per cent, over the previous close of Rs 114.30.

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TalentSprint to train 50,000 banking aspirants

Hyderabad-based TalentSprint, a National Skill Development Corporation partner company, is aiming to train around 50,000 banking aspirants by 2015.

Towards this, it has acquired Deccan Career Point, a city-based bank exam coaching outfit, and has launched 'Bankers Choice', a comprehensive exam preparation programme for the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection recruitment in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

K Sridhar, senior vice-president, TalentSprint, said, “We are planning to roll out this programme across the southern states as an enabling platform for banking aspirants.”
Andhra Pradesh, at present, has around 370,000 banking aspirants, Karnataka 100,000, Tamil Nadu 140,000 and Kerala around 200,000. However, only 2 per cent these aspirants are able to clear the recruitment exams, he added.

MC Jacob, senior adviser to TalentSprint and former chief general manager of State Bank of Travancore, said, “The Indian banking sector urgently needs significant infusion of new talent due to high demand for banking services, financial inclusion imperatives, and large-scale retirement. It is estimated that around 750,000 new jobs will be created in the banking sector over the next five years.”

TalentSprint has assembled a team of banking and financial services professionals for training and mentoring these aspirants. The ‘Bankers Choice’ programme is offered in multiple formats through classroom and online channels.

NSDC has extended a Rs 10-crore ‘venture debt’, to be released in three tranches with the last being Rs 3 crore in 2013, to TalentSprint to build iPEARL (Interactive Platform for Remote Employability and Learning remote classroom initiative). The interest rate is 6 per cent with a repayment period of 7 years starting 2013.

The skill development and training company had raised Rs 20 crore from Nexus Venture Partners in April this year to support its expansion.

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Autodesk acquires Qontext technology from Pramati Technologies of Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: US-based 3D design, engineering and entertainment software player Autodesk Inc on Friday said it had acquired the enterprise social collaboration software platform - Qontext - from privately-held Hyderabad-based Pramati Technologies.

While the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Autodesk said the acquisition of the Qontext technology would accelerate its ongoing move to the cloud and add new social capabilities to Autodesk 360, its cloud-based platform that offers users the ability to store, search, and view critical design data.

In addition to acquiring the technology, Autodesk will also be acquiring from Pramati the Qontext development team that would become the new development centre for Autodesk Inc out of Hyderabad.

"This transaction is a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to incubate and build companies that address the rapidly changing needs of business through highly innovative technologies," said Pramati co-founder and president Vijay Pullur.

""Mobile, cloud and social computing are dramatically changing the way engineers, designers and architects work. The addition of the Qontext technology to the Autodesk portfolio will lead to new technology innovations that help our customers embrace these disruptive technologies and leverage them for competitive advantage,"" said Amar Hanspal, Senior Vice President of information modelling and platform products, Autodesk.

While the flagship product of Pramati Technologies, which was set up in 1998 by Jay and Vijay Pullur, is Pramati Application Server, the company also owns customer acquisition and retention platform SocialTwist and software product and services company Imaginea.