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The US state of Ohio has banned outsourcing of government IT and back-office projects to offshore locations such as India, raising
fears of similar moves by other American states struggling to cope with high unemployment rates.
³There are pervasive service delivery problems with offshore providers, including dissatisfaction with the quality of their services and
with the fact that services are being provided offshore,´ Ohio governor Ted Strickland said in an executive order passed last month.
The move is yet another blow to the Indian IT industry, which is facing higher visa costs and rising protests against outsourcing in
other US states.
Offshoring work to India is a $50-billion industry, and the Indian tech industry has benefitted immensely from American firms wanting
to take advantage of its low wages and top-quality skills. The industry employs about three million people across India and has
largely been responsible for the sea change in the West¶s perception about the country.
Last month, the US Congress passed a controversial legislation increasing visa fees for funding the country¶s Mexico Border
Security program. States such as Virginia are facing a massive backlash against outsourcing that could further affect the prospects
of Indian IT firms.
Last week, the West Virginia Public Workers Union filed a lawsuit against proposed outsourcing of IT jobs by the state¶s office of
technology.
Though Indian companies largely rely on private companies for the bulk of their business and orders from state governments are
rare, that approach has slowly been changing.
TCS is the only Indian company to operate in Ohio. It employs 300 people and gets $19 million in tax credit for creating local jobs.
India¶s second-biggest software exporter, Infosys, has already identified the government outsourcing market as the next big
opportunity and established a focussed subsidiary-Infosys Public Services, headed by Eric Paternoster-in June this year.
Rival Wipro also has a nine-year, $407-million outsourcing contract from Missouri for delivering healthcare services.
Ohio¶s move adds to the perception that outsourcing is risky and that it involves serious loss of jobs. Indian companies have been at
pains to point out that offshoring work actually improves the health and efficiency of American companies and government
departments.
They have also been making serious efforts to hire more Americans and keep much of the work stateside. But that does not seem to
have helped. The latest curb could, if replicated by other states, mean increased hiring of local staff in the US for delivering services,
affecting the profitability of Indian companies.
Such measures would also make Indian firms less attractive for awarding multi-billion-dollar government outsourcing contracts,
experts and officials tracking the sector said.
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The government on Thursday (July 29) said the makers of BlackBerry - Research in Motion (RIM) - has given an assurance to it on
soon addressing its security concerns and hoped that the Canadian service provider and security agencies would be on the "same
page". "BlackBerry has assured the Ministry of Home Affairs that the issue of monitoring of the BlackBerry will be sorted out soon...I
am sure we will soon be on the same page and our concerns will be addressed," Special Secretary RPT Secretary (Internal
Security) in the MHA Utthan Kumar Bansal told reporters on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi.
Government has already warned the popular smart phone company that if it does not allow it to monitor emails and SMSes to
address security concerns, it will have to close down operations in the country, spelling trouble for over a million BlackBerry users in
India. The government has said the RIM will have to address its security-related issues by allowing monitoring facility in India.
Bansal said the Department of Telecommunication was the nodal authority which makes the policy and it was working to address
the issue raised by the MHA.
The MHA has asked the DoT to tell the company in no uncertain terms that its emails and other data services must comply with
formats that can be monitored by security and intelligence agencies. There are reports that China has got a server in that country
and the MHA asked the DoT to check whether it is true. Government also wants a BlackBerry server in India but the company has
been resisting the move. Once the server is in India, it will be easier to track the messages. The MHA maintains that the RIM has
been addressing security concerns of several other countries, including the United States, where it operates and, therefore, there is
no justification to not comply with the same in India.
BlackBerry says the messages are encrypted. The smart phone's server is based in Canada where the encryption level is very high
and extremely difficult to crack. And any message going through a Canada server is encrypted and, therefore, cannot be accessed
by intelligence agencies in India. Senior officials of key security agencies at a recent meeting argued that the continuation of
BlackBerry services in the present format poses danger to the country. The meeting was attended by representatives of the MHA,
DoT, intelligence agencies and the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO).
The latest development indicates that security agencies are again finding it difficult to intercept or decipher messages sent through
these phones, which use codes with an encryption of 256 bits. This encryption code first scrambles the emails sent from a
BlackBerry device and unscrambles them when the message reaches its target. In 2008, the Indian government had threatened to
block. BlackBerry services unless the RIM provided intelligence agencies here access to all data, especially emails, routed through
these handsets.
The government had also insisted that the RIM put in place a system that would allow them to intercept data sent through these
handsets as it feared that these services could be exploited by terrorists. After several rounds of talks between the government and
the RIM, the telecom department, in late 2008, had announced that the issue had been resolved. Leading telecom companies in
India such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, BSNL and MTNL offer BlackBerry
services.
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An Anil Ambani group firm on Friday (June 25) announced that it signed an agreement for availing of gas from Mukesh Ambani-led
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in accordance with a Supreme Court direction, but supply will be subject to government policy. The
announcement of the deal comes within weeks of the warring brothers signing a truce agreement for creating a "harmonious
environment of cooperation and collaboration" between their respective groups.
Shortly after the deal was signed today between Mukesh-led RIL and Anil group firm RNRL, the agreement was submitted to the
government for necessary action, Oil Ministry sources said but clarified that neither any quantity, duration of gas supply, specific
project nor price was mentioned. Although neither sides gave details of the revised gas supply agreement, sources in Reliance
Natural Resources Ltd said that it is for a period of 17 years for projects totalling 8,400 MW at a government determined price of
USD 4.2 per mmBtu. When contacted, RIL spokesperson declined to give details saying that the contract was as per the direction of
the Supreme Court and in accordance with government's policies.
The government has fixed a price of USD 4.2 per mmbtu for five years for gas from RIL's KG D-6 fields. The government sources
further clarified that it was the master agreement about the intent to supply gas and any specific details ranging from pricing to
tenure and projects could be contained only in GSPA. It may be recalled that only last week the oil ministry officials were reported to
have said that any gas supply to Anil's group firm could be only closer to commissioning of any project. They, however, said today
that it was for the Empowered Group of Ministers to see if an exception can be made for Anil Ambani group and gas could be
reserved for his project.
RNRL had gone to court against RIL in 2006, seeking 28 mmscmd of gas for its proposed Dadri plant at a rate of USD 2.34 per
mmBtu - a demand which was rejected by the Supreme Court citing that government had the last word on utilisation and pricing of
gas. The government fixed price for gas from RIL's KG-D6 fields is USD 4.20 per mmBtu. "With legal dispute (over supply and
pricing of natural gas from RIL's Krishna Godavari basin fields to Anil Ambani Group's power plants) behind us, we look forward to a
harmonious and constructive relationship with Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG)," Mukesh Ambani had said at RIL's Annual
General Meeting on June 18.
He had also said that "as and when the power plants of ADAG are ready to receive gas, we would commence supplies to them
subject to government granting allocation." The two brothers reconciled their differences on May 23, when they scrapped a non-
compete agreement that allowed flexibility to expand into areas hitherto reserved for each of them and aimed at "creating overall
environment of harmony, cooperation and collaboration between the two groups." Propelled by the news of a revised gas pact with
RIL, RNRL shares immediately surged 8 per cent intra-day but settled 3.29 per cent up at Rs 65.95 a piece. RIL shares were 1.14
per cent up at Rs 1,063.25 a share on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Loans are set to get expensive as commercial banks, including Punjab National Bank, IDBI Bank (IDBIBANK.NS),
Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank, hiked their base rates on Thursday in the wake of increasing borrowing costs.|
Among the banks that have hiked deposit rates on Thursday were State Bank of India (SBIN.NS), PNB and IDBI
Bank. This is the first time since the base rate was introduced in July this year that banks are changing the
benchmark.
SS Ranjan, CFO, State Bank of India said that the lender would wait till mid-November before increasing the base
rate. "While the cost of deposits has gone up we can absorb the cost for some more time."
MV Nair, CMD, Union Bank of India (UNIONBANK.NS) said, "We will review our base rate towards the end of
October based on our funding cost."
Bank of India's asset and liability committee is set to meet on October 4 to decide on a base rate hike. While PNB,
IDBI Bank and Allahabad Bank hiked their base rate by 50 basis point to 8.5%, Axis Bank hiked its base rate by 25
basis point to 7.75%. It may be recalled that the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) raised its key lending, the repo rate, by a
quarter percentage point and the borrowing rate by half a percentage point to rein in rising inflation. The hike in the
base rate is unlikely to have an immediate impact on existing bank borrowers as about 70% of the borrowers loans
are linked to the BPLR. SBI has left its base rate unchanged at 7.5%.
Earlier, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank (ICICIBANK.NS) had raised their benchmark prime lending rates (BPLR)
by 50 basis points each after the central bank hiked key policy rates on July 27, 2010. Punjab National Bank had
hiked its BPLR by 75 basis points.
The new benchmark PLR for SBI is 12.25% while that for ICICI Bank is 16.25%.
In order to bring in more transparency and effective transmission of policy rates, the base rate was introduced as
replacement for the Benchmark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) from July 1, 2010.
Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India also raised its deposit rates across maturities by 25 to 75 basis point
and 25 to 50 basis points across maturity, respectively. IDBI Bank has also increased its deposit rates by 15 to 50
basis point.
New home loan seekers can have some respite as SBI has extended its teaser home loan scheme till December 31,
2010
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Published on Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 15:21 | Updated at Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 15:35 | Source : Reuters
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India has been rocked this year by a series of corruption scandals that have embarrassed the ruling
Congress party, rattled markets and delayed reform bills as the opposition stalls parliament.
The country, 87th in Transparency International's rankings based on perceived levels of corruption, is no
stranger to scandals.
Ô Ô|