Indian IT Industry

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 03 Feb 2009 02:36

actually a no frills PC (a proper PC not this netPC thingy) per village with a computer literate operator might be a much better option than this.

such a thing will aid students as well as common folk.

hmm, this could be a nice pilot project with some 2nd hand PCs and simple windows trained people.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 03 Feb 2009 08:09

IBM Offers To Move Laid Off Workers To India

sum · Post by **sum** » 03 Feb 2009 09:42

Singha wrote:ceo is flying in on feb12 to announce Q3 gorilla results from ORR. hopefully it wont be to announce cutbacks on the side.

Any idea of how the result will turn out? Negative YoY?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 03 Feb 2009 10:22

no idea sir. but -ve YoY is a good possibility and certainly -ve wrt last few qtrs.
to keep with EST, the all hands is scheduled for a unearthly hr like 8.30-10.45pm here. a select few around 200 are nominated to attend in person, rest will watch through iptv or read it the next day.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 03 Feb 2009 13:16

Singha wrote:no idea sir. but -ve YoY is a good possibility and certainly -ve wrt last few qtrs.
to keep with EST, the all hands is scheduled for a unearthly hr like 8.30-10.45pm here. a select few around 200 are nominated to attend in person, rest will watch through iptv or read it the next day.

Singha ji....trench level abduls at your HQ equally clueless as to what results....no concrete info just vague idhar-udhar ki baatein and water cooler gossip or maybe they did not want to reveal to outsider. All the best and keep fingers crossed!

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 03 Feb 2009 21:26

Any more news on the $10/$20 laptop from India? Lots of news organizations are picking up this event. Lots of disbelief and outright rejection that this is even possible. The laptop was supposed to have been unveiled on Feb 3rd. Rediff just carries a report without more inputs. Not much of details though.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 03 Feb 2009 22:07

Initial reports say it has a 2 GB on board RAM and wireless connectivity. Lots of questions being raised about the price, as the display does cost a bit

sum · Post by **sum** » 03 Feb 2009 22:13

Holy Quackamoli, another dinosaur brought to its knees:

http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800561467_4 ... dec5c3.HTM

TI profit crashes 86%, sheds jobs

Texas Instruments Inc. announced that it will cut 12 percent of its workforce, or approximately 3,400 employees, as it restructures operations following one of the worst sequential and y-on-y quarterly performances in the history of the analog and digital signal processor company.

The company also warned that it does not expect sales to improve significantly anytime soon due to continuing weakness in the general economy, which helped drive down Q4 revenue 30 percent from the immediately preceding quarter and 26 percent from the comparable quarter of 2007.

Net income in the December quarter plunged 86 percent, to $107 million, or 8 cents per share, from $756 million, or 55 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. The company said the results included 13 cents per share in restructuring charges.

Excluding the special charges, adjusted earnings per share would have been 21 cents, TI said. Analysts were expecting TI to report adjusted earnings per share of 12 cents.

Cost-cutting measures
TI's woeful performance follows equally dismal results posted in recent weeks by many other semiconductor industry heavyweights and high-tech equipment OEMs, including Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Ericsson and Nokia, all of which also announced fourth quarter revenue fell sharply due to the weakening economy. By promptly cutting workforce, TI expects to bring its expenses more in line with reduced demand, the company said.

"We are realigning our expenses with a global economy that continues to weaken," said Rich Templeton, chairman, president and CEO at TI, in a statement. "By reducing expenses now, we keep TI financially strong and able to invest for future growth."

The extent of the cost-reduction actions being implemented by TI demonstrates how deeply the economic recession is beginning to hurt companies in the electronics industry.

With consumer and corporate demand stalling, most electronic component suppliers are largely working to blind forecasts and have been forced to severely cut production to reduce costs.

In TI's case, the company appears to be aiming most of its costs at non-core businesses and the selling, general and administrative structure.

Growth drivers
The company will be cutting jobs largely in "our internal support functions and non-core product lines so that a greater percentage of the dollars we spend will go directly toward developing and supporting analog and embedded processing products," according to Templeton. "We believe these are the areas that will drive TI's future growth and allow us to achieve our financial objectives."

Details of the job cuts confirm earlier speculations TI had started offering buyouts to older workers. The company said it will actually eliminate 1,800 positions through direct layoffs and offer voluntary retirements to 1,600 other workers.

The cuts will cost TI approximately $300 million and combined with the expected benefits from earlier reorganization plans announced in October add up to $700 million in annual savings.

The outlook for the first quarter appears even bleaker than the fourth quarter performance. TI forecasts first quarter revenue will be in the range of $1.62 billion to $2.12 billion.

The company said it may post a net loss for the first quarter. For 2009, TI expects R&D expenses will be $1.5 billion while capital expenditure will be approximately $300 million.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 03 Feb 2009 23:35

India unveils $10 laptop!

The 'world's cheapest laptop', developed in India, was unveiled by Union Minister for Human Resources Development Arjun Singh at the Tirupati temple on Tuesday evening.

The laptop, jointly developed by several organisations, such as the University Grants Commission, the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will be priced at around $10 to $20 (about Rs 500 to Rs 1,000), officials said.

S K Sinha, joint secretary in the ministry for education, giving a demonstration of the device which is smaller than the normal laptop, said that it will need some more fine-tuning. He said the laptop is expected to reach the market in about six months.

Arjun Singh had an interaction with the vice chancellors of the remote states like Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur to prove the point that the device will be able to bring about high quality networking among the various institutions of higher education and also increase the skills of e learning of the students in rural areas.

The project has already created a buzz in the laptop industry across the world.

The laptop has 2 GB onboard memory with wireless Internet connectivity. To make it useful for the students, especially in the rural areas, the scientists have made it low power consuming gadget.

The mission was launched at a huge gathering of academicians and the officials from across the country including thirty vice chancellors of central and state universities at the campus of Sri Venkateshwara University Tirupati.

Like the National Mission on Education through ICT, the laptop is also aimed at improving the skills of students, both at the school and higher levels. Under the mission the government also intends to provide high-speed Internet access to the schools to download e-books and e-journals and other material. Students will be able to download the material through the 'Sakshat' portal.

The goal of the national mission is to increase the enrollment in higher education in the country by 5 per cent over the next five years. The government will subsidise 25 per cent of broadband connectivity costs for private and public colleges.

The $10 laptop is being seen as India's reply to One Laptop per Child's XO and Classmate of Intel. The XO, created by scientist Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Lab was originally targeted to cost only $100 but by the time it was ready to enter the market its cost went up to $188. The Classmate notebook PC from Intel was priced at $ 300 a piece.

In contrast, the Indian government's effort to market lap top at only $10 has caused a flutter in the international laptop market and many players are curious to know the details of the costing and how Indians managed to keep the cost so low.

Nicholas Negroponte is not fully satisfied with the cost projection. "I fear it is not serious. We'd love a $20 laptop but the display costs more," he was quoted as saying by Boston Globe.

Abhijeet · Post by **Abhijeet** » 04 Feb 2009 02:25

I couldn't find a photo of this laptop.

paramu · Post by **paramu** » 04 Feb 2009 02:28

I start suspecting whether the huge coverage for $10 laptop is a psy-ops. Hype it up a lot and then write a series of bad reports after the product arrives.

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 04 Feb 2009 05:12

paramu wrote:I start suspecting whether the huge coverage for $10 laptop is a psy-ops. Hype it up a lot and then write a series of bad reports after the product arrives.

What is there for psy-ops. Indian innovators will look like fools if they cannot atleast show a picture or video etc. Credibility will come down. What is the use of such psy-ops? I hope they will at least release a video.

paramu · Post by **paramu** » 04 Feb 2009 05:22

That precisely is the psy-ops, eventually bring down the credibility.

Saral · Post by **Saral** » 04 Feb 2009 05:33

this has been in the works since 2006..

http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/india ... op_10.html

It is a netpc without a hard disk and will run applications that are hosted remotely (the applications also run on a remote server)

the company making it (speculate) is http://www.novatium.com/ headed by Dr. Jhunjhunwala at IIT Madras

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Feb 2009 09:02

there are numerous "thin client" and "virtual desktop infra" initiatives but it
all depends on a fast pipe and cloud computing in back end to provide a rich
set of services. so someone has to lay ethernets to wherever these machines
will be used.

infact thats a worthy initiative if GOI pays Airtel and BSNL to wire up every
school in the country with a 2Mbps DSL line or where possible even a direct
optical ethernet LX fiber.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 04 Feb 2009 10:08

There's a picture here. Looks nothing like a laptop. I guess the Nano raised people's expectations needlessly.

vina · Post by **vina** » 04 Feb 2009 11:44

I think it is India's own response to the Mac ultra mini the one they advertized as "BYOKM" (bring your own key board and mouse). I think what will be great is an ultra low cost, ultra small form factor device , if it can be minaturized further. It is a really a "mobile" computer, which can plug into any 'BYOKM" and doesnt need any power supply and large scale secondary storage. With 2GB memory, this device should be good enough if it has a small footprint OS and will be okay for most day to day stuff (except of course serious number crunching and graphics kind of thing).

If only someone took this and shrank it further, made it snazzy looking and sharp like a Mac Mini and marketed it brilliantly. It could just blow away the low end Net Books.

Think of it. There is smart Yindoo cunning at work here. What are the most expensive parts of a notebook and prone to failures ?. It is the LCD screen and the Li Ion Battery. So cunning Yindoos cut costs there massively by making those "shared".

It is like the old mainframe "time sharing' thing. In a school of say 1000 kids, how many would actually be using their computers at the same time ? 100 max?. So you save on 900 screens, power supplies, adapters and that kind of thing.

This device of course is not for everyone. But if the BYOKM stuff catches on and there are "mobile BYOKM" kind of things where you just plug in this "CPU + Memory Device" sort of like the Desktop cradles where you plug in your lap top at work and you get a full screen and mouse and key pad , just an equivalent "mobile cradle" for this device, then you do have a full fledged laptop as well at a higher price point.

If these things take off big time and big band width roll out happens, then probably storage too can be accessed as a 'service" off the network which has storage centralized in "Megasaurus" farms.

It is a mindset change. Full marks for the Yindoos to try and think differently here. It is just that it needs entrepreneurs to refine it and make it a snazzy life style product. If they can shrink it to the form factor of a cell phone. It will be great

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Feb 2009 12:42

does it have a usb port? usb memory sticks are really cheap in the 1-4GB range.

parikh · Post by **parikh** » 04 Feb 2009 13:07

was browsing TOI ascent and Hindu jobs classified no IT vity jobs ,creepy

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Feb 2009 15:38

TOi wednesday ascent did have Nokia r&d and one other co today. but overall thinner than a paki beggar's hate-india shawl.

ashish raval · Post by **ashish raval** » 04 Feb 2009 19:55

nsriram wrote:this has been in the works since 2006..

http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/india ... op_10.html

It is a netpc without a hard disk and will run applications that are hosted remotely (the applications also run on a remote server)

the company making it (speculate) is http://www.novatium.com/ headed by Dr. Jhunjhunwala at IIT Madras

I appreciate the effort. But the technology of this kind is nothing new and has been outdated in Europe since 2005. I have used one of those PCs with a box similar to NetPC shown here and they are awfully slow and crashes umpteen times. Needless to say, I changed it for a standalone pc within couple of days.
I think they can succeed if the number of applications/users are small and have powerful servers to load applications. Good work though.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Feb 2009 21:15

goog has this proj called nativeclient that tries to run x86 programs natively in a browser...including games. kind of like browser becoming the desktop visions we have been hearing for 10+ yrs now since the netscape era

http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/

but Dell is already selling thin client PCs wherein none have local HDD(ofcourse) but some have a 1GB flash to install a stripped down OS
or some have no local flash and becomes just a "vt100-mki" terminal of sorts with a citrix server in backend streaming the whole desktop to it.

I am sure other vendors also have this type of device oriented to single application use like call center, point of sale etc.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Feb 2009 21:44

i was mistaken - ma gorilla is reporting 4Q tomorrow morning IST. so by night tomorrow this jihadi could well have attained shahadat or been forced into hiding. goodbye blue sky..goodbye...

one tidbit I learnt is that lots of cos have deployed SaaS so effectively
and streamlined their payment processes that they can report Q results
within a week of the quarter closing. while other cos like NT take 6-9 months to pay their sales guys commission for sales.

paying the jihadis , tribal levies, lashkars and tanzeems promptly always
get more fire onto the road-e-khyber.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 04 Feb 2009 22:03

Who in their infinite wisdom to use the word "laptop" for that "thing"

Oh man... why do we score so many self-goals.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 04 Feb 2009 22:06

Singha wrote:goog has this proj called nativeclient that tries to run x86 programs natively in a browser...including games. kind of like browser becoming the desktop visions we have been hearing for 10+ yrs now since the netscape era

http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/

Ah that looks so much like MS ActiveX. Old wine in new bottle with a different brand. MS the evil empire. Google the innovator.

sum · Post by **sum** » 04 Feb 2009 22:36

Singha wrote:TOi wednesday ascent did have Nokia r&d and one other co today. but overall thinner than a paki beggar's hate-india shawl.

Deccan Herald merged the classifieds supplement with the main paper( it was once 8 pages which has now turned into a 1 page thing in the middle of the main sheet)

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 05 Feb 2009 03:29

Rs500 laptop a damp squib

04 February 2009

The much-touted Indian Rs500-1000 ($10-$20) laptop, eagerly awaited by the global computer industry, was unveiled yesterday, turned out to be a 2 GB of memory storage device, which sounds more like a pen drive that has to be connected to a laptop or a desk computer in order to access information stored in it.

The storage device, which is 10 inches long and 5 inches wide, was showcased yesterday at Tirupati in the presence of union HRD minister Arjun Singh, education joint secretary S K Sinha in the Venkateshwara University campus.

The so-called laptop, developed by students from Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and IIT-Madras with the help of companies like Semiconductor Complex, will be on display in Tirupati on 3 February, at the launch of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology. (See: India to unveil laptop costing Rs500)

The government had said that for the moment, the laptop will cost Rs1,000 ($20) but with mass production the cost will come down to half, but yesterday even this storage device has been priced at around Rs1,400 ($30) when most pen drives containing 2GB of memory cost half of that.

The data containing storage devised can be plugged on to a normal computer to access the information already stored on it and the ministry was at a loss to explain why this storage device was all the time being touted as a laptop.

The idea that this device can be connected to the Internet for educational purposes in the vast hinterland of India, that too at a very low cost, goes to show that the education ministry is either computer illiterate or it is an election gimmick in view of the upcoming elections in May.

This publicity, which caught the attention of the computer world globally was totally uncalled for since India has made long strides in developing the supercomputer on its own and has the fifth fastest supercomputer in the world behind the US, France, China and Russia.

http://www.domain-b.com/infotech/itnews ... squib.html
----------
I guess the GOI doesnt know the difference between a pen drive and a computer.
What a sorry mess.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 05 Feb 2009 09:31

NYT:

Cisco CEO Sees Harder Times Ahead

By BEN WORTHEN

Cisco Systems Inc. posted a 27% drop in quarterly profit and warned that businesses are increasingly scaling back their technology spending.

The big Silicon Valley maker of networking gear said revenue fell 7.5% in its fiscal second quarter, which ended Jan. 24. It also signaled that conditions had worsened, predicting revenue in the current period could drop 15% to 20% from a year earlier.

"It is now clear that we are in a global economic slowdown," Chief Executive John Chambers said Wednesday in a call with analysts. He said it is difficult to make an accurate prediction given the current economic climate, but added that "we will obviously be impacted."

The San Jose, Calif., company is one of the first to report earnings that include January, and its results are a closely watched barometer of corporate technology spending.

Overall, Cisco's orders for the second quarter shrank 14%, but in January orders were down 20% from a year ago.

Cisco's corporate customers have steadily cut the amount they have spent on technology over the last year, though some of those losses have been offset by phone and cable companies, which have bought Cisco gear in order to keep pace with increasing Internet traffic. But in the January quarter these U.S. companies placed 30% fewer orders than the year-ago quarter, Cisco said.

"No one is looking for a turnaround yet," said Jeff Evenson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. He added that Cisco appears to be doing a good job of controlling its costs, which offsets the decline in sales.

Mr. Chambers has pledged to reduce Cisco's spending by $1 billion this fiscal year by implemented a hiring freeze, reducing travel and similar measures. On Wednesday, Mr. Chambers said some job cuts are likely, though not across-the-board layoffs.

Despite the recession, Cisco has continued to move into new markets. Examples include consumer-electronics, such as a home speaker system unveiled in January, and Cisco is believed to be developing a server system that would take it for the first time into the computer business.

Cisco ended the quarter with about $29.5 billion in cash, and Mr. Chambers has said he sees the downturn as a chance to expand.

Cisco has also used its cash to help finance purchases for its customers. The company says that it provided $2.1 billion in financing for its customers in first half of 2009.

Cisco reported net income in the second quarter of $1.5 billion, or 26 cents a share, down from $2.06 billion, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue declined to $9.09 billion from $9.83 billion.

---
P.S:- in another report he said layoffs not imminent but if it happens
would be in range of 10% of 67K troops.
I think we have two more such qtrs then it would happen...around july09.

vsudhir · Post by **vsudhir** » 05 Feb 2009 16:40

Infy halts hiring, pay cuts ahead

vipins · Post by **vipins** » 05 Feb 2009 19:24

No clarity on joining date for HCL’s campus recruits

However, in the case of HCL, what is baffling for most students is the lack of clarity. “There have been days when I have sent about 50 mails to the official HR e-mail ID provided by HCL. The company is not responding at all,” said a recruit from Noida.

Looks like HCL is neither calling them to join nor informing them about their status.This is when it boasts of some 'employee first' policy

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 05 Feb 2009 19:56

the IT services cos already have a high % of the stated gross salary as
variable pay fn(individual perf,company perf). even in good times at INFY it was hard to find people getting more than 70% of the variable as per a friend...now they will smoothly adjust it downward or just cut that target % cleanly.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 05 Feb 2009 21:34

Teh world wide hype about the $10 laptop shows there is thirst for low cost laptop/computer. The ones who break thru and innovate will get fame if not wealth.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 05 Feb 2009 21:47

the cheapest netbooks on web seem to cost around 15000/- in India.

a good stretch goal was to halve that down to 7500 i.e. $150 at
current rate..that was where the negroponte's and INTCs projects ended
in price band.

I would think further advances in memory and displays and components
would soon make it possible for a Rs 4000/- product if a determined effort was mounted using the best people and third-world priced supply chain and open src sw ofcourse.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Feb 2009 01:03

What vina wrote about in his post earlier is already happening and some enterprising abduls are hard at work at it. In'shallah it shall see the rays of the moon and weather the jealousy of the kufr.

CalvinH · Post by **CalvinH** » 06 Feb 2009 10:17

Singha wrote:the IT services cos already have a high % of the stated gross salary as
variable pay fn(individual perf,company perf). even in good times at INFY it was hard to find people getting more than 70% of the variable as per a friend...now they will smoothly adjust it downward or just cut that target % cleanly.

Spot on. The variable pay varies further for different employees based on their performance ratings. In good times it would be 95-105% for top 30% and then 80-90 for rest 30%, and in 70% and below for the rest 40% with some poor performer getting nothing. For PM and above the variable pay constitutes min 40% of the total pay.

This gives management immense ability to cut cost during lean time and pocket most of the profits during good times.

sarulan · Post by **sarulan** » 06 Feb 2009 11:12

Cisco is going to cut 2000 jobs now and according to Chambers if the next quarter results dont improve upto 10% cut in staff numbers, which is roughly 6700 (this coming from a company with $30B of cash reserves)
Singha, How is Bangalore office? Any rumblings there?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Feb 2009 11:53

I am too busy washing fresh sets of khakis down in the bottom of
the trench here, stacking them up for future "sanitary malfunctions"
and occasionally wandering out late at night to trap rabbits and wild
goats for the grill.

do see the occasional jarnails riding past in convoys of Zil's and BMP3 IFVs or Mi17v flitting around....

no clue what the jarnails are planning for the Tet offensive. but can
confirm my batallion is intact, with enough food and lines of ammo
if the hated invaders come over the steppe.

the Zitadelle shall stand its ground sire.

Zhukov sir is expected here Feb12 for a general staff conference

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Feb 2009 13:11

^^^ But trench abduls at Cisco HQ today didnt seem to be that worried and were happy they beat 'expectations'....were all relaxed with hands over their bellies. Are these layoffs happening in outside amirkhan (read, India) onlee??

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Feb 2009 14:33

reading Zhukov sir's exact statement line by line he has defined a layoff as atleast 10% of the co. and says the 1500-2000k will be lost
in next qtr due to de-emphasis on certain stuff, realignment etc.

I dont hear anything on the SkyNet about engg groups being affected.sales/marketing will be impossible to track.

there's food in the kitchen and bizness as usual here. infact some grps are opening reqs if there is urgent needs. SVP level approval ofcourse.

I am not personally worried about my batallion here. we are supposed
to be one the "guards/scout/VVD" units assigned to explore and conquer new territory for the soviet republic...kinda like king Peter just grabbed everything in CAR in the past.

we have a roadmap of villages to burn and shrines to plunder for next
two years, in alliance with likeminded warlords and militant tribes.

Skanda · Post by **Skanda** » 06 Feb 2009 16:27

Regarding low cost computer, I am not sure how many folks have heard of the Simputer. The site is fairly old. But this company tried to do a commercial launch of that.

It was an interesting product, still is. The mobile revolution kind of killed it. But in 2005, they offered 200MHz, flash based computing platforms for about 200$ (Rs. 9999) including a monochrome touch screen LCD. Remove the LCD and the price hovered around 160$.

High costs were primarily because of low volumes and that is the real challenge. Anyone who gets their business strategy correct can roll out a 100$ device to the market (more so, if display is external).