GDP growth at 6.9% in FY05

Powered by a 9.2 per cent growth in the manufacturing sector, India's economic growth stood at 6.9 per cent for 2004-05 fiscal compared to 8.5 per cent during the previous financial year.

According to estimates released by the Central Statistical Organisation, the GDP growth rate during the last quarter of 2004-05 stood at 7 per cent as against 6.4 per cent during the third quarter of 2004-05.

The agriculture growth showed a marginal improvement during January-March quarter growing at 1.8 per cent against a negative 0.5 per cent growth during the third quarter of 2004-05.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors grew by 1.1 per cent during the 2004-05 fiscal as against 9.6 per cent during 2003-04.

The 'trade, hotels, transport and communication' industry continued to register double digit growth at 11.4 per cent as against 11.8 per cent during the previous fiscal year.

The performance of the 'financing, insurance, real estate and business service' industry remained unchanged at 7.1 per cent during 2004-05. (It stood at 7.1 per cent during 2003-04).

As for the national income (at 1993-94 prices) the CSO revised estimates for gross national product at factor cost for the 2004-05 fiscal year which stood at Rs 15,19,479 crore (Rs 15194.79 billion) as against Rs 14,22,479 crore (quick estimates) during 2003-04.

The net national product at factor cost for 2004-05 rose to Rs 13,54,999 crore (Rs 13549.99 billion) as against Rs 12,66,005 crore (quick estimates) during the previous fiscal.

The gross domestic product for the last fiscal stood at Rs 15,29,408 crore (Rs 15294.08 billion) as against Rs 14,305,548 crore (quick estimates) for 2003-04.

Highlights of India-Singapore pact

Following are the highlights of the India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement to be signed between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong on Wednesday.

• Three Singapore banks to set up subsidiaries.
• Indian banks to get full banking status in Singapore.
• Bilateral Investment protection agreement part of CECA.
• Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with safeguards.
• Trade likely to go up to 50 billion dollars by 2010.
• FII inflow to go up to 5 billion dollars in one year.
• FDI inflow to go up to 2 billion dollars in one year.
• FII ceilings relaxed for Temasek and SGIC.
• Customs duty on 506 items to be eliminated from Aug 1.
• Duties on 2,202 items to be eliminated by 2009.
• Duties on 2,407 items to be reduced by 2009.
• Negative list of 6,551 items with no concessions.
• Visa norms relaxed for 127 professional services.
• Mutual recognition of 129 education degrees.
• Technical cooperation between stock exchanges.
• India Inc to be able to raise funds through SDRs.

Tata Steel is world's best steel producer

Overriding stiff global competition, India's private sector steel giant Tata Iron and Steel Company has attained recognition as the "best steel company" in the world.

Competing with 22 world class steel makers including Korean giant Posco and world's largest steel producer L N Mittal group, the company from the House of Tatas was ranked number one by World Steel Dynamics.

"Tata Steel's selection as the topmost steel manufacturing company by WSD is a vindication of the success of the sweeping and radical changes made by the company to keep it vibrant, competitive and sustainable," B Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel said in New Delhi.

The 23 steel companies which were covered in the WSD report included L N Mittal steel, Bao Steel of China, Posco of South Korea, US Steel, Tata Steel, Arcelor of Europe and others.

The 20 stiff parameters considered for arriving at the title of best steel maker included cash operating costs, harnessing technological revolution, profitability in last four years, strength of balance sheet, dominance in the country/region, threat from nearby competitors and stock market performance.

Tata Steel scored highest 8.45 marks followed by Posco with 8.25 marks.

India's largest FDI deal signed

South Korean steel giant Posco said on Wednesday (22nd June) that it had signed the memorandum of understanding with the Orissa government for a $12 billion Indian steel project.

This investment by Posco, the world's fifth-largest steel maker, is the biggest foreign direct investment in India.

Sidestepping objections from several opposition parties, the Orissa government went ahead to sign the deal in Bhubaneswar for the establishment of a Rs 52,000 crore (Rs 520 billion) steel project at Paradip.

A 32-member Korean delegation comprising the Posco chairman Ku Taek Lee and Korean ambassador Jung Il Choi arrived in Bhubaneswar for the signing of the MoU.

The project, which would start with three million tonne capacity initially, would fetch revenue for the government to the tune of Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) to Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion) annually.

It would provide direct employment to 13,000 people and ensure indirect employment for 35,000 others, the minister said.

Take a break

People who complain they have no time for exercise ought to do the math: there are 1,440 minutes in a day... surely setting aside 30 (two per cent) of them for exercise ought to be possible even for the busiest amongst us.

Lack of preparation, and not lack of time, is the biggest barrier to exercise for busy people.

All the impromptu tea breaks and snacks at work add up to ahefty chunk of time. Why don't we use some of that time for exercise? Because heels and leather shoes are not exercise friendly, doofus, you might say.

Keep a pair of comfortable walking or running shoes in your car and office, and you'll be ready for a short walk or some aerobics wherever you are. Take fitness breaks — walking or doing desk exercises — instead of taking tea or cigarette breaks.

Keep moving

The time before or after work or meals is often available for short spells of exercise. Walk to work if your office is only a couple of miles away.

If it is farther away, get off the bus a mile away from the office and walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, and do your chores and errands on foot.

Do gardening at home; play with the pets, and your children.

At first, even 30 minutes seems like a really big chunk of time. But not if you begin by doing activities you really enjoy. If you like movies, walk to the theatre. Walk to the restaurant for an evening meal. If you enjoy music, dance to stuff that gets your heart thumping.

As it gets easier to spare a few minutes every day, gradually increase either the length of time doing the activity or increase the intensity of the activity, or both.

Vary your activities, to maintain interest and to broaden the range of benefits. Doing different exercises instead of sticking to one ensures all major muscle groups get a workout.

Indians earn more than Chinese bros

BANGALORE: Average compensation paid to Indian techies, both new hires and managers is not vastly different from what their counterparts earn in China, the other emerging competitive offshore destination in Asia. It is much lower in Vietnam, often talked about as a possible threat to India.

The average annual entry level salary in India is $5443 and $13124 is what a manager with 5 to 8 year experience earns. It is almost similar in China where freshers are paid $5460 and experienced hires $13732.

Salary in Vietnam is much lower. Freshers are paid $3276, while experienced hires get $8571.

The difference is marginally bigger in Philippines where the salary for freshers and managers are in the $6930 and $17425 range. The gap between the aver-age salary handed out in India compared to Singapore and Malaysia is however wide.
Entry level salaries in Malayasia and Singapore is $12455 and $23532 respec-tively, while for managers it is $30580 and $60156.
An offshore and nearshore ITO salary report 2004 compiled by NeoIT, the off-shore advisory and management services provider says that cost savings is the most significant factor driving global services sourcing.
Among the several cost components, wage differential between onshore and offshore or nearshore locations provides the most compelling reason for global sourcing of IT services.
The report points out that the wage rate in offshore locations forms 35-45% of the total outsourcing cost, while it is 55-65% in the case of nearshore
The wage differential between onshore and offshore locations is significant enough to offset the additional costs that are incurred in the process of opera-tionalising an offshore outsourcing initiative.
With offshore salaries being 70-75% lower than onshore salaries, organisa-tions can gain enough leverage to realise a 20% to 30% absolute savings on the overall initiative.
The wage differential between onshore and nearshore locations is not as sig-nificant, but as the additional costs of outsourcing to a nearshore location are much lower than outsourcing offshore, companies can generate around 10% to 15% in savings the report says.
The complexity of services delivered and skill set requirements of employees play a major role in determining salaries for IT professionals. From an out-sourcing industry perspective, technology competency has the maximum im-pact on salaries.
Salaries of employees engaged in specialised technology solutions are much higher than the industry average, while employees doing common low end technology work get paid much below the industry average.
When compared to Asia, the average salaries paid to IT professionals in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region is large.
Nearshore locations in EMEA include Eastern European countries like Poland, Romania, Hungary and Czech Republic, while offshore locations are South Africa and Russia.
In Hungary and, Poland, the average entry level salary is around 15,000 while it is varies between $35000 to $41000 for those with 5 to 8 years experience.
Ireland which offers companies in the UK a strong value proposition as a near-shore location pays high both for freshers and experienced talent, with the en-try level salary being $31500 and $84397 for managers.
Entry level salaries in Russia is $11664 while managers with 5 to 8 years of experience make around $29353.
ends

IT's shining, exports soar to $17bn

The Indian tech story shows no signs of slowing down. India today commands an impressive 44% share of the total global outsourced market. Technology exports from India rose in FY05 to $17.2bn, a 34.5% growth over $12.8bn earned in previous fiscal.

This was revealed by Nasscom, the trade body for technology service industry, at a press meet on Thursday said. Projected IT and ITES export growth in the current fiscal is $22.5bn, a 30-32% increase.

Growth on a big base is a challenge and the industry needs considerable support from the government specifically on infrastructure front and also through supportive policies said Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom. The total value of outsourcing to India in ’04 is estimated at 44% of the world-wide total. It is forecast to reach $48bn by ’08. IT software and services exports were up at $12bn, a 30.5% growth over the previous $9.2bn, while ITES revenues were $5.2bn, a 44.5% jump over $3.6bn.

Nasscom said that the exports and domestic Indian IT and ITES industry together grew by 32% to register $22bn revenues, from $16.7bn last fiscal. Domestic software and services revenues stood at $4.2bn, while the domestic ITES revenues were $0.6bn.

Domestic market revenues in FY04 were $3.9bn. “The Indian software and services industry has been able to maintain its growth momentum and consolidate its partnership with overseas customers, adding to their competitiveness,” said S Ramadorai, chairman, Nasscom.

To sustain the competitive advantage that India enjoys, the technology industry must engage closely with academia to create the right talent pool, collaborate with the hardware industry in micro electronics and embedded software, maximise employment opportunities and elevate service excellence through R&D and quality benchmarked delivery, he further added.

Mr Karnik said that the performance of the Indian software and services export industry shows that it is on track to attain the projected target of $50bn in FY09.

“The healthy growth validates the outsourcing model,” he added. Many Indian vendors established presence in high margin segments and there was a steady growth in traditional service lines in the ITES-BPO sector, last fiscal, said Mr Karnik.

Nasscom is working to increase collaboration among Indian companies to share ideas, information and best practices in order to sustain and grow the domestic market.

Extensive use of IT within the country can result in great economic benefit, efficient and transparent governance, and empowerment of the disadvantaged he added.

How top IT firms got their names

Adobe came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.

Apache - It got its name because its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result was 'A PAtCHy' server -- thus, the name Apache

Apple Computers - Favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.

CISCO – It’s not an acronym but the short for San Francisco. Google - the name started as a jockey boast about the amount of
information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford grad students Sergey Brin and Larry Page resented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'

Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing. HP - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics. Lotus (Notes) - Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or 'Padmasana'. Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Microsoft - coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed later on. Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.

ORACLE - Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such).
Acronym for: One Real Asshole Called Larry Ellison?

Red Hat - Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. He lost it and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone!

SAP - "Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing", formed by 4 ex-IBM employees who used to work in the
'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of IBM.

Sony - from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.

SUN - founded by 4 Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for Stanford University Network.

Xerox - The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product trying to say dry' (as it was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying). The Greek root `xer' means dry.

Yahoo! - the word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's Travels'. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.