Financial News - IT

ISB students in WB conference on ‘Combating Corruption’

CONFERENCE: A recommendation made by students of the Indian School of Business (ISB) including Sri Lankans has been voted for presentation at the World Bank Meet held at Brussels recently. Students from the ISB were participating in an international video conference organised by the World Bank.

One of the recommendations made by the ISB students was the use of technology effectively to combat corruption and improve governance. Several Sri Lankan students are also studying at the ISB.

This was voted for presentation at the World Bank’s Brussels Meet and will help enrich the agenda by representing the voice of leading business schools and future business leaders.

Further, the recommendations generated from this global consultation will enable the leaders of today to hear the ideas and perspectives of the leaders of tomorrow.

Speaking about his group’s proposal, Shivanand Sinha, student Class of 2007 at the ISB, said, “India is a technology capital of sorts today and hence we focussed on how to use technology effectively.

We debated on the innovative ways of combating corruption by empowering the common man by giving him a two way communication device - the mobile phone.”

The ISB students came up with three recommendations, private sector to set examples and be role-models to public and civic groups on fighting corruption, leveraging technology as a medium of disinter mediation to fight corruption and empowerment of the private sector entity.

Moderating this conference, Professor of Rural Marketing at the ISB Harish Bijoor said, “In the world of business today, we encounter a reasonable level playing field.” However, the ultimate leveller of development gains is corruption. To that extent, the debate on corruption is the most essential debate to participate in.

The conference connected over 30 leading business and public policy schools around the world, in twelve sequential two-hour sessions.

The ISB was the only B-School from India to be invited to participate in this consultation programme. The ISB Students connected with students from Russia, Vietnam and Indonesia during this consultation conference.

Organised by the World Bank , this conference is being run parallel to and complement the high-level conference on Fighting Corruption: New Frontiers in Public-Private Partnerships, organized jointly the World bank and the Government of Belgium, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Brussels.

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Nokia and Siemens in network deal

TIE UP: Nokia and Siemens are to merge their mobile and fixed-line phone network equipment businesses to create one of the world’s biggest network firms. Both companies will have a 50% stake in the infrastructure company, to be based in Nokia’s home country of Finland.

The move follows a tie-up between French phone equipment firm Alcatel and US company Lucent Technologies. The firms predict annual sales of 16bn euros ($20.2billion) and cost savings of 1.5billion euros a year by 2010.

This merger would also bring positive results to Sri Lanka.

The new business, made up of Siemens’ networks business group and Nokia’s carrier-related operations, will be called Nokia Siemens Networks.

In a statement the firms said the company would have “a world-class fixed-mobile convergence capability, a complementary global base of customers, a deep presence in both developed and emerging markets and one of the industry’s largest and most experienced service organisations”.

The Wall Street Journal put the value of the deal, due to be completed by January 1 next year, at about 25bn euros.

There has been a move towards consolidation in the telecommunications infrastructure industry, largely because of low-price competition from Asia.

Analysts said it was a deal with long-term benefits.

Annual savings will come from areas such as research and development costs. The new firm will be one of the world’s biggest phone equipment networks. Analyst Ed Snyder of Charter Equity Research said the deal would have implications for the 60,000 staff employed by the companies.

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Infosys net income leaps by 70%

INCOME: Indian software giant Infosys posted a higher-than-expected 70 percent jump in its fiscal fourth-quarter net income as it signed up more clients overseas and tapped new businesses.

The Bangalore-based company’s profit rose to 11.4 billion rupees (266.5 million dollars) in the three months ended March 31, from 6.73 billion rupees a year earlier. Sales increased 43.8 percent to 37.7 billion rupees.

“The global IT services industry continues to show strong growth with exciting opportunities and Infosys is well positioned to take advantage of this,” Chief Executive Officer Nandan Nilekani said in a statement.

Infosys, India’s second-biggest maker of computer software and a pioneer of the outsourcing boom, signed up 34 new clients during the quarter, including those in the retail industry, aerospace and oilfield services.

This helped offset a rise in the value of the rupee that dents overseas earnings as well as salary increases.

For the 12 months ended March 31, the company’s net income jumped 56.6 percent to 38.5 billion rupees, on sales growth of 45.9 percent to 138.9 billion rupees.

The results were closely watched, with analysts looking to the figures as an indicator of how the country’s flagship industry is facing up to the challenges of rising wages, an appreciating rupee that cuts into export earnings, a looming slowdown in technology spending by US companies and a higher tax burden.

Infosys shares were up 54.6 rupees or 2.67 percent to 2,098.25 on Friday, and up 2.75 percent at 2,100 rupees after the earnings were announced.

The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex was up 167.9 points or 1.28 percent to 13,281.71 at 0500 GMT. (AFP)