A new Sholay unfolds

It has all the build-up and drama of a blockbuster Bollywood pot boiler and is reminiscent of the Sholay saga that many of us feasted on! A valiant Prime Minister supported by robust rural growth weathers the monster called the Recession of 2008 and India emerges in 2009 as the only economy to remain relatively unscathed by the economic slowdown. But after this the government has to beat back successive raids on its credibility by the dacoits of the 2G scam, the Commonwealth Games fiasco and most recently Coalgate. The Prime Minister, his reputation...

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The logjam in Parliament

The logjam in Parliament I spend fifteen minutes in the Rajya Sabha yesterday watching my friend and new member of Parliament Anu Aga sit on a lonely bench with a few Congress folks on the treasury benches and a dozen ot so BJP folks on the other benches. To a script , when the house commenced at 2 PM the BJP folks walked into the well of the house chanted slogans asking the PM to resign and got the adjournment. The same farce is being repeated for two weeks and the nation has a paralysed Parliament to add to its woes of corruption, high inflation...

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A great quarter for Zensar

We have announced the results for the first quarter of FY 12-13 and I am pleased to share that the consolidated revenue for the quarter shows 36.5% growth year-on-year. Q1 has been an excellent quarter and demonstrates the robust and risk mitigated nature of our business. Our strong focus on key verticals, diversified geographies and innovation in all our services has enabled us to weather the storm that is affecting the entire sector. We are confident that we will meet and exceed the goal of 18 % growth in Full Year 2012- 13. Consolidated...

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Towards the Olympics

Saina Jwala Ashwini Abhinav Gagan Leander Sania Mahesh Deepika Mary Kom and wrestlers and weightlifters- the list of medal possibilities from India is growing every Olympics ! Congratulations to Deep Sethi for his Go for Gold initiative that got the powers that be in Indian sports to wake up Now lets wait and watch...

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Q1 Results Reason

Folks Its always fun the week of the first results announcements for a quarter when no analyst knows quite how to call it - will TCS and/or Infosys spring a positive surprise on the 12th for the IT sector ? JP Morgan talks about both secular headwinds and cyclical forces combining to exert pressure on the industry but also states that is is difficult to guage how much of the current slowdown is cyclical and how much structural ! While discretionary spending is likely to be low and large financial institutions could be approaching saturation...

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Industry outlook - June 2012

The week ends on an optimistic note - Europe is stable, America hasnt sounded any more outsourcing warnings, the Indian PM is on a roll with his positive announcements - IT industry results start rolling next week - hope all the surprises are good ones ! On a recent interview with CNBC, I had to stave off a series of alarmist questions ? Will the "Move jobs to USA" bill be the death knell of outsourcing ? Will the US Government's intention to ask all software companies to do the work only in America be a deterrent ? Will NASSCOM have to downgrade...

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We are passing through a critical phase in the global economy. The potential exit of Greece from the Eurozone and the cataclysmic fallouts this could have on the global financial system is already sending tremors through India with the rupee in free fall and an austerity drive announced by the FM. In all this climate of uncertainty, what do we see on TV ? The unseemly fracas over Shah Rukh Khan and Sid Mallya in post IPL action, the walkout of Mamta Banerjee from a Reality TV show and of course the justifification of a 100 B USD valuation for...

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Proud Indian proud of our Parliament

Proud of our country and its 60 years of successful Parliamentary democracy ! On the other hand our neighbour has a lot to worry about as a judge there said quoting Gibran " Pity the nation that achieves nationhood in the name of a religion but pays little heed to truth, righteousness and accountability, which are the essence of every religion.” As a nation we must strive to be inclusive and ensure that no Indian is left behind. And as a responsible leader of the free world we should reach out to our neighbours and help them to overcome their...

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Leadership

Leadership in turbulent times was the topic of a symposium organised by the CII in Bengaluru this week. Excellent speakers including Ravi Venkatesan former Chairman of Cummins India and Microsoft and Sehasayee Executive Vice Chairman of Ashok Leyland delivered some gems Leadership is all about have an ambition to to take a country or a business to the next level and having the courage to take necessary actions. As Ravi rightly said, if you dont have either, the best thing to do is to get out of the way What do you all think...

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Results & beyond

Folks Zensar has announced the results for the Fourth Quarter and the consolidated Annual Result of FY 11-12. I am pleased to share that the consolidated revenue for the quarter shows a 32% growth year-on-year with a Profit Before Tax growth of 62% year-on-year. Due to currency volatility and higher tax rates this year our last quarter profits after tax have been lower than the third quarter  but the business fundamentals remain strong. The consolidated revenue for the year shows a 56.6% growth year-on-year with a Profit After...

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An optimistic start to the new financial year !

A whirlwind two week tour of seven cities across UK and US and meetings with clients reinforced the feeling that business confidence remains strong and the likelihood of a second recession has receded in the first few months of this calendar year.  The voices being picked up by our sales teams across the globe also do not reveal any reason to panic with robust business inflows happening, not just in the West but also Australia Asia, Middle East and Africa. Big ticket projects may be put under the microscope particularly in the still sluggish...

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A new financial year - why this kolaveri?

It’s quite a dismal mood with which we start the new financial year in India. A weak Jan-March quarter for all industry sectors, lackluster performance by the stock market indices in a quarter where most internal bourses  recorded dramatic gains and a general feeling that India has lost an opportunity to take an international lead in three years of slowdown! Even as confidence seems to be returning to the US economy, are we as a country positioning ourselves to capitalize on the opportunities of the future? A two week tour of seven cities...

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The economic morass and Indian IT

We are truly living out the old Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times”.  As Ministers, top bureaucrats and senior members of Parliament spoke at keynotes and panels in the annual conference of CII, organized specifically to discuss the path to a return of economic growth, one fact became abundantly clear – every intelligent person in any position of influence in the country knows that we have hit a growth roadblock. Do we have a collective method of recognizing, accepting and removing these road blocks is the question that is...

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CII and the art of economic growth

The Confederation of Indian Industry’s annual meeting which starred the who’s who of government and industry had all the makings of a Bollywood potboiler! There was a debating society of parliamentarians Tharoor, Yechuri, Prasad and Singh that took the fine art of sarcasm and repartee to new levels but did not rain any new intelligence on the five hundred strong audience of business chiefs. It was amusing though not surprising to find that all the politicians from the treasury benches mouthed the party line and appeared almost startled at the...

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Collaborating with Competitors

Kiran Karnik's new book launched at the recent Nasscom Leadership Forum is all about the theme of how people who fight bitterly in global and domestic competition are able to come together extremely well for common causes like global trade, innovation and other industry issues. It is a natural trait of all human beings to collaborate and we are only forced to take combative positions when the necessity of competition force us to do so ! My own experiences with NASSCOM over nearly two decades reveal that all IT CEOs are well meaning blokes and...

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The IT industry status and outlook

The interesting conclusion one can draw from the FY12 outlook posted by NASSCOM is that the IT Services folks are still growing faster than the BPO and Engineering Services and Products players in spite of a much larger base. My own belief is that this will not change in the foresseable future. All of us who are significant players in services are embracing non-linear growth and creating IP as well as new platforms for Cloud and BPO which will enable us to maintain growth and profits and transform to true solutions companies. Next year will be...

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Its a new world !

In spite of all the doomsday forecasts for the global and Indian economy, the new year has started off reasonably well. The Stock markets are up, the rupee is the best performing currency in Jan and the outlook for the IT sector is fairly decent both for CY 12 and FY 13. So relax folks, no need to worry ....y...

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