Over 50% US green card holders plan to return home: Source – The Economic Times.

The United States may experience reverse brain drain as thousands of Indian IT professionals contemplate returning to India, according to a survey conducted by Corp-Corp.com , a US-based technology job portal.

The finding was based on a survey of more than 1,000 survey respondents of Indian origin, nearly half of which were IT professionals that plan to return to India. About 50 per cent of the respondents have plans to return soon, while 6.4 per cent of them have already returned to their homeland. Survey participants included permanent residents, US citizens and work visa holders.

Fifty-one per cent said their decision was based on wanting to rejoin family and 26 per cent cited better opportunities as the reason to return to their homeland. Around 10 per cent are planning to return for they believe their kids will get a better education in India. “The results are very important for American businesses because they may face challenges in filling the gap of these resources,” said Prabakaran Murugaiah, CEO of Corp-Corp.com. “Businesses cannot replace an experienced workforce overnight,” he said.

The survey results show 69 per cent of visa holders and 57 per cent permanent residents or citizens intend to return. These are some of the motivation to return to India: Nearly 51 per cent for the return is rejoining their family members in India; 26 per cent for better opportunities in India.

Only 3 per cent says they are returning due to job loss, which is consistent with low unemployment of around 6 per cent in the IT sector even though the generic unemployment is over 8 per cent. Around 10 per cent are planning their return to provide better education to their kids in India. There are about two million Indians living in US and many of them hold bachelor or higher degrees. Indians share a large percentage in the numbers of PhD holders. Among the Asian Indian population, around 60 per cent are in management or professional occupations.

Murugaiah says, “Many of the returning Indians have aged parents back home to take care. Also, recent economic growth in India with many good opportunities fueled their thought process of heading back.” “In addition to that, many US companies are opening their offices in India and hiring more to target the growing market in Asia. There may be some challenges in filling the gap created by these resources, because we cannot create a 10 years experienced resource the next day,” he said.

“However, there are 6 million IT professionals working in the US and this may not pose a bigger impact for the US tech industry. This trend may very well be a win-win situation for both countries,” he added.

Smaller, specialised IT firms may see price uptick in FY12. Source : The Economic Times

Smaller, specialised software services firms are likely to see better pricing in FY12, as demand for the services they offer rises, partly offsetting the impact of higher costs on margins. 

Analysts expect rates in verticals such as banking, financial services, insurance, energy, utilities and manufacturing to increase about 1 percent, along with applications such as enterprise resource planning, consulting and package implementation.  “For niche-focused companies, it is likely to play out strongly,” Angel Broking analyst Srishti Anand said, adding she does not see top-tier firms such as Infosys and Wipro benefitting from any rise in pricing due to their broad-based portfolios. 

“There would be a marginal rise in pricing in BFSI, energies and utilities, and even retail up to a certain extent, but if you take the entire portfolio, it won’t amount to much,” Anand said.  Companies such as Hexaware, KPIT Cummins Infosystems , Persistent Systems and Polaris Software Lab are expected to see some improvement in pricing in the current fiscal. 

Anand said an across-the-board price rise of 2-3 percent will take place in FY13 rather than FY12.  She expects aggressive wage hikes and higher personnel expenses to dent margins in FY11, which could be partially made up for by the inching up of pricing for specialised mid-caps. Overall, margins should be down 100 to 150 basis points in FY11, she said. 

Spark Capital Advisors analyst Srivathsan Ramachandran expects margins to be stable, helped, in part, by the expected rate hike.  “Since mid-CY08, there have been no price hikes so that could drive pricing now, we could see some improvement, about one or two percent,” he said.  Software services firms have not seen a boost in pricing since 2008, when major economies dunked to a downturn, demand suffered and IT companies were compelled to slash rates, in an attempt to sustain business. 

Now software services firms’ business in North America, Asia Pacific and other emerging regions is increasing, while the European region, which was relatively slow to recover, is also showing signs of growth. 

Now websites can track your IP address. Source: The Economic Times

A new online tracking system will allow websites to pinpoint your location to within a few hundred metres, without your permission. Internet sites will be able to work out where users are within an average of 690 metres, using information about their internet connection.

At the moment they can only track users’ locations to within a radius of about 200 km, but the new technique will narrow this down to as little as 100 metres, the Daily Mail reports.The development comes as privacy concerns were also raised about iPhone users having their locations and movements secretly tracked and stored.

Researchers discovered that the Apple devices save the user’s latitude and longitude along with a time and date stamp that can be easily accessed. The tracking method will allow online advertisers to target web browsers with tailored messages, but it has raised concerns about privacy.

Similar techniques of mapping the internet protocol (IP) address that every computer has are already in use, but are far less accurate. The new system, which has been designed by American and Chinese researchers, compares the time it takes to send data to computers to the time it takes to send to computers it knows the location of using Google Maps.

Using a rough estimation of how far away the computer connection is, the system locates nearby landmarks, such as universities and schools, and compares their location to narrow down the computer’s whereabouts. On an average, the method gets to within 690 metres of the target, but it can be as close as 100 metres, good enough to identify the location of the computer to within a few streets.

To locate computers to this accuracy has previously required people to agree to share location, but the new system does not need any particular software on the computer to work or even the user’s permission. Yong Wang, one of the researchers who designed the method, said: “This is a client-independent method. The client does not need to approve anything.”

The tracking system will be particularly valuable to advertisers who will be able to target browsers with advertisements for shops and service just down the street.

KV Kamath appointed new chairman of Infosys, Shibulal new CEO. Source : The Economic Times

In a major top-level management restructuring, India’s second largest software firm Infosys today named veteran banker K V Kamath as the new chairman to succeed founder N R Narayana Murthy , who retires in August.

 The over $6 billion Infosys Technologies has also appointed current CEO S Gopalakrishnan as the Executive co-Chairman and promoted COO S D Shibulal as CEO and MD. Murthy, who turns 65 in August, would become Chairman Emeritus.

These appointments, effective August 21, 2011 were approved at the company’s board meeting held here today. Kamath, 63, is currently an independent director on the board of Infosys. He is the non-Executive Chairman of ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private lender.

“I am very very pleased with (all) these appointments,” Murthy told reporters after the board meeting. ”Kamath, Kris and Shibu will make an ideal team. I am grateful to the company for appointing me as Chairman Emeritus and providing me an opportunity to add value to the board…,” he said.

Murthy said the decision to appoint Kamath as Chairman was “absolutely unanimous”. Asked if the leadership succession is the toughest period for Infosys, he replied in the negative, saying that the Bangalore-headequartered, NASDAQ-listed firm has gone through many such periods, and referred to the unfriendly business environment many years ago when importing computers took a process of three years.

“I don’t think this a tough period at all”, he added. Murthy said as Chairman Emeritus, he has absolutely no time-table and he can pursue whatever he wants to but added that the Board, executive management and every Infoscion have the right to demand his time and he would certainly like to add whatever little value he can if asked.

Infosys Technologies will now be renamed Infosys Limited. All new appointments would be effective from August 21, 2011. Kris Gopalakrishnan said that the company will name three new directors by June 11, 2011. He stressed that Infosys was aligning various units under four business groups.

SD Shibulal said, “Objective is to build a next generation global services company and focus on strenghtening client relationships.”  Infosys would also be appointing three new directors before the annual general meeting in June. The major board recast comes at a time when Infosys is facing stiff competitive environment and tough business conditions.

The names of Kamath, Gopalakrishnan and Shibulal were recommended by the three-member Nominations Committee, chaired by Jeffrey S Lehman. ”These three leaders meld an extraordinary range of talents and experiences with a united commitment to drive the company… We could not be in better hands,” Lehman said.

A well-known personality in the corporate circles, Kamath was the key driving force in the success of ICICI Bank. 63-year-old Kundapur Vaman Kamath is currently an Independent Director on the Board of Infosys. He is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank, India’s largest private lender.

Kamath said Infosys is a company which has been built by its founders, led by the visionary leader Murthy, who as its CEO and MD and then as its Chairman and Chief Mentor, provided thought leadership over the years.  ”This is an innovation-led company, with a core of outstanding professionals that has always set the highest standards and has built a unique culture.”

“I feel greatly honoured to have been asked to be the Chairman of Infosys, and by the Board of Directors and accept this responsibility with a deep sense of humility,” Kamath said. Kamath said he had watched the growth of Infosys over the years with admiration and termed it a “shining star”.

“Nobody can replace Murthy. Taking Murthy’s position is not possible for anybody. One can only be Chair of the Board but one can never be a Murthy”, he said, lavishly praising the outgoing Chairman.  Congratulating Kamath, Chanda Kochhar, CEO, ICICI Bank said that Kamath brought technology revolution to banking and his experience will help Infosys gain a lot.

One of the co-founders, Kris Gopalakrishnan has been Infosys CEO since June 2007.  Shibulal, another co-founder, is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO). ”We will ensure that this leadership transition is smooth… We are also making other organisational changes to strengthen our market position and ability to serve our clients better,” Shibulal said.

Commenting on the development, Suresh Senapaty, CFO, Wipro said, “Gen-Y needs to be part of decision making in IT companies.”  Headquartered in Bangalore, Infosys has 64 offices and 63 development centres across the US, the UK, China, Australia and Japan, among other countries.

The company and its subsidiaries had a workforce of 1,30,820 employees as of March 31, 2011.