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| Infosys' Bangalore office: An arrangementin
grey and black |
Bangalore has some strange weather-watchers.
The manufacturers of diesel generators-gensets in Indian English-eagerly
await the onset of summer. And the CEOs of software companies, that
of monsoon. The state of Karnataka finds itself short some 800 mw
of power every year. ''The peak demand for power in the state is
93 million units a day, but the availability is only 74 million
units,'' confesses N. Raghavendra Rao, General Manager (Technical),
Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation.
The result, in a city that accounts for more than a quarter of
India's Rs 36,500 crore software exports, is brown outs, some scheduled,
others not. For four months of the year, Bangalore's software companies
go without power for between four and six hours a day. Work has
to go on; so they make do with diesel generators. ''We do brisk
business here, especially in the summer months,'' laughs C. Govindappa,
the Vice President of generator-maker Crompton Greaves.
Infosys Technologies has
the capacity to generate 7,250 KVA (5.8MW) of power-it has several
generators waiting to roar into life should the lights go out. The
International Technology Park, a joint venture between the Singapore
government and the Tata Group can do 9 mw, and Wipro, 3 MW across
its eight development centres in the city. While all this focus
on self-sufficiency should warm the hearts of diesel generator makers-Cummins,
Caterpillar, Crompton Greaves, and Kirloskar-it adds to the cost
of code. A 275-kva generator could cost between Rs 7 lakh and Rs
9 lakh. Worse, the cost of an unit of power generated by such a
generator would be twice the Rs 4.50 charged by KPTC. A software
services company with 200 employees spread across 12,000 square
feet of space would need to spend an extra Rs 4,000 a day just on
operating costs. Infosys, for the record, has over 5,000 employees
on its 50-acre campus. This, when, according to India's National
Association of Software & Service Companies, the average billing
rates in software decreased 9 per cent in the last quarter of 2001-02.
''With companies looking to cut costs because of tough market conditions,
the shortage of power will deter new entrants (from setting up base
in the city),'' says D.V. Venkatachalapathy, the Managing Director
of Vikas Global Solutions.
Vivek Kulkarni, it Secretary, Government of
Karnataka dismisses such fears. His argument: one, power isn't a
big issue with infotech companies that do not use as much power
as manufacturing firms; two, most companies have made provision
for back-up power; and three, at least one new infotech company
makes Bangalore its home every week. ''The city is not losing out,''
he states confidently. KPTC's Rao would like to blame the state's
sourcing strategy: Karnataka generates 60 per cent of its power
from hydel; the ideal mix is 30 per cent hydel and 70, thermal.
''The government has announced five new power projects which will
add 2020 mw over the next five years,'' he says. Meanwhile, the
generators are running smoothly at Infosys.
-Venkatesha Babu
COLLATERAL D
Desperate For Respect
Post Home Trade, online brokers vie to establish
their credentials.
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| Sharekhan's ED Jaideep Arora and India Bulls
CEO Sameer Gehlot: Honourable schoolboys |
Online trades typically account for
2 per cent of business on National Stock Exchange. The recent scam
involving online brokerage Home Trade threatens to tar other o bs
with the same brush and shrink this proportion some. ''Home Trade
was into show business,'' says Sameer Gehlot, the CEO of India Bulls.
''We are here to stay.'' Don't write the segment off, warns Jaideep
Arora, Executive Director, Sharekhan. ''Online trading can reach
14-15 per cent of total volumes next year with clean markets and
the right technology.'' Technology is something all o bs, India
Bulls, Geojit Securities, Sharekhan, 5paisa.com, have. Now, they
are focussing on building brands and relationships. India Bulls
assigns a relationship manager to every customer; Sharekhan hopes
to build a mass-market brand with its mascot Sheru; and 5.paisa
has a customer front-end in its 60 offices. Still, it'll take a
lot to live down Home Trade.
-Abha Bakaya
CHANCE
Zee's Subhash Chandra gets a headstart in the
online gambling race.
The early bird gets the worm. Or
so believes Subhash Chandra, Zee TV's head honcho, whose Playwin
Infravest is leading the online lottery race. Barely three months
after it launched its Lotto game in Sikkim, Playwin has plonked
down 2,250 machines across 300 cities and towns. Other players like
Lalit Modi of Modi Enterprises are still getting their act together.
On May 31, Playwin made its 10th draw, which sold Rs 7.5 crore worth
of tickets. Still, the run hasn't been smooth. In Punjab and Karnataka
Playwin's winning bids to conduct lotteries have been challenged.
Karnataka and Maharashtra, for which Playwin holds the licences,
have been slow to take off. Says Sanjay Yash Roy, VP (Marketing),
Playwin: ''The only challenge is the attitude of large sections
of society. They have to be convinced that it is not gambling, but
a Rs 10 bet.'' Still, with 14 states (Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh
will join the fray soon) wagering on Lotto, there's lot of money
to be made.
-Vinod Mahanta
HABITATS
India's Best Corporate Offices
We ask leading architects to pick the best
office spaces in the country.
Bangalore's Best
Wipro's aesthetic elegance and Infosys' hi-tech exuberance dominate
the Bangalore short-list. Honourable mentions go to MindTree for
optimal use of space (since when was that a constraint in Bangalore?),
Himalaya Drug Company, and the office of Hindustan Lever's beverages
arm for being both lavish and functional. Our gripe: we're just
beginning to tire of the Bangalore formula a bit; there's only so
much water, landscaped gardens, and low-slung buildings the mind
can take.
Chennai's Chosen
Yes, Chennai has some snazzy offices. Such as ABN Amro, which
reeks of class, Polaris' new facility where the room colours range
from the under-stated to the vibrant, and Chennai Petroleum's decade-old
office with conference rooms that can actually change size. Still,
Chennai isn't as clean as Bangalore and the milieu, except for a
stretch near Adyar's Theosophical Society isn't quite there.
Delhi's Dazzlers
Nestle's new corporate office in Gurgaon-the previous one was
a standard chrome-and-glass marvel in crowded Connaught Place-with
high ceilings and a curvilinear exterior is a shoo-in into this
sampling. So are Gillette's open-office wonder in Gurgaon with work
stations imported from Malaysia, no less; ST Microelectronics small
but elegant facility in Noida; and GE Plastics' European style office
(again in Gurgaon). Oops, since all our choices are either in Gurgaon
or Noida, where does that leave Delhi?
Hyderabad's Hothouses
Every choice in Naidu's Cyberabad has to do with technology.
From Wilco International Systems' silver coloured office-two blocks,
seven floors in all, with no two floors being alike in use of materials,
design-style, and colour scheme-to Microsoft India's development
centre, an intelligent office with thermafusers and sensors to regulate
airflow to Vanenburg IT Park, an ergonomic wonder. No Charminar
style buildings, sorry.
Mumbai's Most
Despite being India's most built-up metro, Mumbai has a clutch
of snazzy offices. Such as Crompton Greaves' high-rise in Prabhadevi,
which balances functionality and aesthetics rather well. Or ILFs'
low rise with a sculptured look. Even Reliance Centre at Ballard
Pier, which retains the buildings heritage values without any compromise
on functionality. Notable mentions: P&G's office-park like facility
at crowded-Andheri, ICICI's new-age wonder at Bandra-Kurla Complex
and Essar Towers, with a helipad on the roof and a seamless full-glass
façade.
Architects spoken to include Hafeez Contractor, Raja Aederi, Tehmasp
Khareghat, Chandar Seetharaman, Ravi Laddha, Vikram Phadke, B.S.
Murthy, Kumar Gowda, Lingappa Neelakanta, Debashish Gupta, C.P.
Kukreja, Sonali Bhagwati, and S.S. Consultants.
-compiled by Moinak Mitra with Nitya
Varadarajan in Chennai,
Abir Pal in Mumbai, E.K. Sharma in Hyderabad, and Venkatesha Babu
in Bangalore
NOISE
Glam Amidst The Gloom
Mega launches don't mean there's no slowdown.
It's just that marketers are trying harder.
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| Ukraine dancers at the Fiat Siena launch:
But where's the car? |
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| Moulin Rouge (minus Kidman) at the Truei
launch: The Koreans like colour |
You only needed to be at Bangalore's
Golden Palms Resort & Spa in early May to believe that nothing
like a consumer market slowdown ever happened. For Fiat India's
army of 60-odd dealers (and their wives) in the country, it was
time to make a splash. The all-new and refurbished Fiat Siena emerged
from what perhaps is the country's biggest swimming pool, amidst
some hectic dancing by a troupe specially flown in from Ukraine.
The cost of the extravaganza? Rs 1 crore.
That was no isolated big bang launch. Samsung recently hired the
Moulin Rouge troupe for the launch of its ''Talk in Colour'' Truei
mobile phone in Delhi and Mumbai. The launch bill was a staggering
$1 million (Rs 4.9 crore). So what's happening? Why are these companies
trying to spend their way through what is undeniably a consumer
slowdown?
''There are lot of tertiary benefits from such a mega launch,''
says Vijay Chandoriker, Vice President (Sales & Marketing),
Fiat India. The grandeur of the launch, he argues, not just reinforces
the Siena's international brand status, but reassures the trade
about the company's seriousness, especially given that Siena's initial
launch in 1999 had come a cropper.
For Samsung, a late-comer to the Indian mobile handset market,
the launch of the first liquid-colour-display (LCD) handset is an
opportunity to establish itself as a market innovator and, therefore,
the preferred brand for upgrades. Samsung plans to spend another
$4 million (Rs 19.60 crore) on promoting Truei this year. Did we
hear you say recession?
-Shailesh Dobhal
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