Arun Jain: Rough customer

On December 13, when Arun Jain, CEO of Polaris Software Lab, landed at Bank Artha Graha in Jakarta to settle a commercial dispute, he thought it was business as usual. He couldn't have been more wrong. Soon after their arrival, Jain and his team of senior executives were detained by the bank, leading to a Police arrest.

The bone of contention: A $1.3-million contract Polaris had signed with the bank to implement its Bancware suite of software solutions. Artha Graha was unhappy with the progress and decided to cancel the contract in November, although the completion was due only in July 2003. Polaris contested the termination on the grounds that it was incorrect, and wanted to negotiate with the bank (there is a provision for arbitration in Singapore). Jain had arrived for the negotiations, when the bank decided to have him arrested. When BT went to press, Nasscom and the External Affairs Ministry were working on Jain and his team's release.

The lesson for India's it industry: Pick clients carefully, draw-up foolproof contracts, and perhaps hire lawyers in the us.

-Venkatesha Babu

TETE-A-TETE
"There's A Big Market Out There"

Wayne M. Hewett: Growing the market, patiently

Wayne M. Hewett is the President of GE Plastics Pacific. In India recently, he spoke to BT's Moinak Mitra on the Indian operations. Excerpts:

Why did GE Plastics pull out of its JV with IPCL?

That was something which both players had an interest in doing. The government was looking at the disinvestment of IPCL, and we didn't know the fate of IPCL. Therefore, we amicably got out of the 50:50 JV.

For GE Plastics, how important is India in the Asia-Pacific region?

India is the smallest region in the Asia-Pacific among the six regions of Asia-Pacific. I think that the engineered thermal plastics segment that we compete in, is just not as well developed here as yet.

Which is your faster-growing business in India? Resins or sheet products?

Both are growing tremendously. But resin polycarbonate business is a bigger business in India. We grew by over 20 per cent last year and this year in terms of turnover. We believe there is a big market out there.

Where's the demand coming from?

Telecom, automotive, and it hardware are very big. There is a lot of demand from the two-wheeler sector as it is growing. In fact, anywhere the heat requirement is higher, engineering plastics come into play and that itself is a huge market.

BULL FAVOUR
Bank, Tech, And Stocks
With bullish sentiment back on stockmarkets, bank and infotech stocks have formed the ripple flavour of the day. A quick dig in.

Year-end has traditionally been bullish, and this year has been no different. The difference, however, is the splendid performance of bank stocks. And that too, public-sector bank stocks. These had suffered because of their huge Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). But all that has changed with the passage of the Securitisation Bill-which empowers creditors to claim their dues.

If that's not exciting enough (the new law's efficacy is still untested), the public-sector banks are actually shaping fast. Plus, they're going cheap; SBI, for example, is quoting at a p/e multiple of only six.

Infotech, as ever, has been a good performer too-with Wipro and Infosys in the limelight. Says S. Naganath, Chief Investment Officer, DSP Merrill Lynch Investment Managers: ''With the positive news flow on deals, greater momentum with regard to outsourcing and aggressive recruiting by companies, the frontline infotech stocks have been in focus since November."

-Roshni Jayakar