Fidelity's Suyash: Focussed foray

It manages over $1.2 trillion (Rs 52,80,000 crore) assets globally (of which $2 billion or Rs 8,800 crore is invested in India), has over 1,000 funds for every conceivable need, boasts 20 million investors around the world, and yes, it will launch in the third week of March its first equity product in India (thereby becoming the 30th fund house in the country). Says Ashu Suyash, CEO, Fidelity India, a former CEO of Citibank's brokerage: "We are not just another global entrant. If you are focussed on investor education, quality service and have prudent time-tested money management style, it is a package for success."

Fidelity claims that rather than predicting market fluctuations, its stock selection process is based on understanding the fundamental strengths of a company-a "bottom up" stock-picking approach. Fidelity's research actively covers over 90 per cent of the world's market capitalisation. Impressive? Dhiren Kumar of Value Research India, the mutual fund tracker, says: "I would be neutral and apprehensive and not get carried away by global branding." If history is a guide, then some of the local funds with better understanding of Indian companies have proven to have an edge over global investment strategies. For example, Kothari Pioneer, acquired by Franklin Templeton in 2002.

Fidelity has kicked off with investor education through seminars and distributor forums, and has mailed over 30,000 investment guides through distributors, reaching over 200,000 customers all over India. Says Suyash: "We don't know how many will invest in the first product, but the process has begun and some day they will convert into our customer." Some day.

-Roshni Jayakar

Dare To Pipe Dream?
For Mumbai to become a regional financial centre needs more than just a link across the seafront.

Mumbai dreams: ...and not a drop to drink

When I look at the map of the world, I am struck by the strategic location of Mumbai. It lies almost midway between London and Tokyo, two nerve centres of world finance... I believe the time has come to begin work on making Mumbai a regional hub for finance...
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, in his Budget speech

I don't know what London and Tokyo the fm is talking about; maybe we should just call the various Mumbai wards by these names and be happy.
Debi Goenka, Mumbai-based activist at the helm of the Bombay Environmental Action Group, to BT

Sure, the fm didn't directly compare Mumbai to London or Tokyo, but by proposing to appoint a "high-powered expert committee to advise the government on how to make Mumbai a regional financial centre", Chidambaram was clearly alluding that Mumbai could become another "nerve centre of world finance", like London and Tokyo. "To be honest, whilst it sounds good, one isn't quite sure what he means," quips C. Jayaram, Head of Wealth Management, Kotak Bank. "Making Mumbai an international financial services centre has to do with changing the regulatory environment primarily. That's the only thing we lack; the talent pool already exists."

What this means is that a regional financial centre (RFC) will call for regulatory changes to ensure seamless transactions-of equity, forex, commodities and the like-between Mumbai and other global financial centres. For instance, financial experts point out that the lack of capital account convertibility and existing foreign exchange controls are two current roadblocks in the journey towards an RFC. "Cross-border transactions are a critical part of any financial centre... you need the ability to take seamless decisions, which is not possible out of Mumbai," explains H. Srikrishnan, Executive Director, Yes Bank.

Regulation, though, appears a smaller hurdle, at least when you consider the biggest stumbling block: The shabby state of the physical infrastructure. As Prahlad Shantigram, Head of Corporate Finance at Standard Chartered, puts it: "You need to build a world-class city before world-class money comes in." Agrees Amit Chandra, Joint Managing Director, DSP Merrill Lynch: "The bad news is that Mumbai's infrastructure is crumbling and quality of life is deteriorating by the day, although the good news is that this phenomenon is reversible, with immediate action and well-directed steps."

As any suburban Mum-baikar will tell you, the city's infrastructure coupled with the prohibitive costs of housing (right from the city to the boondocks) as well as the inability of the metro to house the never-ending inflow of immigrants are responsible for two of the biggest bugbears of the city's populace: Long hours of commuting and a high-stress quality of life. And this is where successive governments have failed the city, according to Goenka. His suggestion: Amend or scrap the draconian laws (like the Rent Control Act and Urban Land Ceiling Act) that have reduced Mumbai's housing situation to such a shambles, and devise alternatives to time- and money-guzzling sea-link projects. Goenka prefers simpler steps such as addition of air-conditioned coaches to trains and an increase in their frequency, and the creation of priority bus lanes. Mumbai, to be sure, has the potential to become a nerve centre of world finance. The only problem is, those nerve ends are pretty frayed at the moment.

-Priya Srinivasan

Fancy Working With The Geeks?
Never written code in your life? The IT services sector may just be looking for you.

Satyam's Raju: Non-techies welcome

What's common to R.B. Krishnamohan, Ganesh Srinivasan and L. Ravi Sankar? Yes, they're all with Satyam Computer, but more interestingly they were all in non-it sectors before joining the Hyderabad it services major. Krishnamohan, DGM (Insurance Vertical), was with United India Insurance, Srinivasan has close to 16 years in banking behind him, and Ravi Sankar has two decades in us retail. "It (non-techies getting into it services) is clearly visible as a trend and has picked up particularly in the last two years," says Kiran Karnik, President of nasscom, the it industry lobby. "Depending on the years of experience and the profile of companies they have worked for, the salary levels range between Rs 8-10 lakh and Rs 15-18 lakh per annum," says T. Hari, Senior VP (HR), Satyam, 20 per cent of whose workforce comprises non-it manpower, most of them predominantly in the company's nine business verticals like retail, transportation, insurance and energy. This number has doubled in the last three years.

Satyam isn't the only one. "Over the last two years, there has been a significant increase in such specialists joining Infosys," says Hema Ravichandar, Senior VP and Group Head (HRD), Infosys Technologies. "Employees in domain competency functions can aspire for a related career stream and avail specialised training for the domain and role." They may not have to be techies, but they better know the jargon!

-E. Kumar Sharma

Q&A
"There Will Be More Transparency"

"Compliance is a theme sweeping across the world today"

William J. Teuber is not your average CFO. At EMC, he likes a lot of the new financial compliance regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley (SOx) that us corporations (as well as Indian companies doing business with us corporations) will have to adhere to. Little wonder, because EMC is the world's largest data storage solutions company. Teuber was in India recently to open EMC's new development centre in Bangalore and he met up with Kushan Mitra. Excerpts:

Why do you think new financial compliance laws have been enacted across the world?

If you watch TV, you'll see a rash of top executives on trial who say they did not know about the financial irregularities that were taking place in their own companies. Hard as that is to believe, the fact remains that until Sarbanes-Oxley came along, the top management did not have to sign off on the financial statement certifying it. Now they do, and now one would assume that book-keeping is going to be more transparent.

And this is not just in the US?

No, compliance is a theme sweeping across the world. In Europe there is Basel-II, there are new rules for banks in the US as well the new 'Hippa' rules for us medical institutions. This will gradually impact countries because no one works in isolation.