The lock's there: Still, stronger security systems are required

Every day, an estimated 20 computer viruses attack networks around the world, causing as much as $411 billion (Rs 18,084,000 crore) in real and notional losses. In early 2003, when it networks in India got hit by Slammer (a.k.a. Sapphire, it generates a deluge of network packets, overloading servers and slowing down internet traffic), it is reckoned to have caused Rs 30 crore in losses. Yet, despite the growing incidence of virus attacks on the internet, Indian companies aren't spending enough to protect their computer networks. Or at least that's what, unsurprisingly, vendors of internet gear and virus protection software are saying. According to Rangu Salgame, President (India and SAARC), Cisco Systems, Indian companies spend just 1 per cent of their revenues on it, compared to an average 8 per cent for companies in the more developed parts of the world. Again, only 1 per cent of overall it spend is reserved for security.

As Indian companies integrate with the virtual global economy, they will be obliged to make their computer networks as secure as those of their customers in, say, the us or the UK. Says Anil Menon, Senior Vice President (Operations) at SecureSynergy, a Mumbai-based it security solutions company: "(India) has to be perceived as a 'trusted sourcing destination', and that means not just 'quality capability' but also 'security capability'." Besides, the traditional approach to network security, argues Kartik Shahani, McAfee India's Country Manager, won't do. "Companies have to keep pace with latest advances like intrusion prevention systems, which are replacing the intrusion detection systems currently in use," he says.

CTOs in India are beginning to listen to Shahani & Friends. According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, the Indian market for security software was $29.9 million (Rs 131.56 crore) in 2004, and will grow at 25 per cent per year. Clearly, in this battle between viruses and computer networks, it's the McAfees of the world who are laughing all the way to the bank.

-Rahul Sachitanand

RD
Timeless Appeal

Joyous 50: Actor Alter (C) conducts the quiz

How do you celebrate the birthday of a product that never seems to age? Why, of course, with pomp and style. So when Reader's Digest (India edition) turned 50 recently, its new publishers, the India Today Group (also publishers of Business Today) threw a stimulating and entertaining party at Mumbai's ITC Grand Central Sheraton & Towers. In his welcome speech, Aroon Purie, Editor in Chief and CEO of the Group, said that although a lot of people didn't like admitting to reading rd, it still was the most widely-sold English language publication. "Just like despite a proliferation of fast food joints people like to go back to old restaurants that serve wholesome food, so is the case with Reader's Digest," Purie said. Indeed, in India alone it sells some 600,000 copies every month. The celebrations comprised an act "Laughter, the Best Medicine", by stand-up comic Vir Das, and a celebrity Word Power quiz hosted by actor Tom Alter that featured contestants ranging from Rahul Singh, a former editor of rd, to singer Rabbi, who eventually won. Among the audience were luminaries from the worlds of business and entertainment, including M&M's Anand Mahindra and film-maker Shyam Benegal, among others.

-Priyanka Sangani

Lame Duck
The Indian Airlines IPO may not fly.

It's been blinking on the disinvestment radar ever since the government kicked off its sell-off programme. But successive Civil Aviation ministers scuttled these plans on every single occasion. The current occupant of Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan (the seat of the Ministry of Civil Aviation) Praful Patel is different, though. He wants the government to wash its hands off the nationalised carriers. Right on cue, the Indian Airlines (IA) board recently approved an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The plan is to offer a certain percentage of the company (still to be decided) to the general public and to employees.

But IA's finances are in a mess. The company has a negative net worth of Rs 399 crore (2003-04), which precludes it from listing on either the Bombay Stock Exchange or the National Stock Exchange-companies with a negative net worth cannot launch IPOs-and even if the government were to seek and receive an exemption from stock market regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), buying into a company with a negative net worth would be nothing short of stupid. On a more positive note, IA expects to end the current fiscal with an (unaudited) net profit of Rs 17.5 crore (Rs 48.17 crore in 2003-04). But given its poor track record (see A Mixed Bag), this achievement (if it can qualify as one) hardly inspires confidence. But if people paid back what they owed IA, the situation might change altogether. Various government departments, other airlines, travel agents and others owe IA over Rs 732 crore (as of 2003-04). If only...

-Kushan Mitra

Difficult Times
Foreign law firms will be hard to beat.

AZB Partners' Bahl: Gearing up for the GATS regime

The cloistered world of Indian lawyers is about to come to an end. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (gats) obliges the government to open up the country's services sector, which includes the legal industry, to foreign competition. The only question is: When? "Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath is under tremendous pressure to allow foreign law firms to practise in India," says Lalit Bhasin, senior lawyer and President, Society of Indian Law Firms.

Whenever that happens, most Indian firms will have little option but to either merge or sell out. It happened in accounting; big domestic audit firms like Ferguson & Co. and S.R. Batliboi & Co. either lost market share or merged with MNCs. Will history repeat itself? Already, the Delhi-based Luthra & Luthra is talking to global majors like White & Case and Skadden Arps for a tie-up, informs Rajiv Luthra, its managing partner. Others are joining hands. For instance, Ajay Bahl, Zia Mody and Behram Vakil have come together to form AZB Partners. Domestic firms also want a level playing field. The Indian Advocates Act of 1961 does not allow Indian firms to have more than 20 partners or put up websites and advertise, they inform. This will place them at a massive disadvantage when taking on foreign firms with deep pockets and 1,000-plus lawyers on their rolls.

Nath is keen to open up the sector this year itself. But it will be a difficult balancing act for him.

-Sahad P.V.

Tech & Beauty
India's code jocks discover a streak of vanity and a preference for beauty clinics.

High-brow stuff? Maybe it helps impress clients

The geeks and the nerds, it would seem, want it all. First, they got to travel. Then, they inherited the earth (ok, they got stock options). Now, they are burning money (God knows, they have enough of that commodity) in an effort to look good and keep fit. Rakesh Pandey, for one, is not complaining. As CEO of Kaya Skin Clinic, a chain of skincare salons promoted by Marico, he is all for men spending money in his outlets, especially when the amount involved is, on an average, Rs 5,000 for a four- to six-session package. Sometime back, Pandey noticed that almost 40 per cent of the customers in Kaya's Bangalore outlet were men (the national average, across eight cities and 30 outlets, is close to 20 per cent). The corresponding figure for Chennai is 30 per cent; Pandey further claims that in some months, over half the customers at Kaya clinics in tony boroughs such as Koramangala in Bangalore and Anna Nagar in Chennai are men, and that some 60 per cent of this is it pros.

The anecdotal-heavy analysis put forth by Pandey is backed by more such evidence from other quarters: three out of every four regulars at the gym attached to the International Tech Park at Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore are men, and Satya Sinha, Director, Medfit Ventures, which runs the city's popular Chisel gym and 34 others across it campuses all over India, says that a good portion of the clientele is men out to get a "toned, supple look".

One reason for this could be the fact that most techies have travelled overseas, with some having spent substantial time in California, the heart of both the American technology industry and the Indian diaspora in that country. In sunny California, the men are (invariably) bronzed and fit, and the women, elegantly skinny, and everything, even the store windows, speak subtly of good grooming. That, and the importance attached by Americans to appearance-the Europeans are not as particular- makes it necessary for anyone hoping to make a good impression to look fit and groomed. "In the IT sector, people tend to travel abroad, and interact and socialise with colleagues and clients onsite," explains Kaya's Pandey. And although most male customers start with what he terms "problem-solution" treatments related to acne scars and pigmentation splotches, they rapidly graduate to more evolved (and expensive) procedures such as "botox treatment and fillers to eliminate wrinkles and laugh lines". One favourite is a beard softening service that promises to do away with the five o' clock shadow.

The phenomenon of male techies really getting into beauty treatments has not gone unnoticed. Over the past 18 months, the Delhi-based VLCC has enjoyed considerable success with its first VLCC-for-men outlet in Delhi, says Sandeep Ahuja, the firm's head of personal care. Bangalore, he lets on, is a prime target for the chain's second such centre. And that is in addition to the three unisex VLCC salons that have sprung up in the city over the past 12 months. The geeks, like we said it, want it all.

-Rahul Sachitanand