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| Infosys' Nilemani: Leading the company
ahead |
Come results
season-that is, every 90 days-all eyes swivel to a sprawling glass
and chrome campus in Bangalore. The set of numbers coming out
from there determines the mood of the market. Welcome to Infosys
Technologies, which is increasingly seen as the bellwether for
not only the tech sector but the economy as a whole. It is never
easy for a company with a couple of billion dollars in revenues
to grow fast. Infosys is the darling of investors precisely because
it has mastered the art of not only meeting but also consistently
exceeding expectations. Even the most optimistic punters on the
Street did not anticipate a 50 per cent-plus growth in the second
quarter profits compared to the corresponding period of the previous
year.
The man under the spotlight at these times is Nandan Mohan Nilekani,
the sauve CEO, President and MD of the company. Among the founders,
there are those who are senior to him in age (for instance, K.
Dinesh, who heads Quality, Information Systems and Communications
Design) or equally well qualified (Kris Gopalakrishnan, the soft
spoken COO of the company) but Nilekani was always seen to be
the man to watch.
All the founders present a united front,
but those who have seen them closely say the chemistry between
Nilekani and Infosys Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy has to be seen
to be believed. But there's a crucial difference. While Murthy
revels in asceticism, Nilekani enjoys the good things of life
and is not afraid to flaunt them-example: the sharply tailored
Italian Brioni suits he prefers. Murthy's dream is to make Infosys
an institution. Nilekani, who's just 50, has nearly a decade at
the helm to turn his mentor's dream into reality.
-Venkatesha Babu
NUMBERS
OF NOTE
$316 billion
(Rs 14,22,000 crore): Sales revenue
of Wal-Mart. The figure is more than the gross domestic products
of Austria, Malaysia, Denmark, and UAE
57: The
rank of IITs on the list of world's best 100 institutes, according
to the latest global ranking by The Times. Harvard tops the list
and is followed by Cambridge and Oxford
16 per cent:
The rise in the median pay packages of CEOs in the US in 2005.
The figure was 30 per cent in 2004
115 per cent:
The rise in sales of digital (music) albums so far in 2006
compared to the corresponding period of 2005
4.62: India's
score (on a scale of ten) on Transparency International's "Bribe
Payers Index 2006". The score was the lowest in a survey
of 30 of the world's leading exporting countries
6.5 million:
The number of tourists who have so far visited Himachal Pradesh
this year (2006). This is more than the state's population of
6.07 million
$12.4 million
(Rs 57.04 crore): The amount for which The Lesotho Promise,
one of the world's largest diamonds, an uncut, 603-carat white
gem, has been sold for
15 per cent:
Proportion of India's 200 million-plus student population
that makes it to high school; only half these students actually
graduate
Rs 13,50,000
crore: The value of the Indian retail market. Of this, the
organised sector accounts for only 3 per cent
54 per cent:
Share of services in India's gross domestic product in 2005-06.
This compares with 27 per cent in 1950-51, and 34 per cent in
1975-76
100 million:
Total number of online videos watched every day by users on
YouTube
1.4 million:
The number of people resettled to build the world's largest
hydropower project, the Three Gorges, in China
NOTED
 WON:
By Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank,
which he founded in 1976, the Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering
the use of microcredit to benefit poor entrepreneurs. Today the
bank has 6.6 million borrowers, 97 per cent of whom are women,
and provides services in more than 70,000 villages in Bangladesh.
RECORDED: By
India's industrial sector, a growth rate of 9.7 per cent in August.
Strong showings by the manufacturing sector (11.1 per cent growth)
and consumer durables sector (over 20 per cent) fuelled this figure.
Thus, growth in industrial output for the first five months of
2006-07 stands at an impressive 10.6 per cent.
BAGGED: By Tata
Technologies subsidiary INCAT, a contract to supply components
for the new Williams Formula 1 racing car. INCAT, a UK-based design
firm, was acquired by Tata Technologies last year. The bulk of
the work will be done in Tata Technologies' Pune facility.
ADDED: By the
Indian telecom industry, over 6.2 million subscribers in September,
(a world record for new subscribers in any one month) against
5.9 million in August. Of this, GSM players added 4.4 million
subscribers, taking the country's GSM base to 91 million. CDMA
operators contributed 1.8 million to the country's subscriber
pool during September.
 NAMED:
By Fortune, three Indian women-ICICI Bank Deputy Managing Director
Chanda Kochhar (left), HSBC India CEO Naina Lal Kidwai and Biocon's
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw-as among the world's 50 most powerful businesswomen.
This comes close on the heels of Indra Nooyi, the India-born head
of global soft drink giant PepsiCo, being named as the most powerful
business woman in the US by the same magazine.
DIED: In London,
Lalit Suri, Chairman of Bharat Hotels and Rajya Sabha member.
He was 60. He is survived by his wife Jyotsna and four children.
Suri entered the hospitality industry in the 1980s and built up
properties in Delhi, Bangalore and Khajuraho. He also bought the
Great Eastern Hotel from the West Bengal government recently.
STAMP
DUTY COLLECTIONS
 Land
prices are, for a good part, mirrored in the stamp duty collected
by the state on land transactions. Not surprisingly, Maharashtra
leads the pack. With the SEZ frenzy overtaking states, this counter
will only ring louder. Unless, of course, it is waived. So far,
Maharashtra has stood its ground. And perhaps, it can afford to,
given that it is a favoured investment destination. Question is:
can it hold out? Other states are surely watching!
-Balaji Chandramouli
WORLD'S
TOP 3 POLLUTERS
India
may be cashing in on carbon credits, but a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) titled "The World in 2050: Implications Of Global Growth
For Carbon Emissions And Climate Change Policy?" says the
country could be among the world's top three emitters of carbon
dioxide in the foreseeable future. Reason: its rapid industrialisation
and its dependence on fossil fuels.
The PwC projections demonstrate that the
growth of the emerging economies (branded as E-7, comprising China,
India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey) could result
in global carbon emissions more than doubling by 2050. Bharti
Gupta Ramola, Executive Director, PwC says: "This study builds
upon an earlier PwC report on the global economy where it was
estimated that the E-7 could be 25-75 per cent larger than the
G-7 by 2050. Every country, thus, needs to implement a strategy
to reduce the energy intensity of growth."
A "Green Growth Plus" strategy,
outlined in the report, can enable continued healthy growth while
controlling carbon emissions. This strategy, which relies upon
the use of a greener fuel mix to reduce emissions and widespread
use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, stabilises
atmospheric CO2 concentrations.
-Ritwik Mukherjee
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