Silverline to retrench 150 staff
HyderabadSilverline Technologies is retrenching close to 150 employees, inherited from SeraNova, a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverline.
The pink slips were handed over to personnel from project management teams and programmers in the 'not-so-hot' skill sets like java and HTML. These personnel include close to 100 techies from the Hyderabad centre and the remaining from Bangalore.
As is widely known, the Bangalore centre was closed in June this year. It had 69 developers and other staff. At that time, the company had announced that 40 per cent of the employees from the centre would be relocated to the Hyderabad centre. It had said that this was not a case of laying-off employees but one of rationalising costs.
Before the current retrenchment, Silverline had 2,600 employees of whom 700 belonged to the former SeraNova.
Silverline's present move is in line with the stated objective of the new co-CEO Ravi Singh, who told analysts that the SeraNova integration had provided it with a lot of extra capacity though the acquisition increased its presence to 53 locations. He also is reported to have said, given the current business environment; the company is planning to shut down more development centres.
Back to News Review index page  

ONGC and RIL bid for Enrons Panna-Mukta
New Delhi--ONGC and Reliaance Industries have put in their bids for acquiring Enrons 30 per cent stake in Panna-Mukta and Tapti oil and gas fields. While ONGC has put in a $400-million price bid, Reliance Industries has quoted about $350 million for Enrons stake in the $900-million venture. It is believed that Enron has said it will not to settle for anything less than $600 million.
Besides, ONGC and RIL, who partner in PannaMukta and Tapti fields, US energy giant Marathon Oil is the other company in running for acquiring Enrons stake.
ONGC holds 40 per cent stake in the fields, which produce around 300 million cubic metres of gas and 29,000 barrels of oil per day, while the remaining 30 per cent is with Reliance.
Back to News Review index page  

Alstom to launch more products
Kolkata--Alstom plans to agressively market itself in core businesses namely protection & control, MV switchgear and EV switchgear and launch more products in these sectors, according to Mr SK Poddar, chairman Alstom. After the 45th annual general meeting of shareholders of the company Mr Poddar said that the management would ensure that the new products are technologically compatible by global standards.
According to the companys managing director, Mr KK Moradian, the management will concentrate on consolidating its position in the domestic market. "At the same time, we will continue exporting our products to the south- east Asian countries. In fact, the Indian operation will be the hub of our penetration in the south-east Asian market," he added.
Back to News Review index page  

Bayer to recast local operations
Mumbai-- German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant, Bayer AG, is planning a major restructuring of its corporate structure in India.
The group has seven subsidiaries in the country led by flagship Bayer India, while the others are Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Bayer ABS, Bayer Diagnostics, Bayer Sanmar, Bayer India Syntans and Bayer Industries.

Dieter Kambeck, chairman & managing director of the Bayer group of companies in India, said, "We are planning to consolidate and restructure our group companies in the country. We are looking at slimming down the organisation and locating the activities of all these companies in the headquarters," he added.
The company is however not planning to appoint a merchant banker for this restructuring but will instead take support from its parent company in Germany.

"We have major mid-term (2-3 year time-frame) investment plans in India as it is an emerging market for us. China has been the most lucrative market till now. But, at present we are considering how and how best we can enter India," Kambeck said. The company will, in the near future, look at forming new joint ventures for its poultry and aquaculture business.
Back to News Review index page  

Microsoft India launches Office XP in 9 local languages
New DelhiMicrosoft India has launched Office XP with nine regional languages to add more functionality across its entire suite of Office applications.
The nine Indian languages are -- Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Konkani, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarat, Telugu and Gurumukhi.
A team of 120 developers at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters, had been working over the project the last two years, said Rajiv Kaul, managing director, Microsoft India.
Microsoft India also unveiled three new typefaces for Hindi in addition to "Mangal" and one new typeface for Tamil in addition to "Latha", including five new online keyboards with transliteration keyboards for Hindi and Tamil.
"With Office XP Indian language support, users can carry on document discussions, create webpages in Hindi with 500 special Hindi templates and an Indian clip art gallery with over 100 images," Kaul said.
Back to News Review index page  

Compaq, Cisco to deliver IP telephony solutions in India
New DelhiCompaq and Cisco have announced the launch of their global strategic alliance in Internet Protocol telephony in the country, for delivering solutions that would enhance communication.
"The alliance would deliver the benefits of IP telephony, a key component of Cisco's architecture for voice, video and integerated data to Indian enterprises," a Compaq release said here.
It said that Compaq Global Services would use its expertise to deploy solutions that offered a seamless transition from legacy-based PBX systems to IP telephony solutions.
"Compaq would also provide a pilot implementation for customers to test the IP telephony solutions and expand technology implementation," the statement added.
Back to News Review index page  

Compudyne offers special effects to Indian film makers
Bangalore--"Indian movie moghuls are the latest to join the rush for either incorporating special effects in their films or making animation.
Compudyne Winfosystems, which produces visual effects for Hollywood movies, has been approached by several top Indian film personalities for either incorporating special effects in their films or making animation films.
Compudyne Winfosystems chairman and managing director S S Dahiya said "We have received queries from at least three top movie personalities."
The company is now studying the possibility of producing an animation film.
Its subsidiary, digital.art.media, has worked with several top Hollywood production houses in their movies including Independence Day, Godzilla, Men in Black, and Cliffhanger.
According to Dahiya the company was planning to set up a complete studio at a cost of $1 million at its Bangalore center which will enable it to carry out offshore activities, he said.
Compudyne Winfosystems is also developing software that does not require the actors presence while filming the movies.
"We just need an actors photograph and someone else can act on his behalf while making the movie," Dahiya said. Another software lets directors to simulate the scenic splendour of exotic places inside a studio itself.
To strengthen its operations in the multimedia business, Compudyne Winfosystems has recently concluded a cash-cum-stock deal to buy US-based VisionArt for around $4 million and merged it with its subsidiary, digital.art.media DAM.
Dahiya expects at least 60 per cent of current years revenues from animation films and the rest from software development. Last year, 40 per cent of revenues were from multimedia business.

Compudyne Winfosystems, a listed company, posted revenues of Rs 26.25 crore during 2000-01, registering a growth of around 308 per cent compared with the last year while its operating profit grew by 236 per cent to Rs 6.47 crore.
Back to News Review index page