Indian Shares

NASSCOM have announced the top 20 IT service and computer software exporters in India for 2005-06.
During the period exports rose by 32% to US$17.3 billion.
  
The top 5 companies are:

1. TATA Consultancy Services (TCS)
2. Infosys
3. Wipro
4. Satyam Computer Services
5. HCL Technologies

See the Full NASSCOM list.

The data does not include contributions to the Indian economy by US listed companies like IBM, HP, and EDS.

To meet growth targets and manage costs Wipro is opening a new Business Process OutSourcing (BPO) centre in Vietnam. Wipro is looking to take advantage of the countires lower operating costs. Vietnam will join Romania as an international BPO center in the Wipro service portfolio.

Wipro have successfully been audited by the Automotive Group and have been granted SPICE Organisational Maturity Level 5 certification. The certification recognises Wipro's automotive process capability.

The Automotive Group includes car manufactures such as Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Volkswagen and Volvo.

Press Release: Wipro

Convergys the Cincinnati based company announced today that it is continuing its expansion of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in Asia. With the addition or expansion of BPO centres in Malaysia, Singapore, China and India.

See Convergys Press Release

The UK and India have reportedly reached a landmark Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) deal. Paving the way for greater co-operation between UK and Indian companies. Glaxo-Smith-Kline (GSK) is given as an example of a UK company that is now forging links with Indian Phamacetical companies.

AMD is looking to increase its market share in India over the next 12 to 18 months. As part of this it will be doing the following:

• Doubling AMD's engineers in India to 200
• Be a partner on e-Government initiatives
  
• Taking advantage of the 1 billion people in India for whom more and more will want a PC. Upto 5 million PCs were sold in India during 2005-06
  
• Partner with HP, IBM and other enterprise server vendors
• Work closely with IT companies such as Wipro and Infosys, plus western companies out sourcing to India.

The affect of India's growing economy and what it means for the US is explored in the main story in Time magazine this week. An interesting read, explaining just how dependant the US is on India and explaining India's potential in the coming years.

Inside the New India Inc. (Time Magazine)
India's influence soars (CNN item promoting Time article)

India IT giant Wipro has recently been on a European shopping spree aquiring 2 companies to bolster its portfolio and skills.

Wipro has purchased Enabler Informatica SA in a cash deal. Enabler Informatica will add to Wipro's retail industry offerings. Wipro has also purchased Finnish Saraware Oy also in a cash deal. Saraware operates in the telecoms industry, offering software development and software testing services. Saraware recently became a Microsoft Certified Partner.

IBM have announced that the company will be tripling it’s investment in India over the next 3 years. The company will invest a further US$ 6 in its software development, support, call centre and BPO activities in India; in addition it will use Indian talent to further its research.

• IBM Chairman and CEO Announces Plans to Triple Investment in India over Next Three Years (IBM)
  
• IBM plans big India investment (BBC)
  
• IBM plans $6B investment in India (CNN)
  

The further investment follows on from the purchase of Daksh, Indian’s third largest business outsourcer in April this year.

"Intel's Andy Grove is more blunt. "America ... [is going] down the tubes," he says, "and the worst part is nobody knows it. They're all in denial, patting themselves on the back, as the Titanic heads for the iceberg full speed ahead."  

"China and India are different from all previous competition because their sheer size—2.3 billion people!—means that they have an almost limitless supply of low-skilled labor on the one hand and a fairly large group of highly skilled workers on the other, both extremely cheap by Western standards. No worker from a rich country will ever be able to equal the energy and ambition of people making $5 a day and trying desperately to move out of poverty."

An interesting and thought provoking read: How Long Will America Lead the World? by Fareed Zakaria for Newsweek. Makes you realise why all the Sunday Papers have full page adverts about investing in portfolios in China or India.