DLF BUILDS IT PARK 'TIDEL II' IN CHENNAI

The TN government has cleared the construction major DLF's bid to build the TIDEL Park II near the existing TIDEL Park in Taramani. In a tender put up by the TIDCO (Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation) for the leasing of 26.63 acre land to set up an IT & ITES SEZ, DLF emerged as the highest bidder. It had bid for Rs 26.07 crore, an acre and totally Rs 660 crore for the entire land on a 99-year lease. DLF will develop this 2.5 million sq. ft. facility in joint venture with TIDCO. This will be the second IT park developed by DLF in Chennai, the first one is at Ambattur.

IPTV TO TAKE OFF SOON IN INDIA

The IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) system which had not launched in India is waiting for the Central Government's approval for its take off. Both Mobile phones and Computers can opt for this technology which gives you the option of pausing the Live TV and often Time shifted TV, which enables you to watch morning news at noon. The IPTV can offer more than 300 films at a time to choose. It is expected that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry will clear all the hurdles by this April and afterwards all the telecom as well as the cable TV operators can provide this IPTV tecnology.

MOSER BAER SETS UP FACILITY IN CHENNAI

Moser Baer, a global leader in the production of removal data storage has got the principal approval from the Tamil Nadu government to set up its production plant near Chennai, India. The facility will be developed by Moser Baer and its associate units in the Oragadam, Sipcot high tech industrial estate near Chennai to produce media players, silicon photovoltaic products, flash cards and thin films.

MICROSOFT PREPARES WORKERS TO ACQUIRE YAHOO

A top official of Microsoft has sent an email to the workers to outline the vision of how to acquire Yahoo and to merge the cultures and resources of both. On February 11, Yahoo had rejected the Microsoft's bid of $44.6 billion to take over Yahoo. It is said that Microsoft is planning to increase its bid amount to acquire yahoo. Kevin Johnson, President of Microsoft (platform and services division) sent a mail to his employees. In the mail, he said "We look forward to an effective and useful dialogue with Yahoo's management, board, share holders, and employees on the worth of the combination and its strategic and financial benefits". "If everything goes well, the take over will be done in the second half of this financial year", he added.

TATA BUILDS TIDEL PARK III IN CHENNAI

The approval for the construction of TIDEL Park III has been given by the Tamil Nadu government. Tata Realty and Infrastructure Limited was the lone bidder in a tender called by TIDCO for the construction this IT Park as well as an integrated international convention center. It had bid Rs 1,326.42 crore for leasing 25.27 acres of land near the American International school. It is estimated that the project will cost Rs 3,500 crore for the construction of IT Park and the Convention center as well other commercial space of 4-million sq ft.

COGNIZANT TO ENTER MADURAI

Lakshmi Narayanan, Cognizant’s Vice-Chairman, said that the temple city 'Madurai' will be in its radar to expand the operations of the software firm. Mr.Narayanan who is also serving as the chairman of NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) came to Madurai to commence the competitions organised by the Thiagarajar College of Engineering for the school students. While replying for a question, he said that he will not comment on the name of the cities in which Cognizant is going to expand but it had shortlisted five cities for its future operations and Madurai is one of them.

Airtel got the Additional Spectrum

India's largest mobile service provider Bharti Airtel owned by Sunil Mittal said that it had got the additional spectrum to expand its mobile services in the five telecom circles of Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (West). Meantime it also reported a 42% increase in revenue at Rs.1,722 crore in third quarter of this financial year against Rs. 1,215 crore in the same quarter of last financial year .

THOUGHTWORKS OPENS DEVELOPMENT CENTRE IN CHENNAI

ThoughtWorks, a US based Multinational Information Technology service provider has expanded its operations in India by opening a new development centre in Chennai. Trevor Mather, CEO and Dharmarajan Sitaraman, Managing Director of ThoughtWorks said that the company was investing $600,000 at its Chennai facility and would employ over 75 persons in the next eight months, thereby increasing its Indian headcount to 350 by the end of 2008. At present, ThoughtWorks has 270 employees in India with two facilities at Bangalore and Pune.

29 Indian Companies among World's Top 100

A recent survey carried out globally to know about the world's top 100 reliable and innovative MNCs shows that there are 29 Indian companies in the resultant list. Some Indian MNCs in the list are Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Genpact, WNS Global Services etc.. according to Global Services Magazine. Companies belonging to Malaysia, Russia and Brazil in the list show that these countries are emerging outsourcing destinations. In the IT sector, India served as a global hub where 57% of the employees were employed followed by United states of 18%.

COGNIZANT'S HEADCOUNT TO REACH 75,000

Software major Cognizant decided to increase its workforce to 75,000 by the end of 2008 by acquiring 19,800 professionals. The Vice President (Human Resources) of Cognizant, Mr. Bhaskar Das, said that more than 75% of this acquirable manpower will be employed in our nine development centres in Chennai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kochi and Gurgaon. In December 2007, its global headcount figures at 55,400. Also in 2007, almost 63 per cent of our global recruitment consists fresh graduates who passed out of engineering institutions in India.

TCS TO SEND OUT 500 EMPLOYEES

India's leading software company Tata Consultancy Services Ltd is no more a 100% job secured company. TCS said, it asked its 500 employees to search for another job after their performance was found to be poor. Pradipta Bagchi, TCS spokesperson said "Employees who cant meet our company's performance requirements were asked to switch to another job which suits with their abilities". He added that the headcount of TCS goes to 108,229 from 83,500 last year and 4,037 employees were appointed in the 3rd quarter ended on December 31. Despite gaining huge outsourcing contracts from western countries, rising Indian rupee against the dollar and falling US economy affects its profit margin.

Coimbatore's Tidel Park to be ready by Dec 08

The Tidel Park - Coimbatore which is going to be built on area of 161,500 sqm in vilankurichi will get ready for occupation by this year end. The Tidel Park Coimbatore Ltd (TPCL) has invited bids via newspapers and other medias for the construction of this IT Park. The tender for notice shows that the IT park complex consists of 3 basements, 1 Ground floor and 4 upper floors and the period of
completion is 10 months. The last date for issue of tender is 28 th January and the last date for submission of bids is 6 th February. At first, a complex of 11 floors was planned later it was dropped due to objection from the Coimbatore Airport Authorities since the airport is nearby. It is expected that Construction majors like DLF, Ascendas, GMR, L&T etc... will bid for this project.

Growing IT Infrastructure in Chennai

Chennai, the 4th largest city in India ranks No.1 in the world's top 50 outsourcing hubs according to a study by investment advisory firm Tholons and Global Service Magazine.
Thanks to the TN govt's proactive and investor friendly policies. Several private firms like Ascendas, DLF etc... are developing mega IT parks on the outskirts of Chennai.

Arihant e Park - Adyar

Ramco Systems near Madya Kailash

Virtussa

Cognizant - Navallur

Infosys - Sozhinganallur

Satyam along IT highway

Ascendas - Taramani

Ticel Bio-Park - Taramani

TCS - Vadapalani

Infosys - Mahindra City



TCS Development Center at Siruseri

Wipro

Upcoming DLF IT Park

Upcoming India Land Tech Park, Ambattur

The state government planned to create a world-class IT Corridor on the Rajiv Gandhi road (formerly OMR). The first phase of the IT corridor project is to lay a six lane road between Madhya kailash and Siruseri. The second phase is from Siruseri to Mahabalipuram. Till now,
the road construction is completed between Madhya kailash and SRP tools with underground ducts for EB and other cables as well as for drainage.The proposed IT Corridor will be a landmark of Modern Chennai.

Tidel Park Viewing from IT highway




Another view of Tidel Park




IT Corridor viewing from Foot Bridge( STPI, yellow building is also seen )






Fire Junction