Sistema rebrands Rainbow to MTS

Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL), a joint venture between Russia’s Sistema and the Shyam Group, launched its mobile telephony services under ‘MTS’ brand by rebranding the existing Rainbow. SSTL, which holds licences for 22 circles, will be rolling out its CDMA services across the circles by mid-2010. “We have earmarked an investment of $5 billion in the next four-to-five years for a pan-India presence and have already launched services in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala circles. Network services will be extended in Kolkata and Bihar by July this year,” said Vsevolod Rozanov, president and CEO, SSTL. While the Indian telecom market is dominated by the GSM players, SSTL believes that the future belongs to CDMA technology. Even though the government targets to achieve 500 million users by 2010, penetration is very low compared to other countries. Besides the opportunity that the lower teledensity presents, the telecom market is going to be driven by content and mobile wireless broadband, said Rozanov. “We are at a good position to cater to this non-voice market given strengths of CDMA technology in terms of transferring high speed data.” Rozanov added. SSTL currently has a subscriber base of 5 lakh with Rajasthan contributing almost 93%. Rozanov said the company intends to increase its network coverage in Rajasthan to over 900 towns and 13,000 villages from the current presence in 600 towns and 12,000 villages. MTS, which provides mobile services in six other nations, has a subscriber base of about 100 million globally.

Urban apathy

Bangalore and Pune saw low voter turnouts ....The exceedingly low voter turnout of 40.2 per cent in the Pune Lok Sabha (LS) constituency is a result of the general apathy among the urban population towards voting and a lack of a motivation amongst the citizens to come out in large numbers to vote, said political analysts and veteran leaders. Low turnout in large urban centres is an emerging trend. It is usually the rural citizens who come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise. This is not an extraordinary phenomenon. This time the political parties didn’t have issues to highlight. Infact, it was an issueless election. The candidates did not raise any specific issues so why would citizens go out of their way to vote...It was a human tendency to not vote when something new or different is not happening.

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Sensex hits 6-month high

The sensex gained further on Friday, ending 194 points higher at 11,329—its highest closing in six months. The day’s gains also ensured the seventh week of gains for the index as investors got richer by Rs 54,000 crore with BSE’s market capitalisation now at almost Rs 36 lakh crore. The day’s rally piggybacked on strong FII-buying, with a provisional net buying figure of Rs 577 crore. Domestic funds had net buying of Rs 15 crore. The day’s rise was led by banking stocks, along with those from sectors like consumer durables, capital goods and technology. Institutional dealers said that although fundamentals of the economy had not changed much, it is the liquidity—availability of funds—with institutions that is driving the current rally. So on the flip side, they warn that if for any reason the liquidity flow reverses, the market could go for a speedy slide.
Market players said that with the index closing near the day’s high and US market in early trading showing good gains, Monday’s session could witness some more rise from the current levels. Next week’s trading will be truncated with trading on Thursday closed for the Lok Sabha elections in Mumbai and closed on Friday for Maharashtra Day. In the shortened week, the index could further its gains to the eighth consecutive week, market players said. Market players also said that in case the election result throws up a more fractured mandate with a large number of political parties and no clear mandate, the economic slowdown could worsen and bring the market down. The results for the ensuing election is set to be announced in less than four weeks from now. Till the poll results are out, brokers advise caution to investors.

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Indian BPO revenue to double by 2010: Gartner

Fear of US protectionist stance towards business due to the economic turmoil notwithstanding, a recent Gartner report says the business process outsourcing (BPO) market share of Indian vendors is expected to nearly double by 2010. By the end of 2008, the top 20 Indiacentric BPO providers accounted for $4 billion in revenue, representing 5% of the $80 billion revenue of the top 150 BPO vendors. This is a significant leap considering just six years ago in 2002 there were few, if any, India-centric vendors in the top 150 BPOs worldwide. North America has been the most successful sales location for Indian BPO providers, where the top-20 India-centric BPO providers generate about $2.2 billion in revenue. Western Europe showed strong growth, mostly in the UK, and accounted for $1.4 billion in revenue for the top 20 Indian BPO providers in 2008. The report also says that Indian BPO providers have proved to be stiff competition to western BPO providers. Further, analysts expect increase in revenue to be evident in the coming days, accelerated because of the economic pressures that are leading to demand for low-cost BPO. From a vertical-market perspective, Indian BPO providers also had more success in telecommunications, manufacturing, insurance and banking than in government and retail, however going forward, analysts believe that government and retail will play an important role in the growth of Indian BPO. “We are expecting that by 2010, the market share of Indian vendors will become something around 10%. Retail, government and services, would become major contributor to this growth, apart from existing major verticals such as banking and financial, manufacturing, telecom, utility,” commented Arup Roy, senior research Analyst at Gartner. “Indian BPO providers are swiftly evolving to balance exposure to vertical industries, currency and legislation issues,” he added. “North America will continue to be the major provider, however, Eastern Europe is also seen as a potential location,” commented Arup. Analysts at Gartner feels that contact centers and analytics services will likely to see the highest growth. “It is highly likely that many new competitors will emerge from India during the next few years. Contact centers and analytics services will likely see the highest growth, having the lowest entry barriers because relatively little technical or specific process expertise is required,” said Cathy Tornbohm, research vice president, at Gartner. However, this should not undermine the high end outsourcing services which are geared to make a dent in this market such as those provided by legal process outsourcing (LPO’s) and other specialised vendors providing medical transcription services and specialised recruitment process outsourcing.

Indian equity market third biggest in Asia’

The Indian equity market has emerged as third biggest after China and Hong Kong in the emerging Asian region, with a market capitalisation of nearly $600 billion, a latest ADB report says. According to the Asian Development Bank's 'Asia Capital Markets Monitor'report, the combined market capitalisation of all the equity markets in the Emerging Asia region stood at $5,770 billion (about Rs 290 lakh crore) at end of March 2009. Indian equity market's capitalisation at the end of March 2009 stands at $598.3 billion (Rs 30.13 lakh crore) which accounts for about one-tenth of the combined valuation of the entire emerging Asia region. People's Republic of China is at the top of the chart with a marketcap of USD 2,347.4 billion followed by Hong Kong with $1,293.7 billion, the data compiled in the ADB report revealed.