India’s 15 biggest IT companies

The fiscal year 2008-09 has been a tough year for IT companies globally. The turmoil in the BFSI sector and US the biggest market for IT companies has hit them hard. For the first time in many years some companies in the DQ Top 20 club witnessed single-digit growth. 

While many though could sustain double-digit growth, the slowdown pangs were clearly visible in their growth chart and guidance. The biggest lesson of the slowdown has been not to put all eggs in one basket. The spending squeeze in the global markets has suddenly awakened IT companies to the potential of the domestic market. Today, all IT companies in India are aggressively looking at the Indian market to insulate their growth. 

Here’s looking into the biggest 15 IT companies in India as per their year 2008-09 revenues.

Tata Consultancy Services

Tata group-owned Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the country's no. 1 IT company. During the year 2008-09, the company clocked Rs 25,894 crore in revenues. 

Like all its peers the company too was hit by slowdown pangs. The turmoil in the BFSI sector in the US hurt the company which has a huge exposure to the segment. It also had to write off some dues of Lehman Brothers and was hit by the bankruptcy of auto major General Motors and telecom giant Nortel. 

However, the company made impressible gains in other sectors like manufacturing, healthcare and engineering services to grow by 22% year on year. Geographically, the company continued its expansion in Latin America, setting up its third delivery centre in Mexico. On acquisitions front, the company bought Citibank's BPO unit for $505 million. 

The company which got 8% of its revenues from the domestic segment expanded its focus beyond government. It provided backend connectivity to Rajathan Royal's team during IPL season 2.

Wipro

At no. 2 is Bangalore-based Wipro. The company beat its larger rivals TCS and Infosys to post a revenue growth of 41% (excluding BPO). The company recorded revenues of Rs 23,882 crore during the fiscal 2008-09 which saw its two divisions Wipro Technologies and Wipro Infotech synergies better for total outsourcing deals. 

The company fought the likes of IBM and HP on the domestic turf to wrestle Aircel, Wnitech Wireless and ESIC deals. The company's Middles East operations grew by over 280%. 

The restructuring at the top level was followed by the departure of several senior executives of the company. The company was also hit by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and General Motors. The news that it Wipro has been barred by World Bank also created a small flutter.

Infosys

The third biggest IT company in India is Infosys with 2008-09 revenues of Rs 20,392 crore. The company closed the year with a 31% growth, with Europe and the US contributing 90% of the total revenues. 

The turmoil in the US economy hit the company which had little focus on the domestic market. Only 1% of the company's revenues came from the domestic market. 

However, the recession in the US seems to have wisened the company who is now focusing aggressively on the domestic market. Bharti Airtel and SBI were two of its big wins in the domestic market during the year. 

Geographically, the company also expanded in Central Europe, Latin America and South America. The company also opened a new development centre in Mexico. 

Last quarter saw the company laying off almost 1500 people on the grounds of non-performance.

HP India

The fourth largest IT company is Hewlett Packard India. Slowdown seems to have hurt the company badly, which grew by mere 2% in the fiscal 2008-09. 

However, the company's slow growth was not company wide. While TSG grew by a good 33%, largely led by services and enterprise software, the PSG and IPG divisions saw a big hit in their numbers due to the general hit in the consumer sentiment. 

Parent company's acquisition of EDS helped solidify HP's services business in the Indian market, with 18% of the revenues coming from the domestic segment. 

The company bagged several new clients including Indian Railways, Tata Motors, Durgapur Steel and Raymonds. HP India continued to be the no. 1 vendor in notebooks and desktops across all four quarters according to IDC.

IBM India

At no. 5 is IBM India. With revenues of Rs 12,048 crore, the company grew by a decent 36% during the fiscal 2008-09 (excluding BPO business). The FY ‘09 saw the share of domestic revenue in the overall pie increase to 48%, from the previous year's 42%. 

The company's big wins included SAP implementation deals from Torrent Pharma and Star India. It also won some key deals from Bharti Retail, Bharat Bijlee, LANCO Infratech, Cavincare, HDFC Bank, Max NewYork Life and Sun Direct. 

The company was hit by its aggressive focus on the retail and real estate segments, as the two sectors are among the worst hit sectors. 

The company's image as a hire and fire employer too is said to be there due to the layoffs it announced early last year.

Cognizant Technology Services

The sixth largest IT company in India is Cognizant Technology Services. Surprisingly, the company which gets four-fifth of its revenues from the US and half of this from the BFSI sector grew by almost 49% during the fiscal year 2008-09. With this the company recorded highest growth among all IT companies in the country for the third year in a row. 

At a time when almost all companies announced layoffs, Cognizant claimed to have added 10% to its workforce between April ‘08 to March ‘09. 

Cognizant also increased its penetration in the non-US markets, growing by over 71% in Europe and 142% in APAC. The company also made some inroads into the German market. The year also marked Cognizant’s entry into the domestic market.

Ingram Micro

IT distributor Ingram Micro is the seventh biggest IT company in the country. The year saw slowdown straining the company's revenues. The worst hit was the company's non-IT business, which includes mobiles and consumer electronics. 

Incidentally, the company witnessed healthy growth in the first half of fiscal 2008-09, however, the poor showing in the second half wiped out the gains of the first half. 

Computing systems including, notebooks, servers and desktops continue to be the biggest revenue generator for the company. In the computing segment, Ingram got maximum revenue from HP products followed by Acer. Lenovo's declining fortunes continue to trouble Ingram. 

While printers and other peripherals did show slowdown pangs, the company's component business did well showing impressive performance from Intel.

HCL Technologies

At no. 8 is HCL Technologies. The company grew by 41% to clock revenues of Rs 8,764 crore. The biggest highlight of the fiscal 2008-09 for the company was its acquisition of UK-based Axon for which it pipped rival Infosys technologies. 

The $658 million Axon buy was the biggest acquisition in the history of Indian IT. The company said that the acquisition was the part of its Blue Ocean strategy, which aims to expand in high-potential areas with low competition. 

The year saw the company expanding its footprint in the APAC market. Some big deals included, UTI, MTV Networks, Misys and Serena Software. 

The company's two major clients were among the worst hit BFSI companies.

HCL Infosystems

The ninth largest Indian IT company is HCL Infosystems. With Rs 8,089 crore revenues, the company grew by almost 60% during the fiscal 2008-09 largely riding on its services business. 

BFSI segment showed the most activity, with the company acquiring a cooperative banking software vendor NTPL. The company bagged orders from BSNL in the telecom space. 

The company ventured into physical security space launching Safe State to offer security and surveillance solutions. Some big launches of the year include mobile POS solutions and high-speed Infiniti challenger series workstations. 

However, the company's marketshare in the PC/laptop market continues to lag at a lowly 11-13%.

Redington India

The tenth largest IT company in India is Redington. Slowdown hit the company badly during the fiscal 2008-09, with growth slipping to 5% from 25% in the previous year. 

The company's revenues during the year stood at Rs 6,576 crore. Peripheral and systems were the biggest spoilers for the company during the year, with both businesses shrinking. 

On the positive side, the company added nine new vendors including some niche principals like Philips LCD and Belkin accessories. Focusing on large deals and guarding it cash reserves helped the company.

Cisco Systems

At no. 11 is Cisco Systems. In its 14-year history in the country, for the first time Cisco recorded single-digit growth. The company grew by mere 4% to record revenues of Rs 6,084 crore. 

During the year, the company increased focus on the SMB market by launching 0% finance schemes. It also entered into an agreement with EMC and RSA to build security solutions. The company also signed a deal with TCS to help customers build next-gen data centres. 

The company which claimed to have added some 850 people during the fiscal made India the launch pad for its Global talent Acceleration Program in Asia Pacific.

Oracle India

The fiscal year 2008-09 saw Oracle record revenues of Rs 5,962 crore to emerge as the 12th biggest IT company in the country. The Indian subsidiary of the US-based IT behemoth grew by a mere 3% during the year. However, Oracle Financial Services, which bough iFlex Solutions, grew by a healthy 23% to gross revenues of Rs 2,213 crore. 

The company's database business continued to grow, contributing most to the revenue pie. The company enjoyed 63% marketshare in the RDBMS space, also three times of its nearest competitor. 

The year saw several top-level executives leaving the company. The company also continues to lag behind SAP in the business apps space.

Intel India

At no. 13 is Intel India. The slowdown in the PC market affected the company's business in the country. The fiscal year 2008-09 saw the company growing by a mere 9% to record revenues of Rs 4,698 crore. 

The notebook market and the growing consumer market were the only saviours for the company during the torrid year. The company's over dependence on the enterprise market hit it badly. 

The year saw the company launch its Connected India drive, which is an industry-wide partnership aimed at increasing connectivity in India. On the products side, it launched Core 2 Quad mobile processors and Mobile 4 Series Express Chipsets for use in 45 nm Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad mobile processors. 

Other launches include Intel Core i7 processor and Quad Core Xeon processors.

Accenture India

The 14th largest IT company in the country is Accenture. The company witnessed a growth of 16% to record revenues of Rs 4,400 crore during the fiscal year 2008-09. 

The company failed to meet its much-publicised target of 50,000 people in India by August (company's financial year end). 

The slowdown pangs made the company introduce an Indian component to most of its deals. The company failed to bag any major deals in the Indian market, making it rework its India strategy of chasing only a select few deals. The company also restructured its India business along global lines.

SAP India

With revenues of Rs 4,320 crore, SAP India is the 15th largest IT company. The company grew by an impressive 33% in the fiscal 2008-09, with India becoming the seventh largest subsidiary for SAP globally, beating China. 

The company got large revenues from Business Intelligence, adding almost 500 clients to its kitty. The company also managed to win back the Vodafone deal from Oracle. 

On the weakness front, the company still has low traction in the real estate and retail space.

College e-textbooks go to class in iPhones

US and Canadian college students can pack textbooks into their pockets instead of spine-bending backpacks courtesy of an iPhone 

The northern California supplier of electronic textbooks on Tuesday released free software that makes digitized forms of college textbooks available on Apple's ubiquitous iPhone or iPod Touch devices. 

"We've seen significant demand from student customers for the ability to get required textbook content in electronic form on an iPhone or iPod Touch," said CourseSmart executive vice president Frank Lyman. 

"We see incredible potential for iPhone and iPod Touch applications in education." 

Students that buy "eTextbooks" from CourseSmart can view them from any Internet-linked computers and are able to print out pages or copy sections into custom study guides. 

Instead of lugging old-fashioned ink and paper books to classes, students can use iPhones of iPod Touch devices to access textbooks online for reference during classes. 

"It's important to students to be able to access textbook content in color with the same page layout as a printed textbook and now the eTextbooks App allows them to do that," Lyman said. 

CourseSmart began offering eTextbooks in 2007 and as of Tuesday had reportedly sold copies to students in slightly more than 5,900 schools. 

CourseSmart said it works with a dozen major textbook publishers to stay current with electronic versions mandated by professors for classes and claims its prices are typically about half that of print versions. 

The CourseSmart iPhone program is available at Apple's online App Store.

'I dropped Facebook because of too many friends': Bill Gates

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he was forced to give up on the social networking phenomenon Facebook after too many people 

wanted to be his friend. 

Gates, the billionaire computer geek-turned-philanthropist who was honoured Saturday by India for his charity work, told an audience in New Delhi he had tried out Facebook but ended up with "10,000 people wanting to be my friends". 

Gates, who remains Microsoft chairman, said he had trouble figuring out whether he "knew this person, did I not know this person". 

"It was just way too much trouble so I gave it up," Gates told the business forum. 

Gates was in the Indian capital to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, awarded by the government for his work for the charitable organisation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

The foundation, built by his massive fortune, has committed nearly one billion dollars to health and development projects in India, targeting especially AIDS and polio. 

Gates also confided to the audience that he was "not that big at text messaging" and that "I'm not a 24-hour-a-day tech person". 

"I read a lot and some of that reading is not on a computer," he said. 

Gates, who sought to drive a vision of a computer on every desk and in every home, said the information technology revolution had been "hugely beneficial" but added: "All these tools of tech waste our time if we're not careful."

'India's tech revolution led by men and women under 27'

aying that the US needs to wake up to the reality of India's technological revolution being led by IIT-educated "young men and women 

under the age of 27", President Barack Obama's nominee for deputy commerce secretary said countries like India, China, Brazil and Russia were going to pose a major challenge to American dominance in the coming years. 

"Today, we find ourselves competing not only with companies of great capacity, but countries intent on establishing dominance in the growth areas of the 21st century," Dennis Hightower, Obama's nominee for deputy secretary of commerce, said at his confirmation hearing Wednesday. 

"Countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China -- often referred to as the BRIC countries -- are now employing aggressive industrial policies reminiscent of Japan's strategic commitment to the electronics industry in the 1960s," he said. 

Referring to his recent business travels in India, Hightower said he was "floored by that country's commitment to reinvesting in technology and the implications for the United States". 

Visiting "a veritable who's who of global technology giants" in Bangalore, the would-be Obama official said he "was struck not only by the technological inroads being made in newly designed, avant-garde factories and laboratories, but also by the fact that this technological revolution was often being led by young men and women under the age of 27. 

"By and large, these young people were not educated in the United States like many of their fathers -- at MIT, Cal Tech, or Rennselaer, for example -- but at the Indian Institutes of Technology." 

Hightower noted there are "projections that place the United States in fourth place over the next 15-20 years in terms of consumerism, manufacturing capacity, and the growth of an entrepreneurial base that keeps pace with new global developments and delivery systems." 

"This forecasted outcome, to my way of thinking, is unacceptable," he said stressing "we must re-establish the primacy of the United States as the world leader in innovation, creativity and excellence across the global economic spectrum. 

"If America expects to lead, we must put our best minds on the toughest problems -- reforming the way America uses healthcare, consumes energy and educates our children," Hightower said. 

"America must now act with a renewed sense of urgency" he said, as "our global competitors are neither standing still nor shy about taking action to exert their global economic ambitions".

Shared PCs breed, spread germs

 You may have no other option than to use shared computers in your office or at an Internet cafe, but a study has revealed that these 

terminals are breeding grounds for germs. 

Researchers have found that shared computers are hot beds for bacteria and hot-desking in the office can even cause workers to become ill -- in fact, shared keyboards may contain five times the number of microorganisms as those used by one. 

Lead author Enzo Palombo was quoted by leading British newspaper 'The Daily Telegraph' as saying, "High use, multiple user Internet cafes and computer labs are potential hot spots for harbouring microorganisms." 

The researchers have based their findings after an analysis on computers -- in tests, almost half of keyboards harboured the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus which, although usually harmless when it is on the skin, can lead to serious infections if it enters the body. Swabs showed it was present on only one-fifth of single-use keyboards, they said. 

According to the researchers warn that the risk of infection was high if the equipment was not thoroughly cleaned. Given that computers are not routinely disinfected, the potential for transmitting disease is great. 

"Organisations need to be more rigorous in keeping shared equipment clean. Keyboards and other hand contact areas such as a computer mouse should be regularly cleaned and disinfected, especially for multiple-user workstations," Prof Palombo of Swinburne University of Technology said.