Singaporean telecom major Singtel today reported a 7.7 per cent rise in the first quarter net profit at S$945 million, on the back of strong performance by India&rsquo;s Bharti Airtel, in which it has 30 per cent stake.

Singtel Q1 profit jumps 7.7%

Press Trust of India

The Nasscom-McKinsey Perspective 2020 report notes that healthcare will emerge as a very big opportunity for outsourcing services. ANANDA MUKERJI, managing director and chief executive officer of Firstsource, feels his company is in the right place to make its mark in the global BPO business. The outsourced healthcare space represents an approximately $17-billion opportunity in the US alone. The industry is expected to grow at over 50 per cent CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) over the next five years. With healthcare contributing close to 40 per cent of its revenue, the sixth-largest BPO player&rsquo;s early bet on the segment seems to be paying off. Mukerji spoke with SHIVANI SHINDE on how its healthcare acquisitions have panned out and the way forward.

&#39;We choose verticals that focus on end users&#39;

Business Standard

With the government ready to auction 3G and BWA spectrum, Sunil Jain met Qualcomm&rsquo;s India and South Asia President Kanwalinder Singh to talk about whether the budget target of Rs 35,000 crore from the auction was realistic; did a low-base price for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) make sense, could standalone players survive and so on. Qualcomm is the world&rsquo;s biggest technology provider in the 3G space.

'Standalone 3G players can't survive'

&lsquo;More offshore centres set up in India in Q2&rsquo;.

India still gets a lion share of global offshoring biz

Production at Nokia&rsquo;s manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, was hit on Friday following a labour strike which demanded an increase in wages. The strike was called off after 10 hours following the labour department&rsquo;s intervention. According to sources, the labour commissioner in Chennai asked the management and workers to resolve the issue before August 24, failing which the department would have to intervene.

Labour strike hits production at Nokia's Chennai plant

An array of conditions in third generation (3G) guidelines will restrict the entry of foreign players in the booming Indian telecom market. The restrictions may include an additional licence fee a foreign operator has to foot on, infrastructure hurdles and lack of a brand identity in the country, unlike in the case of a 2G operator.

3G guidelines not viable for foreign players, say experts

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has approached the department of telecom for allocation of spectrum to set up a captive communication network for its Western Offshore site.

ONGC rings DoT for spectrum to set up own network

Ravikant Malhan, vice president (special projects) for Zicom Electronic Security, likes to call himself a &ldquo;tech nerd&rdquo; and not a geek. For his colleagues at work, Malhan is a gadget guru, but now this executive wants to impress his wife with his gadget skills too. Malhan wants to gift her a pair of shoes that will be Bluetooth-enabled and fitted with an MP3 player, to help her exercise better.

Breaking the speed limit

Also siphon money through &lsquo;work@home&rsquo; schemes.

Hackers prey on job aspirants

Google Inc, seeking new ways to make money from internet-search advertising, is dressing up its plain-text search ads with movie and TV previews.

Google puts movie previews into internet search ads

The Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is following in the footsteps of information technology service firms, increasing its global footprint as it eyes bigger and more complex work from clients.

BPOs eye global footprint to meet customer needs

Mushrooming app stores are offering a huge 70 per cent revenue to developers.

Application development means big business

Hi-end smartphones are all set to make a huge splash this year. Relatively new players like Acer are throwing down the gauntlet to established smartphone makers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. And, all this is only going to make your decision-making tougher.

Talking smart

For 33-year-old Amit Lakhmani, the chief executive officer of Kolkata-based wireless and internet value-added service (VAS) provider Max Mobility, embarking on a business outside of the then booming manufacturing and services sector was a natural choice.

Giving mobiles added value

Gone are the days when the good old &lsquo;Snake&rsquo; used to be the only game on mobile phones that people could turn to kill their boredom while travelling on a local train or waiting for a meeting. The mobile gaming industry has taken rapid strides, and with the market growing faster than expected, it&rsquo;s no surprise that the consumer is getting access to a better and a broader game base.

No phoney game: Fight a bloody battle, or hit a six

The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H), is incubating three product-based ideas &ndash; Dristicare, a tool to analyse fundus images of retina for diabetics, a music feature analysis, and Sethus, a text-to-speech and speech-to-text product for English and 23 Indian languages, said its director Rajeev Sangal.

IIIT-H incubates 3 product-based ideas

Telecom major Bharti Airtel today said it had made an investment of over $500 million spread over two years for enhancing the connectivity of its newly unveiled global wholesale services portfolio, that would enable telecom operators across 50 countries access its services.

Airtel plans to connect global telcos

Telecom service providers in West Bengal are harping on data business to grow revenues.

Telcos bullish on data biz

With small and medium enterprises&rsquo; (SMEs) need for efficient logistics growing, Aparna BPO Services Ltd, a logistics BPO services provider, has decided to enter the warehousing segment primarily meant for auto-ancillary and other SMEs in and around Pune.

Pune BPO sets up warehouse for auto parts makers

The Chief Executive Officer of Loop Mobile and Loop Telecom (formerly BPL Mobile Communications and BPL Mobile), Sanjeev Chachondia, has resigned. The company has appointed Sandip Basu its new CEO.

Loop Mobile CEO quits

The finance ministry has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to put on hold the further allocation of spectrum until a final view on the Spectrum Review Committee&rsquo;s report was taken, a move that might affect the expansion of services by existing players like Airtel and Vodafone.

FinMin asks DoT to hold allocation of 3G spectrum

Tech News: Latest Techn news & updates on Smart Watches, Gaming Console, iOS updates with launch date and price straight from Business Standard.com.

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