IBM Or Tata - Who Is More American
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A business magazine had an interesting article recently that raised some pertinent questions about the nationalism of multi national companies and where do their core interests lie, given today’s globalized world.
Most of us are already familiar with the Accenture controversy regarding this. Even tough Accenture is considered a blue eyed US tech services company in popular perception, the company is actually incorporated in Bermuda. Basically a tax haven country which helped the company save big time in corporate taxes.
IBM is based in Armonk, US, but it employs more people outside US, and a substantial chunk of them in India. India is IBM’s hub for global delivery of software solutions template and it has about 80,000 IBMers on its payroll in this south Asian country.
TCS, based in Mumbai, India is the nation’s largest tech services company. It gets more than half of its total revenue (about 51%) from the North American region. Leaves no doubt about where its energies are focused even though its based more than 6000 miles away from its core market.
Not surprisingly, IBM gets a bigger share of its revenue from markets outside of US and has seen its bottom line improving even though the US is witnessing an economic gloom and doom of sorts. Its stock initially rose 3% and then by 25% since mid-February.
On the other hand, TCS witnessed a slight slide in its fortunes, its stock is down by around 10%. Putting all their big eggs in one market is going to make these companies vulnerable. Note, TCS is also one of tech India’s most geographically diversified company. Others are banking on US for almost 60 to 70% of their revenues.
But the situation is not that bad for Indian tech companies. With the US economy already in doldrums or veering close to it, depending on whom you believe, US is going to outsource-offshore more to cut costs and improve the bottom line. But at the same time, Indian companies should work on raising the bar and getting a better traction in the emerging markets like China, Russia, Mexico, Brazil etc.
IBM is now the numero uno seller of tech services in India, where its revenue grew by 41% in the last quarter.
American tech service have not only mastered the art of outsourcing but also beat their Indian compatriots it seems.
World’s First Billion Dollar Home
Is being built in India and the Forbes magazine had an interesting feature on it. Actually the home is going to be built at the estimated cost of two billion dollars and since it is still under construction, the actual cost might be a bit more than that.
The man with the deep pockets here, Mukesh Ambani is ranked fourth richest in the world by Forbes and has a total net worth of $43 billion dollars. Mukesh Ambani inherited his wealth and companies from his father Dhiru Bhai Ambani, who started his career as a gas pump (called a pertrol bunk in India) attendant but eventually went on to own gas fields.
Looking at the exterior pictures, I can say only one thing. it doesn’t look like a home. More like a hotel. And an extremely tacky one at that. There is absolutely no sense of style or feeling of a home-sweet-home when you look at it. An unemotional piece fitted with possibly the best the money could buy but totally devoid of a heart and soul.
(The pic below is of a house in the village of Greenwich, CT)
I agree it is somebody’s personal money and its their prerogative how they spend it but the outrageous ostentation does leave a bitter taste.
Such outlandish spending is usually done by the nouveau rich, like the upstarts who suddenly come into a lot of money and feel the need to flash it, leaving no doubts that they are indeed the richest around.
India is a study in contrast. The best and the richest co-exist right next to each other with something totally sub-Saharan and poverty ridden in the country. One can see bullock carts occupying road space with the BMWs and Mercedes.
Other millionaires and billionaires around the world and especially in US have a track record at philanthropy. I could be wrong but I haven’t heard of any such thing happening on a grand scale from the Ambani camp.
Warren Buffet, also known as the Oracle Of Omaha, in spite of holding the mantle as richest or second richest man on earth, is known for his middle class leanings, like still living in the home that he brought in the 50’s etc. Also, he has willed a substantial amount of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation which is undertaking huge amount charity work around the world.
Why do people try to give back to the society? Because the society plays a huge role in what they are and what they have achieved. I remember Mr Buffet saying somewhere that its the American society which eventually decides that Mike Tyson gets millions for knocking guys down. Imagine what Mike Tyson’s worth would have been if he would have been born in some African village and knocking down guys there.
US - Embargoed By Sun Java?
Most likely not. But while trying to help a colleague resolve a Java related issue, we un-installed the existing incompatible version of Java and tried installing the latest one from the net. But this is the error we got while doing it -
(click on the image to blow it up)
This when we were trying to download and install in New York. OK, the company is part of a German conglomerate so the routers may be based in Germany but even then we shouldn’t be seeing this message. The possibility is still remote, they could be right here in US, in New York.
I am sure countries like Cuba, Syria, Iran etc. would not have the privilege to directly access all this stuff from American company websites but why in heaven’s name should somebody sitting in US get this kind of a response from the website.
English In India?
(Click on the Pic above to increase it’s size)
A Tech news journal while covering the recent launch of MySpace India and MySpace Korea, found it strange that while Korean MySpace was offered in Korean language, the Indian one was in English.
What was he or she expecting, the “Indian” language? Something Indianese?
The writer has to be totally clueless about the language situation in India if he/she finds it difficult to comprehend how come the site is in English.
India probably has the largest number of English speakers in the world in one country. Perhaps the accent is different and the style is more British oriented, but it is English nevertheless. (Have an American listen to the Brit cockney accent and I’ll be damned if they make out a even single word spoken).
South By Deep South
Another World Camp venue has been announced and it came as a complete surprise to me, albeit a pleasant one. If somebody is asked to venture a guess for a tech event venue/seminar, most of us would automatically wager on either the Bay area or New York. If nudged to go beyond that and think of some southern venue, most of us wouldn’t bet on anything beyond Atlanta, Georgia.
But guess what?! It’s Birmingham, Alabama. Having lived there on and off, ( place is kind of like home to me now), seems like I was totally clueless about the city’s tech leanings.
According to the official SXDS website, the inaugural event would be held on 26-28 September of this year. The events are still being finalized but would consist of -
* Social Media/PR/Marketing
* Web development
* A full-blown WordCamp
In fact this happens to be a first, definitely a good sign to see such unconfrences spreading beyond the regular cities on West coast and East coast.
Heard all this from here. Going by the comments on that site, the event sure seems to be kicking some dust.
IIT On Dilbert - Yet Again
Today again IIT was featured on the Dilbert Strip. Check it out on the right. But I have to confess the strip did not make any sense. Not to me at least. It wasn’t even remotely funny, just some inter department politics and war. Maybe its some total nerdy geek corporate drama.
Asok conjures up all his IIT might to vaporize the powers of a stink eye that a colleague was giving him. In the process it seems he bit off the poor guys head.
The secret behind the power is of course his days spent in not just any Indian under graduate school but THE IIT.
His win is all that matters. Go Asoook!
On a side note it would be interesting to hear what Scott Adams thinks about the, much under fire, American skilled worker program. Also known as the H1B visa.
I am going to research a bit on this and dig out his thoughts, this is if he has already made them known. If he hasn’t. then I am going to leave a post on his blog urging him to write something about it. (I recommend you to nudge him too).
Think about it. Had the H1B program not been there, Indians would not have been working in US in such high numbers and consequentially, Asok may not have seen light of the day in this, by now legendary syndicated cartoon strip.
So in effect, Asok is a direct result of the success of Indians in the H1B program. Does Scotty like that? We hope to find that out soon.
On a related note, what do you think are the odds that the next new character introduced would be a Chinese. Possibly a fire breathing dragon.
Dilbert Strip
I am going to experiment for a few days by placing the Dilbert widget on the right side bar. This way we won’t have to visit the official site to check the latest strip while at work. We all can pretend to innoxiously land up on TechBanyan, read the posts and also read what Scott Adams has in store for us and have a great laugh.
The widget is quite easy to use, you might want to click on Prev button and read what the jokes were for the previous day.
Let me know what you think of the idea.
Chinese Web Vandals Attacking Western Targets
Many of you would have noticed the heavy chatter in the media about China and its atrocities in Tibet. With the oncoming games, people are the world are protesting about the excesses China has been committing.
Apparently, CNN too couldn’t resist jumping on the bandwagon when one of their hosts trashed China on its harsh policies.
This ruffled quite a few feathers. Besides the Chinese government coming out against CNN, a bunch of hackers planned to get back on CNN by launching a full scale cyber attack against the online presence of news giant.
Stupider Than China?
By Ghatotkatchh
When I compare India and China, I see fundamental differences in how these countries have been led over the last century or so. The difference is aggressiveness vs subservience and purposefulness vs meandering along. there are those who would point to the latter qualities and say they are virtues. However, I find these qualities (if one may call them so) to have produced mediocre results.
Of late, there have been increasing comparisons between India and china in media and foray across the world. Indians have, of course, fanned this trend claiming how our societies are free, democratic and law based while china is none of the three. Of course, since we are all three, we are the better bet in the long term while china may dissolve into social and political disorder.
Scratch the surface a little and this propaganda seems to be true. After all the media is muzzled in china, so much of the real situation does not ever seem to come to the notice of the world at large. Their companies flout all law and the only thing that seems to work is “guanxi”. There is social unrest in the rural areas that bursts forth every now and then.
Respect The Van Gods
Saw the new Honda Odyssey ad today and got hooked right away. While channel surfing the thing that grabbed my attention and made me stop from moving on was the heavy sounding guitar riffs. Don’t hear much of these lately. Then I noticed the accompanying animie-like video and that was not bad either. (I am not an animie fan BTW, but this one sure looked good).
So what I found was, apparently this commercial is a new one in a series of Respect The Van campaign, where what looks like a a Viking god and other similar Viking characters like unicorn riding princess, a merlin etc come to life.
A new Honda Odyssey van blooms into picture alongside magic mushrooms and crystals to the rocking sounds of 1977 rock track Barracuda.