Twenty-four people were injured when a bus carrying call centre employees rammed a truck around 6 am on Monday in Noida’s Sector-57.  The police said six of them were critical. Superintendent of Police (City) Ashok Tripathi said the bus driver was speeding and lost control over the vehicle.

“After hitting the truck the bus ran over a divider,” Tripathi said. The injured have been admitted to Prakash, Fortis, Shivalik and Kailash hospitals, the police said. The injured persons have not been identified yet, the police said. The police said the chartered bus (DL 1CA 3766) was ferrying employees of Spice BPO, located in Sector-67.

“The bus was on its way to the office when it rammed a truck from behind near Sector-57 police post crossing,” Tripathi said. Source

The $30-billion Aditya Birla Group plans to revive its back office business Aditya Birla Minacs (ABM) by infusing fresh capital and becoming profitable through cost-cutting initiatives, apart from winning new projects both from within and outside the group.

“After five years of net losses, equity was eroded, (however) with the parent backing we survived. Now, we plan to bring some capital from the parent,” said Deepak J Patel, CEO, Aditya Birla Minacs. During the year ended March 2009, Minacs reported revenues of Rs 1,687 crore and a net loss of Rs 121 crore.

The turnaround strategy will be three-pronged – execute more work for companies within the Birla Group and showcase it to win more business, grow wallet-share from existing customers, and expand through acquisitions. The Birla Group itself has an IT and BPO spend of nearly $1 billion, Mr Patel added. (more…)

The IT-BPO Industry and the use of Information and communication technologies (ICT) across different sectors is poised to play an increasingly central role as a catalyst to social and economic transformation in India and how it interfaces with the rest of the world, said Raja M Mitra, senior consultant, The World Bank Group.

“India constitutes an example of a country which has begun to emerge as a significant power, both in terms of technical and business process innovation with the IT-BPO off shoring industry being a prime illustration.” the senior world bank consultant said at a conference organized by the CII here today.

According to Mitra the importance of IT industry cannot be measured only in terms of its share of GDP, exports, imports, investment and employment. The industry serves as a transformational catalyst for change in the way knowledge is created, shared and applied. (more…)

Indian IT education and training firm Aptech has entered into a joint venture with Philippines-based New Life Pharmaceuticals to tap the  growing market for IT training in that country. Aptech will hold 40% in the venture and New Life Pharmaceuticals will hold 60%.

“Our goal is to expand rapidly overseas. The Philippines is a strong market for IT offshoring services. Demand for multimedia services is also strong. So as part of our expansion strategy, we are entering the Philippines market,” said Aptech CEO Ninad Karpe. He said foreign investment regulations did not permit non-Philippines companies to hold more than 40% in the education sector.

The Philippines is a hot destination for offshoring services after India. The two countries together account for about 50% of the business process outsourcing market, according to a study by the Everest Research Institute. It is second-largest low-cost destination after India. The country is extending its success in voice-based BPO services to non-voice functions as well, the same study found. Source

India’s second-largest software services exporter, Infosys Technologies, has announced the opening of a wholly owned subsidiary in Brazil.

The first development center of the subsidiary located in Belo Horizonte, the third largest metropolitan area in Brazil after Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, will offer Infosys’ complete suite of services to Brazilian clients and Brazilian subsidiaries of global customers.

Infosys has been present in the Latin American market since the creation of the company’s Mexican subsidiary — Infosys Technologies S De R.L. De CV, in 2007. The center in Belo Horizonte is Infosys’ third development center in Latin America following the recent opening of Infosys’ second center in Monterrey, Mexico.

The two development centers in Mexico service 32 clients and employ around 357 employees.

S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD, Infosys Technologies, said, “Brazil is the largest IT and BPO services market in Latin America, with the eighth highest IT and BPO services spend in the world. The growth forecasts for the IT-BPO sector in Brazil have remained high despite the global economic crisis.” (more…)

Infosys BPO announced today that it has completed the acquisition of US based insurance and retirement business process solutions provider McCamish Systems LLC.

The deal establishes Infosys BPO as a key player in business platform services for the insurance and financial services sector and will enhance company’s capability to deliver end-to-end business solutions,it said in a statement here. Infosys, however, did not provide further details on the acquisition.

“With this acquisition,Infosys BPO strengthens its presence as a global outsourcing services provider.We look forward to an exceptional relationship with McCamish Systems LLC and are delighted to be working with a dynamic and outstanding group of individuals”, Ritesh Idnani, Head, World Wide sales and marketing and business Head, Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance, Healthcare and Emerging Markets and Americas Operations, Infosys BPO said. (more…)

Infosys BPO is looking at taking the technology platform of its recently-acquired company McCamish Systems into the UK insurance market. Infosys BPO acquired McCamish Systems for $38 million and the latter primarily provides BPO services for the US insurance market. Infosys BPO head of insurance, healthcare & life sciences vertical Amit Kothiyal said: “We are looking at an extension of McCamish’s technology platform to other geographies and are starting off with the evaluation of the UK market.”

McCamish’s BPO services to the insurance and financial services industries in the US is largely driven by the technology platforms it has built. Unlike the conventional backoffice activity, which is largely reliant on adding more number of human resources, a platform-based approach enables delivering various services based on a common technology setup.

According to Mr Kothiyal, the company has already begun the integration of McCamish into itself and is now looking at leveraging on the former’s client base. (more…)

Thirty-eight employees of a BPO were sacked, making it one of the biggest instances of retrenchment in the IT hub of Salt Lake’s Sector V.

The employees were reportedly asked to leave soon after they came to office in the morning. The workers went into a huddle and then started demonstrating first inside the office and then on the road outside. After a daylong stir, the management called the group inside around 9.30 pm night only to be given two options. Leave with a month’s salary, or stay on but without any guarantee of being retained.

The sacked employees claimed that the BPO had a staff strength of 300 in 2006. The number of employees was gradually reduced to bring it down to 85, but never before have 38 workers been asked to leave on the same day. There were rumours that 20 more would be shown the door. (more…)

BPO firm Genpact today said it has signed a five-year contract with pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca for providing finance and accounting  services. Under the terms of the contract, Genpact professionals will work in partnership with AstraZeneca’s finance team to boost the effectiveness of some of the pharma firm’s finance and accounting processes, Genpact said in a statement. The multi-million dollar contract will deliver services to over 50 countries, it added.

“Streamlining our business processes will enable us to improve the effectiveness of AstraZeneca’s finance function in driving, measuring and reporting business performance, while simultaneously reducing the costs of the finance function,” AstraZeneca Head (Global Transactional Finance) Graham Russell said. Genpact’s F&A practice currently supports more than 80 global enterprises.

“We are delighted to be chosen by AstraZeneca to streamline their Finance & Accounting operations,” Genpact President and CEO Pramod Bhasin said. Source

Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) centres in India would be subjected to taxation under the new proposed Direct Tax Code (DTC) but some clarifications, especially on double taxation, were still needed, an expert said.

“The (tax) exception given to BPOs has to be withdrawn under section 10 (A) of Income Tax Act. There is no provision in DTC for any such extension of benefits,” tax expert and International Fiscal Association of India Branch Chairman T P Oswal said. According to him, the BPOs can be taxed on the basis of the profit they make in India and also overall profit.

“According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a France-based grouping of 30 developed countries, these BPOs can be taxed on the basis of the overall profit of the company. But according to a ruling of the Supreme Court it is not possible,” he said.

BPOs can approach the Government under the Advanced Price Arrangement (APA) for a clarification about the taxation process, to avoid any incident of double taxation, Oswal said. Source