Kill IE6 says Industry, No says Microsoft!!!

Many Web designers are staging a protest against the old version of Microsoft’s browser, the Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). They allege that the ability of the Web to move forward in a more interactive way is getting hampered due to the browser. Microsoft acknowledged it is recommending IE6 users to upgrade to the newer IE8, but again promised it would support the older version till April 2014.

The designers say that the IE6, which was released in 2001 and since been updated twice by Microsoft is ‘crippling’ the Internet’s potential and slowing down the online experience. They also blame IE6 for giving webmasters a tough job, because they have to write special ‘hacks’ into the Web code to accommodate an outmoded browser. An estimated 15-25 percent of people still use IE6 as their portal to the Internet. Microsoft officials insist they simply can’t end support for IE 6, since it shipped as part of Windows XP.

Recently, a campaign has started, sparked by 40 Internet start-ups who want their users to ditch Microsoft’s eight year old web browser. The campaign is spread to the social networking sites as well. Facebook has been prompting IE6 users to swap out their browsers since February 2009. A petition on Twitter collected nearly 10,000 signatures supporting the effort. Even Google’s YouTube and Digg were taking similar steps to stop their users from using the IE6 browser.

Although Microsoft has released two major versions of Internet Explorer in the past couple of years, for many, the face of Internet Explorer is still the IE6. In large part, the reason is because many of Internet Explorer’s users are the ones who tend not to change the browser that comes with their operating system.

Infosys looking at overseas acquisitions

IT major Infosys Technologies is looking at acquisitions in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Japan and Australia, a top company official said. “The size of the company should be around $450-500 million,” Infosys chief executive and managing director S. Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The US accounts for around 62 percent and Europe around 26 percent of the company’s total revenues of $4.6 billion. The company is now looking at increasing the revenue share from Europe to 30 percent.

Regarding recruitments, Gopalakrishnan said the company had hired 18,000 people in 2008, adding that it would look into further recruitment next January-February depending on the economic scenario.

Infosys is pursuing contract deals worth $1 billion, he added.

Satyam Computers is now Mahindra Satyam

Two months after taking over scam-tainted Satyam Computer Services, Tech Mahindra on June 21, 2009 renamed the IT major as Mahindra Satyam.

The logo will be adopted from the Mahindra Group. “This strategic move paves the way for the emergence of a robust brand, which draws from the core values of the Mahindra group and the inherent strength of the Satyam brand,” said a company statement here June 21, 2009 evening.

“Customer centricity, high standards of corporate governance, unimpeachable ethics form the cornerstones of the Mahindra Group,” said Mahindra Group vice chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra.

“This rebranding exercise symbolizes an amalgamation of the Mahindra Group’s values with Satyam’s fabled expertise, even as it retains that part of Satyam’s identity which signifies commitment, purpose and proficiency of the organization and its people,” the statement said.

Satyam’s executive vice chairman Vineet Nayyar described the move as “a significant milestone towards the recovery of the company”.

Tech Mahindra, owned by the $6.3 billion Mahindra Group, bought the scam-hit IT company in an open auction in April 2009.

The re-branding comes six months after Satyam’s founder and then chairman B. Ramalinga Raju confessed to a Rs.78-billion accounting fraud.

The government launched a probe, superseded the board, and put the company up for sale in open auction.

Ramalinga Raju, his brother Rama Raju, former chief financial officer Vadlamani Srinivas and five other accused are currently in jail.

Microsoft To Launch Free Anti-virus Named ‘Morro’ Soon

Microsoft Corp in a quest to provide complete security to its OS users would soon be launching its own antivirus app Code named-‘Morro’. Microsoft also informed that the early version of the product is currently tested by its employees and would soon make a beta product available online before going for a launch at the end of 2009.

The Anti-Virus Software

Anti-virus app ‘Morro’ would provide full–time protection from several types of malicious software including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans .Although many are terming it as stripped down version of earlier shelved Live OneCare.

This news assumes significance as this antivirus would be completely free and would provide higher level of security due to close knit approach with Windows OS.Microsoft may be able to provide a great solution due to control over anonymous usage statistics of millions of PC’s.

This has sound alarms for commercial Anti-virus companies like Symantec,kaspersky and McAfee, earning majority of their revenues by protecting Windows PCs all these years. These companies also has significant presence in enterprise security market and attracts huge revenues from it.

Today many users are forced to buy paid anti-virus to fight higher level of threats unleashed by malicious programmes and viruses.The availability of anti-virus app by Microsoft itself would avoid the security dilemma faced by OS users and may also increase its legal OS sales in emerging markets.

Microsoft through this initiative is trying to ramp up confidence amongst its customers, at the same time opening up a new revenue stream in future.The move may be late timed but indeed serve great purpose for users craving about better anti-virus integration in windows OS.

How Does Google Store All of its Data?

Ever wonder how Google manages all their information? Imagine Gmail, it has to keep track of the billions of emails that get sent out each day regardless of whether or not it is spam.

A Database?
My first thought was a database. But if you think about it, if e-mails were stored in a single database table, it would have billions of rows added each day. This just isn’t possible nor is it efficient when performing a search. So Google cannot possibly store their data in a database… at least not in the traditional MySQL sense.

After a bit of digging around, I found an interesting document written by some of Google’s main architect that describes their file system in great detail. It turns out Google uses a distributed file system spread over many machines. It offers huge storage (hundreds of terabytes) over thousands of machines and thousands of disks.

The advantage of this type of system is redundancy and low cost. Their servers are not top of the line but clustering many of them together creates a highly cost-effective file system.

It’s what Yahoo Does
The owner of the largest database in the world, Yahoo!, takes on a similar approach: clusters of cheap computers that form a distributed file system. In fact, if a computer breaks down, it’s usually cheaper and faster to throw away the computer and replace it with a new one than it is to repair it.

So if you have a bunch of old computers sitting around at home, don’t throw them out just yet… you could create your own distributed file system!

Courtesy: www.jonlee.ca

The Top Ten Cities for Outsourcing in India

India has 35 major cities. Not all of them are good offshore outsourcing hubs.

In the recent past, several studies have been carried out to identify the best or most attractive cities in India. Gartner Inc, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and KPMG, neoIT, Mercer, A T Kearney, Merrill Lynch and several others have carried out city studies for a wide range of objectives.

Important parameters that were considered when developing the rankings in these studies include:

• Availability of Infrastructure (Power, Transport, Telecommunication, Housing)
• Cost of Living
• Real Estate Costs
• Availability of Skilled Manpower
• Attrition Rates
• Quality of Living
• Political Climate
• Educational Institutions

Urban infrastructure in India is not the best in the world. Indian cities are facing overpopulation, indiscriminate growth and shortage of urban services like public transportation, water supply and sanitation. It is important to point out that the 2006 World-wide Quality of Living Survey by Mercer for 350 global cities has the top Indian cities Mumbai and Delhi ranked at 150th place. Not impressive at all. On the networking front, India ranks 40th out of 115 countries with the network readiness index of 0.23.

Despite the constrains imposed by the infrastructure or lack thereof, availability of skilled manpower and the low cost advantage continues to drive investment into urban India.

An analysis of city rankings by different surveys and study of recent outsourcing trends reveals that the top 10 outsourcing destinations in India are:

1. Chennai was the poor cousin of Bangalore and Hyderabad during the initial years of the IT boom in India. Today it is the lead outsourcing destination due to the low cost advantage, improving infrastructure, international connectivity, availability of land, skilled manpower and lower attrition rates compared to Bangalore and Hyderabad.

2. Hyderabad continues to woo investors by focusing on improving its urban infrastructure. The Governments, both past and present, have been very clear in their focus and support to the IT industry. The city has been among the most favored destinations due to the infrastructural improvements and the planned growth phased in by the governments in the twin cities.

3. Bangalore is the technology hub of India. It is increasingly becoming a global melting pot of cultures. The original garden and pub city of India has a comfortable climate compared to the other Indian cities that are happening in terms of outsourcing. However, the city’s infrastructure is inadequate to meet the demands of the exploding population. There is a growing feeling that other cities will overtake Bangalore if it continues to suffer due to political bickering, skyrocketing real estate prices and poor urban planning. According to a recent survey, it still ranks as the top city for living, earning and investing.

4. National Capital Region (NCR) includes Delhi and its surrounding suburbs. Delhi is expensive and not as popular for outsourcing. It is the suburbs, Gurgaon and Noida that have become important outsourcing destinations due to their proximity to the capital. They continue to be a major draw due to improving transport connectivity with Delhi, good international linkage and availability of skilled manpower.

5. Pune is Maharastra’s response to Bangalore. Its proximity to India’s financial capital, Mumbai and availability of trained manpower has led to the development of a thriving hi-tech outsourcing industry in this erstwhile retirement and education haven. Apart from other infrastructure components, the city is focusing on township projects to improve housing facilities.

6. Chandigarh and Mohali are twin cities. Chandigarh is one of the few planned and good cities of India. Mohali is its twin. Together, they have the space as well as the intellectual and financial capability to become India’s best outsourcing destinations. It does not yet have an international airport, but is well connected to New Delhi by road and rail.

7. Kolkata, the capital city of the state of West Bengal is high in intellect and has an advantage in terms of low costs. However, the city is famous for its traffic snarls and trade union shut downs. The current state government under chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is making the right noises to encourage investors. Early indications are that it may actually emerge as a good outsourcing destination.

8. Mysore is one of India’s smaller cities, which have joined the outsourcing bandwagon. Its proximity to Bangalore and presence of companies like Infosys and Wipro has helped the cause. It is emerging as a preferred choice over Bangalore as India’s silicon city is now congested, expensive and has higher than average attrition rates.

9. Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala is well known for some of the leading science & technology research organizations in India. The city has the infrastructure and skilled workforce to attract IT investments. It is early days yet and remains to be seen whether Thiruvananthapuram can woo investors away from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.

10. Coimbatore is the emerging engineering outsourcing hub located in the state of Tamil Nadu. The government of Tamil Nadu is keen on developing Coimbatore as a major IT destination in the state. Coimbatore’s strength is its rich engineering tradition and young graduating engineers to meet the manpower demands of the growing industry.

India’s 40 Richest Persons – 2008

Source: Forbes.com

Rank	Name	Net Worth ($mil)	Age	City
1	Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries Limited)	20,800	51	Mumbai
2	Lakshmi Mittal (Mittal Steel Company Ltd.)	20,500	58	London
3	Anil Ambani (Reliance Communications, Reliance Energy)	12,500	49	Mumbai
4	Sunil Mittal (Bharti Airtel Group)	7,900	51	Delhi
5	Kushal Pal Singh (DLF Limited)	7,800	77	Delhi
6	Shashi & Ravi Ruia (Essar Group)	7,600	64	Mumbai
7	Azim Premji (Wipro Technologies)	7,000	63	Bangalore
8	Kumar Birla (Aditya Birla Group)	5,000	41	Mumbai
9	Adi Godrej (Godrej Group)	4,000	66	Mumbai
10	Gautam Adani (Adani Enterprises Group)	3,900	46	Ahmedabad
11	Dilip Shanghvi (Sun Pharmaceutical Industries)	3,100	53	Mumbai
12	Savitri Jindal (O.P. Jindal Group)	2,900	59	Delhi & Hisar
13	Malvinder & Shivinder Singh (Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited)	2,800	36	Delhi
14	Anil Agarwal (Vedanta Resources Corporation)	2,400	55	London
15	Shiv Nadar (HCL Group)	2,200	63	Delhi
16	Micky Jagtiani (Landmark Group)	2,000	57	Dubai
17	Indu Jain (Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.,)	1,800	72	Delhi
18	Cyrus Poonawalla (Poonawalla Group, Serum Institute of India)	1,600	67	Pune
19	Uday Kotak (Kotak Mahindra Bank)	1,550	49	Mumbai
20	Chandru Raheja (K. Raheja Corp.)	1,500	68	Mumbai

21	G.M. Rao (GMR Infrastructure Group)	1,470	58	Bangalore
22	Vivek Burman (Dabur India Limited)	1,300	71	Delhi
23	Anurag Dikshit (PartyGaming)	1,250	36	Gibraltar
24	Kalanithi Maran (Sun TV Network)	1,200	43	Chennai
25	Venugopal Dhoot (Videocon India)	1,100	57	Mumbai
26	Yusuf Hamied (Cipla Pharmaceutical Laboratories)	1,060	72	London & Mumbai
27	Ramesh Chandra (Unitech Group)	1,000	69	Delhi
28	Subhash Chandra (Zee TV Entertainment)	970	58	Mumbai
29	N.R. Narayana Murthy (Infosys Technologies Limited)	965	62	Bangalore
30	Rajan Raheja (Rajan Raheja Group)	950	54	Mumbai
31	Brijmohan Lall Munjal (Hero Honda Motors Limited)	940	85	Delhi
32	Baba Kalyani (Bharat Forge)	935	59	Pune
33	Tulsi Tanti (Suzlon Energy)	930	50	Pune
34	Jaiprakash Gaur (Jaypee Group)	890	77	Delhi
35	Niranjan Hiranandani (Niranjan Hiranandani Group)	885	58	Mumbai
36	Murali Divi (Divis Laboratories)	870	57	Hyderabad
37	Hemant Shah (Akruti City Limited)	830	55	Mumbai
38	Gracias Saldanha (Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.)	825	70	Mumbai
39	Anand Jain (Jai Corporation Ltd.)	810	51	Mumbai
40	Rahul Bajaj (Bajaj Auto Ltd.)	760	70	Pune

Obama finally calls Manmohan Singh, discusses Indo-US ties

TIME FOR INDIA: Obama has already spoken to 15 world leaders, including the Pakistani President.

US president-elect Barack Obama called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday morning and discussed the Indo-US relationship.

Obama reportedly told Singh that the two countries can work together in many area.

“We need to give strength to Indo-US relations. The Indo-US strategic ties are very important,” Obama told Singh.

PMO sources said Singh congratulated Obama on his historic victory and said his success would be an inspiration for the oppressed people all over the world.

The Prime Minister also said that the relationship between India and the US was “very good” but “we should not be satisfied with the status quo”.

Singh conveyed his best wishes for the success of the Obama administration in meeting challenges that face the world.

The Prime Minister also invited Obama and his wife Mitchelle to visit India, the sources said.

Obama praised Singh’s contribution to the progress of India as Finance Minister earlier and the Prime Minister now.

Obama had reportedly called Singh on Saturday too but the Prime Minister could not take the telephone call from the US president-elect as he was travelling.

“I got a call on Saturday but could not take it as I was travelling,” Manmohan Singh had said on Monday on board his special aircraft while returning home from a two-nation visit to the Gulf.

Obama has already spoken to 15 world leaders, including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, after his election.

Banks safe, but economy may slump: PM

HIS ECONOMIC ADVICE: Manmohan Singh says tackling inflation remains goverment’s priority.

Indians banks are safe and depositors need not worry for their money, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told Parliament for the first time after the worldwide financial crisis.

“Our banks, both in the public sector and in the private sector, are financially sound, well capitalised and well regulated. There should be no fear of a failure of any bank,” Singh said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

“I wish to assure depositors in our banks that their deposits are entirely safe.” Singh, however, warned that the economy might slow down.

“The financial storm has shaken confidence in the system and precipitated a steep decline in stock markets. It has produced a sharp slowdown in economic activity, with the prospect of a prolonged recession in industrialised countries,” he said.

There is enough capital, but “nevertheless, we must be prepared for a temporary slowdown in the Indian economy”.

Singh said the precise impact of the global financial crisis was difficult to estimate but the economic slowdown in developed countries is likely to have an “indirect impact” on the Indian economy.

Some estimates projected GDP growth to reduce to 7.5 per cent in the current year, but “our effort will be to minimise the negative effect of the financial crisis… to return to the growth trajectory of 9 per cent.”

The Prime Minister said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Government were carefully monitoring the flow of credit and would ensure that the additional liquidity infused into the system translated into actual credit.

“We will not hesitate to do more, if needed. While the capital adequacy ratios of all our banks are well above the Basel norm and above the RBI stipulated norm, government has promised that it will help banks, which have lower ratios, to access funds to increase the capital risk-weighted asset ratio to 12 per cent,” he said.

Why Lehman Brothers went bust ?

$362 bn Lehman brothers went bankrupt today. Merill Lynch was sold to Bank of  America for merely $50 bn.

Lehman and Merill were 2 of the 5 biggest investment banks in US. Both are history now. 26000 employees working for Lehman lost their jobs in one day. It was  a big news on all TV channels showing the Lehman employees packing their stuff, clearing their desks and closing their offices on the Wall street. NYSE rep said on TV that Stock holders of Lehman will not get anything.

The economists say this is going bring a worst economic depression of this century. And of course it is going to affect global economy.

US economy is supposed to slide further down and get worse till next June.

Why Lehman Bros went bust; what it means for you

Lehman Brothers is not more. Merrill Lynch has gown down the Bank of America maw. AIG too could go belly up. With a doubt, these developments in America are the most shocking events to have hit global financial markets. So where did it all begin? And what does it mean for the Indian stock markets? Find out. . .
What is (or was) Lehman Brothers?
America’s fourth-largest investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has filed the biggest bankruptcy petition known to mankind.
The 158-year-old firm was founded by brothers Henry, Emanuel and Mayer Lehman, Jewish immigrants to the US from Germany, in 1850. Henry set up a general store in Alabama in 1844 and was later joined by his brothers. In 1850 they set up the merchant bank in New York after having made money in railway bonds. So what went wrong?

Lehman Bros, which till June 2008 had not reported a quarterly loss even once, had earlier survived many an economic crises, like railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management in the 1990s.

Thus the collapse of the giant investment bank came as a major shock for the entire world markets that plunged after Lehman filed a Chapter 11 petition with US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The $613 billion (some estimates put the size at $639 billion) bankruptcy thus throws up the question: why did the Wall Street giant go bust? Here’s why. . .

Why did Lehman Brothers go bankrupt?

The giant investment bank succumbed to the sub-prime mortgage crisis that has rocked the United States and the global economy. Lehman was strangled by a massive credit crisis and fast plummeting real estate prices.

The gargantuan $60 billion loss in bad real estate loans forced the bank to file for bankruptcy.

However, the fall of the 158-year-year institution that started cotton trade in US before the American Civil War and financed the railroad that built a nation, got hit by a large dose of bad luck, pride, arrogance and greed. Primarily, the pride of its chief executive office Richard Fuld.

But there were more reason. Check out what they were.

Lehman’s collapse was also triggered by the refusal of other banks to do business with it because of its complex and, at times, opaque ways of trading. Housing loans made by the bank to people with little support made these loans very risky, and when interest rates rose, these borrowers could no more repay Lehman. This led to huge losses, the extent of which is not yet clear.

Thus other banks stopped trading with Lehman. This led to it losing almost all business and triggered its fall.

The final straw for Lehman was the fact that both Barclays Plc of the United Kingdom and Bank of America Corp pulled out of takeover talks. BofA bought out Merrill Lynch for $50 billion.

However, Barclays has now said that it is in discussions with Lehman Brothers about buying certain assets of the stricken US investment bank.

“Barclays confirms that it is discussing with Lehman Brothers the possible acquisition of certain Lehman Brothers assets on terms that would be attractive to Barclay’s shareholders,” Britain’s third largest bank said in a statement.

When other banks do not want to buy Lehman, why is Barclays interested?

Barclays wanted to buy Lehman out at a discount, so to speak. But when Lehman CEO Fuld decided that his bank was worth much more than what Barclays had apparently offered, Barclays stepped back.

Now that Lehman has filed for bankruptcy, its assets are available fairly cheap. However, the biggest problem is to take on Lehman’s enormous liabilities.

How far is the CEO of the company responsible for Lehman’s fall?

Wall Street analysts believe that it was the ‘hubris’ of Richard Fuld, the 62-year-old CEO of Lehman, who did not take the telltale signs of impending doom very seriously. Fuld, nicknamed The Gorilla for his foul temper, intimidating presence and tough talk, rejected many bids to save Lehman because he thought that the sinking giant was much bigger than Wall Street was giving it credit for, and wanted to get more price for the sale of the company.

Analysts say if the bank was sold just a week before it went kaput, it could have been saved the ignominy of a bankruptcy, but Fuld was far too adamant to see reason. Result: the end of a 158-year-old financial giant.

Could the United States government helped, like it helped Bear Stearns in May this year, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier this month?

The US government could have helped, but US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that it would not use up any more taxpayer dollars to bail out Lehman Brothers as it would lead to investment banks getting away with their gambling ways. Paulson had bailed out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns, saying that if the government had not done so, the US housing loan market would have collapsed leading to gigantic losses for hundreds of banks all over the globe that have invested in US property.

Paulson, however, believes that a brokerage major like Lehman, which does not have a direct connection with ordinary people who have taken on home loans, need not be bailed out as it would not cause any systemic damage to the US economy

Will everyone in Lehman lose their jobs?

The bankruptcy administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, feels that as Lehman’s operations were essentially centralized at New York, the folding up of the investment banker in the US will have a telling impact on all its operations globally.

Over 5,000 employees in the UK have already lost their jobs, while about 20,000 in the US might as well forget going back to their work stations. About 2,500 Lehman employees in India too face the axe.

Will the whole bank be liquidated?

Unlikely, at least for now. The US Chapter 11 that deals with bankruptcy says that PwC, the administrators, can go about taking its time to find good offers and buyers for Lehman’s ‘least affected businesses.’

The entire exercise can take months before all of Lehman’s assets are sold, given the complexities linked to the bankruptcy.

What about the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch deal?

Merrill Lynch’s buy out by Bank of America is also a shocking development. ML, saw the writing on the wall once it guessed that Lehman was going bust, and decided to sell out before it actually has to file a bankruptcy petition..

What about the insurance giant AIG?

The world’s largest insurer, American International Group, has been downgraded by credit rating agencies and is racing against time to find a multi billion dollar infusion to stay afloat. US Federal Reserve officials and two leading banks, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, were negotiating to put together $75 billion package to save the insurance giant to stave off crisis.

AIG has sought $40 billion in bridge loan to stave off the crisis. But the Fed rebuffed the request. AIG’s ills came to fore, when three leading credit rating agencies – Standard and Poor’s Moody’s and Fitch – lowered the company’s credit scores.

Who could be the next to fall?

Some Wall Street analysts, reports The Guardian, name Washington Mutual as the next financial major to ‘find itself in serious trouble.’

However, the even bigger worry is whether the world’s largest securities firms, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, would be able to survive this brutal financial crisis. But many say that these two gaints will not melt down as they have ‘done a better job of spreading their bets across world markets and are also more diversified, less leveraged and have managed such risks much better.’

What do Indian markets fear?

The fall of two global financial behemoths — Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch — is expected to dent India Inc’s ability to raise resources via the equity route.

Experts feel that such events significantly increase the risk perception, which in turn will put all future investments by institutional investors such as pension or endowment funds, on the back burner.

While the public issue market has already dried up, the private equity funds are also becoming conservative in terms of pricing. This is resulting in either inordinate delays in concluding deals or transactions being called off.

There are many instances of private equity fund managers refusing to go ahead with deals after signing the term sheet. Sources said that a leading fund conducted due diligence on two companies in the last fortnight but did not close either deal primarily because of the developments in the US, their home country.

The crisis faced by Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers is expected to have a cascading effect on PE firms too.

Will it hit the Indian growth story?

The ongoing financial sector crisis in the United States and its repercussions on developed markets worldwide will result in lower capital inflows into emerging markets like India, economists and government officials said today.

At the same time, they called for the government to make it easier for Indian companies to borrow overseas by easing the restrictions that have been imposed in the past to reduce excessive liquidity in the system and control inflation.

This will, in turn, lead to a slowing in investment growth in the months ahead. As lending gets tighter and investment flows dry, corporate India will find it more difficult to raise both equity and debt.

Technology firms are shivering

Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy filing may well prove to be the last straw for Indian IT firms, which were expecting the second half of FY09 to be better. As a result of the US financial market crisis, analysts do not expect Indian IT firms to sign any significant contracts in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space in the months to come.

While IT firms do not disclose client-specific details, it’s estimated that Lehman Brothers has outsourced deals amounting to anywhere between Rs 550 crore and Rs 700 crore (annually) to numerous IT firms, including majors like Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam Computer Services and Wipro. Lehman Brothers, say sources, works with 14 services providers in India – Wipro and TCS being the largest. It also has investments in a few IT firms. It’s not clear if these holdings will be liquidated to raise funds.

Moreover, the sources add that Lehman Brothers’ unit in India has issued termination letters to a majority of its 2,500 employees.

What kind of investment does Lehman have in India?

Lehman does not have direct large holding in the Indian stock markets. These holdings are estimated at around $200 million, including Participatory Notes. This figure is not enough to cripple the Indian stock markets.

But Lehman has exposure to the Indian stock market through special purpose vehicles. This exposure to real estate stocks is said to be of about $1.5 billion, enough to shake up the markets.