Infosys to leave turmoil behind as Salil Parekh takes over as CEO today

Salil S Parekh will take over as the chief executive of Infosys on Tuesday

 

Salil S Parekh will take over as the chief executive of Infosys on Tuesday as the information technology (IT) bellwether looks to shed its past year of turmoil and forge ahead with a focus on execution and grow business by engaging clients via digital contracts.

For Parekh, a former Capgemini executive who rose through the ranks to be on its global board after successfully building its offshore base in India, the top job at Infosys will be his first that will put him under public scrutiny. So far, Infosys, listed on the Indian and global stock exchanges, has built its reputation on transparency and good corporate governance.

A lapse in disclosure by former CEO Vishal Sikka, who took charge in August 2014, about offering severance pay 10 times the standard contract to former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal had escalated into a public spat between the board and the founders led by N R Narayana Murthy. This had resulted in the resignation of Sikka and R Seshasayee, then board chairman, last August, paving the way for co-founder Nandan Nilekani to return at the helm.

Nilekani realises that he has to stay longer at Infosys to ensure a smooth transition for Parekh, who will operate out of its headquarters in Bengaluru. Parekh will also need to fit in a culture of frugality that Murthy and Nilekani built over the past three decades, engage with in-house talent and ensure higher returns to stakeholders.

An operational man, Parekh had led the growth trajectory for Capgemini India as an offshore destination to deliver client projects and help the European firm remain competitive. During his tenure, Capgemini team grew from 800 people to over 85,000 people in India, which included leading the acquisition of iGATE Corp....

Read more: Infosys CEO Salil  S Parekh

Key takeaways from Q1FY18 earnings and what it means for your investments

For new investor, going through MF mode is still the best way to play long-term Indian growth story

 

economy news: The June quarter earnings of the financial year 2017-18 remained soft, but on expected lines as the fallout of GST implementation led to channel destocking and discounting across consumer-facing industries. Given this, automobiles, auto-ancillaries, consumer staples, white good manufacturers and healthcare sectors faced the brunt.

The under-performance was exaggerated with input cost inflation yet to play out. The rise in commodity prices was also not passed on entirely in this quarter, as the inventory was liquidated at a discount to avail input tax-credits before GST implementation. That apart, compensation was given to the dealers / stockists / supply chain distributors for the losses they incurred on GST roll-out.

A few companies did manage to deliver better return in comparison to what analysts had pegged, and such companies got rewarded by the markets. The under-performance of IT, pharma and telecom continued. A recovery stayed elusive for IT companies amid headwinds like lower utilisation and digital investments still continuing, leading to further payback periods, while growth in revenues and volumes is still recovering in a gradual fashion.

For pharma, the troubles due to USFDA-related issues continued with elevated remediation costs plaguing the balance sheets, high R&D expenses and pricing pressures weighing on EBIDTA margin and the slower key niche drug approval pipeline is also taking a hit on the earnings.

Revenue accretion was a challenge for the telecom companies, which is evident from the ARPUs that the companies reported. Bottom-line was impacted due to high leverage levels. Reliance Jio’s aggressive price stance and the spectrum payout has resulted in data tariffs coming down, which has been compensated by the large data volume growth.

Autos continued the good show. The demand is expected to come back strongly in the second quarter. The FMCG sector is likely to see the impact of restocking in the second quarter. Festival demand and good monsoons aiding spending both on the rural and urban side along with payouts related to the seventh pay commission recommendations are the additional positives.....(read story)

Trump wrong about H-1B? Threat of 'being Bangalored' illogical: US study

In fact, report says immigration bans will lead to greater outsourcing by US firms

 

 

Did US President Donald Trump get his H-1B visa math wrong? A report by a US think tank, the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), thinks he did.

One of the key findings of the report was that fears in the US that H-1B visas granted to foreign workers, especially Indian techies, were draining the job market of opportunities for the natives were exaggerated at best, and, "illogical" if seen in the context of data.

The 9,356 new H-1B petitions for the top seven Indian-based companies approved in financial year 2016 represent "only 0.006 per cent of the US labour force" , the report said, adding that while the "threat of job loss has long been exaggerated by critics, it reaches illogical proportions when discussing fewer than 10,000 workers in an economy that employs 160 million workers nationwide".

In April this year, Trump signed an executive order called 'Buy American and Hire American' to protect the American industry from unfair competition and stop the "misuse" of H-1B visas| economy news

• The numbers just don't add up

According to the 'H-1B Visas by the numbers' report by NFAP, the April 2017 unemployment rate in the US for "computer and mathematical science" occupations was 2.5 per cent – a very low rate, even lower than the 4.4 percent for "all occupations", according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The unemployment rate for "architecture and engineering" occupations is even lower at 2.1 per cent.| economy policy

• More jobs than workers
• Visa restrictions could actually kill more jobs
• Trump's lower wages argument may be wrong too