Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a part of the Tata Group which generated consolidated revenues of $20.9 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, has been recognized in DiversityInc’s “2019 Top 50 Companies for Diversity” in the US.
TCS was selected as one of DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies-out of more than 1,800 assessed organizations for its sustained investments and efforts in diversity and inclusion, the company said in a statement.
“Our workforce diversity is fuelling the innovation that’s helping our customers succeed in a Business 4.0 world,” said Balaji Ganapathy, Head, Workforce Effectiveness, TCS.
“Equally important is our work to expand access to opportunities for underserved and marginalized groups in the communities where we operate,” he added. TCS provides business transformation services to customers across all 50 US states and Washington DC, with a diverse local workforce that comprises 70 nationalities, and women making up 28 per cent of the base.
Since 2014, TCS has hired more than 20,000 Americans and is one of the nation’s largest job creators in the IT sector. This figure includes more than 1,500 recent college graduates.
TCS has extended support for Million Women Mentors (MWM), the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), STEM connector, US2020, NPower and more.
“Through MWM, TCS’ platform and technology services have connected more than 60 companies and 60 youth-service partners across 43 states,” informed the company.
“DiversityInc Top 50 Companies have a decisive advantage because they treat people more fairly than other companies,” said Luke Visconti, Founder and CEO, DiversityInc. DiversityInc focuses on the benefits diversity brings to businesses.
TCS has over 4,24,000 of the world’s best trained consultants in 46 countries.
As the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos might have been expecting a variety of questions during the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Seattle, but what he probably wasn’t expecting was an Amazon shareholder asking him to return a product she was unsatisfied with.
The woman, who is a shareholder in Amazon, was a part of Jeff Bezos’ open question and answer round during the meeting, where shareholders were asking the company to work on climate change and pay parity in the company. However, she took the opportunity to directly ask the CEO to return her product, claiming that she had tried four times and was unsuccessful in doing so through the company’s return methods.
According to media reports, Bezos was surprised but handled the situation with ease and humour, saying, “My apologies that you had to use this unusual venue to accomplish what should have been a routine task. Anybody else has anything they need to return?”
Apple introduced the new iPod touch which packs the A10 Fusion chip designed to bring improved performance in games and offer Group Face- Time, making it easy to chat with family members, friends or colleagues simultaneously.
The new iPod touch starts at Rs.18,900 for the 32GB model, Rs.28,900 for the 128GB model and Rs.38,900 for the 256GB model and is available through Apple authorized resellers and select carriers, Apple said in a statement.
“We’re making the most affordable iOS device even better with performance that is twice as fast as before, Group Face Time and augmented reality starting at just $199,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Vice President of Product Marketing.
“The ultra-thin and lightweight design of iPod touch has always made it ideal for enjoying games, music and so much more wherever you go,” Joswiak added.
The new iPod touch comes in a 256GB capacity, giving plenty of space to download music for offline listening through Apple Music® or the iTunes Store.
SAP Concur announced the appointment of Mankiran Chowhan as Managing Director of SAP Concur India.
Chowhan will be responsible for driving SAP Concur’s India business strategy and growth. She will lead SAP Concur India in the next phase of the company’s development in the country. She reports directly to Andy Watson, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China.
With a wealth of experience addressing market growth and business development, Chowhan brings more than 17 years of extensive industry knowledge to SAP Concur. Before joining SAP Concur, Chowhan served as Managing Vice President and Country Manager of Sales for Gartner India where she led the business and operations in India. She has also held key sales management positions over the course of her 15-year tenure with the company.
SAP Concur serves 48,000 customers over 150 countries including over 75% of Fortune 100 and 500 companies, and more than 58.1 million end users who book their travel and process expenses worldwide with SAP Concur. According to Global Business Travel Association, India is the seventh largest business travel market in the world and is expected to be one of the fastest growing business travel markets over the next four years.
“The growth potential of India’s business travel market is enormous. We plan to leverage this opportunity by addressing local market needs and helping companies better manage to spend across all categories and sources,” said Watson, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China. “We are pleased to have a leader of Chowhan’s calibre to drive continued momentum for our business and enable our customers in India to be at the forefront of a dynamic business travel landscape.”
“India is an important market for SAP Concur as organizations are undergoing technological shifts and digital transformations, spurred by the Digital India mission,” said Mankiran Chowhan, Managing Director, India, SAP Concur.
A winner of The Economic Times Top 20 Corporate Women Leader 2018 awards, Chowhan has fostered strong partnerships with CXOs across industries. Chowhan holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies.
The board of software company Infosys approved allotting performance- based shares to its techies, linking employee incentives with shareholder value creation.
“The board of directors approved expanded stock ownership programme 2019, linking long-term employee incentives with shareholder value creation,” the IT major said in a statement.
On shareholders’ approval, about five crore shares of Rs.5 face value will be allocated to employees on the basis of their performance. The shares for allotment under the stock ownership plan are equivalent to 1.15 per cent of the company’s total equity shares.
The $11.8 billion company has been a pioneer in rewarding its employees through stock ownership programmes since 1994, including the 2015 incentive compensation plan.
The grants to employees over seven years will be based on performance criteria of relative total shareholder return (TSR) against an industry peer group, relative TSR against domestic and global indices and operating lead performance metrics such as total revenue and digital revenue growth, and operating margins.
“As we have been a pioneer for many firsts in India, the performance- based stock ownership scheme is a milestone as it sets another benchmark in the industry,” Chief Executive Salil Parekh said.
Through the scheme, the firm aims to recognize and reward those techies committed to driving value creation for stakeholders through consistent performance.
“By making employees owners, they get an opportunity to be beneficiaries in the long-term success of the company and realize the results of their work and dedication,” Parekh added. The software major also granted blue-chip shares valued at Rs.4 crore at market price to its Chief Operating Officer UB Pravin Rao as an incentive.
German luxury car maker BMW launched the all-new BMW X5 — the fourth generation of the model in India. The locally produced Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV), unveiled by Sachin Tendulkar, will have two diesel models and one petrol model.
The diesel models are available now at BMW dealerships, whereas the petrol model will be available later in 2019. The diesel models — BMW X5 xDrive30d Sport and BMW X5 xDrive30d xLine — are priced at Rs.72,90,000 and Rs.82,40,000 respectively. The petrol model, BMW X5 xDrive40i M Sport, will be available at Rs.82,40,000.
“All SAV and SAC (Sports Activity Coupe) vehicles combined represent roughly 50 per cent of our portfolio in India, and the X5 is the core model of this segment. It will be very important for us going forward,” Hans-Christian Baertels, President (act.), BMW Group India told Business Line.
He said that the new X5 will have greater leg-room and headroom and that the rear seat will have ample space. Hence it is an “a really grown up car”.
“The new car has improved in every dimension, and also holds basically all of the technical features that we have right now,” he added.
Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s jade hilted dagger, the priceless jewels of the Nizams of Hyderabad, and a string of pearls belonging to Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur are among the 400 royal artefacts auctioned in New York recently.
Organised by global auction house Christie’s and titled “Maharajas and Mughal Magnificence”, the auction for a valuable group of jewels, gemstones and decorative objects spanning over 500 years showcased the illustrious culture of Indian jewelled arts from the Mughal period to the age of the Maharajas.
Among the most prominent objects is a dagger once owned by Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor who commissioned the Taj Mahal. One of the masterpieces of Mughal art, the dagger features scrolling designs inlaid in gold at the top of the blade and an inscription in ‘Nasta’liq’ script with a title the monarch had taken. It is estimated to fetch between $1,500,000 and $2,500,000.
“The collection begins in Mughal India, the most important dynasty that ruled the country, which was famous for its emeralds, diamonds, sapphires, rubies, weapons and objects which are be jewelled beyond belief,” the Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti said.
Also featured are carved Mughal emeralds, jewelled boxes, the famed ‘Arcot II’ diamond, presented to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, by Muhammad Ali Wallajah Nawab of Arcot, and the magnificent ‘Mirror of Paradise’ D colour Internally Flawless Golconda diamond.
A natural pearl and diamond necklace of Rajmata Gayatri Devi, wife of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur, would be on offer as well.
US-based Cloud computing firm, Salesforce, announced the acquisition of leading analytics platform, Tableau Software, for $15.7 billion in an all-stock deal.
The coming together of the world’s top CRM (customer relationship management) platform with leading analytics firm would accelerate Salesforce’s opportunity in the $1.8 trillion digital transformation space, the company said in a statement.
“We are bringing together the world’s No.1 CRM with the No.1 analytics platform. Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce.
“Joining forces with Salesforce will enhance our ability to help people everywhere, see and understand data,” added Adam Selipsky, President and CEO of Tableau.
More than 86,000 organizations around the world, such as Charles Schwab, Verizon, Schneider Electric, Southwest and Netflix, rely on Tableau to help them see and understand data.
With Tableau, Salesforce aims to play a greater role in driving digital transformation, enabling companies to tap into data across their entire business and surface deeper insights to make smarter decisions, drive intelligent, connected customer experiences and accelerate innovation.
The acquisition of Tableau is expected to be completed during Salesforce’s fiscal third quarter ending October 31, 2019.
Nitin Rakesh, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Mphasis, an Information Technology solutions provider specializing in cloud and cognitive services, was named the winner of a Gold Stevie Award for ‘Tech Innovator of the Year – Services’ in The 17th Annual American Business Awards.
The jury of American Business Awards said, “Mphasis has been reignited from grounds up and cloud down with great strategies and efficacious solutions implemented under Nitin’s leadership.” The jury also commended Nitin for reinvigorating Mphasis’ business strategy to lead with cloud and cognitive technologies, implement a new go to market strategy and build an innovation engine fuelled by its future-ready talent, citing recent acquisitions and key partnerships as a major win for Mphasis.
“At Mphasis, we developed a unique approach in providing next-generation solutions and services that are empowering enterprises in the digital age and helping them stay ahead. I am excited to be recognized by American Business Awards and would like to thank the Stevie Awards and the jury for this incredible acknowledgement,” said Nitin Rakesh.
“The nominations submitted to the 2019 American Business Awards were outstanding. They illustrate the continued vibrancy of innovation and high level of achievement across the American economic landscape,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards.
The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.’s premier business awards programme.
Digital payments firm, Paytm, said it enabled seven crore UPI based merchant transactions out of the total 12 crore transactions in the country in May 2019.
The firm has also enabled its 1.2 crore partner merchants so far to accept payments through Paytm BHIM UPI.
“The platform clocked over 70 million (seven crore) of the estimated 120 million (12 crore) UPI-based merchant transactions in May 2019 and has been witnessing a 10% MoM growth in this segment at present. This development has made Paytm a leader in UPI-based merchant payments with around 60% of the market share,” Paytm said in a statement.
Commenting on the development, Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice President, Paytm, said, “We have enabled over 12 million offline merchant partners with Paytm QR which allows them to accept payments through Paytm BHIM UPI as well. Our teams have been continuously educating them about the benefits and convenience of UPI.”
by Orchie Bandyopadhyay
