The document summarizes weekly news from the Indian IT sector from September 6-12, 2010. It discusses Ohio banning offshore outsourcing to India, Indian software companies providing vendor financing to struggling US customers, HP and Bharti exploring cloud services for small/medium businesses in India, and Mahindra Satyam focusing on the aerospace and defense market. It also mentions Wipro may pass increased US visa fees to clients, banks considering alternatives to Blackberry, and India proposing to allow foreign firms to set up new businesses without local joint venture partner approval.

1. Weekly News (6 th Sept – 12 TH Sept 2010)

2. Latest buzz in the Indian IT sector US based Ohio's ban on “offshore outsourcing” of government business; where offshore outsourcing means- practice of hiring an external organization to perform some business functions in a country The country’s $50-billion outsourcing industry has flourished for close to two decades by maintaining the IT systems of US companies at sharply lower costs by writing software application codes in India.

3. Contd. Moreover Indian software companies such as Infosys Technologies and Wipro are entering the unfamiliar area of vendor financing, at the urging of cash-strapped US customers; where vendor financing means-A loan from one company to another which is used to buy goods from the company providing the loan. In this way, the vendor increases sales, earns interest, and may sometimes also acquire an interest in the customer.

4. HP, Bharti in talks to offer cloud services for SMBs Hewlett-Packard India (HP) is in advanced stages of negotiations with Bharti Enterprises to offer cloud services aimed at small and medium businesses (SMB) in tier II and III cities. Cloud computing refers to a pay-per-use model, where applications and software are accessed over internet and not owned by users. It has three parts: Software as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as-a-service (IaaS).

5. Mahindra Satyam plans to focus on aerospace and defense market Mahindra Satyam is planning to en-cash the booming aerospace and defense markets by building on existing relationships and enter into new partnerships. The company has been currently working with five of the top eight global aerospace and defense organizations and provides them with end-to-end product engineering capability for both civil and military sectors.

6. Wipro may pass visa fee hike costs to clients The country’s third largest software exporter Wipro may increase the billing rates of clients to mitigate the extra cost arising due to the hike in visa fee by the US government. US border security bill, which lead to a hike in visa fees, will have moderate impact in the current fiscal on the IT firm. The border security bill, increased the visa fee to be about $4,500 per visa from $2,500 currently . The bill aims to raise about $600 million by increasing fee for H-1 B and L-1 visas.

7. Banks mull Blackberry options for corporate email JPMorgan Chase & Co and UBS are considering allowing employees to access corporate email using Apple i Phones or other alternatives to their standard-issue Research in Motion Blackberry. A switch by these banks would be a further blow for Canada's RIM, whose shares have slumped recently after certain countries have threatened to ban the Blackberry whose design does not allow them to monitor phone traffic.

8. Government wants to give FDI a push In a move aimed at speeding up FDI flow, the government proposed to allow foreign firms to bring in new technology and set up new independent business without clearance from their existing local joint venture partners. A foreign player with a joint venture, set up before January 12, 2005, now faces several barriers if it wants to set up a new business without approval of the domestic partner.

9. Contd. The barriers include Fresh approvals from the government A no-objection certificate from the Indian partner in the joint venture Alternatively, it has suggested that the stipulation of the no-objection certificate from the domestic partner should not be applicable to joint ventures that have been in existence for 10 years. India received $25.8 billion FDI in 2009-10. After a pickup in the first two months of the ongoing fiscal, the inflows have slowed down for June and July.