The Four Soft board has decided to sell its IT solutions business and its stake in all its foreign subsidiaries to the UK-based Kewill group for a consideration of $43.4 million.
“The transaction for the business is valued at $22.5 million and investments in the share capital of foreign subsidiaries are valued at $20.9 million, making a total deal value of $43.4 million. The deal is expected to close in 90 days, subject to statutory approval and closing processes,” the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on Saturday.
The Hyderabad-based company, promoted by Palem Srikanth Reddy, provides IT solutions to logistics and transportation industries.
The board, which met here on Saturday, considered the ‘slump sale’ after discussing Transport, I.T. Solutions Private Ltd (a Kewill group company) proposal to acquire the business. The proposal also included purchase of stake in the company’s foreign arms.
The promoter will adhere to a five-year non-compete and non-solicit agreement with the acquirer. Srikanth Reddy, who is also the Chairman and Managing Director, told Business Line that the company could tap opportunities in testing services, big data analytics, as also media and entertainment industries.
For the quarter ended June 30, the company registered a turnover of Rs 30 crore against Rs 32 crore in the same period last year. It made a net profit of Rs 4 crore (Rs 2.76 crore). For the full year 2012-13, the company made a net profit of Rs 11 crore on a turnover of Rs 132 crore.
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Industry> Info-Tech / by K. V. Kurmanath kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in / Hyderabad – August 10th, 2013
The corporate cycling competition will be held on August 15 at the Gachibowli stadium and is being organised by The Atlanta Foundation (TAF), a not-for-profit organisation.
By the end of this year, health conscious Hyderabadis will have one more reason to smile. A 30-km long cycle track, being laid in Cyberabad by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (APIIC) and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), will be completed by this year-end.
APIIC managing director Jayesh Ranjan, speaking at the launch of the fifth Freedom Ride-2013, a corporate cycling competition here Friday, said 10 cycle stations will be built and employees working in the area can pick up a cycle from one of them to commute to their place of work for a fixed amount every month.
The corporate cycling competition will be held on August 15 at the Gachibowli stadium and is being organised by The Atlanta Foundation (TAF), a not-for-profit organisation.
Jayesh Ranjan said the event, supported by the APIIC, is intended to encourage cycling among people. The organisers announced that participants have to cycle 66 km to celebrate India’s 66th Independence Day.
Deenanath Harapanahalli, founder of TAF, said a part of the money collected through registration fee for the competition will be used to provide education to underprivileged students through educational programs conducted at four government schools adopted by TAF.
Donations generated through the competition will be collected by TAF’s charity partner ‘United Way of Hyderabad’ which will be used to fund activities in rainbow schools.
Close to 5,300 people have already registered for the competition. Those interested can register till August 13 by paying `1250. The freedom ride will be flagged off at 7 a.m. on August 15.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service – Hyderabad / August 10th, 2013
Gone are the days of raised compound walls embedded with glass splinters jutting over them as a means of safety from burglars. Solar fences which are the preferred choice of security for institutions and sites of historical or archaeological prominence, are of late gaining prominence among owners of individual houses and apartment complexes.
More than 700 families, including those staying in apartments at Somajiguda, Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Gachibowli, Madhapur and Medchal areas in Hyderabad have installed solar fences to protect their premises from thieves. Those residing in gated communities in Medchal, Rajendranagar and Gachibowli also have gone the solar way.
“I faced a harrowing time when unknown persons entered my house by scaling the compound wall and stole pump-sets, drainage covers and water faucets. I have now overcome the problem by installing solar fencing around my house,” said Srinivas, a 40-year-old State government employee from Medchal.
Like Srinivas, many residents, who are staying on the suburbs, have begun to protect their homes with solar fencing to prevent burglars from entering their houses. With increase in thefts in cities and suburbs, most home owners are evincing interest in fortifying their compound walls with solar fencing. The management committees of several religious places are also coming forward to put up the fencing.
Companies dealing with installation of fencing say perimeter security is the present day’s need. Solar fencing is the modern day’s alternative to the conventional type of perimeter protection. These are active fences and punish the intruder the moment he touches or tries to tamper with it. Conventional fences are only passive types and cannot resist the intruder if he tries to enter forcibly.
Solar fences ward off thieves by giving a sharp, short but a safe shock and create psychological fear. The alarm incorporated in the system goes off when the fence is tampered with and alerts inmates, explains Excel Security Systems proprietor Sameer Hussain.
He says solar security fencing delays, denies and detects the entry of intruder and reduces the expenditure on security guards even while providing quantifiable enhancement in security. It would also provide 24X7 protection without delays or inconvenience to occupants in the building.
According to Hussian, the facility is scientific and works on solar energy with backup facility to run uninterruptedly during night as well as cloudy days. The whole system can be divided into two segments, namely the central control unit or solar power generating system with SMSS500 unit and the actual fence.
The solar photovoltaic module converts sunshine into electrical energy and sends them to the SMSS500 unit through a backup battery. The SMSS500 unit takes 12V supply as input and energizes it into high volt pulses in the range of about 7,000 Volts.
These pulses will travel through fencing wires at regular intervals of 1.2 seconds and the duration of each pulse will be 3 million seconds.
The fence part is a scientific layout in which multi-strands at four inches gap will run through the insulators, which are pre-welded and pre-fabricated to MS posts. The height of the fence above the ground/compound wall will be as per the requirement of site conditions. The posts are arranged at 10 feet gap with perfect support to the corner poles. Super earth kits, a composite mixture of different minerals, helps the fence to have a perfect earthing system as solar fencing requires good earthing for effective working.
There is a provision for restricting the intrusion through the gate as well as over the gate. The spring loaded barricades arranged to the gate will electrify the gate and activates the alarm when somebody tries to open the gate forcibly. Pulses travel through the springs arranged on the gate and give out shock to trespassers.
According to Hussain, the burglar alarm in the server room gets activated automatically when someone tries to intrude, even while serving the intruder a sharp, short and painful shock.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Habitat> Design / by M. Srinivas / Hyderabad – August 09th, 2013
In addition, this year there will be small group sessions to allow more direct interaction with internationally renowned faculty from both India as well as abroad.
Hyderabad :
A major three-day global event in heart diseases will be held at the HICC beginning on Friday. The Facts Foundation, India in partnership with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, US is hosting the premier Interventional experience – ACVS (Advanced Cardiovascular Solutions) India 2013.
Over 1,700 delegates from India and abroad will be taking part said Guru N. Reddy, Founder and Chairman, Continental Hospitals and A. Sreenivas Kumar & Susheel Kumar Kodali, programme directors of the event. More than 200 faculty members will also participate. The conference will have live demo of complex, new procedures and technologies, transmitted from local, national and international sites with all academic institutes of excellence within India being represented.
Martin B. Leon along with other CRF & Columbia colleagues, will participate in the meeting. In addition, this year there will be small group sessions to allow more direct interaction with internationally renowned faculty from both India as well as abroad.
The workshops will also be coordinated by Horst Sievert from Germany, considered to be one of the pioneers in the field of cardiovascular sciences, a press release said.
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News> National / by The Hindu Bureau / Hyderabad – August 08th, 2013
Dr S Venugopal Rao, associate professor, Advanced Centre for Research in High Energy Materials (ACRHEM), University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been elevated as a senior grade member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). IEEE is a professional association headquartered in New York city that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence.
Speaking about his achievement, Venugopal Rao said, “Becoming a senior grade member gives me an opportunity to interact with IEEE fellows and co-senior grade members”. He added, “Now I feel more responsible towards my research and teaching”. Venugopal Rao is part of ACRHEM’s defence funded project where laser is used to study certain particles.
Explaining the selection process as a senior grade member of IEEE, Venugopal said, “A person has to be a member of IEEE for 5 years, prove their research work and three senior members of IEEE need to nominate him as a senior grade member after which a panel comprising of senior professors go through the nominated person’s achievements and work and take a decision”. Venugopal Rao has also won the Nasi-Scopus young scientist award for the year of 2012 in Physics category.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service – Hyderabad / August 03rd, 2013
The off-site real-time urban governance monitoring system uses the ubiquitous cellphone as a major component.
Hyderabad :
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) claims to be the first to use a real-time urban governance monitoring system at any level of government to attend to citizens’ complaints and increase the efficiency of civic services.
The off-site real-time (OSRT) monitoring system uses the ubiquitous cell phone as a major component. GPRS technology allows cellphones to capture real-time images of public servants at work or public sites under inspection, with the date, time and location of the picture. These images are instantly transmitted to a central server and are available in the public domain.
Garbage collection, for instance, which is outsourced to private contractors can be easily monitored using this system. The private contractor collects the garbage and brings it to dumper bins from where it is taken to transfer stations. The corporation takes over from here and transfers the waste to the main dump yards.
Around 4,000 bins have to be cleared; 16,000 workers are employed for this work. But there was no way of ascertaining whether the bins were cleared regularly or whether workers reported regularly for work.
With the introduction of the OSRT system, the supervisor uses his cell phone to take a picture when the workers show up for work, and uploads it on the GHMC server. The state of the bins can be similarly verified.
The GHMC estimates that dumper bin lifting for transport to transfer stations has increased from 76 per cent to 98 per cent and that worker attendance has gone up from 85 per cent to 95 per cent.
Citizens can also make complaints and get the outcome using their cell phones. The complaint is text-messaged in by the citizen. It goes to the concerned ward officer and corporator. Once the fault is rectified, the status is uploaded and the report posted online. A message is sent to the complainant and the corporator. All complaints have to be attended to within 48 hours or the concerned official is fined.
Compliance with building permissions — a hotbed of corruption — can also be better monitored. Real-time images are taken every 15 days at various stages of construction to check whether the builder is sticking to the sanctioned building plan.
Illegalities can thus be clearly detected, though commensurate punishment remains in fallible human hands.
source: http://www.postnoon.com /PostNoon / Home> City / August 01st, 2013
With the sun finally setting on the longdrawn T-uncertainty, Brand Hyderabad is set to shine once more and brighter at that.
Industry experts feel that the decision to divide Andhra Pradesh will put Hyderabad firmly back in the saddle as a global IT/ITeS hub, as it was primarily the political uncertainty that had helped Bangalore and Chennai cash in on Hyderabad’s T-woes in the past four years rather than any actual limitations of Hyderabad.
The overwhelming feeling is that the division will finally lure back investors, who were having second thoughts and Hyderabad, which has always been the crown jewel of Andhra Pradesh (accounting as it does for 55% of the state’s total Rs 70,000 crore revenue on the back of the IT/ ITeS sector), will continue to dazzle as a services hub.
The city is home to over 1,300 global IT& ITeS players and accounts for over 90% of the state’s Rs 40,000 crore plus IT/ITeS exports with nearly five lakh jobs.
What has worked for Hyderabad is its excellent infrastructure – be it roads like the outer ring road, or IT parks and SEZs.
The Hitec City-Gachibowli-Manikonda area already boasts of the who’s who of the global IT arena with players like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Infosys, Wipro, Yahoo!, HSBC , Dell, Amazon, among others and none of them will be going anywhere. Once the uncertainty is resolved, they may actually kick off those expansions that many of them had put on hold.
“It will mark the end of tough times for Hyderabad. The city will bounce back, its image stronger and the IT sector too will stage a comeback. After all, Hyderabad’s infrastructure is streets ahead of other cities like Chennai and Bangalore,” says BVR Mohan Reddy, chairman and promoter of homegrown IT giant Infotech Enterprises, pointing out how it takes over two hours to go from one place to other in Bangalore while in Hyderabad the ride from the airport to the city takes just about 45 minutes.
“The secret of Hyderabad’s success has been its superior infrastructure and talent availability. It has good roads, academic institutions, manpower pool, power etc to ensure its continued success as an IT/ITeS hub,” pointed out a top IT honcho.
In the peak of the T-agitation in 2009-10, Nasscom president Som Mittal too had said Hyderabad had nothing to be worried about because as long as it has talent in abundance the industry is here to stay.
IT/ITeS apart, the recent decision of the state government to lift the ban on the expansion of pharma units in and around the city vide a GO too will ensure that the pharma sector, which had started charting expansion plans in coastal Andhra destinations like Vizag, will continue to thrive in the Telangana region.
However, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories chairman GV Prasad feels that despite the recent GO, it may be a tad difficult for players to continue driving major expansions in Hyderabad due to its urban nature.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad> Andhra Pradesh / by Swati Bharadwaj, TNN / July 31st, 2013
Dr. K. Hari Prasad, CEO Apollo Hospitals (central region). — Photo: Satish H. / The Hindu
It might take years to put in place required medical infrastructure in the new AP capital
With the presence of several healthcare institutions, both private and public, Hyderabad has emerged as a major medical hub in the country.
Some of the leading speciality institutions like the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) cater to patients not only from different parts of the country, but also from abroad. Over the years, the top hospitals have not only steadily built the needed infrastructure, but also attracted medical experts in different fields from all over the country.
Once the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh takes place, it might take several years for putting in place the required medical infrastructure in the capital of AP in its new geographical avatar. To overcome this problem, it has been suggested that the government provide incentives, land at subsidised rate and tax holiday for faster growth of high-end healthcare infrastructure in the new capital.
Pointing out that the private sector played a major part in the development of high-end tertiary medical institutions in Hyderabad, CEO of Apollo Hospitals Group (Central Region) Dr. K. Hari Prasad said the private sector would start investing once a new capital is identified.
“What has made a big difference to Hyderabad is the investment made by private sector,” he added.
He said the private sector would look for stability and incentives. For instance, incentives would enable a proposal to establish a 1,000-bed hospital in a year to enhance its strength to 1,500 beds. The investment needed for a high-end hospital would range from Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 1 lakh per bed.
Connectivity
Dr. Hari Prasad said that initially every institution would cater to the local population. Subsequent growth would depend upon road, rail and air connectivity and the reputation of the institution. Healthcare infrastructure would definitely come up in the new capital, but growth after that would be entirely dependent on connectivity.
D. Nageshwar Reddy, chief of Gastroenterology and Therapeutic Endoscopy at the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology in Hyderabad. — Photo: P.V. Sivakumar / The Hindu
Chairman of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, Dr. D. Nageshwar Reddy suggested earmarking a big area of land for developing a medical city in the new capital. He said quick single window clearances, including those to pertaining to environment and pollution, should be given to anybody planning to set up a medical centre.
He said incentives and giving land at a cheaper rate would enable faster development of medical infrastructure.
According to Dr. K. Ravindranath, CMD of Global Hospitals Group, development and growth of medical infrastructure would depend where the new capital would be located. Providing land, incentives and tax benefits would give a fillip to development of healthcare infrastructure as it would take a long time for the hospitals to achieve breakeven.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Y. MallikArjun / Hyderabad – August 01st, 2013
The first heart transplant in the state of a 33-year-old daily wage earner and bread winner of a family, K Ramesh from Medchal who had been suffering from an end-stage heart disease has proved successful, transplant surgeon Dr A Gopalakrishna Gokhale said.
The transplant of a heart from a brain dead person was carried out on Friday at Global Hospitals in the city by a team of cardiologists headed by Dr Gokhale. The transplantation marks a milestone in the hospitals progress and reflects the highest form of co-ordination, Global Hospitals managing director Dr K Ravindranath told reporters here on Friday.
Normally, the heart transplantation operation takes about four hours but in the case of this patient the doctors completed the operation in about three hours, Dr Ravindranath said.
Multi-organ harvesting aid network (MOHAN) Foundation executive director Lalitha Raghuram stood behind in motivating the dear ones of the brain dead for organ transplantation to save another life.
“The recipient’s condition is stable, he will be in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for about three more days,” cardio thoracic and transplant surgeon Dr Gokhale said. Prior to the surgery, many had ruled out his survival for he was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy in which the heart is damaged for reasons unknown. Now, he is taking fluids and has started talking, the doctor said.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad> Transplant Surgeon / TNN / February 08th, 2004
AMD today announced the opening of a new design centre in Hyderabad, featuring lab facilities dedicated to furthering both software and hardware technologies at the heart of AMD’s Accelerated Processing Units (APUs.)
In a ceremony held today, the new design centre was inaugurated by Rory Read, president and chief executive officer at AMD.
“Our Hyderabad Design Centre will play an important part in that mission as the team works in concert with our other design centers around the world to deliver AMD’s next round of innovative products.”
Located at Raheja Mindspace, HITEC City, Madhapur, in the heart of Hyderabad’s technology hub, the new facility features 175,000 square feet of engineering labs, equipment and office space for the hundreds of engineers who work there to deliver System-On-Chips (SOCs) for AMD and its global customers. AMD also has a design centre in Bangalore, as well as sales offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.
source: http://www.cdrinfo.com / CDR Info / Home> News> General Computing / Thursday – August 01st, 2013
