Month: October 2009

Binge Tanning Behind Malignant Melanoma in the UK

Posted by admin – October 31, 2009

Every habit that becomes an addiction is alarming, whether it is bad in itself or not. So is the case with tanning. Malignant MelanomaRecently, it has been founded that binge tanning has become one of the major reasons behind a lethal kind of skin cancer “Malignant Melanoma” in the UK. This report has been provided by a leading cancer charity of England; Cancer Research UK.

Number of people diagnosed with malignant melanoma has gone to dangerously high limits. According to the figures released by Cancer Research UK the diagnosed people in the UK are 10,400. This is an all time high figure.

According to experts, this is a serious situation that must be taken care of. They think that binge tanning is the most important reason behind malignant melanoma, either people do it at their home town or when they go on vacations.

Sara Hiom who is the director of Cancer Research UK told the press that this figure is highly alarming. According to the scientists at Cancer Research UK, the figures for diagnosed people with this lethal cancer will reach 15,500 by the year 2024 that will make malignant melanoma the fourth biggest killing cancer for all ages.

Since 1970s, the rates of malignant melanoma in the UK have raised significantly in terms of cases per 100,000 of population; from 3.4 per 100,000 in 1977 to 14.7 per 100,000 in 2006.

Women are being diagnosed more than males, whereas men are more likely to die with this killer cancer than women. Hiom said, “But, crucially, if people are careful not to redden or burn, especially if they have fair, freckly or moley skin then most cases of malignant melanoma could be prevented.”

Wipro accepts WB govt offer of land

Posted by admin – October 31, 2009

Wipro Technologies has accepted the West Bengal government’s offer of 45-50 acres at New Town in Rajarhat, but wants to pay less.

The state’s information technology minister, Debesh Das, said: “We showed Wipro officials in Kolkata on Friday the 50 acres identified for them. The land is owned by Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation and we are currently offering it at Rs 1.5 crore per acre. Wipro has asked a concessional rate from us.” New Town in on the north-eastern fringes of Kolkata.

“We have identified 45-50 acres for Infosys also in New Town, but the company has not communicated to us about their urgency,” Das added.

Obama’s healthcare plan to benefit Indian IT players

Posted by admin – October 31, 2009

The chances that US President Obama will achieve a near-universal healthcare system have dramatically improved after a lone Republican, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, prepared to vote with Democrats for a compromise proposal. This gives Obama a much better chance of achieving the 60 votes he needs to pass a Bill in the Senate.

The plan, which proposes to create Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for all Americans by 2014 with an investment of $20 billion, can open up new vistas of opportunities for Indian IT services firms including Infosys, Wipro, TCS and MindTree in areas of EHR implementations, upgrade, integration and interoperability-related works.

“Obama’s stimulus plan proposes to allocate $150 billion to healthcare. Of this, nearly $20 billion is proposed for healthcare IT alone, most of which is expected to be spent on Electronic Health Records. This allocation, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is opening up the healthcare IT market like never before. It is bringing in a host of opportunities for EHR vendors, healthcare IT service providers and hospital systems,” says Rajiv Shah, Senior Vice-President, Healthcare Services SBU (strategic business unit), Wipro Technologies.

Other than the EHR implementation and upgrade, he says the proposed Act has brought new opportunities for service providers to engage more closely with EHR vendors, which can open up more strategic partnerships and alliances.

“The Obama administration’s healthcare plan will benefit not just Infosys but also many other Indian IT services companies. We see this as an area of significant opportunity for the future, and that is an area where we are investing now. IT will play a significant role in bringing down the healthcare costs as proposed under the plan,” agrees S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD of Infosys Technologies.

If the American Recovery and Reinvestment plan as proposed by Obama goes live, it will help hospitals maintain a digital record of the patients. If a patient decides to change his/her healthcare provider, the hospital can easily share the EHR with the next healthcare provider, thus ensuring portability for the EHRs.

The IT vendors will have to play a huge role in ensuring the EHR created by one provider is compatible with the IT systems used by another, in the absence of which there can be a loss of information. “Due to these fears, the patients might be restricted with regard to his choice for the right care. We are in a position to help build software to access the central database for doctors and hospitals,” said Sridhar Perepa, GM, R&D, MindTree.

Traditionally, the healthcare industry was quite slow in adopting technology, a bottleneck in integrating various healthcare systems. However, defying the recent recessionary markets, the healthcare sector has remained quite steady in terms of investment, which has kept alive the hopes of most IT services firms with a little focus on the sector.

Says Gopalakrishnan: “All developed countries have a population that is aging. As the population ages, healthcare becomes very, very important — both preventive and curative.”

The healthcare industry in most developed countries has been notoriously expensive, an offshoot of lower investment on technology, which is expected to force healthcare providers to increase their investment in IT.

“The healthcare industry has been very slow in adopting technology, globally. The databases are not integrated, the pharmacy does not talk to the physician — it’s not integrated. There is a lot that needs to be done through automation and that’s what US is planning — integrating all these things and creating a next generation technology-driven healthcare system,” opines Gopalakrishnan.

The US presently suffers from a high-cost delivery healthcare model arising from high medico-legal compliance cost. The US patient is paying for treatment based on process inputs, rather than outputs linked to benefits received. Analysts feel the Obama administration’s first priority will be to remove inefficiencies in the medicare delivery process, thereby reducing the cost of delivery. However, this may not directly benefit the Indian IT services providers, but opportunities will gradually trickle down in the form of long-term partnerships with the US healthcare industry.

“As the US healthcare system is generally well supported by tested technology platforms, the Obama plan on healthcare is, by itself, not likely to create significant new opportunities for the Indian IT industry in the normal course. However, if Indian technology players can build new solutions to assist the US healthcare industry to prevent leakages, improve efficiency, reduce the cost and wastage, and transform the core process of delivery, then they have a significant opportunity,” said Pradip Kanakia, Head of Markets and Healthcare Services, KPMG in India.

Even IT services providers have started to realise this. The renewed focus on healthcare by the administration is also encouraging other allied IT applications (other than EHR) to take better shape. “We are also working actively on hosted EMR models, remote managed services offerings for the EHR product vendors, interoperability testing, digitisation of medical records, and integration of EHR and PHR, among others,” says Rajiv Shah of Wipro Technologies.

RBI wants exemption from Company Bill provisions

Posted by admin – October 27, 2009

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sought exemption from the provisions of the new Company Bill 2008 following its strong conflict with the Banking Regulation Act 1947. Private banks are governed and regulated by RBI under the Banking Regulation Act even as they are registered as companies under the Companies Act before receiving banking licences from the central bank.

According to sources close to the development, the new Company Bill has not made any specific provisions for banks as was the case in the erstwhile Companies Act 1956. Since it will have serious implications for treatment of bank balance sheets, among other things, RBI has asked for the inclusion of a provision like the Section 616 of the Companies Act 1956. To this effect, it has written a letter to the Ministry of Finance explaining the issue.

Section 616 of the Companies Ac 1956 used to accord special exemption to banking companies from the provisions of the Companies Act, which, however, has been dispensed with in the new Bill.

Among the major items which may get affected without a suitable amendment to the Companies Bill is the preparation of bank balance sheets. Sources said that the new Bill would affect balance sheets as it treats bank deposits on a par with company deposits. While deposits are a significant part of bank balance sheets, it may or may not figure in company balance sheets. Secondly, while companies show deposits as borrowing, for banks, they are only deposits.

A similar discrepancy is observed in case of treatment of off-balance sheet items/contingent liabilities — preference shares and payment of dividend, among others. Sources said these items were treated differently by companies and banks and that the conflict of the two regulations would add to confusion for the lenders and their auditors.

While it is normal for companies to have preference shares, banks usually maintain preference shares in exceptional conditions, and that too with the prior permission of RBI. Derivative items, which are hedging products based on underlying of various financial risks borne by banks — interest rate, exchange rate etc — are quite sizeable for the banks. These appear sometimes as off-balance sheet or on-balance sheet if they are marked to market for losses. “Mark to market”, or MTM, is a method adopted for putting a valuation to the portfolio on a current date at the prevailing market rate. While the gain is notional, the losses are provided for.

Corporate debt restructuring is unique to banks and not to companies, and hence it is a part of the Banking Regulation Act and not the Company Bill. Since there is no provision for CDR in the Company Bill, banks/creditors will only have the option to approach the debt recovery tribunal, which will then decide the mode of restructuring in case of loan defaults. CDR is a mechanism put forth under the guidance of RBI in consultation with various banks to negotiate restructuring of dues of companies in case of defaults.

For the banking sector, another major flaw in the new Bill is the exclusion of government nominees from the category and definition of independent director. While the old companies Act provided for independent director, the definition was as per the clause 49 of listing agreement of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Sources said it would affect not only private sector banks, but also public sector lenders which are not governed by the Companies Act. This was because, even if they had their own statute, the definition of independent director would be applicable to them as well, they explained.

‘Spending on semicon equipment to rise in H2′

Posted by admin – October 26, 2009

The worldwide spending on semiconductor capital equipment will return to the growth path in the second half of 2009 with a 47.3 per cent rise in spending, according to analyst firm Gartner. However, owing to the steep declines in spending in the first half of this year, the market is expected to decline 47.9 per cent, it added.

The report also said that the semiconductor capital equipment spending will rebound in 2010, when revenue forecast is expected to increase 34.3 per cent to touch $30.7 billion. All segments of the market including wafer fab equipment, packaging and assembly equipment and automated test equipment at expected to grow at a healthy space in 2010, the report added.

“Equipment purchases for the remainder of 2009 and the first half of 2010 will be mostly technology buys, as memory companies get ready for copper implementation, and double patterning for critical geometries in the 5x nm and 4x nm generations,” said Dean Freeman, research vice president at Gartner.

According to the report, worldwide wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending is expected to decrease 48.8 per cent in 2009. For 2010, parallelling anticipated growth in capital spending, WFE spending is expected to increase 38.3 per cent. Similarly, the packaging and assembly equipment (PAE) spending which is expected to decline 43.1 per cent in 2009, will bounce back in 2010 with an increase of 40.5 per cent. The recovery for PAE began in the second quarter of this year as the market bounced off its sharp correction in the fourth quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2009, the report added.

“Capacity will begin to ramp in the second half of 2010 as businesses and consumers begin to open up their pocket books to purchase electronic goods, and more consistent semiconductor growth should be occurring worldwide,” added Freeman.

Medical Strides cost yet another life: Death of double transplant patient.

Posted by admin – October 24, 2009

The world’s first transplant was performed in France in 2005 on Isabelle French-DoctorDinoive, a 38- year-old woman who had been mauled by her dog.

Worldwide there had been five face transplants to date, three of them in France, two in United States and one in China, in which one person died after stopping anti-rejection drugs. But it was the first time a transplant of both hands and face has been completed in one go.

The patient a Frenchman in his thirties had reacted well to the anti-rejection treatment after his pioneering operation in April, which followed a 2004 accident in which he suffered severe burns.

Later on in June, the patient developed complications which required follow up surgery on 8th of June. These complications included facial infections and during operation to tackle with these infections the patients suffered from a heart a heart attack and he died.

According to the Surgeon, the cause of death was ‘Cardiac Arrest’, however the biopsies reports were all clear as they showed no rejection nor was any vascular congestion—still the doctors are unable to explain the cardiac arrest as they are still waiting for the post mortem report.

Despite the great advancements made in transplant surgery in the past few years, medical experts say the exercise is still fraught with problems. Powerful drugs must be taken for life to stop immune systems rejecting the new tissue and the human body suffers a lot and some time it even causes death as it happen in this case.

Microsoft Launches Windows 7

Posted by admin – October 23, 2009

Microsoft today launched its new operating system (OS), ‘Windows 7’, with a host of tools for multimedia applications for business and retail customers. The much-awaited Windows 7 promises significant improvement in productivity levels, enhanced security, reduced risk and manageability costs.

Windows 7 is available in six editions, targeted at specific user groups. The estimated retail price of Windows ‘home basic’ edition is Rs 5,899 while the ‘starter edition’ is available only through the OEM channel and not through retail. The Ultimate edition is priced at Rs 11,000. The two primary editions are: Windows 7 Home Premium for home consumers and Windows 7 Professional for small and medium sized businesses. Also available in the line-up are Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic (in Emerging Markets only), Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate.

“The pricing for Windows 7 has reduced in the range of 25-35 per cent over Windows Vista. More than 1,000 enterprises in India are currently deploying Windows 7. It is available at more than 45,000 retailers around the world and in India, all 16 personal computer (PC) manufacturers will bring in more than 100 different products within 30 days from today. A user can save about Rs 500-Rs 800 per desktop in terms of security features and power usage,” said Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman – Microsoft India, while addressing journalists here today.

“With features such as Aero Shake, Peek, Snap, Jump Lists and a redesigned Windows Taskbar, one can do more with photos, music, movies and videos. There are innovative new features like HomeGroup, Play To, Windows Live Movie Maker and Remote Media Streaming in Windows 7. Direct access and location aware printing are the other unique features as we have integrated Windows 7 with the Microsoft Cloud,” he added.

Personal Computer (PC) makers like Dell, HCL Infosystems, Acer and Hewlett Packard have started shipping Windows pre-loaded PCs and notebook computers from today. HP India will retail Windows 7-preloaded PCs at between Rs 27,990 and Rs 90,000, while Acer PCs with Windows 7 OS will be priced between Rs 15,000 and Rs 35,000. “Acer notebooks with the new OS will be priced at Rs 21,000-70,000,” said Chief Sales Officer Harish Kohli.

Net Transaction Shows 10% Monthly growth In Banking Sectors

Posted by admin – October 20, 2009

Banks are witnessing a sharp rise in online transactions as an increasing number of customers log on to the internet to pay their utility bills. Telephone bills, mainly mobile bills, are primarily driving the transactions, followed by insurance premiums and electricity bills.

Online payments and transfer of funds from one bank to another also contributed to a 100 per cent year-on-year growth in online transactions. Online transactions are going up by 10-12 per cent every month, shows data by Billdesk, which facilitates payment of bills over internet.

According to banks, customers are turning to online transactions as these are convenient and save time. However, except for insurance, the size of online bills paid is not very large. Most people using online banking are technologically savvy customers working in multinational companies or BPOs in cities like Bangalore and Gurgaon.

“People making online payments have a busy lifestyle. In most cases, both husband and wife are working and weekends are precious for them. We have around 5,000 bills being paid online every month. One in five customers pays his bill online,” said Rajiv Rai, head, direct channels, private and business clients, Deutsche Bank India.

This year, Deutsche Bank is expecting a 25-40 per cent growth in online payment of utility and insurance bills, compared with 60 per cent growth last year, while the industry may grow 25 per cent. Rai said the growth would come down because customers who wanted to pay online were already paying.

Ramnath Pradeep, executive director, Central Bank of India, said the bank would launch the online bill payment facility in the next 10 days as a large number of its customers were registered for internet banking. He said the facility would bring down the cost for the bank as it would charge a fee from companies (billers) coming on the network.

An average Indian household in cities pays about 50 bills annually. An individual saves about 80 hours in a year by e-billing, with the business growing 200 per cent and its size expected to touch 6.5 million by 2008-09 from the then level of 1.9 million, a survey by Assocham had found last year.

India asks China to stop projects in PoK

Posted by admin – October 15, 2009

India and China continued to tangle for a second straight day with India warning China against engaging in projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), which has been under illegal occupation of Pakistan since 1947.

Reminding China that interference in PoK might affect long-term relations with India, a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesman said China should cease “such activities” forthwith.

The MEA spokesman said Chinese official news agency Xinhua had filed a report quoting the Chinese president as stating that China would continue to engage in projects with Pakistan inside the PoK area. “Pakistan has been in illegal occupation of parts of the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir since 1947. The Chinese side is fully aware of India’s position and our concerns about Chinese activities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. We hope that the Chinese side will take a long-term view of the India-China relations, and cease such activities in areas illegally occupied by Pakistan,” the spokesman said.

This warning comes a day after China criticised the recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the grounds that he had no business campaigning for Indian elections in an area which is disputed. India is paying Beijing back in the same coin, making observations about its “all-weather friend” Pakistan.

Although Bhutan has no diplomatic relations with China, it is a matter of time before it offers its opinion on China’s territorial engagements. Bhutan is one of India’s closest allies in South Asia and has an ongoing border dispute with China. It is another country with whom China has had territorial conflict that is yet to be resolved. China has had 23 territorial conflicts with other states, but has used force in only a few, while in 17 of these conflicts it has compromised or offered concessions.

Meanwhile, Home Minister P Chidambaram made it clear to China from Srinagar that India would issue employment visas only to its highly skilled workers and that it has decided against giving business visas.

“Chinese workers can come to India only on employment visa, no more on business visas,” he told a press conference in Srinagar. “We are going to issue employment visas only to highly skilled workers and it does not apply only to Chinese workers, but to other countries as well. We are not going to issue any visas to unskilled and semi-skilled workers as we have plenty of them in India,” the home minister added.

Exports drop 14% in Sept, lowest in FY10

Posted by admin – October 13, 2009

In September, export figures stood at $13.6 billion, against $15.8 billion the same month last year. However, the rate of decline had been arrested since June. Exports fell 28.4 per cent and 19.5 per cent in July and August, respectively, after recording the steepest decline of 39 per cent in May.

During the April-September period, exports declined by 28.5 per cent to $77.9 billion, from $108.9 billion in the first half of the last fiscal.

“This is clearly a validation of green shoots … It is difficult to predict a precise timeline for export growth to transit to a positive phase, though it is expected that it will be towards the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth quarter of the current fiscal,” Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters here today.

He said exports were likely to touch $165-175 billion during 2009-10 if the current trend continues. The country had exported goods worth more than $168 billion during 2008-09.

Exports have gradually moved into the positive zone in the July-September quarter, posting a growth rate of 14.6 per cent, from a fall of 26.6 per cent during the October-December quarter in 2008-09, the sharpest fall so far.

“As far as quarterly growth in the current fiscal is concerned, export performance is definitely turning around. The overall trend in the last three quarters is encouraging,” Khullar added.

Sectors where maximum “glimmers of hope” can be seen are gems and jewellery, engineering goods, petroleum products, readymade garments, drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. However, electronic goods still remain a concern area.

Underscoring the need of continued stimulus to help the sector, Khullar hinted at extending more incentives to the handicrafts sectors, which continues to experience a drastic fall due to sluggish demand in the traditional markets of the US, EU and Japan.

Khullar also said newer markets such as New Zealand and Australia were playing the cushioning role, especially for textile exporters.

According to A Sakthivel, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, “turnaround is definitely round the corner and positive growth is expected by the later half of the financial year. However, the stimulus should continue for some time though.”