Also in this letter:
■ IT companies may go the Infosys way on moonlighting
■ Go digital or go obsolete: Dell’s Whitten to firms
■ Ravi Kumar a key cog in Cognizant’s succession plan: experts
Programming note: There won’t be an edition of ETtech’s Morning Dispatch on October 25 on the occasion of Diwali. The ETtech team wishes you and your family a very Happy Diwali. Stay safe!
ETSA 2022: the nominees for Best on Campus and Social Enterprise
Best on Campus: In this category, we look at startups that were launched while the founders were finishing college. They should have found validation outside the campus from customers or investors, making them stand apart rather than be just another college project.
Nominees:
- ClaimBuddy
- Solinas Integrity
- Sanfe
- Bhanzu
- Vecros
Social Enterprise: With this category, we intend to recognise the startup that best embodies the ‘double bottomline’ model, which combines profits with the public good.
Nominees:
- Chakr Innovation
- Digivriddhi Technologies
- Gramcover Insurance Brokers
- Stellapps Technologies
- Banyan Nation
What the star-studded ETSA jury expects from nominees
A jury led by Salil Parekh, chief executive and managing director of Infosys, will pick the next cohort of winners of The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) on October 28.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani, cofounder of Info Edge, said: “I would look at things like natural traction and scalability, the path to profitability and financial stability, and the ability to raise a follow-on funding round, if needed.”
Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO, Salesforce India, said she will be looking for innovations that are contextual and relevant, keeping in mind the dynamic Indian customer and the ever-evolving market. Read the full story here
IT firms may go the Infy way on moonlighting
Indian IT companies may allow employees to take up “gig work” outside the company with prior approval after Infosys, the country’s second-largest software exporter, said it would allow employees to take up external work. Industry executives and human resource experts told ET that this may be an attempt to stem the tide of attrition and regulate moonlighting in the $227 billion IT outsourcing industry.
Expert speak: Industry analysts estimate that the size of the IT gig workforce may not exceed 5% even if company-wide policies permitting moonlighting are put in place.
“I don’t think the (external gig) policies will bring any major shifts. IT gigs have always been only a fraction of the workforce. It will never cannibalise or transform into a big chunk of the workforce,” said Guruprasad Srinivasan, ED & CEO of staffing firm Quess Corp.
Not in favour: Happiest Minds Technologies, however, has joined the list of companies that oppose dual employment. The firm said that moonlighting is unacceptable as it amounts to a violation of the job contract and that a “few” employees found engaging in the practice have been fired over the last 6-12 months.
Go digital or go obsolete: Dell’s Chuck Whitten to firms
In an exclusive interaction with ET, Dell Technologies’ co-chief operating officer Chuck Whitten said that India is one of the fastest growing geographies for the company globally and it will continue to invest in its business here.
Asked about the demand the company is witnessing in India, Whitten said companies have to figure out how to digitally transform or they will become obsolete.
Quote unquote: “Companies have long been using IT to grow, to transform their cost structures, and to enhance their customer experiences. But now, technology is enabling incredible things inside their businesses. And so, what’s happening is, there’s no longer such a thing as an IT budget anymore — it is the business budget,” he said.
Ravi Kumar a key cog in Cognizant’s succession plan: experts
Ravi Kumar S, Cognizant’s newly appointed president for the Americas, is likely to play a key role in the core succession team at the New Jersey-based software exporter, analysts said. Cognizant said last week that the Infosys veteran would replace interim chief for the Americas Surya Gummadi and oversee business across the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
Bigger things await: Phil Fersht, chief executive and chief analyst at HFS Research, said: “Brian Humphries [CEO] is openly keen to have a strong succession model in place and clearly sees Ravi Kumar as a potential candidate for his role in the future.”
Troubleshooter? Cognizant, of late, has been wracked by concerns over the number of exits from its top deck. Several mid-tier companies, including Mindtree, which had hired Debashis Chatterjee as its CEO from Cognizant, had found their leaders in the software exporter.
“I am impressed that Cognizant was able to attract Ravi Kumar. The team has had challenges with attrition and bringing on high-calibre individuals over the past few years,” said Ray Wang of Constellation Research.
Amazon denies funding North Eastern organisation engaged in religious conversions
Amazon India on Sunday denied allegations on social media that it supported an organisation engaged in religious conversion of poor children in north-eastern India.
The company’s response came after some tweets claimed that a part of customers’ money at Amazon goes as “donation to All India Mission, a missionary evangelical organisation focussed on converting Indian children to Christianity”, triggering angry reaction.
What’s Amazon saying? “Amazon India does not have any relationship with All India Mission or its affiliates nor does the AmazonSmile program operate on the Amazon India marketplace. Where the AmazonSmile program does operate, customers can choose to donate to a charity they prefer from multiple non-profits that register themselves under the program. The AmazonSmile program does not endorse the views of any charity participating in the programme..”, the company said in a statement.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has asked Amazon India head Amit Agarwal to appear before it on November 1 and clarify the reports.
Other Top Stories by Our Reporters
Inside the world of hyper-personalised marketing: While digital marketing has always brought in some degree of personalisation — like being greeted by name when you open an app or getting movie recommendations on streaming platforms based on what you’ve watched in the past — marketers and brands are going further these days, thanks to the vast amounts of data at their disposal. As advanced data analytics, natural language processing and artificial intelligence improve targeted communication, digital marketing is set to become more hyper-personalised. Read the full story here
Cheaper version of Ola’s S1 scooter unveiled: Electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric on Saturday unveiled a new variant of its S1 scooter, the Ola S1 Air, at an introductory price of Rs 79,999. The offer price, which the company said is less than that of conventional scooters, is for those customers who reserve the vehicle on or before Diwali. Find out more about the features and delivery dates here
