by Sriram Vadlamani 
The wall is cracking. I am not talking about Berlin Wall (that would be nostalgic) though, and I am not talking about Rahul Dravid either. I am referring to the famous Wall Street (Dalal street equivalent of USA). A 158 year old company files chapter 11 bankruptcy in USA. Another company Merrill Lynch merges with Bank of America in a hurry. AIG insurance major asks for help and the US Federal Reserve bails it out. Henry Paulson thinks the world is seeing the worst economy since 1929. All these are a series of unfortunate events happened in the span of 3 weeks. All these companies are dream companies for many B school students.
Lehman Brothers has filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy and left the whole world in despair. Federal Reserve has bailed out almost all the bankrupt companies (Bear Sterns, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and AIG) this year but, will not bail Lehman out. I cannot figure out why. It has definitely sent a shiver down my spine. I am not sure what the heck is happening to USA anymore. If it is 1989 I would not worry about it. But its 2008 and we live in a flat world.
All the major countries are plugged in and they feel the ripple affect. It could be a Tsunami too -1200 employees in Mumbai’s Lehman’s office are stranded. They were asked to leave by the end of September. Indian head hunters are already scouting for them and might hire them at a bargain (at least 30% lower than what they get).
The employees are hoping that either Wipro or Barclay’s will buy them out. Lehman’s employees who are famous for their expensive lifestyle are suddenly jobless.Most Indian IT companies came out and said that the impact of this crisis is minimal. HCL which derives 28% of its revenues from financial services says this crisis will not affect Indian IT.
September 17, 2008 Continue Reading → by Arun Prabhudesai Couple of months back, most of the mobile companies slashed their local and STD rates by as much as 40%, making STD calls rates at 1.50 paise per minute. India already has the cheapest call rates worldwide and I did not expect the rates to come down further, be it mobile or landline.
However, to everybody’s surprise TRAI has now decided to allow internet calls to be terminated on fixed and mobile networks and vice-versa, that will drastically bring down the call rates, especially International calls.
Just to give you the perspective of call rates in future – Expect calling your friend abroad for just Rupee 1 to 2 per minute nearly fraction of Rs. 7 per minute charged currently. STD call rates could come as low as 30 to 50 paise per minute… Imagine that ! You can Imagine what your local call charges would be !
Huge congratulations to TRAI for making such a move. It is one of the best move that will take Indian ICT to new levels !
The telecom regulator has thrown open the voice market to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), ushering in the promise of between 40% and 80% lower voice tariffs. With this, TRAI has — in a single stroke — destroyed some of the last regulatory barriers to advanced and cheaper technology.
And with ISPs set to hammer rates down to a new low, mobile service providers will be left with little choice but to follow suit.
August 19, 2008 Continue Reading → 
