Supervalu comes shopping for IT professionals

Times News Network

Bangalore: Following the likes of Tesco and Target, the $44-billion, US-based grocery retail and pharmacy giant Supervalu is opening a centre in Bangalore to provide IT functions for its US operations.

Supervalu Services India (SSI) is planning to hire 300 people over the next 12-18 months. The investment it has planned is $50 million over the next five years. This is the first time that this retail giant has come out of the US for its IT operations. It has three such centres in the US, employing 1,800 people. Every year, the company spends close to $500 million on IT, operations and support.

Supervalu is a Fortune 50 company with a store network across 2,500 locations, along with in-store pharmacy in 900 locations in the US. Grocery retail and pharmacy services contribute 80% of its revenues, while the rest comes from its supply chain services. It employs 2 lakh people.

According to Paul Singer, chief information officer of Supervalu and chairman of SSI, the Bangalore centre would complement teams in the US in developing IT applications on Java and other emerging technologies. It will specifically help in application development, technical operations, quality assurance and testing to support overall corporate IT functions including the company's retail and supply chain operations.

"In the long term, we are even looking at work on business intelligence (BI) in the retail space to be done from here. The Bangalore facility will also look at providing technical support to over 3,000 grocery stores who are our customers,'' said Singer.

Singer visited India about three years ago as part of retail major Target, where he was looking at hiring 200 people for that company's IT outfit in Bangalore.

However, he managed to convince his Board to hire some 2,000 people. Little wonder then that Supervalu has chosen him to roll out its operations in Bangalore.

Supervalu is already working with top Indian vendors like TCS, Wipro, Satyam and Infosys, and this relationship is expected to continue. "We have over 400 projects for the next year. We will look at how to distribute this between our partners and us,'' added Singer.

• Supervalu Services India (SSI) is planning to hire 300 people over the next 12-18 months
• An amount of $50 million will be invested over the next five years
• Supervalu is a Fortune 50 company with a store network across 2,500 locations, along with in-store pharmacy in 900 locations in the US

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4-in-one device for easy geometry invented by Bangalorean

Rakesh Prakash
10 Dec, 2006 Times News Network
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BANGALORE: It's an instrument set to change the way in which school students solve geometrical problems.

From drawing circles to cutting arc angles, this 'multi-touch' four-in-one (compass, divider, scale and pencil) instrument can help one draw in four to five seconds flat. Its inventor is 20-yearold Bangalore-based student-cum-entrepreneur N Praveen.

The instrument weighs 17 grams as against 40 gms of those available in the market and is touted to be a timesaver for students while writing exams.

"Unlike the traditional compass where one has to fix the pencil to it and take measurements from a scale before drawing geometrical figures, this instrument does everything in one shot. It will make geometrical devices less cumbersome," says Praveen.

The invention has not only been certified by national scientific organisations but also been patented under the title 'Technology method of compass'.

Like other success stories, the invention was also fuelled by necessity and backed by perseverance. "I started working on this compass when I was in the tenth standard and had to answer a lot of theorems. It was then I began thinking of simplifying geometrical instruments. One day I was playing with a scale and it suddenly struck me why I shouldn't start with it," Praveen says.

Four years of labour bore fruit. The youngster is now preparing to market his invention. "So far, I have interacted with over 2,000 students in 25 schools and got their feedback. I have started a production unit in a hired shed at Peenya. It will be launched in January," he says.

Finances for the project did not flow easily. Having lost his parents in a road accident when he was 18 months old, Praveen had to do a lot of coaxing and convincing to get funds. He also disposed of a site that was purchased by his parents in Hiriyur.

Praveen proposes to route the proceeds to Aryabhatta Astronomy Explore and Exhibitors Institute — a centre he started with friends to encourage youngsters pursue research. He also plans to distribute the compass among rural students free of cost. "I don't want to stop with this. I'm interested in astronomy and aerospace technology," he says.

The dark side of IT outsourcing in Bangalore - IT women suffer infertility due to sexual dysfunction

Media Release
Dec 10, 2006

The IT lifestyle has wreaked havoc in Bangalore’s bedrooms. A large number of IT women engage in sex only once in 120-180 days as against alternate days among normal couples. The result: Many of them are suffering from infertility due to sexual dysfunction.

Doctors say that this is common due to psychological implications and hormonal imbalances, which are interrelated, leading to anovulation. Long and irregular hours of work and intake of fast food have led to the change in lifestyle. The other most common factor is non-consummated marriages, leading to absence of sexual activity among IT professionals.

On an average, 20-25 infertility cases are reported in a week across various sexologist clinics in the city. Gynaecologists are of the view that since most of the cases are due to the hectic lifestyle, women can conceive, if they get back to their normal stable lifestyle. But, because these women approach sexologists after 5-10 years, chances are bleak.

Consultant gynaecologist and sexologist Dr Padmini Prasad gets at least 10-15 cases of infertile women on the weekends, and about 5-10 cases on weekdays.

“The long hours of work are intervening normal sexual activities among these professionals. In women, infrequent menstruation and ovulation disturbances are increasing,” she said.

Infosys Technologies to become 1st Indian company on Nasdaq-100

The Associated Press
December 10. 2006

Software maker Infosys Technologies Ltd. was set to become the first Indian company to join an elite Nasdaq grouping when the U.S. stock exchange opens for trading Monday.

The Nasdaq Stock Market is including Infosys among its top 100 companies as part of an annual revision to the Nasdaq-100 index.

In a statement issued Sunday, Infosys - headquartered in the southern Indian city of Bangalore - said its listing on Nasdaq's benchmark index would bring more global visibility to the company, which already is one of India's best known brands abroad.

Other Nasdaq-100 names - chosen mostly on the basis of their market worth - include Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Dell Inc.

Infosys' inclusion follows the company's secondary offering of 30 million American Depository Shares worth $1.6 billion. The offering, which was closed last month, involved the sale of shares held by investors on Indian stock exchanges to investors in the U.S.

About 19 percent of Infosys shares are now traded on Nasdaq.

Infosys, which writes software for companies such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J. C. Penney Corp., was the first Indian firm to be listed on the Nasdaq when it was initially offered in 1999.

Long-haul telecommunications carrier Level 3 Communications Inc. of Broomfield, Colo. and biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., are also joining the index on Monday.

Leaving the index are: JDS Uniphase Corp., a maker of optical telecommunications gear based in San Jose, Calif.; respiratory services provider Lincare Holdings Inc. of Clearwater, Fla.; and retailer Urban Outfitters Inc. of Philadelphia.

Racing buffs ransack Bangalore Turf Club

8 Dec, 2006 Times News Network
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BANGALORE: An angry crowd of over 2,000 railbirds ransacked the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) premises, damaged 23 TV sets, windowpanes and flowerpots worth over Rs 10 lakh on Friday evening, accusing a jockey of indulging in race-fixing.

The trouble started around 5 pm after Hidalgo from trainer Hidayath Khan's yard upset the applecart of the two top fancies — Simply Spectacular and Appoint — in the Bugs Bunny Cup. Immediately, all hell broke loose as angry railbirds hurled stones and soda bottles at the members' enclosure before storming the bookmakers' ring and stalls.

DCP (Central) G B Chebbi said jockey Christopher Alford astride Appoint,which was in command and looked set to win the race, "deliberately" relaxed and, in fact, looked back twice at the trailing horses. "The crowd saw it as race-fixing."

But the BTC chose to ignore the rising anger of the mob, which felt further incensed that the turf club, instead of ordering a probe into the incident, went ahead with awards presentation. "As a result, the crowd went berserk," Chebbi said.

They went on an attacking spree for over 30 minutes — damaging furniture and hurling chairs in the paddock area and weighing room — until the police intervened and brought the situation under control.

Late in the night, BTC directors decided to suspend jockey Alford from Dec 19 to March 31, 2007. An inquiry has been ordered into the last race. The High Grounds police have taken up a case of rioting on a BTC complaint.

FlickrPhoto: vidhana soudha at night

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