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TCS becomes most valued IT company

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Campus. (File Photo: IANS)

TCS has further consolidated its position among the top 3 most valuable brands in the IT services sector, according to Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation firm…reports Asian Lite News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqtDTSRf66o

The brand value of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) grew by $1.4 billion in 2020 over the prior year which is the highest absolute growth among the 25 companies assessed in a pandemic-hit year, a new report said on Tuesday.

TCS has further consolidated its position among the top 3 most valuable brands in the IT services sector, according to Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation firm.

According to the Brand Finance ‘IT Services 25 2021′ report, TCS grew in a challenging year when the brand value of IT services companies collectively dropped by 3 per cent.

At 10 per cent growth over the prior year, TCS has outperformed its peers in the top 3 category.

“With what was a very tough 2020, led so ably by its CEO Rajesh Gopinathan, TCS has excelled itself once again. Along with 10 per cent growth in its brand, its market cap also hit pole position in its industry and it is increasingly closing in on the top two in the IT services sector table,” said David Haigh, CEO, Brand Finance.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Campus. (File Photo: IANS)

“2021 will, undoubtedly, be another great year for TCS and its brand.”

The seamless adaptation to new ways of working and the increased agility engendered by location-agnostic remote working models have led to faster execution on the ground and enhanced customer satisfaction, helping TCS win more business and gain market share, the report mentioned.

“This recognition of our brand strength is a stellar reaffirmation of the continued trust that our customers have placed in us over the years,” said Rajashree R, CMO, TCS.

“We are proud and excited to embark on the next phase of our growth, building on our beliefs, and harnessing the passion, dedication and strength of our 469,000 associates who are the true custodians of Brand TCS”.

TCS was recognised as a ‘Superbrand’ across the US and the UK, based on the strength of its brand reputation across channels, business performance, industry-leading job creation, scale of employee training and development, and dedication to nationwide corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Also read:‘Nothing’ to unveil smart device soon

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Business Tech Lite

‘Nothing’ to unveil smart device soon

The announcement came shortly after a $7 million round in seed financing in December that included tech leaders and investors such as Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman and Josh Buckley….reports Asian Lite News

OnePlus Co-founder Carl Pei on Wednesday launched a new London-based consumer technology company called “Nothing” that will release its first smart devices in the first half of this year.

The announcement came shortly after a $7 million round in seed financing in December that included tech leaders and investors such as Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, Steve Huffman and Josh Buckley.

Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED, has also invested in “Nothing” although the amount has not been disclosed yet.

“It’s been a while since anything interesting happened in tech. It is time for a fresh breeze of change,” said Pei, CEO and founder of ‘Nothing’.

“Nothing’s mission is to remove barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future. We believe that the best technology is beautiful, yet natural and intuitive to use. When sufficiently advanced, it should fade into the background and feel like nothing,” he said in a statement.

The company aims to inspire people to believe in the positive potential of technology, and will set the pace starting in 2021.

“Consumer tech is a tidal wave of limitless potential. Nothing will be the brand at the forefront and I can’t wait for the world to experience its products,” said Casey Neistat, YouTuber and an investor in “Nothing”.

The Swedish tech entrepreneur co-founded OnePlus in 2013 at the age of 24.

After nearly seven years, Pei made the “difficult decision” of leaving the company in October 2020.

Shah has invested in multiple sectors through his career and this investment is in his personal capacity. He founded members-only credit card management and bill payments platform CRED in 2018.

“Shah is one of the sharpest people I know. I am proud and glad to have him as a friend, advisor and now also an investor,

Also read:Dunzo raises Rs 293 cr in funding from Google, Lightbox

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Business

Microsoft profit jumps 17%

Microsoft. (File Photo: IANS)

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $14.6 billion and increased 23 per cent (on-year)…reports Asian Lite News

An impressive growth in its Azure Cloud business in a pandemic-hit year helped Microsoft post a 17 per cent increase in its revenue which reached $43.1 billion, with declaring a net income of $15.5 billion, for the quarter ended December 31, 2020.

Microsoft stock rose as much as 6 per cent in extended trading on Tuesday.

“What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

“Building their own digital capability is the new currency driving every organisation’s resilience and growth. Microsoft is powering this shift with the world’s largest and most comprehensive cloud platform,” he said in a. statement.

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $14.6 billion and increased 23 per cent (on-year).



Server products and cloud services revenue increased 26 per cent driven by Azure revenue growth of 50 per cent, Microsoft informed.

“Accelerating demand for our differentiated offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $16.7 billion, up 34 per cent year over year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and CFO, Microsoft.

“We continue to benefit from our investments in strategic, high-growth areas.”

The company said that the revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $13.4 billion and increased 13 per cent (On-year).

“Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 11 per cent driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 21 per cent.

LinkedIn revenue increased 23 per cent while Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 21 per cent, driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 39 per cent.

Revenue in More Personal Computing was $15.1 billion and increased 14 per cent.

Xbox content and services revenue has increased by 40 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue was up 51 per cent.

Surface laptop revenue increased 3 per cent and Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 2 per cent.

Also read:Dunzo raises Rs 293 cr in funding from Google, Lightbox

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-Top News Business USA

Amazon ready to assist Biden in speed vaccine roll out

In a letter addressed to US President Joe Biden, Amazon has said that its essential workers who cannot work from home should receive the Covid-19 vaccine at the “earliest appropriate” time.

Amazon also said that the company stands ready to assist the Biden administration in reaching the goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of the new administration, GeekWire reported on Wednesday.

“The essential employees working at Amazon fulfilment centres, AWS data centres, and Whole Foods Market stores across the country who cannot work from home should receive the Covid-19 vaccine at the earliest appropriate time,” Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer business, wrote in the letter.

“We will assist them in that effort,” he said.

Amazon, which has over 800,000 employees in the US, earlier faced criticism from former and current employees who had alleged that the safety measures put in place by the company to protect warehouse employees were inadequate.

However, Amazon said that it invested $10 billion to help keep employees safe and deliver products to customers throughout 2020.

Clark, in his letter to Biden, said that Amazon has an agreement in place with a licensed third-party occupational health care provider to administer vaccines on-site at Amazon facilities.

“We are prepared to move quickly once vaccines are available,” he said.

“Additionally, we are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts,” Clark said in the letter.

Also Read-Biden’s first phone call is with Trudeau

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Business

Dunzo raises Rs 293 cr in funding from Google, Lightbox

“This capital stems from a year of robust growth amidst the pandemic,” the company said in a statement…reports Asian Lite News

Homegrown hyperlocal delivery platform Dunzo on Tuesday said it has raised $40 million (approximately Rs 293 crore) in its Series E funding round with participation from new and existing investors, including Google, Lightbox, Evolvence, Hana Financial Investment, LGT Lightstone Aspada, and Alteria, among others.

“This capital stems from a year of robust growth amidst the pandemic,” the company said in a statement.

Dunzo said that in the coming year, the platform will focus on deploying its playbook for sustainable growth across its fastest-growing cities such as Mumbai, Chennai and Pune.

“Dunzo’s mission resonated stronger than ever in 2020. We have been amazed by everything merchants and users have started to depend on the platform for,” Dunzo Digital CEO and Co-founder Kabeer Biswas, said in a statement.

“We truly believe we are writing a playbook for how hyperlocal businesses can be built with sustainable unit economics and capital responsibility.”

Bengaluru-based Dunzo said that with a gross merchandise value (GMV) growth of 2X over the past year, the platform is now about $100 million annualised GMV business.

“As merchants go digital, Dunzo is helping small businesses in their digital transformation journey in support of business recovery,” said Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Google.

Over the past six months, the platform has supported over 300 neighbourhoods across eight cities, and has delivered essential goods to users within 29 minutes.

Dunzo offers a full-stack of services across commerce (consumables, pet supplies, health, and wellness), courier (pick up and drop), and commute (bike taxi).

Also read:Adani group inks concession agreement with AAI for 3 airports

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Business India News

‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ does not mean isolated India, says Prasad

Noting that India has become the second biggest mobile manufacturer in the world, Prasad said that it currently has 268 mobile factories, as against two factories in 2014….reports Asian Lite News

Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said that ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ does not mean an isolated India.

Speaking at the 15th India Digital Summit, organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Minister said: “Atmanirbhar Bharat means India is an active participant in the global economy. This is the crux of the whole PLI scheme. India’s time in the global electronic manufacturing has come.”

He said that India has become a hub for mobile manufacturing and this process is irreversible.

On the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, Prasad said that all the top global companies have applied for it, and committed to make mobile phones and equipment worth Rs 10 lakh crore in the coming five years, of which Rs 7 lakh crore would be for exports.

“India must become the biggest manufacturing centre in laptops, machine-to-machine equipments, tablets etc,” he said.

“I want to develop that ecosystem — from mobile phones to smartphones to laptops to tablets to M2M equipment, to IoT devices — wherein India becomes a huge centre for manufacturing these,” the Minister added.

Noting that India has become the second biggest mobile manufacturer in the world, Prasad said that it currently has 268 mobile factories, as against two factories in 2014.

Talking about Digital India, Prasad said that the initiative was consciously designed to empower the ordinary people and to bridge the digital divide and bring in digital inclusion.

“Inclusion was the hallmark of Digital India. In the last five-and-a-half years, we sent direct benefit transfer to close to Rs 13 lakh crore and saved $24 billion dollars. We disbursed close to Rs 8,000 crore to Aadhaar-enabled payments during COVID-19 and the Postal Department played a crucial role in this,” he added.

Also read:Adani group inks concession agreement with AAI for 3 airports

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Business India News

Adani group inks concession agreement with AAI for 3 airports

In a regulatory filing, the company said that the concession period is 50 years from the commercial operation date….reports Asian Lite News

Adani Enterprises on Tuesday said that it has signed the concession agreement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for operating and developing the Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports.

In a regulatory filing, the company said that the concession period is 50 years from the commercial operation date.

“Adani Jaipur International Airport Limited, Adani Guwahati International Airport and Adani Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, wholly-owned subsidiaries of the company have signed the concession agreement on January 19, 2021 with Airports Authority of India for the operations, management and development of Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram airports respectively,” it said.

The announcement has boosted the shares of the company on Tuesday. At 1.53 p.m., is shares on the BSE were Rs 525.20, higher by Rs 17.95 or 3.54 per cent from its previous close.

Also read:HDFC Bank shares surge on strong Q3 earnings

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Business

HDFC Bank shares surge on strong Q3 earnings

The bank’s net profit for the third quarter of FY21 rose to Rs 8,758.3 crore on a year-on-year basis…reports Asian Lite News

Shares of HDFC Bank surged to a record high on Monday on the back of strong earnings reported for the October-December quarter.

Its shares on the BSE touched an all-time high of Rs 1,503 per share. The bank’s stock price, however, is off highs now, and around 12.20 p.m., the scrip was trading Rs 1,483.40, higher by Rs 17.05 or 1.16 per cent from its previous close.

On Saturday, the lending major reported an 18.1 per cent increase in standalone net profit for the quarter ended December 31 of FY21 on a year-on-year basis.

The bank’s net profit for the third quarter of FY21 rose to Rs 8,758.3 crore on a year-on-year basis.

The bank’s net revenues (net interest income plus other income) grew to Rs 23,760.8 crore during the period under review from Rs 20,842.2 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Also read:Hero Motors buys stake in Hewland Engineering

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Business

BharatPe raises Rs 139 cr debt from Alteria Capital, ICICI Bank

The company raised Rs 90 crore in debt from Alteria Capital and Rs 49 crore from ICICI Bank….reports Asian Lite News

FinTech services company BharatPe on Monday announced that it has raised Rs 139 crore (nearly $20 million) in debt from Alteria Capital and ICICI Bank.

The company raised Rs 90 crore in debt from Alteria Capital and Rs 49 crore from ICICI Bank.

The company has raised a total of Rs 199 crore in debt to date.

“We have committed ourselves to have $700 miilion of loans to small merchants and kirana store owners by March 2023 and are hoping to on-board more institutional debt partners in the near future,” said Ashneer Grover, Co-Founder and CEO, BharatPe.

“We aim to become a digital bank that is the one-stop destination for merchants for all kinds of financial services and this tranche of funds will get things rolling”.

The company is disbursing loans of Rs 200 crore per month to merchant partners currently and has set a target of disbursing Rs 1,000 crore of loans in the FY21.



“We have already disbursed loans to more to 1 lakh merchants and aim to scale this up by 8-10 times and enable credit for a million (10 lakh) kirana store owners in 2021,” said Suhail Sameer, Group President, BharatPe.

Last week, BharatPe announced that it has raised Rs 60 crores in debt from Innoven Capital, Asia’s leading venture debt and specialty lending firm.

Also read:Hero Motors buys stake in Hewland Engineering

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Business

Hero Motors buys stake in Hewland Engineering

Hero Motors, however, has not disclosed the transaction amount involved in the acquisition….reports Asian Lite News

Auto component manufacturer Hero Motors Company (HMC) on Monday announced that it has acquired a strategic stake in UK’s transmission design technology leader Hewland Engineering Ltd.

Hero Motors, however, has not disclosed the transaction amount involved in the acquisition.

“The acquisition will enable Hero Motors to create a competitive single source entity to design and manufacture high quality transmission products, particularly in the emerging EV segment, to OEMs across North America, Europe and India,” it said.

It will also enable Hewland to further strengthen its product and service portfolio, particularly in the area of transmissions for electrified passenger cars, and aggressively pursue opportunities among global OEMs and Tier One suppliers, said the statement.

“This investment represents a significant strategic inflection point for us in the transmission product segment. By combining Hewland’s comprehensive design and analysis capabilities with our ability to support high-volume manufacturing we are strongly positioned to offer full-stream transmission solutions to global OEMs and Tier One suppliers.

We are continuing to invest in the UK, as it is a significant hub for our EV- and cycle-focused activities in particular, as well as for Hewland’s established motorsport customer base,” said Pankaj M Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director at HMC.

William Hewland, Chairman at Hewland Engineering: “This new collaboration with Hero Motors provides a capital infusion that will help us execute our strategic growth initiatives, as well as enhance our capabilities and presence within the EV market.

“In close collaboration with Hero Motors we will be a highly competitive single source for full programme delivery – from transmission design through to high-volume manufacture – for customers across North America, Europe and India.”

Also read:Dungdung’s hat-trick helps India beat Chile