I cannot help but think there will be a specific type of individual that will purchase this, without offering up any stereotype’s I am sure you can think of at least one.

While this looks like nothing more than a severed cable, its actually a 2GB flash drive, and its certainly one that will not get stolen that quickly. My biggest concern would be leaving this laying around on the table and having my wife coming in the room and tossing it in the trash can thinking it was junk.

One thing I can say without hesitation is that using this memory cable in public with some of the high-end notebooks that are currently on the market is going to make you look simply crazy.

-Rahul

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Recently people have been noticing that the Google favicon, the small icon in your browser’s address bar when you visit a Google site, has changed from the familiar upper-case G to a lower-case one. Google has not changed this design in over eight years, so the change caused speculation that more design changes might be afoot. Well, it turns out that the new Favicon is part of a new family of icons Google has designed for use in different situations, from its logo to the browser favicon to mobile applications. Marissa Mayer explains on the Google Blog:

The reason is that we wanted to develop a set of icons that would scale better to some new platforms like the iPhone and other mobile devices. So the new favicon is one of those, but we’ve also developed a group of logo-based icons that all hang together as a unified set. 

Above are some of the different candidates out of the hundreds that Google tried out. And below are the current five. I’m just glad Google didn’t go with the rainbow theme. It would have been way too unicorn. The favicon could still change and Google is looking for feedback as the design process keeps on evolving. Maybe it should try a crowdsourcing approach/contest to coming up with the new icon, and allow people to actually submit their own entries.

India's household drink Lassi has outscored other exotic drinks in a unique entrepreneurship competition held in Europe. 'Lassi' was named the best beverage drink at the "Know Europe-2008" entrepreneurship programme in which a 20-year-old student from Chandigarh, Taman Raj Singh, represented India.

The month-long programme, organised under the aegis of Normandy Business School of France, aimed at assessing the entrepreneurship acumen of business school students around the world. The invitees were asked to give marketing presentation of beverages famous in their countries and Taman chose the traditional Punjabi drink. His presentation was a mix of tradition and modernity - the age-old lassi in Verka's tetra packs. It impressed the judges immensely and got a high grading of 90 per cent. And the reason why none other beverage matched lassi was its unique qualities - a mix of simplicity, flavour and health.

"It was not very difficult to convince people that lassi, a simple mixture of yogurt and water, was a healthy drink that could be consumed by people of all ages, infants and patients, without hitch. And what's more, it can be had sweet, salt, spicy or even plain," Taman said.

Lassi outscored exotic wines, fancy coffees - lattes and cappuccino in the competition that was held last month at four places in Brussels, the Netherlands, France and Spain.

-TL

India's BPO story continues to bring cheer despite the economic slowdown. And Genpact is the leader of the pack in the Indian BPO space.

According to Nasscom, the Indian IT-BPO industry (including domestic market) recorded an overall growth of 28 per cent (currency adjusted), clocking revenues of $52 billion in FY07-08 up from $39.6 billion in FY06-07. The BPO exports are up by 30 per cent (in US dollars), registering revenues of $10.9 billion.

So which are India's top 10 BPO companies? Read on to find out. . .

 

 

1. Genpact

Genpact was born in 1997 as the India-based business process operations for GE Capital. In 2005, with equity investments from General Atlantic and Oak Hill Capital Partners, it became an independent company and was rebranded Genpact. It is India's No. 1 BPO firm.

Genpact manages business for companies around the world with a network of more than 30 operations centres in nine countries. Genpact offers services in finance and accounting, collections and customer service, insurance, supply chain and procurement, analytics, enterprise application and IT infrastructure.

Headed by Pramod Bhasin, the company had a staff strength of over 34,300 employees as on March 31, 2008. Its revenues for the year 2007 stood at $822.7 million.

 

2. WNS Global

WNS Global serves several industries, including travel, insurance, financial services, healthcare, professional services, manufacturing, distribution and retail. Warburg Pincus is the majority shareholder in WNS Global Services.

The Nasdaq-listed company with more than 9,000 professionals was set up in 1996. Neeraj Bhargava is a co-founder of WNS (Holdings) Ltd and group chief executive officer. It posted a quarterly revenue of $116.1 million for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2008, up 4.9 per cent from the corresponding quarter last year. Its revenues stand at $459.9 million, up 30.5 per cent from fiscal 2007.

 

 

 

 

3. IBM Daksh

The five-year old IBM Daksh was created by four profesionals -- Sanjiv Agarwal, Pawan Vaish, MJ Aravind and Venkat Tedanki -- who saw a great opportunity in the business process outsourcing space. With no business model to follow, it was a big challenge to set up the company.

IBM Daksh is known for a good leadership, a focussed vision and an undying passion. In April 2004, IBM Corporation acquired Daksh e-Services to serve as a global hub to manage business processes for clients from across the world.

With 14 service delivery centres in India, IBM Daksh has more than 36 centers around the world. Today IBM Daksh employs more than 20,000 people. Pavan Vaish is the chief executive officer of IBM Daksh Business Process Services. A co-founder of Daksh eServices, he has been with the organisation since January 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide

Aditya Birla Minacs is part of the $24 billion global conglomerate, the Aditya Birla Group. Aditya Birla Minacs was formed when Minacs, Canada's leading BPO company, and TransWorks, the BPO arm of Aditya Birla Group, joined hands to become a leading global business process outsourcing player.

Aditya Birla Minacs clocked revenues to the tune of $392 million (or about Rs 1,575 crore) till March 2008, a 17 per cent rise over the previous year's $335 million. With over 26 years of experience, Aditya Birla Minacs offers BPO solutions for Fortune 500 clients. Minacs has more than 12,000 employees at locations in North America, Europe and Asia.

It serves clients in automotive, banking, financial services, insurance, telecommunications and technology verticals. Dev Bhattacharya is the managing director for Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide Ltd, a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo.

 

 

 

 

 

5. TCS BPO

TCS BPO is one of the leader players in the outsourcing industry. It offers services in areas such as finance and accounting, banking, HR outsourcing, KPO, insurance, payroll, healthcare, telecom, media, travel and entertainment.

TCS operates from more than 41 countries and has more than 155 offices across the globe. Its head office in India is located in Bangalore. It has branches in Mumbai, Gurgaon, Goa, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow and many other places in India.

While Tata Consultancy Services is India's top software company, TCS BPO established a stronghold in the BPO space. The TCS group posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,290.61 crore (Rs 12.90 billion) for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008, an increase of 7.3 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

 

 

 

 

6. Wipro BPO

Wipro BPO has carved a unique position in the outsourcing industry. In 2002, Wipro took a quantum jump in the BPO services by acquiring the then Spectramind. Wipro BPO Solutions, complements the services offered by Wipro Technologies, making it one of the largest BPO service players.

The company with over 19,000 people, operating out of 9 different locations (India and Eastern Europe) serves clients across the globe. Wipro BPO clientele spans across banking and capital markets, insurance, travel and hospitality, hi-tech manufacturing, telecom and healthcare sectors. T K Kurien heads Wipro's BPO operations.The IT services revenue for Wipro Technologies stood at Rs 4,405 crore(Rs. 44.05 billion), a YoY growth of 39 per cent.

 

 

Call centre employees at work.

 

7. First Source

Firstsource (formerly ICICI Onesource) is a leading global business process management company. Founded in 2001, the company is ranked third in BusinessWeek's 'Hot player' list of offshore outsourcing companies.

The company has 17,000 employees in centres across India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Argentina and the Philippines. Ananda Mukerji is the managing director and chief executive officer. Its revenues for the year ended March 31 2008 stood at Rs 12,988 million, up 53.3 percent compared to the previous year.

 

8. Infosys BPO

Infosys BPO Ltd, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, was set up in April 2002. Today, it is ranked among the leading BPO companies in India by NASSCOM, Dataquest, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, Red Herring, FAO Today and NelsonHall.

Infosys BPO focuses on integrated end-to-end outsourcing through lesser costs. Infosys BPO operates in India, the Czech Republic, China, Philippines, Poland, Bangkok, Mexico and employs about 16,295 people. It closed FY2007-08 with revenues of $250.3 million.

 

 

 

 

9. HCL BPO

HCL BPO, a division of HCL Technologies Limited was established in 2001. With over 13,200 professionals operating out of India and Northern Ireland, HCL BPO runs fourteen delivery centres across India, UK and Malaysia.

The company has reported revenues to the tune of $220.9 million. HCL BPO also offers multilingual support in eight European languages and eight Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections (APAC) languages. HCL BPO's focuses on sectors like telecom, retail, banking and financial services, insurance, hi-tech & manufacturing, and media, publishing and entertainment. Shiv Nadar is the founder, chairman and chief strategy officer of HCL Technologies.

 

 

 

 

10. EXL Service Holdings

EXL Service Holdings came into existence in April 1999 in Delaware, US. It was founded by a group of professionals including Vikram Talwar (now executive chairman) and Rohit Kapoor, who is now the CEO. Vikram was then the CEO and managing director of Ernst & Young, and Rohit managed international investments for clients at Deutsche Bank.

In August 2001, Conseco acquired EXL and operated as its wholly owned subsidiary. Later, in November 2002, Oak Hill Capital Partners L.P. and FTVentures along with members of the senior management team bought EXL from Conseco making it a third party pure-play business process outsourcing service provider.

The company has seen a fast-paced growth with 50 clients and a staff strength of 8,200 employees. Revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2008 were $50.9 million compared to $39.9 million in the quarter ended March 31, 2007, an increase of 27.8 per cent.

So, you thought inflation in India was a problem? Look at this amazing story of Zimbabwe..

 

A street vendor holds a recently issued Zimbabwe $250-million note in the capital Harare May 10, 2008. The Zimbabwe's central bank released the new Z$100-million and Z$250-million notes this week in its latest attempt to ease the effects of hyperinflation. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo (ZIMBABWE)

 

 

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe attends a U.N. crisis summit on rising food prices at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome June 3, 2008. World leaders opened a conference on the global food crisis on Tuesday with the World Bank and humanitarian agencies demanding action to curb soaring prices that could push up to 100 million people into hunger. REUTERS/Alessandro Di Meo/Pool (ITALY)

 

 

A man shops inside a clothing shop in central Harare May 13, 2008. Traders in Zimbabwe--which has the highest inflation rate in the world above 165,000 percent, are now selling clothes in millions and billions of Zimbabwe dollars. The Zimbabwe dollar, which had been officially pegged at 30,000 to the United States dollar before the rules were changed, traded at an average Z$165 million to the greenback. The interbank exchange rate was significantly lower than black market rates, which hovered around Z$130 million to the United States dollar. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo (ZIMBABWE)

 

 

Emily Moyo buys tomatoes at a market in the capital Harare March 21, 2008. Her husband Tendai is a school teacher earning 500 million Zimbabwe dollars a month. Tomatoes at this stall are normally sold at 3 million dollars for three. Zimbabwe is suffering an economic meltdown with inflation officially pegged at over 100,000 per cent per annum. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo (ZIMBABWE)