TCS CEO Chandrasekaran just got a 50% salary hike to Rs 15 lakh/month

First Post :PTI :Jun 6, 2013

Subject to approval by shareholders, Tata Consultancy Services has raised the basic pay of its CEO and MD N Chandrasekaran by 50 percent to Rs 15 lkah a month, effective from April 2014. Including benefits and bonuses, TCS CEO was paid around Rs 12 crore in the year to 31 March 2013.

Chandrasekaran, who became chief executive in October 2009, had received a pay hike of about 40 percent to Rs 10 lakh in July 2011 earlier.

In a recent filing to stock exchanges, the software company said, “The Board has revised the maximum limit of salary of N Chandrasekaran from Rs 10 lakh per month to Rs 15 lakh per month, with effect from April 1, 2014, for the remainder of the tenure of his appointment i.E. Up to October 5, 2014, with proportionate increase in the benefits related to his salary.”

Including benefits and bonuses, TCS CEO was paid around Rs 12 crore in the year to 31 March 2013

Taking into consideration increased business activities of TCS and the responsibilities cast on Chandrasekaran, the board has revised the maximum limit of salary, the company added.
The company’s annual general meeting is scheduled for June 28.

During his tenure as the chief executive since October 2009, the company has grown at a compounded annual rate of 21 percent. It posted a turnover of USD 11.6 billion last fiscal.

“At the Annual General Meeting of the company held on July 1, 2011, the members had approved the revision in terms of remuneration of N Chandrasekaran with the maximum amount of salary of Rs 10 lakh per month,” the filing added.

TCS reported 22 percent jump in net profit at Rs 3,596.9 crore for January-March quarter, meeting market expectations.

The company has also expressed the confidence of beating Nasscom estimate of 12-14 percent industry growth in 2013-14.

Why is TCS fussing over China?

If the US tightens its immigration laws, making it tougher and more expensive for Indian IT companies to get H1-B visas for their employees, spreading its risks by growing its business in China will only make more sense for TCS. Photo: Mint

 Live Mint :Leslie D’MonteTue, May 21 2013. 10 08 AM IST

When Li Keqiang visits Mumbai, he’ll first go to TCS Goregaon office; what’s so important about this visit?

With just a little over Rs.350 crore in revenue from its China operations as on 31 March 2012, one can be excused for wondering what India’s largest software services provider, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), has been doing in that country for the last decade. Especially since TCS had slightly over 276,000 employees worldwide and $11.6 billion in revenue as on 31 March.

The question becomes all the more pertinent when Chinese PremierLi Keqiang visits Mumbai on Tuesday. While Li will address the industry at a Confederation of Indian Industry-hosted conference in the evening, he will first visit TCS’s offshore development centre in Goregaon, a Western suburb, around 3.40pm. He will be accompanied by Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry and TCS MD and CEO N. Chandrasekaran, even as the company is tight-lipped about other details. The event is not open to the media, except for some photo shoots.

So what’s so important about Li’s visit to TCS?

For one, TCS pioneered the entry of the over $108 billion Indian IT industry in China in 2002. Currently, it has six global delivery centers in China—Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Dalian. It can provide services in nine languages including English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese. In 2005, TCS was invited by the Chinese government “to form a joint venture to create a large offshoring base in China”. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) supports the joint venture.

Incidentally, Vish Iyer heads the Asia-Pacific, or Apac region, since 2010. Based in Singapore, he manages the 12,000-odd employees in 12 countries including Australia, Japan, South Korea and China. More than 40% of onsite employees are locals, the company says on its website.

However, Qiqi Dong is the CEO of TCS China, which makes sense since 97% of the employees are locals. Besides TCS China is a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE). WFOEs do not need a mainland Chinese investor, and are limited-liability corporations that can give greater control over the business venture.

In an April interview to the holding company Tata Sons Ltd’s website, www.tata.com, Dong said TCS China sees a lot of opportunity in technologies such as cloud, mobility and big data. “Currently, a key TCS project in China is iCity, a host of cloud-based IT solutions that aims to enable integrated urban management, improved quality of life and inclusive economic, social and sustainable growth,” he said.

TCS, said Dong in the interview, has built significant inroads in China and foresees growth in the banking and financial services areas, where banks will be looking to technology systems to help them stay nimble and lean in times of economic uncertainty. Outlining his other plans, Dong said TCS China has completed the healthcare portal for citizens in Panyu, which offers online health counselling and other health services. TCS has also partnered with Singapore Management University (SMU) to harness the strength of SMU’s and Singapore’s urban IT solutions for citizens and to take it global.

TCS, Dong added, will invest $6 million over three years to create an IT roadmap for iCities, build a comprehensive IT platform on a cloud-based infrastructure to provide intelligent solutions in all aspects of iCities including healthcare, education, safety and sustainability, B2B services for SMEs, intelligent transportation and smart grids/utilities.

Speaking about the challenges in China, Dong said the sales cycle process is generally longer than in other countries. Strong relationships must be built in order to sell to companies or authorities in China. He added that in spite of having world-class engineering talent, there is relative scarcity of domain knowledge in China. “Scarcity of middle management and project management talent and low English language capabilities are some of the challenges multinationals face.”

Research firm IDC forecast that 2013 IT spending in emerging markets—including the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) regions—will grow by 8.8% to exceed $730 billion, while BRIC, especially China, will continue to dominate. China, it added, will continue to account for over one- quarter of emerging markets IT spending, even as it predicted a 4-point dip in growth rate to “only” 10% in 2013.

On 14 May, IDC lowered its global IT-spending forecast to grow 4.9% to $2.06 trillion in 2013, down from its previous forecast for an increase of 5.5%. Among other things, it added that slower growth in China contributed to volatile spending patterns and vendors reporting difficulty closing deals at the end of the first quarter. Despite the lowering of forecast, China remains a very important global market for IT spends.

Going forward, TCS, according to its website, aims at making China the “delivery epicenter for its neighbouring markets comprising Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong”. TCS China’s current 40-odd clients include the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), Bank of China, the Hua Xia Bank and the Guangdong Provincial Rural Credit Cooperative Union. The Skandia involved TCS BaNCS insurance implementation. TCS hopes to take this further with the Chinese premier’s support.

Further, TCS China may have only around 3,000 employees as of date. But if the US tightens its immigration laws, making it tougher and more expensive for Indian IT companies to get H1-B visas for their employees, spreading its risks by growing its business in China will only make more sense for TCS

S.Ramadorai on the skilling challenges India faces

S. Ramadorai Photo: Rachit Goswami/www.indiatodayimages.com

B T : Chaitanya Kalbag and Shamni Pande       Edition: March 31, 2013


After a life spent powering TCS to its current position as the country's pre-eminent technology company, S. Ramadorai took over as Advisor to the Prime Minister in the National Council for Skill Development in February 2011. He spoke to Chaitanya Kalbag and Shamni Pande on the gigantic skilling challenge the country faces. Edited excerpts:

Q. It is two years snce you took charge. How are you tackling the skilling challenge?
A. The scale of the problem is huge. A combination of things has made it more complex. The notion that everybody should have a paper degree, whether it gets them a job or not, has sunk in so deeply that changing mindsets, making people realise that doing something with their hands is as important and can fetch a livelihood, (is difficult). This is what I call the whole advocacy issue. We are focusing a lot on advocacy.

After advocacy, you look at mobilisation. Mobilisation should be through discovering people's aptitudes rather than simply rounding up a bunch of kids and saying that from tomorrow you are doing vocational training whether you like it or not. 

Q. Are you saying there is an aspiration gap? People need something, but want something else?
A. Yes. It can only be changed with advocacy.

Q. Who is carrying out the advocacy?
A. All of us . All of you have to do so too.

Q. I think there is a feeling among young people that a proper job provides security such as provident fund, health insurance, etc, which jobs like welding do not.
A. Long-term benefits such as PF have to come into the vocational area as well. But to bring about a miracle where everything happens overnight (is not possible). We are trying to operate at the mindset level, we are trying to operate at a level where we introduce vocational skills in schools...all of these will take time.

Q. There seems to be a turf war over skilling. Could the effort get bogged down because of the different things different stakeholders and ministries want?
A. I think there are enough opportunities without getting into turf wars. And that is why I don't spend my time in Delhi. You have to be where the action is. Implementation is the only focus all of us must have. There are enough policies, enough opportunities, but implementation on ground is most difficult because it's like washing your own clothes. People hesitate to get into it, because it calls for rolling up your sleeves.

Q. What targets do you have?
A. The numbers are huge. Whether it is 300 or 500 million doesn't matter. The number during the 12th Plan and the 13th Plan - a 10-year period from 2012 to 2022 - is going to be critical. The number is based on the demographic profile of the country.

Q. But numbers show this skilling year's targets are not being met.
A. Yes. This year we will fall short of the target. But my worry would be more to ensure that people who go for vocational education and come out with training, get a job. It cannot be training for the sake of training. It has to be training with employment. 

Q. What has been done to formalise vocational education?
A. Pilot projects are running in Haryana, Assam.The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (in Mumbai is doing English language training in association with British Council…

Q. Any successes you can share?
A. You can go to the TCS office in Kolkata, where you can see the Udaan programme for Jammu & Kashmir. Youth from Kashmir have been trained and placed in BPO operations in the Kolkata office of TCS.

Q. How would you assess NSDC's performance?
A. NSDC has multiple responsibilities. One is to identify private sector partners. Then it takes a position by way of debt funding, or equity and debt funding. We assess how the partners are doing. It is not like funding is committed for the entire duration. It is based on performance. It has done a good job of selecting partners.

Q. But there are reports that NSDC will not be given further funding. Does this not jeopardise ongoing projects?
A. It is well funded enough for committing to the private partners it has identified. With the current credit situation squeeze in the country, there have been some cuts. It is a slight shift in the allocation probably, but it is not coming in the way of their performance.

Q. The prime minister has announced the setting up of a National Skill Development Authority. Will it not add to the complexity, with so many bodies already involved in skilling?
A. No. Once the NDSA is formed, the coordination of 17 ministries will come under this single authority. The NSDC will continue to work with the private sector. So these will be the only two agencies and the NSDA will also oversee the NSDC's functioning.

Q. What will your role be in the NSDA?
A. I have no idea, let the Authority get formed. I am focusing on my work.

TCS adds over $1 billion in brand value; consolidates position as one of the 'Big Four' IT services brands

BFI :5th March 2013


Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation announced today that it has added $1,179 million in brand value over 2012, growing by 28.9 percent annually to reach the $5 billion brand value mark.

 It also retained its position among the Big Four most valuable IT services brands worldwide - in the ranking carried out by Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation firm. Brand Finance assesses the dollar value of the reputation, image and intellectual property of the world’s leading companies.

 Brand Finance’s brand valuations are frequently peer-reviewed by top audit practices, accepted by various regulatory bodies and used by leading global brands as a performance benchmark.

N Chandrasekaran, CEO and managing director of TCS said, “TCS continues to deliver market leading performances across both financial and brand related metrics. 
The rapid evolution and recognition of our brand at a global level is a testament to the passion and dedication of our more than 260,000 employees, who as 'brand ambassadors' continue to ensure an industry leading client experience, which keeps strengthening our reputation and brand in the global market.”

TCS has developed a strong reputation in the IT services market for reliably delivering business results, providing leadership to drive transformation and partnering with its clients. The company has been investing heavily to build up its brand presence worldwide through a full range of award winning activities.

 Recently, TCS won the ITSMA Diamond award for global marketing and communications excellence. The company has been awarded Platinum+ status globally in the Corporate Responsibility Index carried out by BiTC. Its employee brand has been recognised through multiple certifications and the company and its CEO have received several business leadership awards in 2012.

“TCS continues its rapid increase in brand value and cements is position as a Big Four IT services brand. The company’s strong performance across brand related activities such as client engagement, community development, sponsorships, and employee satisfaction has earned TCS a place in the elite club of only three AA+ rated IT services brands,” said David Haigh, CEO and founder of Brand Finance.

 “An example combining all these factors is the TCS Amsterdam Marathon where TCS engaged over 1,200 clients and employees and the event raised 115,000 Euros for the fight against cancer. This translated into 145,000 people becoming aware of TCS - the equivalent of almost 20 percent of the population in the city of Amsterdam.”

TCS is also the single largest contributor to the overall Tata brand, which is now ranked as the world’s 39th most valuable brand with a combined brand valuation of $18,169 million.

TCS buys Indian arm of SuperValu

Source ;TNN, Sep 16, 2010, 12.40am IST



BANGALORE: The country's lead tech player Tata Consultancy Services has acquired SuperValu Services India, the captive unit of Minneapolis-based grocery retailer SuperValu Inc. As per a multi-year deal, valued over $100 million, over 600 associates of SuperValu working in Bangalore will now become part of TCS. The integration procedure is expected to be completed within a month.

The engagement is transformational in nature and will drive operational efficiencies for SuperValu through integration of IT, BPO and infrastructure services, said an official communique. The captive unit was set up in 2007 and focuses on IT infrastructure, applications and business and corporate services for its parent company.

The supermarket chain SuperValu is one of the largest players in the US grocery channel with estimated annual sales of $38 billion. It serves customers through a network of 4,270 stores.

TCS inks multi-year deal with US retailer

Source : BL MUMBAI: Sep 15,2010: PTI:13.15

Tata Consultancy Services has entered into a multi-year deal with North American grocery retailer SUPERVALU for a full services engagement.

Following the agreement, over 600 SUPERVALU India stores will become a part of the IT major, TCS said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The company, however, did not disclose the financial details of the transaction.

The full services deal will drive operational efficiencies for SUPERVALU through the integration of IT, BPO and infrastructure services, the filing added.

“The engagement with SUPERVALU reinforces our leadership as the long-term IT partner best equipped to help global corporations transform their business using our full services capabilities and domain knowledge,” the TCS CEO and MD, Mr N. Chandrasekaran, said.

Shares of the company were trading at Rs 904.55, up 1.16 per cent on BSE over the previous close. — PTI