The Weekly Dispatch

Tech Mahindra appoints Richard Lobo as its Chief People Officer

Former Infosys CHRO Richard Lobo has joined Tech Mahindra in the role of its chief people officer. This comes as the IT services sector continues to see a wave of senior-level churn. In December, former Infosys president Mohit Joshi took over as the CEO of Tech Mahindra. The company announced Lobo’s appointment on social media. In August 2023, Infosys's Lobo resigned from the firm after a 23-year stint at Infosys to work briefly with edtech major Byju’s.

Wipro seeks ?25 crore damages from ex-CFO Jatin Dalal for breach of non-compete rule

Wipro has claimed damages of ?25.15 crore along with an annual interest payout at the rate of 18% per annum from September 29 from its former CFO Jatin Dalal, who the company says has violated the non-compete clause in his employment contract, according to a lawsuit filed in November. As part of the non-compete agreement, one of the clauses barred Dalal from joining any other rival company for a period of 12 months from the date of his resignation.

WhatsApp banned a record 71 lakh accounts in India in Nov 2023

Meta-owned WhatsApp banned a record over 71 lakh bad accounts in India in the month of November 2023, in compliance with the new IT Rules 2021, the company said. Between November 1-30, the company banned 71,96,000 accounts. About 19,54,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users, WhatsApp said in its monthly compliance report. The messaging platform, which has over 500 million users in the country, received another record 8,841 complaint reports in November in the country, and the records "actioned" were 6.

Foxconn invests ?461 crore in Bengaluru unit

Foxconn has infused $55.29 million (about ?461 crore) in Bengaluru-based Foxconn Precision Engineering Private Limited, according to a regulatory filing.The company has made the investment through its Singapore-based subsidiary Foxconn Singapore Pte Limited. In July, Foxconn proposed to set up a ?8,800-crore supplementary plant to that of its unit at the Devanahalli Information Technology Investment Region in Karnataka.

IT sector to hire 8-10% more in 2024: Report

IT hiring is expected to gain momentum at the start of calendar year 2024, driven by the growing adoption of new technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, according to NLB Services’ year-end outlook. Overall hiring in the IT sector is expected to surge by 12-15% in CY 2024, especially due to a surge in GCCs and a stabilising global economy. The initial quarter will see 8-10% growth in hiring, followed by 12-14% in Q2 and Q4.

Global business payments firm Corpay opens back-office support centre in Chennai

Corpay, a FLEETCOR brand and global player in business payments, has announced its latest expansion with the opening of a new back-office support centre in Chennai. The newly-established office will function as a central service hub. According to a statement, phase one of the expansion encompasses seven critical business functions including financial planning and analytics, data and business intelligence, sales variable compensation, credit underwriting, CRM, client support and strategy and M&A.

ANSR to set up about 25 large-scale global capability centres in India

Global capability centres (GCCs) in India are set to gain further momentum in 2024 as ANSR, an end-to-end GCC consulting firm, plans to set up about 25 large-scale GCCs in the country next year. Factors like cost, talent, and value creation continue to drive multinationals to set up more GCCs in India.??“We are currently doing one every 3 weeks and looking at setting up one every 2 weeks next year. The large-scale GCCs are of companies with revenues of over $10 billion,” Lalit Ahuja, Founder & CEO, ANSR, said.

Intel announces ‘Articul8,’ an independent AI company

Intel in collaboration with DigitalBridge Group has announced the formation of an independent company 'Articul8 AI' to offer a “full-stack, vertically-optimized and secure generative AI software platform” for enterprise customers. According to the official release, it has been created using IP and technology developed by?Intel and other 2 companies to drive generative AI adoption in the enterprise market. It has named Arun Subramaniyan as the CEO of Articul8, who previously served as president & GM of Intel’s Data Center and AI Group.

Microsoft adds AI button to keyboards to summon chatbots

Pressing a button will be one way to summon an AI agent as Microsoft wields its computer industry influence to reshape the next generation of keyboards.?Starting this month, some new personal computers that run Microsoft's Windows operating system will have a special "Copilot key" that launches the software giant's AI chatbot. The newest AI button will be marked by the ribbon-like Copilot logo and be located near the space bar.

This Chennai-based firm is giving out 33% stake to its employees

Ideas2IT Technologies, an innovation-led product engineering company valued at over $100 million, has announced an employee ownership program wherein its employees will receive a 33 per cent ownership stake. To start with, Ideas2IT will grant this equity to the first 50 employees of the company followed by another 100 in line to join this pool – the company is rewarding long serving employees, many of whom have spent over a decade with Ideas2IT.??

TAMILNADU (TN) Global Investors Meet to be held in Chennai in January 2024.?

Wooing foreign and local investors with industry-friendly policies, TN expects to attract much bigger commitments for investments than before during the state's flagship TN Global investors meet scheduled to be held on January 7 and 8, 2024. TNGIM 2024 will showcase potential of industrial units, startups, and feature speakers like Raghuram Rajan & Arvind Subramanian. Emerging areas seeking investments and development are AI, ML, data analytics, robotics, Quantum Computing, photonics, advanced electronics, UAVs.

Valeo charts ?1,000 Cr expansion in Chennai, to hire 3,000 people

Valeo is proposing to invest about ?1,000 crore for the expansion of its operations in the Chennai region in the next 5-6 years and will be hiring about 3,000 people during the period. The company will expand its production facilities in TN (TN), both for the current product range as also for new technologies. It is also looking to grow its aftermarket operations through expanded distribution networks and service centres in TN. It will also increase the headcount at its Chennai Global Technical Centre, which serves as a hub for research, development, and innovation.

LTIMindtree creates Banking Transformation Practice

LTIMindtree said it has integrated its subsidiaries Syncordis and Nielsen+Partner to form a specialized banking transformation practice (BTP). The BTP will deliver end-to-end consulting, digital and IT services, leveraging commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products and platforms serving banks and capital market firms, the company said. The erstwhile L&T Infotech (before its 2022 merger with Mindtree) had acquired Syncordis in December 2017 for??€15 million and Nielsen+Partner in January 2019 for??€28 million.