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Software major Infosys Technologies posted a 25.22% increase in its net profit at Rs 1,231 crore for the quarter ended December 31, bucking forecasts of a slow down on the back of rising demand from Europe, increase in prices of its services and a tax refund.

The company, whose revenue has crossed $3 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal, has also managed to tackle an appreciating rupee, besides a $26-million payout through voluntary settlement with the California division of Labour Standards Enforcement towards possible overtime payment to certain employees in California.

The revenue of the group increased by 16.90 per cent to Rs 4,271 crore for the December quarter, which was partly because of the tax reversal of Rs 50 crore. Its earnings per share increased to Rs 21.54 from Rs 17.64 for the corresponding quarter in the previous year. The company expects its revenue to grow 20 per cent in fiscal 2008.

For the fiscal 2008-09, revenues would be in the range of Rs 16,627 crore and the fourth quarter revenue would be in the range of Rs 4,477 crore versus Rs 4,501 crore. Infosys also claimed that it would not be affected by a shortfall in skilled manpower as forecast by Nasscom, the representative organisation of the IT sector.

Its human resources head T V Mohandas Pai said the company had finished hiring for 2008 and had already made offers to candidates for joining in 2009. Pai said the company had added 11,681 employees for the December quarter, taking the total number to over 27,000 so far this financial year. The company has a total strength of 88, 601 employees.

Chief financial officer V Balakrishnan, while explaining how the company had bucked the trend, said it had raised its prices by 2 to 3 per cent for existing clients and 3 to 4 per cent for new ones, Besides this, it has managed to add 47 new clients in the December quarter. It has also increased its revenue from consultancy and enterprise solutions to 24 per cent this quarter. On the downside, he said the rupee continued to be a worry and any drastic appreciation in its value vis a vis the dollar would impact the company.

Company’s head of banking and capital markets Ashok Vemuri said “we believe IT spending will be favourable to large offshore players like us even though the macro environment in challenging”.

Infosys’ CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said though the US continued to be the company’s mainstay with 62.3 per cent share in total revenue, the present quarter had seen a 1.2 per cent increase in the European market, which now constituted 28.6 per cent of total revenue.

Gopalakrishnan said the company had established a separate cell to increase its business share in India, which had risen slightly from 1 per cent of total revenue to 1.2 per cent this quarter. He said the company was also focusing on Japan, China and Latin America to reduce over-dependence on the US due to the slowdown in the US economy.

The fourth and final round of India-IAEA talks on India-specific safeguards will be held in Vienna on January 16. The Indian technical team will leave for Vienna on January 15 for the crucial round where the nuts and bolts of the final agreement will be fastened.

It is understood that the two sides have acquired a fair amount of convergence and the 35-nation body had agreed to most of the Indian concerns. The Left parties had conveyed their concerns to the government mainly on four points:

(a) Continuity of fuel supply,

(b) Inspections to be carried out only by the IAEA,

(c) Strategic fuel reserves and

(d) Provision of alternate fuel from rest of the world in case the US stops fuel supplies in the event of a fresh nuclear test by India.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s contention is that these issues are not merely the concerns of the Left parties but of the entire nation.

The IAEA is understood to have agreed to Indian suggestions on the first two points and is believed to have an open mind on the other two. A source said there was a forward movement on the India- IAEA talks and disagreed with the prophets of doom. The talks have spilled over to the fourth round not because of differences alone but because such an agreement is going to be an agreement in perpetuity and the UPA government would like to do an open-and-shut job.

The subject is too technical and New Delhi would have to make sure that everything is in perfect order. India and the International Atomic Energy Agency will have to successfully negotiate a highly-technical document called INFCIRC 66 which focuses circumstances requiring safeguards, nuclear materials subject to safeguards, exemption from safeguards, exemption related to reactors, suspension of safeguards, termination of safeguards, transfer of safeguarded nuclear material out of the state, safeguards procedures, routine inspections, initial inspection of principal nuclear facilities, special inspections, special procedure for reactors, special procedures relating to safeguarded nuclear material outside principal nuclear facilities and design of storage facilities.

Besides these, there are scores of technical definitions like “conversion plant” and “fabrication plant” which have to be agreed to between the two sides.

The visiting Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis today said Greece, a member country of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, would have “no objection” to the NSG allowing nuclear commerce with India if it meets international standards and concludes an agreement with the IAEA.

Kostas Karamanlis, who arrived here on a three-day state visit, made this remark in response to a question at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh after their talks at Hyderabad House this evening. The Greek leader said while Greece did not use nuclear power, it was not opposed to the proposal to remove India from the exemption list.

Manmohan Singh said India supported the re-unification of Cyprus. Earlier, both the Prime Ministers held bilateral and one-to-one talks. The Greek PM addressed the business leaders and said the two sides were working on a double taxation avoidance treaty, as well as for cooperation in air transport.

The visiting dignitary also called on President Pratibha Patil and held discussions with Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, leader of opposition L.K. Advani and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee. A banquet was hosted in his honour by the Prime Minister at Hyderabad House. Karamanlis also visited Agra and Jaipur, before returning to Athens.

Long after the devastating fire in Kolkata’s Burrabazar is put out, the controversy over the firefighting capabilities of the authorities will continue to rage. The blaze, which broke out early Saturday, was fanned by winds and exploding inflammable materials like diesel products, plastics and garments in eastern India’s largest wholesale market. The fire destroyed property worth billions of rupees, gutted buildings and is threatening to bring down a high-rise structure.

If there’s anything more unfortunate, it is the way officials appear to have been caught unawares by the blaze. Despite help from the army and the air force, fire tenders still took days to douse the flames: an unflattering commentary on the preparedness or rather the lack of it - of the fire brigade. After all, they weren’t fighting a runaway bush fire in some remote wilderness. True, the narrow lanes of Burrabazar may have hindered the movement of fire engines and the absence of hydrants near at hand cost fire-fighters valuable time. But why were the firemen handicapped by the lack of adequate equipment to reach the top floors of high-rise buildings?

 Metros like Kolkata are particularly vulnerable, as even minor fires can be disastrous in overcrowded locations like cinema halls, auditoriums and restaurants. There is scant regard for safety norms as unscrupulous builders routinely violate the National Building Code (NBC), which governs the design and safety aspects of buildings. High-rise structures mushroom everywhere, disregarding the environment and safety factors, and spelling grave safety threats to residential colonies and commercial areas alike. Besides widening of roads and l placing hydrants in and around major f thoroughfares, the NBC should be made mandatory so that institutions have basic fire-fighting equipment and residents know their right application. Unless such a conscious effort is made to improve fire safety, appointing inquiry commissions every time there is an accident will remain a pointless exercise.

All praise for Punjab’s singers’ initiative to fight against the consumption of intoxicants and the killing of daughters before birth. These popular bards can succeed where the government has failed in moving the ignorant who have the stone in the heart to kill their daughter.

The fetish for a male heir has cost the life of countless girls. If even a small percentage of those who gathered to listen to Sarbjit Cheema, Babbu Mann, Jazzy B, Jasbir Jassy, Inderjit Nikku and Debi Maqsoospuri’s popular songs and also their exhortation against female foeticide and drug addiction at Sarbjit’s ancestral village Cheema Kalan on Wednesday, 16 January, take a vow to shed these abominable practices, Punjab can considerably wipe out the stigma that has come to stick to its name. On the one hand, so many villages have earned the epithet of “kudi-maar“ (daughter killers), on the other a whole generation of Punjabis is being lost to alcohol, opium and drugs.

There is need to hold similar programmes in every nook and corner of the state, so that the inhumanity of these practices can be drummed into the ears of the people. Both problems are so rampant that they have almost received social acceptability in most of the state and in neighbouring Haryana.

The ugly mould has to be broken somehow. Such singers enjoy tremendous popularity and can play an instrumental role in changing the public mind.

In fact, it has to become a mass movement with the help of opinion makers in other fields as well. Dramatists, doctors, writers, teachers, et al, have to come forward to fight the evils with a missionary zeal. The same holds true of religious groups too. Law has been ineffective in saving the life of the unborn daughter. It is societal pressure which has to act as a deterrent.

Radical it may sound, but it is equally ironical. Desperate to arrest the declining sex ratio (927 per 1,000 males at present), the Central government has decided to offer cash to families as an incentive to bear and retain the girl child. Cash flow will, however, be subject to certain conditions. The government in collaboration with the DC is also working out an insurance cover for the girl child to encourage her survival and welfare.

The move is part of the ministry of women and child development’s (WCD) new scheme Conditional Cash and Non Cash Transfer Scheme. To be announced on January 26, it provides for cash and non-cash transfers to a family that fulfils the following conditions with respect to a girl child - her birth and registration, immunisation, school enrolment and delaying her marriage beyond 18 years. Every time a family fulfils these conditions, it will get cash incentives. Girls till Class VIII will be targeted under the scheme.

“With the incidence of foeticide rising, the very survival of the girl child is at stake. We have decided to pay a substantial amount at the stage of birth and birth registration,” said Nandita Mishra from the ministry, who shared the scheme’s modalities on the sidelines e of the regional seminar on the issue organised by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

The estimation of cash transfer under the scheme will be based on the 200 1 census as per which average age-wise population of female children (below 18 years) per block has been extrapolated to be 500. “Poverty is a huge constraint in the way of birth and development of a girl child. We realised that well-designed financial incentives can transform negative perceptions regarding daughters and make people view them as assets. Conditional cash transfers can effect behaviour changes,” said Mishra.

The project will first be implemented as a pilot in 11 blocks of the country. While 10 of the chosen blocks are economically most backward, the ministry has chosen one prosperous block- Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib(Punjab), which has the lowest child sex ratio of 766 per 1000 males as per the 2001 census.

The project would be a part of the 11^th Five Year Plan. The scheme’s most significant component is insurance coverage to the tune of Rs. One lakh to ensure the girl child’s survival. The component has two objectives- encourage the birth of a girl and protect her from foeticide.