Top 10 companies to work for in India

The 2010 edition of 'India's Best Companies To Work For' by The Economic Times has ranked the top 10 companies in India on the basis of management, facilities, infrastructure, growth prospects, etc. After interviewing CEOs, HR heads and employees to gauge what it takes to be the best company to work for, this study reports on how companies have nurtured their human capital in the face of the downturn, while taking some bold initiatives to maintain growth.

Check out the 10 best companies to work for -:

1) Google India: Located in Bangalore and founded in 1998, Google India's main work is in Online Search, Online Advertising & Online Applications. You cannot pinpoint at one thing that makes Google one of the best places to work for. It is a combination of values and operating principles to make the work more enjoyable and encourage innovations. Commitment towards finding talented people is not solely based on ranks and percentage, but on the inclusion of those who have a sense of mission and derive massive satisfaction from their work.

2) Make MyTrip: Located in Gurgaon and founded in 2000, this company's main work target is booking airline tickets, hotels, bus and rail ticket and holiday packages. The immense sense of empowerment at MakeMyTrip is drawing in top talent by the droves. For one, Amit Somani, the company's Chief Products Officer, has no hang-ups about leaving Google to join MakeMyTrip.

3) Intel Technology India: Located in Bangalore this IT giant was founded in 1988, this firm has also tried to ingrain a culture of being open and direct. It is very serious about having an open-door policy and reaching out to seniors is the norm. Coupled with periodic feedback mechanisms, this keeps every Intellite on the ball.

4) Marriot Hotels: Located in Mumbai, one of the best names in hospitality ranks 4th in the best place to work for in India because the company's employee policy rests on three main legs: an open-door policy, empowerment and fairness.

5) NetApp India: Set foot into NetApp India's headquarters in Bangalore and chances are ping-pong balls would be zooming past your head, this is a place definitely not for those who consider their work-life as part of a calibrated approach. Also you will never find people rarely complaining about pay and not getting a fair share of profits.

6) American Express: Founded in 2006 in Gurgaon and specializing in financial services, Amex has been working to building a Gen Next workplace as its 'ecosystem for the future', which is young, vibrant and diverse in the true sense.

7) NTPC: Located in Delhi with an employee strength of 24,708, the Rs 49,478.86-crore power major employs about 25,000 die-hard loyalists, who take pride in the 35-year-old brand and its empowerment attributes. It is one of the best public enterprises to work for.

8) PayPal India: Located in Chennai and specializing in e commerce, PayPal, which is a part of eBay, believes in empowering technologists, especially women. There is a dedicated group named 'eBay Women in Technology.'

9) Ajuba Solutions: Located in Chennai and specializing in Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management, this BPO believes in 'inspired people, inspired results'. Named after the hindi word of miracle, the company tries to live by its credo of "working wonders for our clients and employees.

10) SAS Institute: Located in Mumbai, this company offers a stress free environment and is flexible enough to give employees option to work from home.

CIBC buys card portfolio from Citigroup MasterCard business

CIBC said Monday it has signed a deal to buy a $2.1-billion credit card portfolio from Citigroup’s Canadian MasterCard business.

The portfolio includes accounts associated with co-branded Petro Canada (TSX:SU) credit cards that offer the Petro Points rewards program.

“This acquisition is directly aligned with our strategy to grow our core Canadian operations,” CIBC president and chief executive Gerry McCaughey said in a statement.

“With our scale, platform and operating synergies, combined with our expertise in credit cards, we are confident this transaction furthers our strategic growth objectives.”

The deal is expected to be accretive to CIBC’s earnings during the first year following its closing, the bank said.

Under the agreement, prior to closing, non-performing accounts will be removed from the acquired portfolio and from Broadway Credit Card Trust, which has securitized certain Citibank MasterCard receivables.

CIBC (TSX:CM) said it was its third transaction since early March including the acquisition of the remaining 50 per cent of CIT Business Credit Canada and the purchase of a minority stake in Bermuda-based the Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Ltd.

Nitish plays perfect host to Pranab, talks business

Hosting a lunch or dinner by politicians is often seen as the perfect platform for a change in political equations.

However, the luncheon meeting between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Patna today came as a damper for those who were expecting Kumar to do a Naveen Patnaik in the run-up to the state assembly polls.

Just two days after Kumar cancelled a dinner for the BJP brass to convey his disapproval about an advertisement featuring him with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the luncheon meeting between Mukherjee and Kumar was seen as a possible platform that could change the equations in Bihar.

While Kumar played the perfect host to Mukherjee — following a meeting with the chiefs of public sector banks to take stock of the performance on the credit deposit ratio — the two leaders maintained a distance in public. The meeting was also attended by chief ministers and officials from eastern and north-eastern states.

The only time the two leaders were seen interacting in an informal way was when the chief minister was trying to convince Mukherjee to try out local delicacies, including litti chokha and baked fish and Mukherjee sticking to his choice of dishes.

Mukherjee was received at the airport by Deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. When the cavalcade reached the chief minister's secretariat, the CM welcomed the senior leader and escorted him to the conference room.

According to people who were present in the meeting, Mukherjee listened to the chief ministers and CMDs of banks — their grievances and replies — very patiently. "Though they sat side-by-side, not for once did the two show signs of getting close or sharing a word between themselves. It was business as usual," said an official. Sushil Kumar Modi was all along by Kumar’s side during the entire event.

During a press conference after the event, Mukherjee refused to answer questions regarding the state government’s criticisms of the central policies. However, in reply to a question on the demand of a special-category status to Bihar, he said: "This will be decided by the Planning Commission. So, I am not in a position to comment on that. But, I am fully aware that a special package for Bihar had been articulated."

According to informed sources, Mukherjee had called up Kumar before the planning of this event. During the call, the CM was reportedly asked by the finance minister whether Kumar could schedule this conference in Patna and be free to attend the meet.

Kumar had obliged the senior leader by postponing his Pravas Yatra. "He enthusiastically agreed to organise this meeting and also postponed the yatra that was to be held today," the source said.

Jobs to developers: Stick with the winning team

Steve Jobs made his case to developers at WWDC on Monday.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

SAN FRANCISCO--Facing growing competition from Google Android and an amassing army of appealing smartphones, Steve Jobs played defense Monday.

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference where Jobs introduced the iPhone 4, he also spent a good amount of time selling his already popular platform to his audience of developers. More so than at past iPhone developer events, Jobs was careful to spend time talking about how the App Store approval process works, how much money there is to be made from iAds, his device's market share and reach, and the potential for growth that they have by placing their creations in the App Store.

Why? It could be that he's feeling the heat. The App Store is a huge success and a model for the industry but has also gotten some flack lately with the growing perception of iOS as a "closed" system because of Apple's strict control of what kind of apps are allowed and the recent Adobe Flash flap. Apple's desire to control its platform has drawn the sometimes-public frustration of developers. Plus, Google has been making a case for why its free, open-source Android OS is a viable option for mobile app creators.

Jobs threw a lot of numbers out there, mostly to remind developers that even though other smartphone makers are catching up to and even surpassing the iPhone in some ways, that it's the App Store's reach and size make for a bandwagon that's worth riding for a long time.

iOS by the numbers
Jobs started off by illustrating the App Store's reach, through iOS devices including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Later this month, Jobs said Apple expects to pass a major milestone for its mobile platform.

Jobs demonstrates the iPhone's reach in the U.S.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

"We will sell our 100 millionth iOS device," he said. That includes iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads. And in case the developers in the audience weren't clear on what he meant, he underscored that point: "There is definitely a market for your applications."

That's pretty obvious already, what with 8,500 iPad apps after two months on sale, plus 250,000 iPhone apps. He emphasized the giant lead his platform has over competitors when he revealed that there have been 5 billion apps downloaded total from the App Store.

Jobs also addressed iPhone market share (No. 2 after RIM with 28 percent) and mobile browser market share: the iPhone is No. 1 with 58.2 percent. "That's 2.5 times as much as Android's 12.7 percent. This may help you put things in perspective," he said, to some laughs. He cited Nielsen data for both, which contradict some statistics that came out a few weeks ago that showed Android sales had surpassed iOS device sales during the first quarter of 2010.

Follow the money
While Jobs mentioned his competition, he wasn't nearly as overt as Google was at its developer conference two weeks ago when it took repeated jabs at Apple. Jobs was at least subtle in his few digs at Apple's chief frenemy, like when he quoted one of the developers behind the popular Elements iPad app. The app's creator apparently told Jobs that they earned more on the iPad app sales in one day than five years of Google ads on the product's Web site.

The money issue came up more than once, and Jobs clearly sees iAds, which debuts in July, as a major advantage his platform has over others.

Jobs said his "favorite statistic" about the App Store is related to what developers get out of putting their apps on his store: to date, he said, Apple has paid $1 billion to developers. Seventy percent of app sales goes to developers (the other 30 percent going to Apple).

He also played up his devices' reach into customers' wallets: "There are 150 million (credit card) accounts hooked up to the App Store, iTunes, and iBookstore. "That's the most of any store on the Web...So people are ready to buy your apps."

The iAd advantage
But direct sales to consumers are not the only way to make money for developers. Apple thinks it's come up with the easiest way to help even developers of free games make some kind of profit from their efforts. That's where iAds comes in. Though Jobs is always in marketing mode when he speaks to the press or the public, he was more obvious about it Monday, giving the devs in the audience the hard sell on his ads platform. More than once he said that it is Apple's goal "to help our developers earn money."

Jobs specifically highlighted the way iAds keep users from leaving an app if they click on a banner ad but instead stay within the app. He also stressed the ease of using iAds: Apple sells the ads, developers just need to place the ads in their apps, and they'll get 60 percent of what Apple takes in for the ads. He also listed the names of big-name brands they already have on board (Nissan, GE, Campbell's, Best Buy, Geico, and others), emphasizing, "These are high-end brands."

Together, iAds has $60 million worth of ad inventory already sold for the year. "Our goal," he said again, "is to help you earn money."

What wasn't said but was implied is that while Android may have a wide variety of formats for in-app ads, with iAd, Apple is going to make it easy as possible for developers. And with the reach of its platform, Apple will be able to bring in big-name advertisers who will pony up a lot of money.

One of Apple's main appeals to advertisers, content providers, and gadget shoppers has always been the premium experience it offers. It's been like that for the Mac, the iPhone, the iPod, and more recently, the iPad. Now that the iPhone has some competition, we'll see if developers too will continue to buy into that.

Muglia on Google, Azure, and the future of Windows Server

Although he's presided over the expansion of Microsoft's server business, Bob Muglia is ready to help companies move away from that same server software.

Well, he is at least as long as those businesses are moving to the Microsoft cloud-based services that are replicating the software that, at one point, ran only in a company's own data center.

Muglia

(Credit: Microsoft)

In an interview, the president of Microsoft's server and tools business talked about the shifts to the cloud, Google's role in the enterprise and the future of Microsoft's server products, including the next version of Windows Server, which he said will be a major update.

Here's an edited transcript of our conversation.

You mentioned that Microsoft is pretty much doing everything for the cloud first. Does that mean that over time on-premises customers are actually going to be getting technology that's somewhat older, for better and for worse?
Muglia: Well, I think the way to look at it is that we're able to use the cloud to do a lot more of our early validation than we've ever been able to do before. You know, you see us with labs, you know, Live Labs and things like that, being able to take ideas and put them up in the cloud. More and more what you'll see is the beginning of our beta processes will be run for new things up in the cloud, because our ability to get feedback from customers is so much more rapid if customers don't have to deploy the infrastructure themselves. So, there's a set of things that we can do, which will help to reduce our cycle time, and bringing new features to market.

I mean, in general our products run on two- to three-year cycles, and it very often takes customers at least that long to deploy them. I actually think the cloud will expedite customers' ability to get our software and our innovations, even if they run it themselves, because it will shorten our cycle for delivery, and also I think customers as they see these things available in the cloud will have a better understanding of the advantages they can get if they deploy it themselves. So, I actually don't think it slows down things at all for our customers that choose on-premises.

How much more will the next version of Windows Server resemble Azure?
Muglia: We're not talking a lot about the next version of Windows Server today, but I think what you'll see is... that the learnings that we have from Windows Azure will be pulled back into Windows Server, just like there's features in Windows Server and SQL Server that are being pulled up into Windows Azure and SQL Azure. (Windows Server head) Bill Laing works in (Azure development chief) Amitabh (Srivastava)'s group, and those guys are talking every day. So, there's a lot of cross-pollination.

We hear a lot about this term, private cloud, meaning taking a cloud-like infrastructure and deploying it in one's own data center, taking the idea of a public cloud and having a completely private version of that replicated in someone else's data center. I guess I'm kind of curious what are you hearing the most demand from customers for when they say private cloud.
Muglia: Well, you know, one of the things we've learned is that customers have different views of the term private cloud. And so what we've been talking about is customers' ability to build their own clouds in their own data centers or for partners to be able to build clouds.

But fundamentally we do see a great deal of demand for that, because customers have some very reasonable concerns about their ability to control the environment, and they often have security concerns. So, for many circumstances having a customer build their own cloud is what absolutely makes sense for them, and we're supplying them with the tools and products they need in the form of Windows Server, System Center, and SQL Server to build their own clouds.

Is the current version of Windows Server, is that well enough set up to do the private cloud or do you need something that more closely resembles Azure but can be used on-premises?
Muglia: Well, remember Windows Azure is designed to run at a scale of tens of thousands of servers. Really no customer is running at that kind of scale. So, there's definitely capabilities in Azure that are interesting, but frankly they go beyond what most customers -- really what all customers would need to build their own cloud and their own data center.

Windows Server and Hyper-V are very much structured to be able to build your own private cloud, absolutely. The area where we see probably the greatest set of evolution happening is in System Center, and let me give you some examples. We will evolve System Center to have capabilities like self-service so that departments, business units within an organization can provision their own instances of the cloud to really virtual machines within the cloud to run their own applications.

I know there's not too much you're going to say about the next version of Windows Server, but is it fair to say you guys are still on a major release, minor release cycle? So, that means we should be due for a major release the next time?
Muglia: There's no question we're due for a major release of Windows Server, no question.

Anything more you can say about it in terms of timing or features?
Muglia: No. The only thing I'll say is just like with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, we worked on a common schedule and a common thing with our friends in the client team, and we're still doing that.

In your keynote you talked about both the responsibilities and the opportunities of the cloud. Certainly there's plenty of vendors out there that are bringing a lot of the capabilities of the cloud. How do you feel that Google and others are doing on the responsibility side of that equation?
Muglia: I think they have some things to learn about being an enterprise player. Google has clearly demonstrated a set of behaviors that have led enterprise customers to have concerns about, for example, will Google keep and maintain the privacy of information, of data that's put inside the Google cloud? I mean, Google has been very, they've been all over the map on that one.