Prime Minister inaugurates TIFR Hyderabad Campus

Deccan Chronicle  20.10.2010


The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday laid the foundation stone for the prestigious Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) campus coming up in Gopanapalli in Hyderabad. The campus will become operational by end-2013 and have about 1,500 doctoral, 700 post-doctoral students and 250 faculty members.

The campus, coming up at an investment of `2,500 crore would focus on “Light, Matter and Life” which are closed linked to applications in the areas of health, energy and communication.

The Governor, Mr E.S.L. Narasimhan, Chief Minister, Mr K.Rosaiah, Union minister for law and justice, Mr Veerappa Moily, principal scientific advisor to the Union government, Dr R. Chidambaram, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr Srikumar Banerjee, TIFR director Prof. Mustansir Barma and University of Hyderabad vice-chancellor, Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain were present on the occasion.

The state government and the officials of University of Hyderabad (UoH) heaved a sigh of relief as the programme went off peacefully though some student unions and teachers associations threatened to conduct demonstrations against the allotment of 209 acres on the university campus to TIFR.

“It is befitting that Hyderabad, which has emerged a a knowledge and technology centre, should be chosen as the site for the new campus of the TIFR. I would like to congratulate the AP government for inviting the TIFR to set up its campus here,” Dr Singh remarked after laying the foundation stone

Virtusa Opens Global Technology Center At Gachibowli Hyderabad

As part of its global expansion plans,IT services provider Virtusa India Pvt Ltd opened its global technology centre housed in its first whollyowned campus spread over 6.6 acre at Nanakramguda IT SEZ beside Gachibowli Finacial District .The centre,which has a capacity to house 6,000 people,has been set up at an initial investment of Rs 75 crore with plans to pump in another Rs 27.5 crore in the second and third phase,top company officials told newspersons here.

The Massachusetts headquartered company,which has been present in India for over a decade now,had so far been operating out of leased premises at Begumpet housing 1,500 people.Our new global technology center will focus on accelerating business outcomes and consumer experiences of our Fortune 100 client base, Kris Canekeratne,chairman and CEO,Virtusa said.

The $165 million turnover company,which currently only has a global headcount of 4,000 employees,is looking at stepping up its hiring in India.The companys vice-president Samir Dhir said the hiring policy would be in sync with their current growth rate,estimated to be around 27 percent.

The center will strengthen our delivery capabilities.Our hiring will be in areas of content management,data warehousing,business process management,software development and more, he added.Chief Minister K Rosaiah who unveiled the facility urged the ITES service provider to fulfill its expansion plans for Phase II.

Facebook Opens Office In Hitech City Hyderabad

Barely six months after social networking site Facebook announced its plans to make Hyderabad its home in Asia,it officially logged into the city with its global operations center at Hi-Tech City.

The Hyderabad centre,which is its second international centre outside US apart from Dublin,will house Facebooks online advertising and developer support teams that will provide round-the-clock,multi-lingual support to the social networking sites worldwide online user,advertisers and developer base.

While to begin with the company has kicked off operations with nearly 50 people,plans were afoot to increase this headcount to 100 by March 2011 and up it to 1,000-1500 people over next two to three years,sources told TOI.Sources said that while the company had started off with a smaller space in the city,the gameplan was to later move into bigger premises coming up next door.

Company officials were,however,tightlipped over their overall investment and hiring plans for India.But they pointed out that India was among the fastest growing markets for Facebook and a key part of their global operations.

Facebooks active userbase in India has shot up to over 15 million from around 8 million six months ago while its global active userbase grew only from 400 million to 500 million.

Facebooks director of online operations Don Faul said Hyderabad beat competition from 20 other global locations in Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific to emerge as Facebooks face in Asia largely because of availability of superior talent,supportive and proactive state government,easy access due to good infrastructure,the time-zone advantage to support a 24×7 coverage,among others.

At the helm of the Facebook India team is Kirthiga Reddy,a former senior hand at Motorola,as director of online operations and India operations head as well as ex-Googler Manoj Varghese,who will be steering the companys user operations as director

XLRI Business School To Setup Campus In Hyderabad

Top B-school Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) of Jamshedpur on Tuesday conveyed to the state government its governing boards approval for the setting up of a state-of-the-art 75-acre campus in Jawahar Nagar on the outskirts of the city.

Every year,nearly 10,000 students appear for entrance examination to get admission to XLRI,which has 240 seats.The proposed campus,which would be constructed soon,is expected to augment intake of students in the near future.The XLRI campus would be the new neighbour of the Hyderabad chapter of BITS (Pilani).

The development comes in the wake of a three-year long persuasion by government officials and a personal invitation by chief minister K Rosaiah in August this year to the XLRI institute.The news about the governing boards approval to the proposal for an XLRI campus was conveyed by its director Fr E Abraham to chief minister K Rosaiah when the latter called on him at the Secretariat on Tuesday.

The chief minister complimented the XLRI team for responding positively to his invitation while recalling the pioneering contribution being made by the institute in terms of furthering the cause of excellence and a strong value system in education besides producing able managers that are required to build businesses and industries for the country.

The management institute would have an in-campus residential facility for both male and female students.The campus would also include a high school for children of the local area.The Hyderabad campus is being funded by a US pension fund house,whose representatives also met the chief minister to inform him about their association with the institute.

CBay Systems Setting Up 6Lakh SFT Office Complex In Kokapet SEZ, Hyderabad

Mumbai-based CBaySytems Holdings,which provides medical transcription,healthcare technology and financial services to the US healthcare industry,is all set to set up a presence in Hyderabad through its associate –CBay Infotech Ventures Pvt Ltd with a 6 lakh sq ft office space at the 120-acre Kokapet SEZ.
According to a company communique,the company”s SEZ facility would be developed in three phases of 2 lakh sq ft each. 
   The company has aquired land  in the SEZ from APIIC and preliminary site work has started. The Project is located adjascent to the Outer Ring Road in Kokapet SEZ and is directly accessible from Gachibowli Financial District   

Infosys, Satyam, Cognizant to set up units in Hyderabad SEZs

The Unit Approval Committee of Andhra Pradesh IT Special Economic Zones Development Commissioner has approved Satyam BPO, Infosys Technologies and Cognizant Technology Solutions to set up their new facilities in different SEZs in the State. 

           “Put together, these units will employ 6,800 people in a total space of 5.50 lakh sq ft,” Ms K. Ratna Prabha, Principal Secretary (Information Technology and Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh), said here in a press release. The new unit of Satyam BPO, which would come up at Satyam Computer Services’ facility at Madhapur with an area of 1.60 lakh sq ft, would seat 2,700 employees. The second unit of Infosys Technologies would be opened at its Pocharam SEZ in an area of 2.75 lakh sq ft, housing 2,750 employees. Cognizant Technology would set up a 1.12 lakh sq ft facility at DLF SEZ here as part of its expansion plan. It would employ 1,400 people, she said. “The unit approval committee had sent letters of permission to these companies, giving go-ahead to their expansion plans,” she said. “The performance of IT sector in the State during 2010 has been quite encouraging. The IT firms have revived their hiring plans,” she said.

XLRI Business school to setup campus in Hyderabad

Times of India  Dt:Sep 22, 2010

Top B-school Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) of Jamshedpur on Tuesday conveyed to the state government its governing boards approval for the setting up of a state-of-the-art 75-acre campus in Jawahar Nagar on the outskirts of the city.

Every year,nearly 10,000 students appear for entrance examination to get admission to XLRI,which has 240 seats.The proposed campus,which would be constructed soon,is expected to augment intake of students in the near future.The XLRI campus would be the new neighbour of the Hyderabad chapter of BITS (Pilani).

The development comes in the wake of a three-year long persuasion by government officials and a personal invitation by chief minister K Rosaiah in August this year to the XLRI institute.The news about the governing boards approval to the proposal for an XLRI campus was conveyed by its director Fr E Abraham to chief minister K Rosaiah when the latter called on him at the Secretariat on Tuesday.

The chief minister complimented the XLRI team for responding positively to his invitation while recalling the pioneering contribution being made by the institute in terms of furthering the cause of excellence and a strong value system in education besides producing able managers that are required to build businesses and industries for the country.

The management institute would have an in-campus residential facility for both male and female students.The campus would also include a high school for children of the local area.The Hyderabad campus is being funded by a US pension fund house,whose representatives also met the chief minister to inform him about their association with the institute.