Bring on the cheerleadering pom pom brigade, it's ?Rah Rah? time for Desi (home-grown) firms, as two US-listed Indian companies i.e. Cognizant Technology and EXLService, make it to the world's 100-?hot growth? firms that boast of significant growth potential.



Both, Cognizant and EXLService are among ten software and services firms to appear in the list of global firms. While Cognizant, head-quartered in USA, with most of its operations, including 75% of its workforce in India, managed to snatch 15th position, with EXLService ranking 57th in the annual list, BusinessWeek published in its latest issue. A list that is led by Heelys Inc., maker of wheeled sneakers that kids use for skating.

Using Standard and Poor's database of 10,000-public firms with gross revenues worth $50-million to $1.5-billion per year, the rankings are based on three year sales and earnings growth, including return on capital.

Only firms with a market cap of $-25 million dollars or more, and a stock price of at least $5 were considered for the list. The magazine was quick to point out, ?profit or stock price shortfalls, or news that put prospects in doubt, may knock a company off the list.?

Cognizant, with more than 43,000 employees, has consistently racked up better growth rates than its larger rivals, according to the US-based magazine.

The first quarter of this year, saw Cognizant, the fifth-largest Indian IT firm's turnover rise by 61% to $460-million. ?It has outperformed its peers, because it has deftly targeted a handful of industry segments where demand for <---****HYPERLINK****--->"http://www.offshoreoutsourcingworld.com">off-shore outsourcing is strongest, including financial services, health care, and pharmaceuticals,? to quote the the magazine.

While, wage inflation and rupee appreciation continue to be matters of concern, making Indian labour more expensive, Cognizant has adopted a modestly restrained attitude in respect of its hiring activities. Quite evident by Francisco D'Souza, Cognizant's newly promoted CEO, reducing by a 1,000, the 17,000 people he planned to hire this year.

EXLService, the other Indian entry in the list and listed in US only last year, has a total headcount of close to 8,200-employees, with the Indian firm reporting an 85% jump i.e. $40-million in its first quarter revenue.

Founded in 1999, EXLService provides a vast range of BPO solutions like transaction-processing services and Internet and voice-based customer care services to Global 1000 firms in banking, <---****HYPERLINK****--->"http://www.offshoreoutsourcingworld.com">financial services and insurance segments.

With a market cap of close to $540-million, EXLService has a long way to catch up to Cognizant's $11-billion.

According to BusinessWeek, Cognizant has been on the list six years running, including seven times since 1985, when the list was first launched. While, bigger competitors like Wipro and Infosys, other <---****HYPERLINK****--->"http://www.offshoreoutsourcingworld.com">Indian IT majors offer stiff competition, despite that the IT services provider continues to offer ?better, faster, cheaper? services than other IT outfits. ?And, being better and faster than the next guy is what ?Hot Growth? is all about.?

India Inc. is coming into its own, as it consistently finds new entrants into Top Ten or Top Hundred global lists. It is capable of ruling the world, as long as the sub-continent's ignorant and corrupt politicians, including the rank and file of its Babudom do not let it down each time. Case in point, the most recent slap in the face from the Chinese Government regarding visa issuance for a study group consisting of 108-Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers to China.

Shouldn't the Ministry of External Affairs officials have had a better grasp of the history, including mental and cultural make-up of the countries they have diplomatic relations with. Were they oblivious to the fact that China with its burgeoning population and shrinking land resources is on an expansion spree. Did the ?Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai? rumblings that have been heard of late, put them off-guard, leading them to request China to issue a visa for an Arunachal Pradesh cadre IAS officer. The Chinese encroach on 20-km. and more of Arunachal Pradesh land, and the only response from the Indian government and the MEA is that its nothing to worry about, it happens frequently and then the Chinese move back to their former positions.

Well, you idiots, that could be just to lull your suspicions. A wily lot who have their match in the West, the Chinese will not give up until they have snatched Arunachal Pradesh from right under your noses. You let them flood the Indian market with cheap, tacky goods, while our own factories and businesses go under. How can you be so na've at the expense of your own countrymen. I reiterate, those in positions of power are a weak, cowering lot, total wimps, who cannot take a tough stand and tell the Chinese and the West where to get off.

Time and time again, they make Indians the laughing stock of the world. While, India's private sector has focused the world's attention and earned its respect, India's Legislature, Executive and Judicial organs continue to let it down. Salaries, standard of living, expenditure per capita may have gone up, but ?we the people?, continue to suffer at the hands of politicians and bureaucrats, who seem to have forgotten the days of Goonda Raj should long be over. Pockets continue to be lined, as they hobnob, protect and count the criminal element of the Indian Mafia, amongst their closest friends.

Well, ?we the people? are tired as red tape continues to hamper and slow us down, tired of paying hard-earned money to get a simple job done, tired of those who buy and sell justice, tired of the government Mafia that makes life a daily grind. Perhaps, if the terrorists who attacked Parliament House had succeeded, it might just have been a good thing. In one fell swoop, they would have rid us of all the criminal element lining the corridors of power. A clean, new government would have been elected, and this time round, we would vow it would remain clean, as power lay in the hands of those who elect them, not those who are elected. They would have no option, but to do what is best for the nation and its people, not what serves their personal interests!

Can that miracle ever happen, yes, if ?we the people? join forces and do a ?Rang de Basanti? if we have to! Go India Go! Forge your own Destiny as India Inc. has done! And, let us take another vow that there will be no slaps on our face, such as, the Chinese refusing a visa to an IAS officer belonging to Arunachal Pradesh cadre. Knowledge is Power, and politicians and IAS officials alike, have to be far more knowledgeable than the ordinary man on the street. If, they aspire to their positions of power, they should have what it takes and much, much more.

And, while Indians get deported and sent back home for minor visa infringements, what do the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs do, not understanding that ?common-law wife? does not mean a legally wedded wife, they issue a visa to a foreigner without checking the details. As a consequence, a carpenter's daughter, a woman from a common peasant background, a blue collar worker, who came to India with her Dutch partner and seduced by the luxurious living India offered in comparison to her own Netherlands, continues to wreak havoc, getting away with murder and attempted murder for property and money. Despite all odds, the police and government officials refuse to revoke her visa, even as the Americans have deported an Indian couple, denying them immigration status, even though they spent 10-years in the USA as students, and their 10-year old son was born in USA. Today, he remains behind with relatives, while his parents have been deported to India.

But, the Indian government and police do little in the case of MARIA CATHARINA HEEMSKERK, who continues to wreak disaster and inspire misfortune on the Indian family, whose son she zeroed in on due to his immense property holdings, destroying his marriage, separating two baby girls from their father, all for money, as she laboured under the delusion, she could get him to sell the property, set her up in Netherlands, and once the entire cash was in her hands, boot him back to India. She holds him to ransom, emotionally blackmailing him with the threat, his two children born on Indian soil would be taken away to Netherlands, if he did not do as she tells him.

What do the wimps who have the power to deport her do, even while ensuring the children, born in India and, therefore, Indian citizens do not leave the country, they keep silent, as Madam labouring under another delusion that she is a Princess, due to a flaw in Indian thinking that every uneducated, blue collar Westerner is far superior to any well-educated, high-bred Indian, and having lain with a scion of one of India's petty princely states, including a good looking, well-educated, suave and from a good background IAS officer, dictates her own terms, even as she spirits Indian funds into an overseas bank account.

Oh, well! What can one say, but hope next time round, MEA officials will get their act together, not falling for the ?Hindi Chini, Bhai Bhai!?Nehruvian myth ,or for that matter believe westerners are in India, because they love the Indian culture and our country. Wake up and smell the coffee! They are only here, because the economic opportunities in their countries are dwindling, unemployment is rife, while India offers them everything, a well-paid job, palatial houses, servants, plentiful savings, including respect they are so short of in their own countries. Nothing in their home countries, they are elevated to great prominence in India, as they are chased by movie producers to the ordinary man. As, I overheard one Danish intern telling another intern from Canada of an Indian girl who asked him to be her friend: ?They love to chase us whites. To have a white friend is a kind of a status symbol for them!? Puhleese! And, I was called rude for ticking him off soundly, telling him not to misunderstand Indian hospitality and simple naiveness for something quite different!

When will we Indians learn to respect and be loyal to our own country and our people. When will we stop holding those in high esteem, who are unfit to be called either friend or foe! That time is not too far distant, as India's economic success and jobs aplenty, imbue India's Next Gen with brimming over confidence, secure in the knowledge their education, prowess and sheer smarts can get them far! In the not so distant past, no Indian dreamt of a salary package worth Rs. 1-crore plus per annum. Today, freshly graduated Next Gen Indians are turning down Goldman Sachs and other such offers, to return to their home country, where a Rs. 1-crore per annum salary is no longer a distant dream, but an every day reality! ?We the people? only ask that the politicians and Babudom let those dreams be realised!

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