Founded:     1945
Headquarters:     Bangalore, India
Key people:     Azim Premji, Chairman and Managing Director
Industry:     Computer Services
Products:     Computer hardware
Revenue:     $2.39 billion USD (2006)
Employees:     50,000 (2005)
Website:     www.wipro.com

Wipro Technologies, the Global IT Services division of Wipro Limited NYSE: WIT (incorporated 1946, in operation since 1945) is an India-based global IT services, IT solutions and technology services center. It has its headquarters in Bangalore, India and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange of India and the New York Stock Exchange. As of 2004, it was the 4th largest company in the world in terms of market capitalization in IT services.

With revenue in the excess of US $2 billion it makes Wipro one of India’s major Information Technology companies. Wipro has 54 dedicated development centers across India, Europe, United States and also has 30 offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In India, Wipro has operations in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon etc.

Azim Premji, Chairman and Managing Director of Wipro is said to have been responsible for expanding and diversifying this company from an FMCG company which made Vanaspati Oil, soaps and other consumer products into a IT services company as it is today.

Wipro, along with other Indian IT Services Companys like Infosys and TCS are spearheading India’s booming Business Processing Outsourcing(BPO) sector.

Wipro Limited achieved a PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMM Level 5 certification as an IT Services Company in 1995.

History

Wipro was set up in the backdrop of the small town of Amalner in Maharashtra in 1945. Primarily an oil factory, the chief products were Sunflower Vanaspati and 787 laundry soap (a by-product of the Vanaspati operations). The company was called Western India Vegetable Products Limited, with a modest presence in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

In the 1970s Wipro embarked on an ambitious phase of expansion and diversification.

It was in the early eighties that Wipro made its foray into the Infotech arena. An energetic, committed team of professional R & D and marketing managers came together in Bangalore in 1980. It should be noted that most of these R & D computer professionals and marketing managers were dragged enmass from Electronics Corporation of India Limited Hyderabad, who were pioneer in research and development of indigenous first computer hardware, system software, telecom applications etc. Indeed Wipro, HCL, Indchem, Hinditron all should be indebted to ECIL for providing such a high calibre R and D managers, when experienced infotech manpower was not available in the country. With this began the Wipro Infotech story. In a small lab at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the team developed the first Indian 8086 chip.

Time Line

Wipro Limited was incorporated in 1945 and commenced its operations in 1946. Significant milestones are:

* 1945: Incorporation of Western India Vegetable Products Limited.
* 1947: An oil mill and hydrogenated cooking medium plant set up.
* 1966: Azim Premji takes over the leadership of Wipro at the age of 21.
* 1975: Wipro Fluid Power set up to manufacture hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders.
* 1977: Name of the company changed to Wipro Products Limited.
* 1980: Information technology services for domestic market started.
* 1981: Hardware company is launched.
* 1982: Name of the company changed to Wipro Limited.
* 1984: Software products subsidiary - Wipro Systems Ltd. - established.
* 1985: Toilet soaps manufacture begins.
* 1988: Wipro BioMed, a new business unit to market and service bio-analytical and diagnostic instruments, is launched.
* 1989: Joint venture with GE of US for medical systems, Wipro GE Medical Systems Ltd.
* 1990: Product software business discontinued; software services begin.
* 1992: Lighting business and finance arm is established.
* 1994: Merger of subsidiaries Wipro Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Systems Ltd. with Wipro Ltd.
* 1998: Relaunch of Wipro identity with Rainbow Flower and positioning statement, “Applying Thought”.
* 1999: Software business reaches SEI certification.
* 1999: Wipro Net set up by restructuring Wipro Ltd.’s communication services business to address the Internet market.
* 2000: Listing of Wipro Ltd.’s ADRs on New York Stock Exchange.
* 2000: Six Sigma initiative begun.
* 2001: Wipro becomes world’s first PCMM Level 5 company.
* 2002: Wipro becomes CMMi.
* 2005: Wipro becomes a 2 billion $ company.

Vijaya Bank steadily grew into a large All India bank, with nine smaller banks merging with it between 1963-68. The credit for this merger as well as growth goes to Shri M.Sunder Ram Shetty, who was then the Chief Executive of the bank. The bank was nationalised on 15 April 1980. The bank has built a network of 913 branches that span all 29 states and three union territories in the country.

Founded:     1872
Headquarters:     Mumbai
Key people:     Subodh Bhargava (Chairman), N. Srinath (Executive Director)
Industry:     Telecommunication
Products:     International Voice, Enterprise Services and Consumer broadband,
Revenue:     $ 780 Million (2004)
Website:     www.vsnl.in

VSNL’s roots date back to two telegraph companies, Eastern Telegraph Co. (ETC) (founded 1872) and Indian RadioTelegraph Co. (IRT)(1927). The two merged in 1932 to form Indian Radio and Cable Communications Co. (IRCC). VSNL was incorporated on April 1, 1986 as a wholly owned government entity under the Indian Companies Act, 1956.

In 2002 the Indian Government privatized VSNL . The Tata Group group acquired a controlling stake in VSNL and the government holds a minority stake. The company offers its products and services under the brand name Tata Indicom in India. The company stock is now traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange and also trades in the United States as an American Depository Receipt (ADR) under the ticker symbol VSL. Revenues for the financial year 2004 stood at approximately 780 Million USD.

Operations

The company operates landing stations, undersea cables, ISP POP’s, managed services, leased lines and datacenters across India. VSNL was the first company in India to start offering dial-up internet access in 1995 and had about 3-4 million dialup users at the beginning of 2005. Previously it also handled the allocation of bandwidth for the other ISP’s in India.

The company acquired successful Internet service provider Dishnet DSL, a broadband provider in India. VSNL has been active on the global bandwidth scene. It bought assets of Tyco Global Network for $130 million USD on November 1, 2004

On July 25, 2005 acquired Bermuda based Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd. for $239 million USD

Today VSNL provides Long distance services, Dial Up ISP services and ADSL Broadband services for residential customers and Leased lines (IP and dedicated), Wavelengths, Managed hosting and Global MPLS and MDNS services for business customers.

With the new acquisitions VSNL today is the third largest carrier of voice traffic worldwide behind AT&T and MCI.

VSNL has since been chosen as 26 % owner of the Second Network Operator to take on South  fixed line monopoly, Telkom

Beyond India, Videocon is now a global player, acknowledged by the world. It is the first Indian company to win the prestigious CE approval for exporting its Color TV to Europe. Videocon is now entering world market with its operations in the Middle East, Europe, Indonesia and South Africa .

Videocon is the largest seller of Big Screen Colour Televisions in India and exports more than 1 million Colour Televisions.

In June 2005, Videocon Group India acquired Thomson SA’s colour picture tube manufacturing business for €240m.

Location: Bangalore, India
Owner: Dr.Vijay Mallya
Year opened: 1857

The group is headed by Dr.Vijay Mallya who is also a member of the Indian Parliament. United Beverages now has a near-monopoly over the Indian brewing market, thanks to its recent takeover of the rival Shaw-Wallace company. The group owns the Mendocino Brewing Company in the United States.

In The year 1980 The TVS 50, India’s first two-seater moped was rolled out.

TVS Motor Company is the first two-wheeler manufacturer in the world to be honoured The Deming Prize for Total Quality Management.

TV Sundram Iyengar and Sons Limited (TVS) is the holding company for the TVS Group of companies engaged in the manufacturing of almost all kinds of automotive components, two wheelers and a few other industrial products. They are also into the financial services sector. The turnover of the entire group was close to $2 billion in 2003.

TVS was founded by the T.V. Sundaram Iyengar back in 1911.

It is the only automotive manufacture in India to get the prestigious Deming award. Its group company Sundaram Clayton was the first company in India to receive the Deming award. It went on to be awarded the Japan Quality Medal. This medal is only awarded to companies for continuous improvement in quality practice after they have received the Deming award.

In 1980 TVS 50, India’s first two-seater moped rolled out of the factory at Hosur in Tamil Nadu, Southern India.A byword for reliability, the TVS 50 had proved itself promising and successful in every test and paved a way for many successes for TVS Suzuki. Likewise the TVS champ and super Champ gave a reliable and sturdy two wheeler to public, who wanted looks fused with economy. These two wheelers together redefined the category of mopeds in India.

TVS later left its collaboration with Suzuki and started to manufacture its own vehicles

The consolidated worldwide branded tea business of the Tata Tea Group contributes to around 86 per cent of its consolidated turnover with the remaining 14 per cent coming from Bulk Tea, Coffee, and Investment Income. The Company is headquartered in Kolkata and owns 27 tea estates in the states of Assam and West Bengal in eastern India, and Kerala in the south.

The Tetley Group has been a member of the Tata Group since March 2000 and now contributes around two thirds of the total turnover of Tata Tea Ltd.

Established in 1837, Tetley was the first British tea company to introduce the tea bag to the UK in 1953.The tea bag was followed by the first round tea bag in 1989, and the ‘no drip, no mess’ Drawstring bag in 1997

Tata Tea and Tata Coffee are listed on Mumbai and National Stock Exchnages of India.

Titan Industries has claimed to have manufactured the world’s slimmest wrist watch - Titan Edge. Produced indigenously after four years of intensive research and development, the Titan Edge has a total slimness of just 3.5 mm and a wafer thin movement of 1.15 mm.

Apart from the Titan Edge, Titan also offers Steel, Regalia, Raga, Fastrack, Technology, Nebula, Bandhan and Sonata.

Titan has launched its premium watch brand Xylys.

Titan watches have been made famous by the melodious advertisements based on Mozart’s 25th symphony, 1st movement.

Over the years, TEIL has grown into a major Engineering, Procurement and Construction company and today offers services to the Oil and Gas, Refinery, Petrochemical, Fertiliser and Chemical, Polymers, Pharmaceuticals, Information Technology, Power Plants sectors in India and elsewhere, both independently and in association with TEC.

TEIL is located in Mumbai (Bombay), India in a new generation premises with an office space of approx 10,000 m². TEIL has branch offices in Delhi and Abu Dhabi.

Type:     Public
Founded:     1968
Headquarters:     Mumbai, India
Key people:     Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Board, S Ramadorai, CEO & MD
Industry:     Information Technology
Products:     See complete products listing.
Revenue:     US $ 2.97 Billion
Employees:     more than 70,000 (2006 August)
Website:     http://www.tcs.com

Maitree is the social service wing of TCSL.

TCS is part of one of Asia’s largest conglomerates - the Tata Group - which has interests in Energy, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Chemicals, Engineering & Materials to name a few.

TCS was conferred the best IT employer award by Hewitt Associates and best place to work award by Dataquest. CEO Ramadorai got the Businessman of the Year award from Business India in 2004. He has also been conferred the prestigious Padma Bhushan by the Government of India recently.

History

Tata Consultancy Services was established in 1968. Mr. Fakir Chand Kohli, an accomplished Power Engineer, was brought in as the first General Manager of Tata Consultancy Services, from the erstwhile Tata Electric Companies (and now The Tata Power Company Limited), where he was a Deputy General Manager.

TCS’ first software export project was undertaken in 1974 when it converted the Hospital Information System from Burroughs Medium Systems COBOL to Burroughs Small Systems COBOL. This project was carried out entirely in TCS Mumbai on the ICL 1903 Computer. A team of more than 12 people delivered this project to their first US based customer, and thus the Indian Software Export Industry was born.

Business areas

TCS serves the following industry and business areas:

1. Banking
2. Business Process Outsourcing
3. eBusiness
4. Engineering and Industrial Services
5. Energy and Utilities
6. Financial Services
7. Life Sciences and Health Care
8. Infrastructure Services
9. Insurance
10. Media and Entertainment
11. Manufacturing
12. Quality and IT Process Consulting
13. Telecom
14. Retail and Consumer goods
15. Security
16. Energy and Utility
17. Transportation

TCS has recently bagged an application maintenance project from ABN AMRO worth US$250 million, which is the largest deal signed by an Indian IT Company.TCS has also successfully implemented E-governance projects in various states like Andhra Pradesh. TCS has also won several multi million dollar deal in the domestic market . One example is the $250 Mn deal with Tata Teleservices. The company has recently done some strategic acquisitions like FNS,Tata Infotech & Comicrom which will boost its offerings to the market.The integration with Tata Infotech was completed on February 1st.

Prominent business units

Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC)

The TRDDC unit is the centre for R&D work, mostly for Internal use of TCS. The products developed are focussed on the software development life-cycle, and include Modelling and Code Generation tools.

Active work is going on to integrate the products into the popular Eclipse Integration Framework.

In addition, TRDDC is also involved in the areas of language processing, formal methods, and research on Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support.

On account of the ongoing diversification effort, the other centres situated in India have also begun R&D facilities; the centre in Hyderabad is called Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) carries out work on e-Security related issues and bioinformatics.

* TRDDC_Software_Tools- Contains a brief description of the tools

Indian branches

Currently (2006), TCS has branches in the following Indian cities: Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram,Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Pune, Jamshedpur, Gandhinagar, Coimbatore, Kochi, Gurgaon, NOIDA and Bhubaneswar.

Global Units

It has offices in about 35 countries including Argentina, USA, UK, Brazil, China, Japan, Hungary, Germany, UAE, South Africa, Uruguay, Portugal, Spain, Singapore, Australia and France