Why Women Worry So Much

Scientists have known that on the whole, females of all ages tend to worry more and have more intense worries than males. Women also tend to perceive more risk in situations and grow more anxious than men.

Now we know why.

Women are more likely than men to believe that past experiences accurately forecast the future, according to two new studies.



The research, involving both 3- to 6-year-olds and adults of both genders, tested the extent to which participants' thought that worry can be caused by thinking that a bad event that happened in the past could happen again in the future. (This skill, in its simplest form, is critical to social understanding as it is important to making decisions and assessing risk.)

For the first study, subjects listened to six stories that featured characters harmed by another person or animal in the story. Many days later, the character felt worried or changed their behavior when confronted with the same wrongdoer who had hurt them before. (For example, if one little boy stole a toy from another, the child might be worried when he saw that boy again and hide the new toy he was playing with.)

The second study was the same, except that the person or animal the character ran across later only looked similar to the one that had harmed them before.
At the end of each story, the participants were asked to explain why the character was worried or changed their behavior.

Females, both children and adults, were more likely to use uncertainty to explain the character's reaction, that is, they tended to explain the reaction in terms of events that might happen versus those that will happen, the researcher reported. They also tended, more than males, to predict that the characters who encountered the new character who looked similar to the wrongdoer would feel worried because they thought the new character would also do them harm.

The studies, detailed in the Sept./Oct. issue of the journal Child Development, also found that children increasingly made these kinds of past-to-future connections as they got older, which yields insight into their cognitive development.

"These results are significant because they reveal that knowledge about the impact of past-to-future thinking on emotions and behaviors develops during the preschool years," said study author Kristin Lagattuta of the University of California, Davis.

Source: Live Science

Advertising can be outsourced

Advertising sector is no different. Outsourcing across categories works on few basic parameters. Financial as well as resource efficiencies and talent. The advertising sector is no different. The need to communicate brand strategies and fulfill marketing objectives is under tremendous pressure at any given point in time. This has to do with the rapidly changing dynamics of the market everywhere.

So, it’s inevitable that marketers are going to look for the best possible efficient methods of running the show. Outsourcing is an outcome of that. There are already enough advertising agencies across India doing work for global brands.

The reasons are simple, we work faster; we multitask; we speak the English language; our ability to absorb different cultures is higher; our costs are not as high as in other markets. All of these are very important factors when it comes to advertising in a highly competitive environment.

South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East have, for a large part of this year and the last, been using centralised communication resources from India to create and execute advertising. For Unilever, LG, HSBC, P&G, to name a few, this kind of brand communication has worked both qualitatively and quantitatively. So, there is no reason why advertising can’t be outsourced.

Artwork and printing outsourcing is another huge area where we will soon see a large number of entrepreneurs setting up shops. The amount of money that the company outsourcing saves is huge. At the same time, the amount of money the outsourced agency makes is also huge. So, it’s a win-win all the way.

It’s a global economy and let us face it. Sooner or later outsourcing is going to be a full-fledged reality of the business. We should be prepared for it. Today, with the Internet available everywhere, there is no reason why we can’t have a force of talented people, servicing and creating global brand campaigns that surpass the boundaries of the regions and the world.

'Nobody has proved that Ram did not exist'

Vishwa Hindu Parishad General Secretary Praveen Togadia talks to Nistula Hebbar on Ram, the Ram Sethu and the VHP-Bharatiya Janata Party relationship.

You have raised the Ram Sethu issue in the past, but your point of view has got a boost because of the government's controversial affidavit, rather than the movement itself?

Our movement has got a boost from the faith of the people, not from anything that the government has done to undermine Ram. The government may have precipitated matters by its blasphemous affidavit, but the underlying anger among the people was there to begin with. The media was not aware of the movement but people have supported us fully.

What do you say to people who say that Ram is a mythical character and that he never existed?

According to rationalists, anything that cannot be proven does not exist. Therefore, since God's existence has not been proven, he too does not exist. I want to ask them: Has it been proven that God does not exist? So, why are you so eager to believe that God does not exist? To compare the history of Islam or Christianity to that of Hinduism is not fair. Those are products of fairly young civilisations, not like Hinduism, which is a product of the oldest living civilisation in the world.

You have said that the government has deliberately filed a blasphemous affidavit in court. Why?

The government filed that affidavit on September 11 and the VHP organised a chakka jam (road blockade) on September 12. Had the affidavit been filed by mistake, the government would have withdrawn it immediately. Instead, after it realised that it had offended Hindus beyond breaking point, it had to withdraw the affidavit. This clearly illustrates the intentions of the government.

The National Democratic Alliance government initiated the Ram Sethu project. Don't you think you should protest against them as well?

The NDA government had not approved the project, and I refuse to believe that it would. They, like us, have not been against the (Ram Sethu) canal, but against a channel. We too are not opposed to the project per se, but the destruction of the Ram Sethu. We are for a land route which will save the Ram Sethu. If there are alternative routes, we too are in favour of the project.

What about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's remarks on the veracity of Ram and his engineering degree? What about attacks on his family?

Karunanidhi is a known atheist, so there is no surprise if he denies the existence of Ram. The people of Tamil Nadu will give a fitting reply to his words as Ram's appeal cuts across caste and regional lines. As for the attacks on him and the Tamil Nadu state transport bus, no VHP worker was involved. Someone engineered the attacks to discredit us. Ours is a peaceful movement. Even during the September 12 chakka jam, there was no violence.

There are other issues people have against the Ram Sethu, like the destruction of marine ecology and the plight of fishermen in the area. Why aren't you highlighting them?

We are and what's more, the fishermen at Rameshwaram and Dhanushkodi, among them Hindus, Muslims and Christians, are supporting us. I have met many of them and even the communist party-led fishermen's union is opposing the Ram Sethu project.

You have said that this movement will not depend on other organisations. Are you going to keep it a VHP-specific movement?

This is not a VHP-specific movement. Over 40 Hindu organisations and many others have joined us in this movement. This is a movement for Hindus across the country.

Is the BJP a part of this Hindu coalition? There has been some talk about you not wanting the BJP to join in, looking at the way the Ram Janmabhoomi panned out, with the NDA government not doing much to build a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi.

Well, it is up to the BJP to decide whether it is a Hindu party or not, how can we decide for them? All Hindu-minded organisations are free to join us. The question of them joining the movement starts from there. For this, I am afraid you will have to direct your question to the BJP, not to me.

What if people like Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, with whom your relations are not among the best, use the Ram Sethu issue at election rallies. Would you say he is politicising it?

Narendra Modi or whoever talks about the Ram Sethu issue, whether on a political platform or otherwise, will have to examine his own motivations for doing so. For us, Ram is a matter of faith, he cannot be a political issue. But that is our stand. I cannot tell you why he will speak of the Ram Sethu, I only know what motivates me.

Much has been said about Ram as God, a man or a historical figure. What is your belief?


For me, Ram is God, a man and a historical figure. I am a practising Hindu, a believer and this comes out of my convictions. As I said earlier, rationalists only believe what can be proven. Well, nobody has proved that Ram did not exist. What crores of people believe and have believed over centuries has not been convincingly disproven. People said that Krishna did not exist, then what about the submerged Dwarka city that scientists have discovered?

What are you going to do to take this forward?

From September 28 to October 10, we will be asking Hindus and Hindu organisations from all districts across India to spread the movement, carrying with them copies of the Ramayana, the Rameshwaram Jyotirlinga and illustrations of the Ram Sethu. It will be like the Ram Shila movement all over again, with a massive mobilisation of people from all over the country.

What is the scope of this movement? Do you think that it will be as big as the movement over the Ram temple in Ayodhya?

Yes. This is going to be huge, as big as the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Our motivation and zeal are as they were during that time and the people also appear to be with us on this. Log jag gaye hain (people have awakened). This issue will have major implications on the politics and future of the country just as the Ram Janmabhoomi movement had.

For More Info:
Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/sep/25inter.htm

And the comment which made me surprised was

DMK's political twist unravelled...
by Seshadri on Sep 25, 2007 11:04 PM Hide replies

In today's "Witness" programme on NDTV, it highlights that DMK is opposed only to the "Aryan" gods... and Lord Rama, according to DMK, is one... The other Gods like Murugan, Ganesha and Shiva, Shakti are worshipped as they are all considered "Politically correct Gods"... Now, probably DMK back their concept of Aryan-Dravidan divide based on Max Muller's work... Surprisingly, the DMK do not look at the bias and controversies overlooking Max Muller's work and simply accept his theory which has proved as a trump card for their electoral battles... how clever! Another notable point is that Ravana, who is considered as a dravidan icon, is a Brahmin and a Vedic scholar, a Samavedic and an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva... DMK have hidden this point in their wardrobes! So it seems that while the DK/DMK have managed to hoodwink the guillible tamilians in their pursuit of "attaining the chair", the public, mislead by this clever political drama, are frenzied over their supremo karunanidhi and his false 'Dravidan ideologies"... Tamilians comprise the intelligent, hardworking and tolerant lot of India, but the flip side is that they are also extremely egoistic and adamant... So, now the situation is a standoff with the predominantly "backward" mass of Tamil Nadu conveniently choosing to follow the path which elevates their status, and thus are caught in an ideological dilema with having to choose between their "Salvation" leader karunanidhi and the "Disputed" Aryan concept...

Actually the point was Bizness Vs Belief.

Now the Problem has been spinned as Politically such as Aryan Vs Dravids/North India Vs South India. Bloody hell, no body thinks about the people who is living vice versa. Cant they discuss in a closed room and get it concluded? Let see who/which wins the race.

IT-Sept 2007

India to help build 2nd Silicon Valley in US
This could very well turn out to be the making of a second Silicon Valley in the US. Over 40 IT software companies who have been jostling for space and market share in the Silicon Valley are now moving on to set up Silicon Valley-II at New Jersey and Chicago backed by the commerce ministry. The government and industry would set up incubation centres in New Jersey and Chicago for providing easy operational facilities to the start-ups. The incubation centres would be set up on 50:50 financial support.

“The commerce ministry has agreed to provide support for setting up the incubation centres. The industry and government would put equal money to start the centres from where any new company can start operating without actually putting up their independent facilities,”

Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) executive director DK Sareen said. “It is for the first time ever that the government is setting up an incubation centre outside the country,” he said. Apart from providing support for setting up the centres, the government would also bear the operational cost of the facilities for a period of three years, after which the scheme would be reviewed.

“Silicon Valley is saturated. New software companies were finding it difficult to get orders and so they were in search of newer markets. Places like New Jersey and Chicago provide them an alternative,” Sareen said. Plans for setting up the first such centre in New Jersey is in its final stage and the facility would be operational by January next year, he said. “We are looking at markets where we can sell our softwares. At Silicon Valley already big software producers are there, so who’ll buy our products? Cities like New Jersey provide new marketing opportunities,” Alliance Infotech vice-president Rajendra Kukreja said.

Over 37 companies from across the country, including Alliance Infotech, Intrust Global eServices, Super Infosoft and Nippon Data Systems, have expressed their desire to start business from these centres, out of which the government is in the process of finalising a list of 20 companies, as one incubation centre could not accommodate more number of companies.

TCS plans aggressive hiring in north India

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, is planning an aggressive recruitment drive in Northern India and intends to take 3,000 at the trainee level, and offer 2,000 lateral entry by the end of the fiscal.

“The north is showing a huge manpower potential, and we plan to leverage it. The net additions for TCS this year would be 30,000-32,000 people. Of this 12,000-13,000 will be trainees, with north accounting for a healthy 25 percent ratio,” Thomas Simon, Vice-President, Human Resources, TCS said at a conference here. For the first quarter, the company’s offers in the region was pegged at 1,809, of which 70 percent came from Tier II and Tier III cities. TCS’ sourcing channels include laterals, direct trainees, campus (management graduates), science graduates, Academic Interface Programme (AIP) and campus recruitments (engineers).

Commenting on the campus talent acquisition plans for the Northern region, he said that TCS visited 41 campuses in the first quarter of the fiscal, accredited 80 institutes so far and plans to have 35 more accredited campuses by the end of FY08. Hiring would happen for positions based in the NCR region apart from Lucknow. While experienced professional hiring would be done for pre-mapped positions, the selected would be sent to Thiruvananthapuram for initial training

India OutSources to USA

The Indian Embassy in the US has contracted an American firm to outsource its visa collection and delivery processes at its five diplomatic missions from October 1.

Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen said the new system will offer "speedy and efficient" service against the backdrop of a growing number of Americans travelling to India.

Travisa Outsourcing Inc will handle the outsourcing service for the embassy in the capital and the Consuls General in Chicago, Houston, New York and San Fransisco.

Sen said the outsourcing was necessary due to rapid transformation of India-US relations in recent years which has "manifested in an unprecedented growth of business travellers, tourists and other US residents to India and the introduction of several non-stop and additional travel services between the two countries".

The burgeoning cooperation in the economic, commercial, technological, educational and cultural fields and the "increasing close bonds" of the Indian American community with their country of origin has led to increasing demands for visa and other consular services, Sen said in a statement, adding "severe constraints" posed by space and shortage of trained personnel had made it difficult to provide efficient service.

Travisa Outsourcing will charge a service fee of USD 13 per visa application and offer same day collection at its visa application centres and next day service for applications received by post. It will also have a 24/7 call centre manned by bilingual staff.

The Indian envoy also said the consular wings of the missions will continue to offer services after office hours or on holidays for emergency travel on extreme compassionate grounds 365 days a year.

Sivaji - Rocking

Having struck gold at the box office in India and abroad with Rajnikanth starrer Sivaji: The Boss, AVM Productions is trying to work out another foreign release in Malay and Chinese as dubbed versions.

But, playing it safe, S C Babu, CEO, AVM Productions insists that it is too early to make an announcement as the talks with foreign counterparts are still in early stages.

The movie is likely to be screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival in the first week of October and discussions are on to release the film in Japan with Japanese subtitles.

Rajnikanth has a strong fan base in Japan and the demand is backed by local fan following and not just Indians living in Japan.

According to Babu, the universal appeal of the music scored by A R Rahman along with the strong visual attraction (all those stunning sets created by Thota Tharani) are strong drivers for the demand for this movie in foreign countries.

The background score for the movie was recorded in Prague, Czech Republic, using local musicians by an American music conductor.

Sivaji has already been released in Malaysia in its original form (Tamil) and it has created history by beating the highest Malay grosser in the country.

Back home, the movie will complete its 100 days on September 23.

"The estimates of box office collections so far would be available only by the end of the month, " says Babu.

Rough estimates reported in the media so far range between Rs 200-450 crore, a number that the production house insists is inaccurate.

The dubbed Hindi version of the movie is also under production.

"Though there have been rumours about a Diwali release, we feel the festival would not be the right time for the release of the Hindi version. The reason being that the deadline is too short and also, we would look at a less competitive timing for the release. After all, the original Tamil version has already been released and tasted great success in the so-called northern markets," says Babu.

Sivaji has been a great success in markets like Julandhar, Lucknow and Jaipur apart from metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi.

For the Hindi dubbed version, certain parts of the movie will need to be reshot to make it relevant to the Hindi audience. Mumbai writer and lyricist Swanand Kirkire, who wrote the dialogues for movies like Eklavya and Chameli, is writing the Hindi version of Sivaji).

The television rights for the movie were recently bought by Kalaignar TV -- the yet to be launched DMK party backed TV Channel -- for an undisclosed price.

While Babu refused to discuss the subject, industry sources said that the TV rights have been sold for Rs 3-4 crore. Under the contract, the buyers reportedly cannot broadcast movie for three years.

Despite tight controls over the prints, Sivaji has already become a victim among movie pirates.

"As long as the film is in the analog version, there is very little we can do to control piracy. With 800 prints in circulation, curbing piracy is a logistic nightmare," says Babu
Thanks : Rediff

Weekly Note September 2 Week

L&T Infotech to open office in Dubai

L&T Infotech, a subsidiary of India's largest engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro, is entering the GCC with a commercial office in Dubai.

"We have already applied for a licence to set up our regional base in Dubai and, if approved, we will set up the business in few months time," Vijay K Magapu, chief executive of L&T Infotech and member of the L&T board, said.

"The IT services businesses in the Gulf is about $600 million annually and we'd like to achieve a $100 million annual turnover in three years," he was quoted as saying by the Gulf News.




Boeing may pilot captive unit in India

The $65-billion aerospace and defence behemoth, Boeing, is evaluating a captive centre and defence sub-assembly line in India apart from capturing business across the aerospace spectrum, including manufacturing, engineering, BPO, KPO, maintenance and raw material sourcing. Boeing could take the JV route to set up its captive centre or could establish it independently.

If that happens, Boeing will join a host of multinationals, which entered India through partnerships before setting up their captive centres. Boeing has partnerships with several Indian technology majors such as Infosys, TCS, Infotech, HCL and research bodies like HAL and Indian Institute of Science in India. “Targeting over $50-60 billion opportunity in the long-term across the civil and defence aviation, and with availability of skilled talent pool, I don’t see any reason why we should not have our own Boeing facility in India,” Boeing India president Ian QR Thomas said. Ian declined to divulge further details about the nature of the captive centre.

While numbers on investments and scale of operations are still in the evaluation stage and depends to some extent on multi-role combat aircraft order apart from other defence orders, Boeing globally operates an technology integration and design captive centre in Moscow. The captive centre has 1,200 engineers engaged in mission-critical work. “Globally as far as captive centres are concerned, we go for tools, technology and talent. India has the potential to emerge as an aerospace constellation,” added Thomas.

Boeing has gained traction in both Indian commercial aviation and defence space with the US major running for $10-billion order for the purchase of 126 multi-role combat aircraft. Boeing has also submitted a proposal to develop and deliver eight long-range maritime reconnaissance and antisubmarine warfare aircraft to the Indian Navy. The Boeing P-8I Multi-mission maritime aircraft, a variant of the US Navy’s P-8A, is currently under consideration by the MOD for India’s maritime requirements.


Customer is today looking at an end solution

IBM employs more than 40,000 by far the highest among the global IT giants. Shanker Annaswamy, IBM India’s managing director talks on its India strategy.

The IBM chairman had announced $6 billion FDI last year. How is that going?

After the chairman’s (Sam Palmisano) announcement, we explained that the milestones are really about bringing investment into India both from global strategic point of view and also from domestic point of view. We talked about bringing in a very high-end system and technology lab, which will bring in tremendous capabilities of our mainframe and other servers and storages into the country. Customers can bring their technical team to network with ours. That has been completed. It is a high-technology high-investment lab.

We also talked about a research centre purely focusing on telecom. India gave us a great model through the Bharti relationship. That business model is again unique for doing telecom research. How do you do a call for two cents, or less than two cents, and yet make money was a big revelation. It is not just about pricing. It is also about how you bring an on-demand solution to this kind of a dynamic market.

Those are the stuff we are looking at. The next milestone was the high-performance-on-demand solutions lab (Hi-pods). This is the lab where really high-performance solutions are brought in and the customers can network through the lab with the entire technical team across the world. Then they can leverage that.

This lab is again in Bangalore. We have recently opened in Delhi another lab called the industry solutions lab. That is largely to address the domestic market. When we looked at the domestic market we felt we should go more and more towards a solutions approach. We are great in point products like servers and storage and stuff like that. But no longer is the customer buying a point product. He is looking at an end solution. So how do you, for example, demonstrate solutions in banking or future solutions in retail?

How do you assess the domestic demand for your services?

In the domestic market we are looking at telecom, banking, BPO, infrastructure solution, retail and government. We are building up solutions for the Delhi airport, which we won against tough competition. Real estate is another example in the infrastructure category. We are looking at retail where we have core competency. In banking, apart from core banking, we are looking at payment systems. We are also looking at branch productivity, Basel II. We announced a core banking deal with Canara Bank a few years ago. There is a huge opportunity in the government. We won the CBDT infrastructure deal, which is going well.

Very interesting things are happening in e-governance. More than 15 state governments are working on e-governance projects. The challenge is to expand them, make them scalable. If there is a treasury or land record work we have done, how can we replicate it? Then there is the SME segment. I think India’s big growth will come from the SMEs and unless we enable them we would be missing out on a big opportunity. That is why we recently launched with ICICI the SME tool kit. There is micro-financing. We are working with the Jan Lakhmi group. IBM can contribute in each of these to make a difference through the globally integrated enterprise framework.

IBM is the most visible MNC challenger to the famous Indian challenge pioneered by TCS, Infy and Wipro. Are you satisfied with the way things have gone?

From whatever we have publicly stated, we are extremely happy with India and its model. It is a key component of the globally integrated enterprise model. In the business model of IBM, emerging economies contribute to a sizeable portion of the growth. If the IBM corporation is looking at 6%-7% growth, they look at contribution from emerging markets as a certain portion, which would be high. What really impresses the corporation is the rate of growth. We declared recently that we grew in Q2 45%, which is faster than the market and therefore gaining share. And our strategic outsourcing we grew almost 150%. And, large and small put together, we announced eight deals in the first half of the year.




'We're confident Oracle will grow fast here'

India is one of the fastest growing markets for Oracle in terms of revenue, as well as being its largest research and development presence outside the US. Krishnan Dhawan, managing director, Oracle India spoke on the company’s plans.

Excerpts

India is the fourth largest market for Oracle in the Asia Pacific (APAC). What plans does the company have to make it one of the top three?

India and China continue to be the high growth markets for Oracle in the APAC region. Given the outlook for future economic growth and with continuing increase in IT adoption, we are confident that our business in India will grow fast. (According to market intelligence firm IDC, Oracle had 72 percent of the database market in India in 2006, a 79 percent year-on-year growth rate)

Though Oracle is the market leader in India in several segments, you have been losing ground in a few, especially in areas like ERP and SMB...

We have over 4,500 customers in the SMB space. Last year, we put in place a high growth city initiative, as part of which we established points of presence in the non-metro, high growth cities in India, taking our presence to over 20 cities. We managed to win over 300 new customers in the database and middleware space and empanel 70 new partners because of this.

We also launched the global Oracle Accelerate programme in India earlier this year to help take industry vertical-specific applications to our customers with the help of partners. Two of our certified partners, Zensar and EBZ Online, have launched special market initiatives to take ERP to small manufacturing companies and banks, respectively.

In addition, we are introducing new business models aimed specifically at the SMB market, such as CRM (customer relationship management) on demand and hosted ERP solutions. These will enable SMBs to benefit from the use of the technology without having to undertake large upfront investments.

What is the Emerald India initiative?

Emerald India is an initiative to identify key India-specific innovation and market opportunities and put in place strategies to meet those requirements. The launch of our e-governance centre, the launch of Think.com in Hindi, an SMB penetration focused programme, are all part of this initiative.

Any more acquisition plans in India?

We are not in a position to comment on our future plans.




In conversation with Phaneesh Murthy, CEO iGATE

When many sections of industry were facing a crisis due to the rupee appreciation, iGATE was ready to face the menacing wave. The company constantly reviewed its hedging strategies in an attempt not to be worse off than what the economic factors dictate. In an exclusive interview with Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGATE this newspaper found out what makes this company stand high despite the crisis. Murthy, who took over as CEO of iGATE Global Solutions in August 2003 has pioneered the iTOPS (integrated technology and operations) model in iGATE. A graduate of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A), Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai Murthy was a member of the board, worldwide head of sales and marketing, and head of the communications and product solutions group at Infosys.

Excerpts from an interview with Murthy

Rupee appreciation is becoming a serious concern for all companies. How has iGATE tackled the issue? What are the measures you have put in place?

We have taken several measures to combat structural changes taking place in the rupee–dollar parity and its consequential impact on our business. For over a year we have been attempting to include exchange rate provisions in customer contracts that would make material changes in the exchange rates trigger a discussion to relook at the pricing and we have had fair degree of support from customers. We are tightly monitoring the benchmark — in the last quarter alone we could improve our utilisation by over 350 basis points. Our strategy is de-risking from currency concentration and in the last couple of years we have grown our Canadian operations in North America. Our focus is to expand euro revenues in the future.

Do you see a decrease in the operating profit margin due to the rupee appreciation? How has this affected iGATE?

In the last two quarters when the rupee appreciation was the steepest, our margins were better than expected. We could recoup much of the impact as a result of the mitigating measures we undertook to protect margins. As long as the appreciation is not steep we will not be too concerned, as I believe our margins will be protected.

Out of your total inflows, how much do you hedge? Has there been a change in the hedging strategy?

We have been more closely monitoring our hedging strategies from October 2005. Since then, we have always had almost all of our forward six months net inflow of dollars hedged. Recently, we have even covered a significant portion of longer-term inflows — 12 to 24 months. We have a system of evaluating our hedging actions against benchmarked positions. We constantly review hedging strategies in an attempt not to be worse off than what the economic factors dictate.

Coming to the subprime lending crisis, how has it affected you? Ten percent of your revenue came from mortgage space a couple of quarters ago, and is down to 7 percent in the recent quarter. What is your take on this?

iGATE’s revenues from mortgage services seem to be flattening at the current levels. However, these revenues continue to be at risk in view of the on-going subprime market turmoil. The subprime loan originations in the US have almost ceased and the demand for origination services have dried up. We do not expect this to change in the short term. We would keep focus on mortgage service offerings as our delivery platform and unique pricing model would provide us the means to seize the opportunity that may arise as a fall-out of this crisis