This is the second successful year of the “SG GSC India Talent Scholarship‟ program. This year it received around 150 applications from the top institutes in India out of which the top ten deserving students received the scholarship. SG GSC leadership team selected the scholarship recipients after face to face interview and after evaluating various factors like academic performance, need, impact and the potential recipient ambitions.
The chosen students represent Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; Indian Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli and Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; and International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore.

The unique element of this program is its unqualified and unconditional objective of grooming future leaders and to this end, its mentorship program that assigns each student to an individual senior manager in the company.
The mentors help the students to navigate through their course with proper career counselling and support given in multiple ways via trainings like “Campus to Corporate‟, where they are career counselled and improve their people and interview skills.

“One year later, when I look back, I realize that financial support was just a part of the promise that SG GSC had made and honoured. Fresh out of college, not knowing a bit about corporate life, SG has equipped me to face the future with confidence through its counselling and mentoring” said Saba Rahman from IIM-B, the last year qualifier of the programme.
Deepa Ravi from IIIT-B said that “This program is a unique blend of academic guidance and corporate opportunity. I personally had consulted my mentor regarding my choice with respect to courses in the second semester of my PG (MTech – IT) and he patiently guided me through. I was given an opportunity to croon my skills under his auspices, i.e., my project elective involved developing a web based tool and I got a live project which I could work on and develop an exciting tool”

“I consider myself privileged to be awarded this scholarship. SG GSC Talent scholarship not only helped me financially but also took care of my needs of being coached and mentored. Before coming to IIMK, I always had to work on part time basis to fund my education. Thanks to SG GSC, I did not have to worry about funding any of my academic expenses here and I could do better in my studies. Moreover, to fulfil my career aspirations, I was sponsored to go for a student’s exchange program in Italy” said Ashish from IIM-K.

Nippi Kochhar, Chief Executive Officer of SG GSC said, “Last year was fulfilling as the program successfully met its objective of mentoring the students in the right direction. This year, with expanded association with other premium institutes, we will be able reach out more deserving students. Our experience has made this programme even more open and strong to enable and harness India‟s tremendous intellectual capital”.
“We are committed to ensuring that deserving students should not be denied the opportunity to study at IIMB due to lack of funds- as such, we very much appreciate the initiative taken by Societe Generale to provide scholarships to our students.” said Professor Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM Bangalore. ”Five of our students from the PGP Class of 2012 have benefitted from this scheme, both in terms of mentoring as well as the financial support that they received. We look forward to continuing to be associated with SG and to take forward this very novel initiative.” he added.
“We welcome Societe Generale‟s generous endowment which will provide two full scholarships to our students. At ISB, we have always realized the importance of academia and industry working in tandem to ensure that deserving students get access to high quality management education irrespective of their financial backgrounds. Societe Generale‟s contribution reaffirms our belief and will support our efforts in grooming future business leaders.” said Deputy Dean Mr. Deepak Chandra.

Samir K Barua, Director, IIM Ahmedabad said, “The cost of higher education in India has galloped over the last several years. This has made it difficult for talented youngsters who hail from families with modest means to pursue higher education. The scholarships from SG GSC, as a part of its CSR initiative, would go a long way in alleviating the hurdles faced by bright and motivated youngsters to blossom in life through education”
Societe Generale

Societe Generale is one of the largest European financial services groups. Based on a diversified universal banking model, the Group combines financial solidity with a strategy of sustainable growth, and aims to be the reference for relationship banking, recognized on its markets, close to clients, chosen for the quality and commitments of its teams.

Its 157,000 employees* based in 85 countries accompany more that 33 million clients throughout the world on a daily basis. Societe Generale teams offer advice and services to individual, corporate and institutional customers in three core businesses:

Retail Banking in France with Societe Generale branch network, Credit du Nord and Boursorama
International retail banking, with a presence in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, in the Mediterranean basin, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Asia and in the French Overseas Territories.
Corporate and investment banking with a global expertise in investment banking, financing and global markets.

Societe Generale is also a significant player in specialised financing and insurance, private banking, asset management and securities services. Societe Generale is included in the international socially-responsible investment indices: FTSE4good and ASPI.

www.societegenerale.com

* including employees of Societe Marseillaise de Credit acquired in September 2010 by Credit du Nord

Societe Generale Global Solution Centre (SG GSC)

‘Global Knowledge Centre’ for the Group providing innovative solutions that combine in-depth business knowledge with exceptional technology skills.
Started in 2000 in Bangalore, Indias Silicon Valley, as a dedicated strategic service arm of the Bank.
Over 2300 staff currently provides services in the areas of information technology, business process outsourcing and infrastructure management services to Societe Generale‟s business lines around the world.
Societe Generale Global Solution Centre is a subsidiary of Societe Generale; all its staff are employees of the bank, sharing a long term perspective and developing global best practices to promote Société Générales strategic objectives.
SG GSC has an ISO Certification for compliance with the ISO 9001:2008 standards.

The eminent jury panel of Microfinance India Awards 2011 selected the winners on the basis of their performance in growth, social performance, innovation (process, product and technology) and promotion of responsible finance. The awards were presented to the following recipients:
• Ujjivan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd., Microfinance Organization of the Year Award for large MFIs
• Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services Pvt. Ltd., Microfinance Organization of the Year Award for small and medium MFIs
• Center for Microfinance (IFMR), Contribution to the Sector by Enabling Institution
• Prof. David Gibbons, Chairman, CASHPOR, Contribution to the Sector Award (Individual)
• Mr. Y.C. Nanda, Chairman, Agriculture Finance Corporation and Former Chairman NABARD, Jury’s Special Award for Lifetime Achievement

The distinguished Jury panel was chaired by Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Country Head India, Director HSBC, Asia Pacific and co-chaired by Mr. Brij Mohan, Chairman, ACCESS Development Services. The illustrious panel consisted of Vijayalakshmi Das, Managing Director, Ananya Finance for Inclusive Growth Pvt. Ltd.; Meera Sanyal, Chairperson and Country Executive, The Royal Bank of Scotland N.V.; and Dr. Arvind Mayaram, Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.

Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Country Head Country Head India and Director, HSBC Asia Pacific, “The Microfinance India Awards, which is in its third year, aims to recognise the larger contribution of notable thought leaders, policy makers, promoters and institutions to the microfinance sector. As the sector goes through its most challenging time, the Awards reflect the changed ground realities and recognise those who have emerged as leaders, exhibiting balanced responsible growth, promoting transparency and pro-client lending practices, and above all, creating a sustainable impact on under-served communities.

The winner for the Microfinance India Organization of the year 2011 for large organizations was Ujjivan Financial Services. Ujjivan was established in November 2005 and is one of the first MFI’s in India to be established with a unique decentralised management structure operating under a hub and spoke framework. Ujjivan provides financial services to the economically active urban poor, to help build a better life.

The second award for the Microfinance India Organization of the year for small and medium organization was presented to Sanghamithra Rural Financial Services (SRFS). SRFS promoted by MYRADA lends to SHGs ensuring that the SHG decide the amount of loan and the purpose for which it should be lend further to the members. Sanghamithra has grown at a steady pace with an average of 11-18% during last three years.

The third award, Microfinance India Contribution to the Sector 2011 was honoured to Centre for Microfinance (CMF). CMF is a non profit, non partisan research centre housed within the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai. CMF undertakes qualitative and quantitative research in four broad areas: Financial inclusion, livelihoods, social objectives, and policy and regulation.
The Microfinance Individual of the Year award was given to Prof. David Gibbons, founding Chairman of CASHPOR Micro Credit, the largest poverty-focused, not-for-profit MFI in India providing financial services to over 450,000 below-the-poverty-line women in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in a financially sustainable manner.
Lastly, the Jury’s Special Award was presented to Mr. Y. C. Nanda, The Chairman of Microfinance India Advisory Group and Chairman of Agriculture Finance Corporation. Mr. Y. C. After an initial career with the State Bank of India and the Reserve Bank of India, Mr. Nanda joined NABARD when it was first formed in 1983. Mr. Y. C. Nanda is the former chairman of NABARD. He is also an alumnus of Delhi School of Economics. He has been involved with a number of microfinance institutions, rural development agencies, management institutes as Director/Trustee.
As the Microfinance sector grapples with new realities and the regulations are finalized, the Awards will honour institutions and individuals that have contributed to the growth story and worked tirelessly towards financial inclusion. The inspiration behind the Microfinance India Awards is to recognize the contribution of notable thought leaders, policy makers, promoters and institutions, which help translate the vision of reaching the poorest in a sustainable manner into reality. This is the third year for the Microfinanc India Awards.

About HSBC in India
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in India offers a full range of banking and financial services to over 1.6 million customers through its 50 branches and 150 ATMs across 29 cities.
HSBC is one of India’s leading financial services groups, with over 34,000 employees in its banking, investment banking and capital markets, asset management, insurance broking, insurance, software development and global resourcing operations in the country. It is a leading custodian in India. More than 5% of India’s exports and imports pass through HSBC India’s banking channels. The asset management business in India is one of the leading players in the industry. The Bank is at the forefront in arranging deals for Indian companies investing overseas and foreign investments into the country. It has a fully enabled and established insurance advisory of international standards. It is one of the leading players in domestic and export factoring, and one of the leading banks for an increasing number of SMEs. With its extensive reach across Asia, the Americas and Europe, HSBC has the capacity to offer complete banking and financial solutions to India’s burgeoning economy. In 2008, it acquired a majority stake in IL&FS Investsmart (now renamed HSBC InvestDirect) that has enabled it to offer retail brokerage services to its customer across a wider geography. It has also formed a joint venture life insurance company with Canara Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce that is among the Top ten private life insurers in the country today
HSBC’s network of branches is located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Mumbai, Mysore, Nagpur, Noida, New Delhi, Nasik, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Surat, Trivandrum, Thane, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam.
The Bank is the founding and a principal member of the HSBC Group which which, with an international network covering 87 countries and territories and assets of US$2,691 billion at 30 June 2011, is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.

About Microfinance India Summit
Over the last seven years, the Microfinance India Summit, organized by ACCESS Development Services, has established itself as an international conference dedicated to Indian microfinance. As the single most important platform for dialogue and learning in the sector, the two-day event attracts approximately 1000 delegates from India and abroad. Policy makers, practitioners, promoters, academics, researchers and thought leaders share their experiences on panel discussions and analyze current trends, challenges and opportunities in the sector.
About ACCESS Development Services:
ACCESS is a not-for-profit organization whose overall aim is to incubate new institutions to enable their self-sufficiency and self-sustainability. To this end, it offers specialized technical assistance under two verticals: microfinance and livelihoods. ACCESS assists the growing microfinance sector through streamlined and structured services to emerging MFIs and supports the enabling environment through the Microfinance India platform. Under the Livelihoods Program Unit, ACCESS impacts the lives of the poor by developing sustainable solutions for scaling-up their income generation activities. To optimize its resources and maximize the results of its interventions, ACCESS believes in partnering with key stakeholders in the sector in order to develop mutually reinforcing strategies, bring convergence of competencies and build consensus on key issues.

Attributes its 792 Percent Revenue Growth to the company’s focus in the payments space and rapid deployment of ATMs and POS in the country

 Mumbai, India, December 14, 2011 – Prizm Payments Services Pvt. Ltd. today announced that it ranked 3^rd on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2011, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in India.  Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years. Prizm Payments grew 792% during this period.

Prizm Payment’s Managing Director, Loney Antony credits this to the company’s focus in the payment space, excellent management team, in-depth data analytics team, rapid deployment of ATM and POS and state-of-the-art technology platform and a unique in-house maintenance team with the company’s 792 % revenue growth over the past three years. He said, “We are honored, to be in the league of the exceptional companies, chosen as the fastest growing technology companies in India.  We are already witnessing a wave of technology innovation in services that are responding to one of the fastest growing consumer and financial services markets in the world and are thrilled to be recognized for our role as a growth catalyst,” said Loney Antony, Managing Director, Prizm Payments.

“Making the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is commendable in today’s highly competitive technology industry,” said P N Sudarshan, Senior Director, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Private Limited ( partner in charge of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 India program). “We congratulate Prizm Payments on being one of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in India.”

About PRIZM Payments

Prizm Payments is a leading financial services provider with a vision to be “a leader in enabling secure‚ innovative payment services across electronic channels”. Prizm Payments was formed in 2008 by the coming together of a very capable management team with collective experience of 150+ years in EFT Services‚ an investment from one of the world’s leading Private Equity companies – Sequoia Capital and the acquisition/ integration of Integrated Maintenance and Services Pvt Ltd (IMAS) – a leader in 3rd party ATM maintenance services. Since then Prizm Payments has grown to becoming a leader in the providing innovative financial services with over 9,200 ATMs deployed and under management and maintenance, 24,000+ POS devices under management. The network is managed by 600+employees in 8 offices and 120 service locations supporting 540 cities across the country.

About Deloitte

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK Private Company Limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity.  Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms.

Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and deep local expertise to help clients succeed wherever they operate. Deloitte’s more than 182,000 professionals are committed to becoming the standard of excellence.

PR Contact:

Melvin Mathew

The PRactice

09320210213

melvin@the-practice.net

The Reserve Bank of India has made it mandatory for non-banking financial companies and microfinance institutions to report to credit bureaus but most microfinance institutions in India have yet to adopt the practice, which is essential to the success of the Credit Information Bureau. To raise awareness about this initiative, IFC hosted a credit reporting workshop today which was attended by banks, microfinance institutions and industry experts. The workshop is supported by the Omidyar Network, HSBC, and Citigroup.

“In India, the microfinance sector has great potential in terms of the number of clients served,” said Alok Prasad, CEO of the Microfinance Institutions Network. “However, with a fast-growing sector, multiple borrowings by clients had become an issue. We have worked with IFC to ensure that more and more microfinance institutions are encouraged to report to credit bureaus and have mandated that our network members report and use credit reports from the Credit Information Bureau.”
Getting all lending institutions to participate in credit reporting is important to ensure reliable credit assessments before loans are made. More effort is also required to raise awareness among microfinance borrowers about the benefits of maintaining timely payments and building a credit record that can benefit when they apply for future loans.

“IFC’s support to credit-bureau reporting is a part of its responsible-finance strategy, which promotes more responsible lending based on full information about the creditworthiness of borrowers,” said Jennifer Isern, who leads IFC’s Access to Finance work in South Asia. “In the past year, IFC has been working with its partners in the sector towards building good practices on responsible finance and responding to client demand.”

About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
About Microfinance Institutions Network
Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) is the premier industry association for the microfinance sector in India and its member organizations constitute the leading Microfinance institutions in the country. MFIN was created to promote the key objectives of microfinance, which is to help economically underserved communities achieve greater financial independence and build sustainable livelihoods. MFIN seeks to work closely with regulators and other key stakeholders to achieve larger financial inclusions goals through microfinance. Currently MFIN member organizations consist of 46 of the leading NBFC/MFIs whose combined business constitutes over 80% of the Indian microfinance sector. For more information, visit http://www.mfinindia.org

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Shri K.P Nair while welcoming all mentioned that the Bank has started the enrolment first from Patna and was very happy to provide this service to the Bank’s customers. He also mentioned that IDBI Bank is proud to be a part of a National Mission in providing Unique Identification Number or Aadhaar to the residents of India. Shri Andi while explaining the benefits of Aadhaar mentioned that Aadhaar is a means for residents to easily and effectively establish their identity, to any Agency, anywhere in the country, without having to repeatedly produce identity documentation. He also stated that the Bank perceived Aadhaar as mighty tool to empower the common person by facilitating him/her access to a modern financial system of the country as also a step towards a sustainable and inclusive growth, which in turn was essential for building an equitable society.

The Hon’ble Minister Shri Sunil Kumar Pintoo, did the enrolment from this Branch.

The scheme ‘Karmabhoomi Kartavyapoorti Yojana’ was announced by Shri Subrata Roy Sahara, ‘Saharasri’, Managing Worker and Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar on the occasion of ‘Jyoti Diwas’ on 1st April, 2001. Under his scheme, in the event of any accidental death of any resident of Lucknow, his/her heir receives Rs. 25,000/- as financial assistance by Sahara India Pariwar.

The Pariwar has already provided support to 155 people till 30th July, 2011 and through this scheme Rs. 38 lac & 75 thousand has already been given as financial assistance.

To obtain financial assistance under this scheme, the following criteria should be fulfilled:
As per the electoral list, the deceased should be an adult under the purview of Lucknow Nagar Nigam.
The deceased’s heir has to submit an application to the organisation accompanied by some essential documents like Postmortem Report, FIR and Death Certificate etc.

List of 19 people who received the financial assistance of Rs. 25,000/- per person amounting to Rs. 475,000/- at Sahara India, Zonal Office, Sahara Trade Centre, Faizabad Road, Lucknow are:
1. Smt. Manorama, heir to Late Chedi Lal, resident of LDA Colony, Kanpur Road, Lucknow.
2. Smt. Mariam, heir to Late Anis Ahmad, resident of Lalkuan, Lucknow.
3. Smt. Preeti Sharma, heir to Late Vinod Kumar Sharma, resident of Mohanlalganj, Lucknow.
4. Smt. Gayatri Devi, heir to Late Devchandra Ram, resident of Manak Nagar, Lucknow.
5. Smt. Gayatri Singh Chauhan, heir to Late Amit Kumar Chauhan, resident of Alambagh, Lucknow.
6. Smt. Divya Verma, heir to Late Virendra Kumar Verma, resident of Nagariya Thakurganj, Lucknow.
7. Smt. Devki Devi Pathak, heir to Late Jagannath Pathak, resident of Hussainganj, Lucknow.
8. Sushma Kesharvani, heir to Late Mahesh Kumar Kesharvani, resident of LDA Colony, Lucknow.
9. Shri Lal Bihari Pandey, heir to Late Maya Pandey, resident of Rajendra Nagar, Lucknow.
10. Smt. Mala Srivastava, heir to Late Saurav Srivastava, resident of Rakabganj, Lucknow.
11. Smt. Beera Devi, heir to Late Raju Bharti, resident of Dilkhusha Cant., Lucknow.
12. Shri Muralidhar, heir to Late Anuj Verma, resident of Rae Bareilly, Lucknow.
13. Smt. Laxmi, heir to Late Dilip Gupta, resident of Kanpur Road, Lucknow.
14. Smt. Sahana Parveen, heir to Late Shamshad Ahmad, resident of Amberganj, Lucknow.
15. Smt. Sunaina Devi, heir to Late Sugreev Sharma, resident of Aishbag, Lucknow.
16. Smt. Sukhdevi, heir to Late Kailash, resident of Jankipuram, Lucknow.
17. Smt. Suman Srivastava, heir to Late Parasnath Srivastava, resident of Aliganj, Lucknow.
18. Smt. Pinki Mishra, heir to Late Kamalkant Mishra, resident of Khadra, Lucknow.
19. Smt. Phoolmati Rawat, heir to Late Mewalal, resident of Triveni Nagar, Sitapur Road, Lucknow.

At the occasion Shri Pushkar Verma said “We cannot compensate the lives that have been lost but we can at least fulfill our duty towards our ‘Karmabhoomi’, by extending financial assistance, to some extent. Sahara India Pariwar assures the residents of Lucknow that in their joys and sorrows Sahara India Pariwar is and will always be with them.”

About Sahara Welfare Foundation
Sahara India Pariwar has been, since its beginning, a socially responsible corporate group. With time, as the Sahara India Pariwar progressed and expanded, need was felt to provide a dedicated unit and since its inception in 1995, Sahara Welfare Foundation has been actively engaged in the mission “” To initiate and facilitate such processes and initiatives where socially and economically marginalised and deprived people and communities irrespective of age, caste, class, gender or race are able to participate actively in the process of their development so that they are able to lead a life of dignity and respect.”" Sahara Welfare Foundation primarily works in the areas of primary health care, alternative education, rehabilitation of challenged people, behaviour change communication, developing skills and strengthening livelihood portfolio, disaster relief and rehabilitation, providing support to family members of Mumbai and Kargil Martyrs’ and ensuring social security of residents of Lucknow and Gorakhpur through Karmabhoomi kartayapoorti yojana and Matrabhoomi kartayapoorti yojana.

For Further Information, please contact:
Ghulam Zeeshan
Sr. Manager,
Corporate Communications, Sahara India Pariwar
M: +919335235621; Ph: 0522-2304230
E-Mail: ghulam.zeeshan@gmail.com

Mumbai: Aditya Birla Capital Advisors (ABCAP), the private equity arm of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG), announced an investment of Rs. 95 crore from Aditya Birla Private Equity – Fund I in Alphion India Private Limited (AIPL), today. AIPL is the principal subsidiary of Princeton, USA based Alphion Corporation (Alphion).

Alphion develops, manufactures and globally provides optical fiber-to-the-premises (FTTx) access systems, subsystems and integrated photonic devices. Their access systems offer optical networking solutions for the rapidly emerging FTTx market and the portfolio includes a full range of products for central office, outside plant, customer premise and network management. Alphion is a full member of the ITU FSAN group and a leader in developing key technologies for the next generation of passive optical networks. Alphion is the pioneer in developing all optical PON network extension solutions to extend the reach of broadband services. Alphion GPON solutions enable the convergence of wireless and wire-line networks as it is suitable not only for multiple-play voice, high speed Internet, data and video services but also for backhaul of WiMax, 2G/3G/4G cellular and future wireless networks

Commenting on the occasion, Bharat Banka, Chief Executive Officer, Aditya Birla Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd. said “Alphion is a unique play in the telecom sector offering proprietary R&D based, very high speed optical networking systems and solutions which empower carriers and local service providers to deliver high quality services with substantially lower operating costs. Apart from India where we expect encouraging growth prospects with investments in broadband and data services infrastructure, Alphion is also positioned to capture customers in other emerging markets. We are excited to partner with Alphion and play a value-added role”.

Mr. Banka further added, “As per published research and internal estimates, the global market for PON equipment currently is about US$ 4 billion p.a. and is growing at a CAGR of 20%. The current Indian market for PON equipment is estimated at about US$ 300 million p.a. and is expected to grow rapidly as service providers are in the process of rolling out FTTx services across India. Alphion currently has significant market share of this segment in India and emerging markets and is poised to further expand its position.”

“We are pleased to have ABCAP join us as a major partner” commented Dr. Bharat P. Dave, Chairman and Managing Director of AIPL and Chairman, President and CEO of Alphion Corporation, “Their strong endorsement of Alphion and our vision will allow us to continue to be a leading provider of FTTx network solutions in India as well as other emerging global markets.”

About Alphion
The Alphion group of companies consists of US-based Alphion Corporation and Alphion India Private Limited, its principal subsidiary in India. Alphion develops, manufactures and markets communications systems, subsystems, integrated and discrete photonic components based on its proprietary QLight® technology platform. Alphion products are sold worldwide to service providers and OEMs in the fiber-to the-premises (FTTP), telecommunications, CATV, fibre optic sensing, test & measurement, medical imaging, and defence system markets. Alphion offers a growing line of broadband access products, which support complete end-to-end GPON network solutions. The AOLT-4000 Optical Line Terminal, AONT-100/200/300 Optical Network Terminal family, and Passive Optical Splitter family are in full compliance with the International Telecommunications Union’s standard for GPON equipment (ITU-T G.984). This ensures that the Alphion product family meets the stringent carrier-class requirements and interoperates with a broad spectrum of other manufacturers’ GPON equipment. Alphion is a member of both FSAN (www.fsanweb.org) – a consortium of carriers and equipment suppliers developing tomorrow’s broadband network standards and the ITU (www.itu.int).

Alphion India Private Limited has operations in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Gurgaon.

For more information about Alphion and its products, visit www.alphion.com

About Aditya Birla Capital Advisors
Aditya Birla Capital Advisors Private Limited (ABCAP) offers asset management and advisory services in private equity, to domestic and global investors. The company has adopted a unique investment style of partnering with its portfolio companies by providing strategic and operational intervention and has its focus on growth investments in mid-market companies, with India as the investment destination.

ABCAP currently manages Rs.1100 crore in two funds, Aditya Birla Private Equity – Fund I (Fund I) and Aditya Birla Private Equity – Sunrise Fund (Sunrise Fund). Fund I is growth capital focused and targets minority stakes while investing in mid-cap, high-growth, India-centric companies, and has a sector-agnostic approach. Fund I has invested in GEI Industrial Systems, Credit Analysis and Research (CARE) and Anupam Industries. Sunrise Fund is uniquely focused on providing growth capital to proven businesses/ concepts within sectors in early stage of exponential growth. Sunrise Fund has invested in SMS Paryavaran.

For more information, please visit www.adityabirla-pe.com.

About Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG)
The Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) has built a significant presence across its verticals, viz. life insurance, asset management, NBFC, private equity, broking, wealth management & distribution and general insurance advisory services

The seven companies representing Aditya Birla Financial Services Group are Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd., Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Ltd., Aditya Birla Finance Ltd., Aditya Birla Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd., Aditya Birla Money Ltd., Aditya Birla Money Mart Ltd, and Aditya Birla Insurance Brokers Ltd. ABFSG is committed to being a leader and role model in a broad based and integrated financial services business. Its seven lines of businesses, with about 5.5 million customers manages assets worth about Rs. 88,300 crore approximately and prides itself for having a talent pool of about 15,000 committed employees. ABFSG has its wings spread across more than 500 cities in India through over 1700 points of presence and about 200,000 channel partners. This allows ABFSG to offer its customers virtually anything under financial services except a savings or current account. With revenue of over USD 1.4 billion (in 2010-2011) ABFSG is a significant non bank player.

ABFSG is a part of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd (ABNL), a USD 4 billion conglomerate having leadership position across its manufacturing as well as services sector businesses. ABNL is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, a USD 35 billion Indian business house operating in 33 countries across the globe.

Mumbai | Chicago, October 12, 2011: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced today that it has been ranked third in the FinTech 100, an annual international listing of the top vertical technology vendors that derive more than one-third of their revenue from financial services industry as named by American Banker, Bank Technology News and IDC Financial Insights.

For the fourth consecutive year, TCS has been ranked among the top 10 in the FinTech 100. Nearly 45% of TCS’ revenue came from banking, financial services and insurance during the financial year 2010-11. TCS has moved up one more spot from last year. The FinTech 100 ranking is categorized and evaluated on the basis of calendar year revenues and the percentage of revenue attributed to financial services.

“TCS’ continued improvement and recognition is a reflection of our customers’ confidence and not just in our products and services. It is in our DNA to keep our customers at the center of our business,” said NG Subramaniam, President, TCS Financial Solutions. “As the industry navigates through these challenging economic conditions, TCS remains committed to providing best-in-class services and technology to the financial services industry.”

For more information about the rankings, visit FinTech 100.

View the FinTech Special Report.

About TCS Financial Solutions
TCS Financial Solutions is a strategic business unit of Tata Consultancy Services. Dedicated to providing business application solutions to financial institutions globally, TCS Financial Solutions has compiled a comprehensive product portfolio under the brand name of TCS BaNCS. Our mission is to provide best–of-breed solutions that will drive growth, reduce costs, mitigate risk and offer a faster speed-to-market for our clients. With a global customer base of more than 240 institutions operating in over 80 countries, TCS Financial Solutions deliver state-of-the-art software solutions for the banking, insurance and capital markets industries worldwide. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com/bancs.

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPO, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model™ (GNDM), recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 202,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 42 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $8.2 billion for year ended March 31, 2011 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com.

TCS Financial Solutions Media Contacts:

Worldwide:
Email: dennis.roman@tcs.com
Phone: : +11954 423 3560

Americas & Europe:
Email: sunil.robert@tcs.com
Phone: +1732 331 3084

India / Middle East and Africa:
Email: anjana.srikanth@tcs.com
Phone: +91 80 6725 6963

TCS Media Contacts:

Global:
Email: pradipta.bagchi@tcs.com
Phone: +91 22 6778 9999

Europe / UK:
Email: abhinav.kumar@tcs.com
Phone: +32 2282 1927

India:
Email: ashish.babu@tcs.com
Phone: +91 22 6778 9077

# # #

Mumbai: Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Ltd (BSLAMC), one of the leading asset management companies in India, has launched an array of customer centric facilities to enhance the customer experience and convenience. These are:

Subscription through debit card
Every day Systematic Transfer Plan (STP)
Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) with step-up option
BSLAMC has launched the debit card payment on its website through a secure platform such that existing investors would be able to use their debit card (VISA) while making additional subscriptions through their secured login section on the AMC website. This service has been introduced to enhance customer convenience as not many investors have access to Internet banking for their bank accounts. Currently, subscriptions can be made through banks, which are available on the VISA platform, offering features in line with the RBI guideline on 3D security.

Mr A. Balasubramanian, CEO, BSLAMC, said, “These initiatives are designed to empower customers to manage their investments effectively and with greater convenience. Customer satisfaction is an important aspect in our business and we have always worked towards providing offerings to our customers with an aim to enhance the customer experience.”

The details of the daily STP feature and the step-up SIP feature are as follows:

Prior to this, BSLAMC had also launched Mobile Investment Manager through which existing customers could manage their investments from the convenience of their mobile phone by registering for the service. Initiatives like the debit card payment and the Mobile Investment Manager facilitate paperless transaction capabilities and go a long way in supporting the environmental cause.

About Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company
Established in 1994, Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Limited (BSLAMC) is a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group, a well known Indian conglomerate and Sun Life Financial Inc, leading international financial services organisation from Canada.

BSLAMC is the 4th largest asset management company in India with domestic average assets under management of Rs 64,217 crores (US$12.9 billion) for the quarter, July – September 2011. An impressive mix of reach through 103 branches, wide range of product offerings across equity, debt, balanced as well as structured asset classes and strong investment performance has helped the company garner over 2.2 million investor scheme accounts. Known for its consistent investment performance across asset classes, BSLAMC has received recognitions from various institutes of international repute like Lipper, Outlook Money and The Asset Magazine – Hong Kong.

About Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG)
Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) has built a significant presence across its verticals, viz., life insurance, asset management, NBFC, private equity, broking, wealth management and distribution and general insurance advisory services.

The seven companies representing Aditya Birla Financial Services Group are Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd., Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Ltd., Aditya Birla Finance Ltd., Aditya Birla Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd., Aditya Birla Money Ltd., Aditya Birla Money Mart Ltd and Aditya Birla Insurance Brokers Ltd. ABFSG is committed to being a leader and role model in a broad based and integrated financial services business. Its seven lines of businesses, with about 5.5 million customers manages assets worth Rs.92,259 crores (US$20.5 billion) and prides itself for having a talent pool of about 15,000 committed employees. ABFSG has its wings spread across more than 500 cities in India through over 1,700 points of presence and about 200,000 channel partners. This allows ABFSG to offer its customers virtually anything under financial services except a savings or current account. With over Rs.6,296 crores (FY2010-11) in revenues, ABFSG is a significant non-bank player.

ABFSG is a part of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd (ABNL), a US$4 billion conglomerate having leadership position across its manufacturing as well as services sector businesses. ABNL is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, a US$35 billion Indian business house operating in 33 countries across the globe.

About Sun Life Financial Inc
Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organisation providing a diverse range of protection and wealth accumulation products and services to individuals and corporate customers.

Chartered in 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2011, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of Canadian $469 billion.

For more information please visit www.sunlife.com.

Statutory Details: Constitution: Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund (BSLMF) has been set up as a Trust under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882. Sponsors:Aditya Birla Financial Services Private Limited and Sun Life (India) AMC Investments Inc. [liability restricted to seed corpus of Rs 1 Lakh] Trustee: Birla Sun Life Trustee Company Pvt. Ltd. Investment Manager: Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Ltd. Risk Factors: Mutual Funds and Securities investments are subject to market risks and there can be no assurance or guarantee that the objectives of the schemes will be achieved. As with any investment in securities, the NAV of the Units issued under the schemes may go up or down depending on the various factors and forces affecting capital markets and money markets. Past performance of the Sponsor / Investment Manager/Mutual Fund does not indicate the future performance of the Schemes and may not necessarily provide a basis of comparison with other investments. The name of the schemes do not, in any manner, indicate either the quality of the scheme or their future prospects or returns. Unitholders in the schemes are not being offered any guaranteed/assured returns. Investors should carefully read the Scheme Information Document / Statement of Additional Information / Key Information Memorandum available at Investor Service Centers and with distributors before investing.

Mumbai, September 21, 2011: SMC Investments and Advisors Limited, the Wealth Management and HNI investment advisory arm of leading Equity and Currency Broking house, SMC Global has launched “Equity Quant Strategy” - a proprietary quantitative, long-only portfolio selection strategy, on its PMS platform. The portfolio is a fully-invested, well-diversified equity portfolio with broad access to a clearly defined equity universe, and with performance driven by diversified sources of return. The portfolio is designed to maximize exposure to factors that are statistically significant drivers of consistent excess returns, within a given benchmark. The absolute returns generated by the live Model Portfolio for the month of August 2011 have outperformed not only its benchmark BSE-200 but also domestic equity mutual funds benchmarked to NIFTY and BSE-200.

While markets are competitive, they are not perfectly efficient. Hence the disciplined application of quantitative techniques helps enable the investment management process to systematically uncover and exploit sources of alpha. The key benefits of Equity Quant Strategy are the objectivity, discipline and lack of fund manager bias in the process.

The above portfolio returns are of a Model Client. Returns of individual clients may differ depending on factors such as time of entry/exit/additional inflows in the portfolio. The above returns are calculated on NAV basis and are based on the closing market prices as on August 31

st, 2011. Expenses and charges are not taken into account for calculating returns. Individual returns and holdings of Clients under the Portfolio may vary significantly from the performance and holdings of the Model Portfolio given above. Inception Date: 26/07/2011. Past performance may or may not be sustained in future. Returns mentioned above are absolute. Please refer to the disclosure document for further information.  

Speaking on the Launch of EQS Product, Mr. D.K. Aggarwal (CMD, SMC Investments and Advisors Limited) said: “We are glad to launch a rewarding strategy product for our niche clients today. Looking at the volatility in the market and global cues not favoring investor fraternity to build wealth a product that can expertly handle gyrations and is capable of giving returns on the basis of a market oriented formula was the need of the hour. We realized this need for investors and have designed this strategy product to make sure that our clients build wealth overcoming the market fluctuations. In the niche and one of its kinds strategy Quantitative asset selection aids portfolio diversification – even in down market-due to its low correlation to traditional styles.

The strategy can also be employed with a portable alpha strategy, that is, addition to the portfolio to deliver uncorrelated potential returns with only a minimal addition of volatility. The hedging instruments including Nifty can also be used wherever required. “Equity Quant Strategy” aims to consistently outperform the benchmark index i.e. BSE200 over time regardless of market trends. Rigorous risk management practices add value and are essential to mitigate unintended active risks. It is an exclusive and innovative quantitative model. A scalable stock selection model that is 100% invested in equity. Targets excess returns that are stable, explainable and repeatable”. Our clients have shown overwhelming response to this product looking at its test month returns”.

PRODUCT BASKET OVERVIEW:

The Portfolio normally consists of 16-25 stocks with stocks weight age of Minimum 2%, Maximum 12% per stock. The Rebalancing Period is of Every 40 trading days. The Sector limit of the portfolio is 20% Maximum exposure, Cash & Equivalent is up to 20%. Prudent risk management norms such as sector and stock wise weight limits are applied to avoid sector/stock specific bias. The efficient frontier is arrived at and the portfolio with maximum return per unit of risk is selected. EQS generates entry and exit signals in stocks and the portfolio manager has no discretion in selection, entry and exit of stocks except in exceptional situations

ABOUT SMC INVESTMENTS AND ADVISORS LIMITED:

The vision to help clients realize their full financial potential inspired the financial giant SMC GLOBAL to build on its 21-years of rich investment management expertise as well as wide domestic reach and create ”

SMC Investments and Advisors Limited”

The mission is to provide clients with customized, sophisticated financial strategies and solutions for organizing and integrating all of their investment objectives under one roof and to specialize in offering niche and customized asset, debt, and risk management strategies integrated into one seamless financial solution.As one of India’s leading full-services brokerage house with a retail network spread across 425+ towns and cities with more than 2500 outlets,

SMC GLOBAL has a comprehensive knowledge-&-resources-base. This allows the wealth outfit to constantly innovate to manage, preserve and build the wealth of its clients by providing personalized financial reviews and investment solutions.

Hands-on research and valuation as well as perceptive diversification play key roles in attaining sustainable growth. The vision, dedication and the passion to excel have set the organization on the path to be one of India’s premier financial advisory companies, offering solutions for wealth enhancement & preservation, investment management and ancillary financial services to affluent & high-net-worth clients.

ABOUT SMC GROUP:

SMC Group, founded in 1990, is a leading financial services provider with a pan-India presence. The Group offers a wide array of products and services ranging from broking and lending solutions to investment banking and wealth management. The Group has one of the largest distribution networks in India, which is spread over 425 cities and more than 2500 offices having over 5,000 employees and serving over 600,000 customers. SMC consistently ranks amongst top 5 IPO fund mobiliser and distributor in the retail segment in the country. Recently,

Dun & Bradstreet awarded SMC as India’s “Best Equity Broking House 2010″ and “Broking House with the Largest Distribution Network 2010.”

SMC Group of companies includes SMC Investments and Advisors Limited (Wealth Management arm) SMC Capital (Investment Banking arm), SMC Global (Retail and Institutional Broking House), SMC Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd (Insurance arm), SMC Comex International DMCC and SMC Comtrade (Commodity arm)

For Further Information please contact: Ms. Poonam Rajkumar S. (Country Head- Marketing and Communications) on Cell: 9820077588/ 9322077588, Email ID: Poonamrs@smcinvestments.co.in

L&T Finance enters into a strategic alliance with NCMSL

For Collateral Management & Warehousing services

Mumbai, September 12^th: L&T Finance has entered into a strategic partnership with National Collateral Management Services Limited (NCMSL), a major agri-infrastructure player, for collateral management and warehousing services. The objective of these services will be to assist industries, traders and farmers in financing their working capital requirements at all stages of the supply chain, ranging from pre-harvesting to the marketing and export stages.

Commenting on the tie up, Mr. Dinanath Dubhashi, CEO, L&T Finance stated “L&T Finance has been in the forefront in evolving and adapting to the financial sector. We have a large loyal customer base across rural India. This tie up with NCMSL will provide a great fillip to warehouse receipt financing and will help the farmers to avoid selling their produce at give-away prices by enabling them to hold on and wait for better prices.

LTF has already started warehouse receipt finance in selected territories and envisages expanding the business after the initial good response. Given the demonstrated track record of NCMSL, the partnership will enable L&T Finance to mitigate credit risk for its commodity finance product offerings.”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sanjay Kaul, MD and CEO, NCMSL said, “The tie up with L&T Finance will especially prove beneficial to stakeholders in view of the large rural customer base of L&T Finance across the country.” He further added, “NCMSL has plans to build its own warehouses at 40 locations across 12 States and this partnership will facilitate secured post harvest lending on large scale to farmers, processors and other agri-business clients”

About L&T Finance

L&T Finance Limited (LTF) is a subsidiary of L&T Finance Holdings Ltd., the umbrella finance holding company of the L&T Group. L&T Finance Holdings’ shares are listed on both NSE and BSE, after the completion of its successful IPO in July 2011 which saw a tremendous response from the investors and was oversubscribed in all categories.

L&T Finance, incorporated as an NBFC in 1994, is registered with the RBI as an NBFC-ND-SI, and is classified as an Asset Finance Company (AFC). L&T Finance offers a spectrum of financial products and services for trade, industry and agriculture. It is primarily engaged in short to medium term asset backed financing viz. construction equipment, transportation equipment, rural products, supply chain finance, corporate loans and leases, microfinance, etc.

About National Collateral Management Services Ltd (NCMSL)

The National Collateral Management Services Limited (NCMSL) is the country’s leading player in warehousing services, supply chain management solutions and testing & certification. It provides collateral risk management for lenders as well as risk management of physical deliveries for commodity exchanges. NCMSL works in partnership with 16 leading banks and in more than 200 locations across the country.

The company provides these services to growers, traders, processors, importers, exporters, overseas buyers & sellers, lenders, commodity exchanges, exchange traders and government agencies. NCMSL is present in 16 states and union territories across India and its warehouses manage as many as 70 agricultural commodities as well as storage services for non-agricultural commodities and inventories.

Incorporated in 2004, NCMSL has been promoted by reputed banks like, Bank of India, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Bank, The Karur Vysya Bank, Punjab National Bank and Yes Bank as well as organisations like IFC, NCDEX, IFFCO, HAFED, Rabo Equity and ACE Geneva. The Company is governed by an independent and professional board.

The Company provides following services: storage & preservation, procurement & supply chain, collateral management, testing & certification, trade & commodity intelligence, weather intelligence and crop intelligence.

For more information please contact:

Ujjawal Punmiya / Delna Irani

Adfactors PR

Ph.: +91 22 22813565

Fax: +91 22 22813569

Email: ujjawal.punmiya@adfactorspr.com

Mumbai: Aditya Birla Capital Advisors (ABCAP), the private equity arm of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG), announced the First Closing of the Aditya Birla Private Equity – Sunrise Fund, on August 30, 2011.

The second fund from Aditya Birla Private Equity has been very well received by domestic investors and has commitments of over Rs.220 crores, despite a volatile market environment. In view of continued strong patronage of investors, the Fund will continue to accept applications in a short window for a limited period and would announce its Final Closing shortly.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Ajay Srinivasan, Chief Executive – Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group, said, “Private equity plays an important role in delivering the commitment of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group to meet all the needs of our target customers. The mobilisation of over Rs.220 crores in our second fund is another strong stride towards fulfilling our ambitious plans in private equity space. The First Closing in Sunrise Fund takes our cumulative funds under management / advise to Rs.1,100 crores. It demonstrates the strong trust our investors have continuously reposed in us over the last three years.”

As a demonstration of the Group’s commitment to the business, the Aditya Birla Group has also made a significant contribution to the fund corpus.

Aditya Birla Private Equity – Sunrise Fund is a domestic Fund, uniquely focused on providing growth capital to proven businesses / concepts within sectors that are in early stage of exponential growth. The Fund has a mandate to invest in potential winners within innovation driven sunrise sectors based on specific themes including lifestyle, lifeskills and education, lifecare and applied technologies. The Fund looks for minority stakes while investing primarily in unlisted, exponential-growth, India-centric businesses in sunrise sectors with a potential to play the role of an active investor.

The Sunrise Fund is also pleased to announce its first investment of upto Rs.40 crores in New Delhi-based SMS Paryavaran Limited, one of India’s leading companies in the water and wastewater treatment sector. The investment will be for a substantial minority stake with standard private equity rights. We believe, SMS Paryavaran is a play on using applied technologies for integrated and standalone water treatment and wastewater treatment plants, for municipal and industrial customers. The company will use the proceeds to fund its aggressive growth plans in the backdrop of significant order flow.

About Aditya Birla Capital Advisors
Aditya Birla Capital Advisors Private Limited (ABCAP) offers asset management and advisory services in private equity, to domestic and global investors. The company has adopted a unique investment style of partnering with its portfolio companies by providing strategic and operational intervention and has its focus on growth investments in mid-market companies, with India as the investment destination.

In addition to the second fund currently being raised, ABCAP currently manages Rs.880 crores in its maiden fund, Aditya Birla Private Equity – Fund I, which seeks to generate returns for its investors by investing in and harvesting business growth opportunities created by the strong economic prospects of the Indian economy. Fund I is a growth capital focused fund and will have an active investment approach. It proposes to target substantial minority stakes, while investing primarily in unlisted, mid-cap, high-growth, India-centric companies, and is sector-agnostic. Fund I has invested in GEI Industrial Systems, Credit Analysis and Research Limited (CARE) and Anupam Industries Limited.

For more information, please visit www.adityabirla-pe.com

About Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG)
Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) has built a significant presence across its verticals, viz., life insurance, asset management, NBFC, private equity, broking, wealth management and distribution and general insurance advisory services.

The seven companies representing Aditya Birla Financial Services Group are Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd., Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Ltd., Aditya Birla Finance Ltd., Aditya Birla Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd., Aditya Birla Money Ltd., Aditya Birla Money Mart Ltd. and Aditya Birla Insurance Brokers Ltd. ABFSG is committed to being a leader and role model in a broad based and integrated financial services business. Its seven lines of businesses, with about 5.5 million customers manages assets worth Rs.92,259 crores (US$20.5 billion) and prides itself for having a talent pool of about 15,000 committed employees. ABFSG has its wings spread across more than 500 cities in India through over 1,700 points of presence and about 200,000 channel partners. This allows ABFSG to offer its customers virtually anything under financial services except a savings or current account. With over Rs.6,296 crores (FY2010-11) in revenues, ABFSG is a significant non-bank player.

ABFSG is a part of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd (ABNL), a US$4 billion conglomerate having leadership position across its manufacturing as well as services sector businesses. ABNL is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, a US$35 billion Indian business house operating in 33 countries across the globe.

Mr. Joy Thomas, Managing Director of PMC stated, “It has been our endeavour to offer to our customers financial products which suit their needs, under one roof. We are glad to have tied up with Taurus Mutual Fund which has performing schemes.”

Taurus Mutual Fund is amongst the fastest growing AMCs in the country. In the first quarter of the current financial year, it has registered over 100% growth. Today it manages assets in excess of Rs. 5000 crore and has a national presence across all major cities and towns, representatives in smaller locations and a vast network of Financial Distributors spread across the country.
Taurus Mutual Fund has a good performing basket of schemes covering all categories and is poised to acquire greater market share and become a preferred investment avenue for the investors. Commenting on the tie-up, Mr. Waqar Naqvi, CEO of Taurus Mutual Fund said, ” I see it as a very important tie-up, not only because the Mutual Fund Business model is dependent on distributors but also because the PMC team led by their MD and Senior Management has shown a better understanding and commitment to promote Mutual Funds”. The bank also benefits in form of expanding their product offerings to their customers, under one roof”.

Mr. Naqvi added, “The strength of our Fund House lies in our knowledge base and research. This allows us to innovate and pitch schemes, which are unique, meaningful and in line with the changing trends and needs of investors in this dynamic market”.

Bhopal,3rd Sept 2011: Vision Advisory Services today announced its business expansion plans aimed at helping budding entrepreneurs of Madhya Pradesh to take advantage of growth opportunities in the area of Equity, Insurance, Mutual Funds, Loans and Real Estate.

Pradeep Karambelkar, Managing Director, Vision Advisory Services detailed the Business partner model and said it is most dependable model for the budding entrepreneurs since it provided complete brand support through a standardised process with consistent quality of products and services. It significantly mitigates the risk associated with any new enterprise in the global market.

He added that our strength in networking the business module and in future networking will play a pivotal role in the investment industry. The initiative will give embedded concept of networking “Your Concern is our Concern”.

Bhopal is becoming an emerging industrial city of India and it also has great opportunity for business. Vision Advisory Services offers financial services in the areas of Stock Broking, Mutual Funds, Life and General Insurance, Financial Education, and Training Manpower, Real Estate and Resource Management and having strength in networking the business module too, he added.

Each budding entrepreneurs will be matched with the right level of training support, Knowledge Sharing and experienced body of work. Our Business Partner Programme gives all the basic benefits of selling the products, also entitled to all new Business Partner/Business Associates associating through them in any geographical area , thus to provide additional financial benefits .

The Business Partner Program will emphasize enhanced relationships by offering youths a more comfortable and collaborative space to conduct business, greater privacy and more effective use of technology.

Our focus on customer-first-attitude, ethical and transparent business practices, respect for professionalism, research-based value investing and implementation of cutting-edge technology. Vision Advisory can better partner and interact with its customers at regional level and enhance the business of the company.

Munnvar Ali, Sales Head, Vision Advisory Services says “The state like Madhya Pradesh underlines our commitment to deliver one stop investment services, catering to the changing needs of our customers. Strengthening our presence in the key state demonstrates the importance we place on being the knowledge based financial services with innovation and desired quality for our customers and is indicative of the many growing opportunities”.

Vision Advisory will continue to make significant growth across a wide range of businesses. As a result, it can better partner and interact with its customers at regional level and enhance the business of the company. At present company is catering more than 15000 customers for various categories of services.

Shilpa Supekar, Operations Manager, Vision Advisory Services said “In shot spans of its presence in market company is able to create its name in Madhya Pradesh for not only for customer oriented services but also focused on adding products and innovations. We are among few who have launched Fee Bases Advisory Module in the market and getting reasonable response from the Investors. We are soon organizing chain of Investor Awareness Programmes for Mutual Funds & Insurance in coming days.
Vision Advisory Services has been awarded with many felicitations by almost all major players of the Investment Industry”.
Media Contacts :

S Vijay Kumar
Group Head
PR Solution
Mobile : +91 9993066704
E mail : vijay@prsolution.co.in

Commenting on the honour, Sanjay Tripathy, EVP & Head – Marketing & Direct Channels at HDFC Life said, “I am extremely delighted with this achievement. Business Superbrands in India has become a definitive statement for brand success. This recognition has helped us take the brand ‘HDFC Life’ to the next level as a strong entity and further restates HDFC Life’s credibility in the market. I would like to thank every stakeholder associated with HDFC Life for their faith and continued support in establishing the brand. This further reaffirms my belief that we are on the right path as far as the brand and our marketing initiatives are concerned.”

Over the last eight years. Superbrands in India has become a definitive statement for brand success. More than 135 companies have used the Superbrands logo to either distinguish themselves from competition and extract mileage from this status or simply derive value from the fact that peers have recognised them as a distinct brand.

Business Superbrands Council as an organisation started in 1993 in the UK to showcase case studies of exceptional brands and companies.  Since then it has been replicated in 86 countries across six continents. So far 10,000 case studies and over 1 million copies of its books have already been published. The Indian operations started in 2003 and have so far released six volumes; three editions of Consumer Superbrands with 283 case studies in all and three editions of Business Superbrands with 184 case studies in all.

Business Superbrands Council Members, consisting of eminent business heads of very large organisations, short-listed only 197 brands from an original list of 1223 through a scrutiny of audiences. HDFC Life received a score of 6.50 out of 10 and is ranked amongst the top 25% nationally (also ranked amongst the top quarter of all brands across all segments and all categories).

]]> http://www.indiaprline.com/2011/08/12/hdfc-life-selected-%e2%80%98business-superbrand-india-2010-11%e2%80%99/feed/ 0 http://www.indiaprline.com/2011/08/03/omnesys-technologies-announces-tie-up-with-united-stock-exchange-for-automated-trading/ http://www.indiaprline.com/2011/08/03/omnesys-technologies-announces-tie-up-with-united-stock-exchange-for-automated-trading/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:03:17 +0000 admin http://www.indiaprline.com/?p=47403 United Stock Exchange members go Live with Omnesys’ NEST

Mumbai, 2nd August,2011: Bangalore based Omnesys Technologies, a leading provider of multi-asset trading software and systems and an Independent Software Vendor (ISV), has announced that United Stock Exchange (USE) – India’s specialist currency exchange, has increasing number of trading members opting for trading currency markets deploying algorithmic strategies and becoming active on the automated trading operations ‘NEST’ from Omnesys Technologies.NEST is a well-accepted Computer to Computer Link (CTCL) platform for trading and the flagship product of Omnesys.

USE, headquartered in Mumbai, is India’s newest stock exchange for currency derivatives and has 415 registered trading members and 51 clearing members. USE has a growing market share of about 22% in just 10 months and with the average June volume being Rs. 10394 cr. Just recently, USE empanelled State Bank of India as a clearing and settlement bank.

Said Mr. Shrikant Pandit, Managing Director, Omnesys, “Omnesys is proud to be associated with USE on their automated trading initiatives for its members. NEST, our market leading platform, is designed to service customers with improved trading capabilities facilitating order management and execution capabilities. The current version of the software is equipped with appropriate tools that allow members to actively manage their trades”.

Mr. T.S. Narayansami, MD & CEO of USE said, “We are extremely delighted to announce that algorithmic trading has been picking up at our platform with more & more members expressing interest and opting for ATS operations through Omnesys to take advantage of opportunities that can be explored in currency markets presently. We are confident that Omnesys would be very useful for our members to trade in currency markets with proper risk management system in place.”
At present, USE offers four currency pairs that are USD-INR, BP-INR, Euro-INR and Yen-INR. As the market matures, USE intends to launch other currency pairs and open interest derivatives. USE has the approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to commence operations in currency options.

About Omnesys

Omnesys Technologies Pvt. Ltd is a leading provider of Order Management Systems and an Algorithmic trading platform provider. Omnesys products are used extensively by institutions, exchanges, brokers, traders and prop trading desks all over the world. As a leading low latency, high frequency trading platform Omnesys NEST provides significant liquidity, market making opportunities and arbitrage opportunities across various asset classes and in multiple venues.

About United Stock Exchange of India

The United Stock Exchange of India Limited (USE) is India’s newest stock exchange for currency derivatives. The exchange offers a better platform to corporates and SMEs for managing forex risk as spread rates in an exchange are better and it does not involve any counter party risk.

The exchange is a unique Public-Private partnership with equity investments by both PSUs and the private sector. USE represents the commitment of ALL 21 Indian public sector banks (Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Dena Bank, IDBI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab and Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Syndicate Bank, UCO Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, Vijaya Bank), reputed private and foreign banks like Axis Bank, Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, J&K Bank, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered and corporate houses like Jaypee Capital, MMTC, Indian Potash to build an institution that is on its way to becoming an enduring symbol of India’s modern financial markets.

Media Contact:
Anant Pandit, Omnesys – anant.pandit@omnesysindia.com

This five-day residential programme will provide a crash course in leading a successful social enterprise. It will focus on how microfinance and social entrepreneurship can empower people and enhance livelihoods, resulting in social and economic mobility. The course will take place in Great Lakes Institute of Management, near Chennai, India from 22-26 August 2011.

It offers a unique combination of HBS-style case studies with field visits to Hand in Hand operations. The Hand in Hand model combines the provision of microfinance (both through the HiH NGO and its affiliated MFI) with in-depth business and skills training. Participants are from a broad range of backgrounds, and include social entrepreneurs, senior executives from NGOs, microfinance practitioners, donors, philanthropists and government/ multilateral /bilateral staff.

The course fee is USD 2,000 which is inclusive of all meals and transportation. The medium of instruction will be English.

For more information please visit

http://www.hihinternational.org/get-involved/sep/

About Hand In Hand

Over the past seven years, Hand in Hand has worked with 600,000 women in developing countries, and helped create some 560,000 enterprises. The Hand In Hand approach was developed by Dr Kalpana Sankar and her team of development experts in partnership with Percy Barnevik, the Swedish business leader. It combines the provision of microfinance services with in-depth business and skills training. The key to our success is that we don’t simply send people away with money; we ensure that businesses are created and lives improved in the long term.

About Prof. Kasturi Rangan (co-founder of Socient Associates)

Harvard Business School Professor Kasturi Rangan has extensive experience in business marketing and management. He has researched, taught and published articles on non-profit management, marketing and microfinance at Harvard and is the founding co-chair of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative. He is also co-chair of the HBS-ACCION program on Strategic Leadership for Microfinance.

About Sohel Karim (co-founder of Socient Associates)

Sohel Karim is Managing Partner of Socient Associates. He has over 20 years of consulting experience and has worked closely with senior management in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Sohel’s background includes doctoral work at Harvard Business School with publications in leading management journals such as Harvard Business Review.

About the course

Five fast-paced days will combine case studies, presentations and group exercises with field visits to Hand in Hand’s operations.

The curriculum explores key issues in the sector, including how to:

Define mission and goals.
Develop an appropriate strategy.
Build an organization capable of delivering results to your stakeholders.
Create jobs at the bottom of the pyramid.
Grow your organization and move towards sustainability.
Develop metrics to monitor progress.
Create a learning organization.

The programme is set in Chennai, India. The cost includes all accommodation, meals, training and course materials.

Download the Brochure at the link below

http://www.hihinternational.org/get-involved/sep/

Contact Information

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy
Managing Director
Hand in Hand Micro Finance Private Limited
III Floor, “COATS VILLA” Southern Foundation
12/26, Coats Road, T. Nagar
Chennai 600 017, Tamil Nadu, INDIA

Email : hemantha.pamarthy@hihseed.org

Asia-Pacific Economies Remain Attractive:

Fidelity’s John Ford’s

2011 Mid-Year Review and Outlook

·         Asian economies remain attractive, but some risks remain on the horizon

·         Strong corporate balance sheets and broad economic growth

·         China’s resilience and attractive PE are good for investors

·         Taiwan and South Korea continue to benefit from large capital inflows

Hong Kong, 07 July 2011 – Asia-Pacific economies remain relatively attractive, but investors should be mindful of regional inflationary pressures, tighter monetary policy and European debt woes which remain on the horizon, said Mr. John Ford, Asia Pacific Chief Investment Officer for Fidelity International.

Mr. Ford said he was optimistic about the outlook for Asian equity markets in the second half of 2011 given the strong, broad-based economic growth recorded by many economies in 2010 as well as the solid company fundamentals and relatively robust consumption and income growth.  However, the region still faces headwinds on several fronts with inflation and a slowdown in growth due to monetary tightening being the leading concerns.

“The strong rise in input costs, higher commodity and energy prices, plus strong consumption growth and structural changes of key economies within the region will see policy makers ensuring that inflationary pressures don’t supersede growth prospects,” Mr. Ford said. 

“Investors also need to be wary of some external factors, such as a worsening of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Elsewhere, an oil shock in the Middle East cannot be fully discounted due to the continuing political unrest in Libya and Syria,” he said.

These external factors along with concerns over U.S. growth and the situation in Japan have led to some investors being fairly cautious about Asia, he said. Market turnover in the year to date has been quite low suggesting a lack of conviction on both the upside and downside. The volatility and risk aversion has also impacted the IPO market where debut performances have been lacklustre.

China Still Resilient

Mr. Ford said the slowdown in Chinese growth will likely have an impact on many Asian firms, which increasingly depend on Chinese consumption to drive growth.

On the upside, resilient earnings growth in China has made valuations more appealing, he said. China remains very attractive with a price earnings ratio at 11 times and earnings per share growth of 20%.

“Relatively speaking, the key issue for Asian markets over the next six months is China’s monetary policy. If authorities conclude the tightening cycle, Asian stock markets are likely to recover.”

Mr. Ford said he was pleased with the policies Chinese authorities have put in place. “The Chinese central bank has the suitable tools and balance sheet strength to implement appropriate measures – monetary and fiscal,” he said.

Korea and Taiwan Benefit from Inflows

Within the region, South Korea and Taiwan have been prime beneficiaries of inflows, Mr. Ford said.  In June, Taiwan was an outperformer in terms of fund flows as investor conviction rose due to improved cross-Strait relations. South Korea will continue to enjoy a dynamic economy as one of the strongest markets that has been driving world growth. 

“South Korea is an interesting and attractive market at the moment,” said Mr. Ford.  “South Korean companies will post record-high earnings again this year following 2010. The size of these earnings will reach close to 90 trillion won – almost double the average earnings for non-financial companies between 2004 and 2007.”

“Besides the size of earnings, the quality has improved. South Korean auto companies continue to post a utilization rate of over 100%, while Japanese automakers saw a sharp decrease in utilization from over 85% to 35% after the earthquake. U.S. auto makers also experienced decreased utilization recently,” he said.

Accordingly, the market share of South Korean auto companies in the U.S. reached over 10% and an upward trend is expected to continue.

U.S. Impact on Asia

Mr. Ford said he did not expect the U.S. to introduce a third round of quantitative easing, which ended in June. He said while it was important to be mindful of investor confidence, risk aversion and risk appetite, stock selection remained the primary building blocks of Fidelity’s investment policy.

- END -

About Fidelity International

Fidelity International provides investment products and services to individuals and institutions in the UK, continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Established in 1969, the company has over 5,400 staff in 23 countries and manages or administers client assets US$309.7 billion as at 31 March 2011. Fidelity has over 7 million customer holdings and manages more than 750 equity, fixed income, property and asset allocation funds. Fidelity’s fund managers receive research from one of the largest proprietary research teams, covering 99% of the world’s largest listed companies. Fidelity International is an independent company which is privately owned.

This document is issued by FIL Investment Management (Hong Kong) Limited.  FIL Limited, established in Bermuda, and its subsidiaries are commonly referred to as Fidelity or Fidelity International. Fidelity only gives information about its products and services.   Any person considering an investment should seek independent advice on the suitability or otherwise of the particular investment.  Investment involves risks.   Past performance is not indicative of future performance.  Please refer to the Fidelity Prospectus for Hong Kong Investors for further information including the risk factors.  This document has not been reviewed by the Securities and Futures Commission.

Media Contact

Neha Chaudhuri

Adfactors PR Pvt Ltd
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Mumbai 400021.
Tel: +91 22 2281 3565
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Email:  neha.chaudhuri@adfactorspr.com

Smart ID has set up a state of the art Data Center and 40 seats Call center to provide instant information to students and teachers about common issues concerning them. The infrastructure also provides accurate and timely information to the officials in the Ministry regarding 16 schemes run by the government for the benefits of students. These include Mid-Day meals, Books and Uniforms for girl children, scholarship disbursal, bicycle provision etc.
About Smart ID
Smart ID provides technology products, services and solutions in the domains of Smart cards, Biometrics and Information Technology. It offers cost effective solutions to the market segments like e-Governance, Banking, Transportation and IT Security.

Founded in 2004, the company is headquartered in Noida, India (near New Delhi), with business offices across India.

For more information, visit www.smartid.in.

Mumbai, June 09, 2011: SNK ETax Solutions Ltd, India’s leading company offering solutions to companies and individuals on taxation, corporate laws and assurance services today announced the launch of Taxsum.com, India’s first tax filing portal that caters to all category of tax filing audiences. The portal is compatible to file tax from ITR 1 to ITR 6, offering multi-language, user-friendly experience and complete solution for computing and filing tax returns online. Taxsum.com becomes India’s only tax returns filing portal offering browser based digital signature and enabling filing of ITR-1 through mobile phones.
Commenting on the launch Mr. Sanjay N Kapadiaa, Chairman, SNK ETax Solutions said, “Filing of income tax return for every person having income more than basic exemption limit (at present Rs. 1,80,000/-) is a constitutional responsibility in India. Our country’s total population is around 122 Crores. In spite of more than 10 crore people having Pan Card, the income tax return filing for the F.Y. 2010-11 is just 4 Crores and out of these 4 crores online income tax return filing is opted by only 1 Crore tax filers in our country. With the rapid acceptance of technology and internet usage, we see this as a good opportunity to introduce a portal like Taxsum.com that can simplify the tax filing of corporate and individuals and further support the constitutional responsibility of the nation”
According to the findings of SNK ETax solutions on tax filing status in India, it has been observed that in the year 2010-11 the number of tax returns filed are 4.1 crore as compared to 3.40 crore in 2009-10. The online tax filing in the year 2010-11 is 91.57 lacs as compared to 51.06 lacs in 2009-10. With the acceptance of digitization across India, SNK ETax has estimated that the tax filing will be doubled to 10 crore in the year 2015-16 out of which more than 7.5 crore will be filed online.
The Government of India has hosted a website for e-filing for income tax returns- www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in on which filing of income tax returns can be carried out. Taxsum.com further complements the initiative undertaken by the government, as the portal helps corporate and individuals to compute income and file tax returns online, having linked directly to the portal of Government gateway.

About Taxsum.com:
TaxSum.com is an online service portal in India for tax compliance hosted in the most secured ISO 27001 certified environments. TaxSum.com is the only service which is fully compliant to the security regulations prescribed and applicable to the financial data of users of TaxSum. It also proposes to provide walk-in counseling through its franchisees. TaxSum.com is first of its own to give services of filing tax returns on web and also through mobile devices. TaxSum.com has also removed the barrier of language and has made the solution multi-lingual i.e. in English as well as in Hindi.

TaxSum is a product developed and managed by the team of chartered accountants, advocates and software architects at SNK ETax Solutions Ltd. The team at SNK ETax Solutions are well experienced professionals, rendering services in the field of taxes, corporate laws and assurance services since last more than 2 decades in India and abroad. With the changing environment of e-governance and e-compliance in the field of tax laws, the team has taken initiative to set up real time online portal for tax counseling, compliance and filing of returns of Income in India through TaxSum.

For further information please contact:
Ashish Trivedi Faizan Aboli
Prana Public Relations Prana Public Relations
M – 98925 00644 M – 98191 10224