India has added 6.6 million new mobile subscribers in October to reach a total of 130 million subscribers, according to according to data released by trade associations Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and AUSPI, as reported in Business Standard.

Total GSM based cellular subscribers reached 96 million, while the CDMA-based mobile user base accounted for 33 million at the end of October. 

Continue reading... "India Adds 6.6 million Mobile Users in Oct; Total Tops 130 million" »

November 13, 2006 11:41 PM | Permalink

India registered a record 22% salary rise in the first half of 2006-07, driven by job boom and the shortage of talent. By comparison, the wage hike was 17%  in 2005-06 and between 8.35% and 12.6% in the previous three years, reported Business Standard.

However rising corporate profits seem to dwarf the record salary levels.  The pre-tax profits of 1,900 listed companies in India increased 36% in the first half, while their salary bill rose by 21.94%. Salaries as a percentage of sales also declined from 7.04% in the first half of 2005-06 to 6.66% in first half of 2006-07.

Continue reading... "Salaries at Indian Software Companies Jumped 54% in 1H; Overall Salaries Rose 22%" »

November 13, 2006 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

U.S. federal deficit for October totaled $49.3 billion, up 4.3% from  $47.3 billion a year ago, according to The Treasury Department. U.S.  government has run a deficit every year in October since 1954. The all-time October high of $70 billion set in 2003. 

• Revenues for October were up 12.2% from last year to a record $167.7 billion, surpassing the old October record of $157 billion set in 2001.
• Spending for October was up 10.3% from a year ago to a record for October of $217 billion.

Continue reading... "October Budget Deficit $49B; U.S. Reported Deficit Every Oct. Since 1954" »

November 13, 2006 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For many Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, TechCrunch has become a must read, reported Wall Street Journal recently.  WSJ report also highlighted that TechCrunch profiles of the consumer internet and the Web 2.0 companies drive business/traffic at the start-ups, and many also get unsolicited calls from venture capitalists.

We wanted to analyze just how much new VC money was raised by the start-ups that were profiled in TechCrunch. This is not exactly a cause and effect study (several of these companies have raised VC money before they were profiled in TechCrunch), but just an interesting analysis on the new generation of the Web 2.0 start-ups and the influential role of TechCrunch. 

Continue reading... "VC Funding at TechCrunch Profiled Web 2.0 Startups Could Top $1 billion This Year" »

November 13, 2006 2:05 PM | Permalink

Continue reading... "comScore Top 50 U.S. Web Rankings, October.; Wikipedia in Top 10" »

November 13, 2006 12:02 PM | Permalink

Nearly one-third of the IT budget is spent on enterprise hardware and maintenance, including servers, PC storage, and networking, according to Forrester Research. Servers and PCs continue to dominate IT spending, accounting for more than half the IT hardware budget. Within the enterprise hardware category, spending distribution is:

• PCs account for more than 25%
• Servers account for more than 25%
• Storage accounts for 18%, 
• Network hardware accounts for 15%
• Systems management at 14%.

Continue reading... "Servers and PC Dominate IT Spending; One-Third Spent on HW and Maintenance" »

November 13, 2006 11:14 AM | Permalink

Continue reading... "eBay is the Most Popular Shopping Site with 57.6M Visits; Amazon No.2 at 42M Visits" »

November 13, 2006 10:26 AM | Permalink

Trolling the Web for Free Labor, Software Upstarts Are New Force: Today about 4 million people use Zimbra, including 12,000 branches of the big tax preparer H&R Block. By comparison, Microsoft boasts 140 million users of Exchange. Zimbra was developed by few coders, while developing the newest version of Exchange took years of work by more than 400 Microsoft employees. Zimbra basic price is $28 a year per user vs. $39 for Microsoft's Exchange. Started in 2003, Zimbra raised a total of $30.5 million in venture funding.

Continue reading... "WSJ By The Numbers - Top 10 for Nov.13" »

November 13, 2006 10:03 AM | Permalink