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Business Daily: Is Infosys losing its mojo?

26/04/2012

Is Infosys losing its mojo?

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Is Infosys losing its mojo?

Justin Rowlatt crossexamines the COE of Infosys, the Indian technoloy giant.

The Indian technology giant Infosys was started three decades ago with $250.  Now it employs over three hundred thousand people and is worth $37 billion.  But is Infosys losing its mojo?

The story of the rise of Infosys, the Indian technology services company, is the story of India's industrial renaissance. 

Seven software engineers started the company back in 1981 with just $250, three decades later it is a truly global company employing over three hundred thousand people and it's been valued at $37 billion dollars.  

But recently Infosys missed its annual sales target for the first time in the company's history.  What's more the American authorities are investigating alleged visa abuses. 

So is India's technology giant losing its grip?  Justin Rowlatt quizzes one of the seven founders of Infosys, Mr. S D Shibulal, who is now the company's chief executive.

Plus: computers are not just getting faster, they are getting faster faster - the rate at which they are getting faster is increasing.  

That fact prompted a programmer called Ray Kurzweil to predict that there would become a moment when the line between human intelligence and artificial intelligence would become indistinguishable.  He called that moment "the moment of singularity".  The idea got a lot of play in the technology world and now there is even a Singularity University in - you guessed it - California, which specialises in research into how advances in technology can help solve the great challenges of humanity.  

Vivek Wadhwa is Vice President of Academics and Innovation there Justin Rowlatt asks him about his claims that technology is set to continue reshaping our world so the business models of even relatively new companies - companies like Google - are very soon going to look very out of date.

And, hubs are the key to international air travel.  They are where we go to change planes because you can't expect airlines at your local airport to offer flights direct to every destination in the world. 

The great hub airports include London's Heathrow, Schiphol in Amsterdam, Chicago's O'Hare and Changi airport in Singapore. 

Now Kenya wants to get on the hub map - as would a surprising number of other airports in Africa. It's a sign of changing times, according to our regular Kenyan commentator, Wycliffe Muga.

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