McLaren stripped of 2007 constructors points

Following the Stephney-Gate scandal that hit F1 this season, WMSC had called for second round of discussion on the same. In the meeting McLaren were found guilty and consequently have been stripped of their 2007 constructors points. In addition McLaren have been fined $100m - a record amount in F1.

The final part of the ruling is that the team's 2008 cars will be subject to examinations before racing next season.

However, on the upside, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso will face no points-penalties and will be allowed to fight for this year's Drivers' Championship title.

With Rupee Appreciating & Subprime mortgage meltdown in USA, will Indian IT Industry's estimates go for a toss

FY 2006-07 witnessed a revalidation of the Indian Information Technology – Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) growth story, driven by a maturing appreciation of India’s role and growing importance in global services trade. Industry performance was marked by sustained double-digit revenue growth, steady expansion into newer service-lines and increased geographic penetration, and an unprecedented rise in investments by MNCs

IT Industry-Sector-wise break-up

USD billion	FY 2004	FY 2005	FY 2006	FY 2007E
IT Services	10.4	13.5	17.8	23.7
ITES-BPO	3.4	5.2	7.2	9.5
Engg Services & R&D, S/W Products	2.9	3.9	5.3	6.5
Total Of which, exports are	16.7	22.6	30.3	39.7
	12.9	17.7	23.6	31.3
Hardware	5.0	5.9	7.0	8.2
Total IT Industry	21.6	28.4	37.4	47.8

Global Markets: While US and UK remain the dominant markets for IT-ITES exports, revenues from newer markets are growing rapidly

	FY03	FY04	FY05	FY06
Americas	69.10%	69.40%	68.30%	67.18%
Europe	22.20%	22.60%	23.10%	25.13%
Rest of the World	8.70%	8.00%	8.60%	7.69%

Our excessive dependence on USA could hit back in a big way. With Rupee appreciating and Subprime problem is USA, the expected export target of $47.8 billion for FY 07-08 already looks a lot shaky.

Is brijj.com really cool???

Amidst the never ending debate of whether India is ready for Web 2, Info Edge India Ltd the promoters of well known sites viz naukri, jeevansaathi and 99 acres have launched brijj.com a professional networking site.

Brijj.com is conceptually different to the popular orkut.com which is more of a social networking site. With brijj.com still in Beta phase and no special effort being made to promote it in a big way, in coming days it will be interesting to see how it shapes up.