Perspective 2005

Here is the list of events which made 2005 a year to remember for a long time.

• The ever rising SENSEX which crossed all previous records and set new records every week in the month of November. SENSEX at the close of the year ended at 9397.93 and generated a return of 40 percent over the start of the year. The SENSEX at the start of the year was at 6679.




• The Oracle acquisition of I Flex which once again proved the value of India IT companies in the Global IT sphere. It marked the entry of Global IT giants into India aggressively but at the same time it also ended one of the finest product companies in India.




• Tsunami dominated the first quarter of 2005 although the event happened in 2004 end. The effects of the super cyclonic storm in the sea were wide spread leading to the death of close to 300,000 people. A good amount of southern India and south east Asia suffered damage in this calamity.




• The fall of Laloo Prasad Yadav dominated the news channels and media for a good amount of time in the month of November. Nitish Kumar was appointed as the new Chief Minister and it gave a good amount of relief to the BJP which was struggling under its own weight.




• The earthquakes in the northern region of India near LoC and Pakistan shattered the people staying in those areas.




• The nation came to a stand still when the voice of the nation, the Mega Star Amitabh Bachchan fall ill and shook the nation once again as in 1982. It took him one month to recuperate and as I write this entry he has come back to his home and start shooting for KBC 2.




• The M&A activity in the Indian industry whether IT or Non IT was at a heightened pace. With all the top IT companies doing some or other overseas acquisition. Notably Wipro which acquired 3 companies in the last week of December




• The ABN Amro Bank deal in the IT outsourcing space was one of the biggest deals to happen globally. The deal was worth 2.1 billion dollars and got split among the top IT vendors like Accenture and IBM together with Indian vendors like TCS, Infosys and Patni. IBM got the biggest pie of the deal valuing over 1.5 billion dollar followed by Accenture.




• TCS acquired world’s number four core banking solution company FNS Global which is rolling out the CBS in SBI for 26 million dollar. This ensured that TCS makes a strong foray into the market of financial solutions outsourcing. FNS Global has B@NCS 24 x 7 as its core banking solution.




• In one of the landmark deals in the space of athletic wear Adidas acquired Reebok for close to 3.2 billion dollar and created a very stiff competition for Nike the world’s number one sporting goods maker.




• Oracle continued its acquisition spree by buying out Siebel in all cash deal worth 5.1 billion dollars ensuring that it gets the lion’s share of the CRM solutions market globally.




• BSNL rolled out its broadband service termed DataOne which gave the other Broadband service providers a run for their money. Within no time, BSNL snatched a sizeable market share in this business.




• For the first time in the country, Motorola India manufactured a mobile phone in India which can be aptly termed as Made in India. This mobile phone was priced below Rs. 1000.




• Natural calamities surrounded India and the World throughout the year. Whether it was the horrendous rains in Bombay which stopped the city which is unstoppable inspite of all the problems or the Hurrican Katrina and its sisters Rita and others. Lousiana and New Orleans were thrown out of gear totally. When everyone thought that Chennai and Bangalore are the safest places to make any FDI, the electronics city office of many top Indian companies were found flooded due to huge rains in these two cities. Chennai received a very heavy rainfall for close to 2 months which ensured that the city which used to cry for rains does not do any more.