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Sandeep Dhar Joins HSC

Sandeep Dhar has joined as the CEO of Tesco Hindustan Service Center (HSC),
the offshore services arm of UK-based retailer Tesco, with its major delivery
center in Bangalore. Sandeep took over from Meena Ganesh who was serving as head
of the unit since its inception in 2004. Sandeep comes from Sapient India where
he was the managing director. Prior to that, Sandeep held various senior
leadership positions with MphasiS, ABN AMRO Bank and Citibank.

Mirchandani is EMC CIO

Sanjay Mirchandani has been appointed chief information officer of EMC. He
will be responsible for extending EMCs operational excellence, and driving
technological innovations to meet the current and future needs of the business.
Reporting to David Goulden, EMCs chief financial officer, Mirchandani will also
continue leading EMCs network of global delivery centers around the world. He
was responsible for bringing in new strategic international partners into EMCs
Global Alliances program and for managing EMCs global delivery centers in
India, China, Russia and Israel.

Samsung Appoints Yadav

Samsung India has appointed Ranjit Singh Yadav as the director for its IT
business division. In this role, Yadav will head the companys IT business
division in India and will be based out of Samsung Indias corporate office at
New Delhi. Samsungs IT product portfolio in India comprises LCD monitors, HDDs
, OMS and printers. Prior to joining Samsung, Yadav has worked with HP and
Philips.

Apple, IBM Fight Over Papermaster

Apple has appointed Mark Papermaster as senior vice president of devices
hardware engineering. He will be reporting to Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple.
Papermaster, who comes to Apple from IBM, will lead Apples iPod and iPhone
hardware engineering teams. Papermaster has 25 years of product and technology
experience, and was previously vice president at IBM. However, Papermasters
stint at Apple is now in jeopardy following Federal District Judge Kenneth Karas
ordering that Mark Papermaster immediately cease his employment with Apple
until further order of this court. The issue arises from the basic non-compete
clause in his IBM contract, but Papermaster argues that IBM is more enterprise
business whereas Apple is obviously more consumer-focused.

Thimmiya Now with 24x7 Learning

AM Thimmiya has joined 24x7 Learning as the COO where he will head
SkillBridge the employability enhancement program, and AVAGMAHthe continuous
learning initiative, lines of business. The Government of Rajasthan and
institutes like Noida Institute of Engineering Technology (NIET) and Don Bosco
Institute of Technology (DBIT) have chosen SkillBridge training for their
students. AVGAMAH partners with reputed institutes like Thapar University and
IMT, Ghaziabad, to offer distance education programs like PGDM and BTech for
working professionals.

Malay Court Releases Blogger

Malaysian High Court recently ordered the release of blogger Raja Petra
Kamarudin who was detained under the countrys draconian security laws. Rajas
arrest under Malaysias Internal Security Act that allows indefinite detention
without trial had sparked condemnation from rights groups. The court later
accepted his lawyers plea saying his arrest was illegal and unconstitutional.
The blogger was charged with being a threat to security for insulting Islam.

Sinha Joins GTM Board

Global Talent Metrics (GTM), a psychometric testing, sourcing and selection
technology company, announced the appointment of Ranjan Sinha, a veteran HR
professional and thought leader, to its board of directors. Sinha pioneered
Indias first in-depth study on causes of attrition, in association with IIM-B.
He co-founded Summit HR, a leading talent engagement company, with the vision of
helping CEOs.

Zafari New Trane President

Trane commercial systems, a provider in software services, announced the
appointment of Robert Zafari as president for Europe, Middle East, Africa and
India Region (EMAIR). He will replace Gerard Lavery, who was recently appointed
to the role of vice presidentTCS global operations and product management. In
this role, Robert would fulfill the accountability for the profit and loss of
all TCS products, business streams and country operations across the region.
Prior to this he was associated with Security Technologies as president for
business sector for the Europe Served Area (ESA).

Avaya Appoints Kennedy as CEO

Avaya has appointed Kevin Kennedy as president and CEO effective from January
2009. He is currently associated with JDS Uniphase Corporation as chief
executive officer and is a member of its board of directors. Kevin would remain
with JDSU until joining Avaya. Charles Giancarlo would become chairman of the
board when Kennedy assumes the CEO position. Before joining JDSU, he was
associated with Openwave Systems as chief executive officer.

Bhargava Joins Synaptris

Nagraj Bhargava has joined Synaptris, a software application vendor
specializing on reporting solutions, as the new COO. Synaptris IntelliVIEW and
IntelliPRINT products empower users to make rapid and informed business
decisions while enabling IT to minimize overhead and maximize RoI. Synaptris has
over 75 business partners across the Americas, Europe, MEA and Asia Pacific with
solutions deployed in over 2,200 customer locations across 60 countries. In his
new role, Bhargava would be responsible for driving growth in both US and India.
Prior to Synaptris, Bhargava has long been associated with SAP in India.

Mindtree Ropes in PKG

PK Gopalakrishnan has taken over as senior vice president and India Business
Head of MindTree. A mechanical engineer and MBA from Indian Institute of
Management Bangalore, Gopalakrishnan will be responsible to scale up the
domestic business of the company covering all domestic segments. Prior to this,
he was the vice president of Wipros Government and Defence Vertical and spent
seventeen years there taking up various assignments.

Basu to Lead Logia Asia

Logia Group, a provider of mobile content services, has appointed Anish Basu
as chief executive officer of Logia Asia, which has been set up to drive the
Groups business throughout India and the Asia-Pacific region. Basu and his team
will be working out of Logia Groups new regional headquarters for Asia, located
in Mumbai. Prior to his role in Logia, Basu most recently worked with the Tata
Groups Internet and telecom initiatives.

Nataraj as CIO, Hexaware

Hexaware Technologies, a leading global provider of IT/BPO services and
consulting, announced the appointment of N Nataraj as CIO. As a member of the
executive management team, he will be responsible for managing and strengthening
the companys global integrated information technology (IT) systems and
processes. The appointment of Nataraj further strengthens the leadership team at
Hexaware. He is an accomplished professional with over eighteen years of
experience in IT, information systems (IS), security and infrastructure.

Cadence Top Brass Resign

Cadence Design Systems has gone through a major corporate shake-up with the
resignation of its president, CEO and a director of the company, Michael Fister,
along with four other senior executives. The company has formed an interim
office of the chief executive to oversee the day-to-day running of the companys
operation, effective immediately. It includes John B Shoven, chairman, board of
directors, Cadence, who has been appointed to the position of interim executive
chairman.

Sills to Lead CAs Rapid Time-to-Value

CA has appointed Richard Sills as corporate senior vice president and general
manager of CA Services. In his new role, Sills will lead the companys Rapid
Time-to-Value strategy, focused on designing and delivering services-based
solutions that help CA customers realize immediate value from their CA
investments. His responsibilities include strategic planning and execution,
oversight of worldwide services architecture, development, marketing and
customer education for CAs products. Richard Sills will report to Mike
Christenson, president and chief operating officer, CA.

AMD Promotes Rivet, Ghilardi

AMD has named former executive vice president and chief financial officer,
Bob Rivet, as the companys chief operations and administrative officer. And,
Emilio Ghilardi, senior vice president and general manager of sales for Europe,
Middle East and Africa (EMEA), will assume the role of chief sales officer at
the beginning of 2009. Rivet, 54, will build on the strong operational
discipline demonstrated as CFO and assume expanded responsibilities for more of
AMDs key centralized functions, including the companys supply chain, human
resources and information technology organizations. Ghilardi will assume his new
position as part of a planned executive transition.

Sun Co-founder Quits

Sun Microsystems co-founder, Andy Bechtolsheim, is resigning from the
company to help build the new networking startup, Arista Networks. However Sun
issued a statement where it confirms that Andy will remain with the company as
an essential product architect, but will be working with Sun in a reduced
capacity. Andy will focus his time with Sun on technology development and
ongoing systems projects to help drive new product architectures, including x64
servers and storage servers, and will continue to work on key strategic
initiatives such as HPC. Andy, also a founder of Arista, has been named as chief
development officer and chairman of Arista Networks.

Goenka Rejoins Rashi

Rashi Peripherals has appointed Rajesh Goenka as vice president for sales and
marketing. Goenka has rejoined the company after working as head, marketing,
India, NVIDIA Graphics. Prior to his two year stint at NVIDIA, he was with Rashi
Peripherals for almost six years.

3Com Gets Hindmarch

3Com a provider of converged voice and data networking solutions for
enterprises, has announced the appointment of Andrew Hindmarch as regional
product marketing manager for 3Com Asia Pacific. In this role, Hindmarch will
lead the companys enterprise product and solution-marketing efforts, focusing
on market requirement, competitive analysis, market sizing, product positioning,
pricing and messaging, said a press release. Based at 3Coms regional
headquarters in Singapore, he will also take charge of solution development
across key technology verticals such as wireless, voice, switching, routing,
security and network management, and drive marketing content development.

Nazara Content for Sameera Reddy

Nazara Technologies, a mobile content developer based in Mumbai, has signed
an exclusive deal with Bollywood actress Sameera Reddy to develop a wide range
of mobile phone content based on her. The product line-up will include exclusive
imagery (wallpapers and screensavers), games, Meet and Greet contests, ringtones
in Sameeras voice, videos and more.

Vareille New FCI CEO

Pierre Vareille, who joined FCI as chief operating officer in December 2007,
will be appointed chairman and CEO effective January 1, 2009. He will succeed
Jean-Lucien Lamy, presently chairman and chief executive officer at FCI, who
will leave the company at year-end. Vareille brings extensive managerial
experience gained in several high technology multinational companies. Before
joining FCI, he was chief executive of Wagon Automotive.

Google Executives to Face Trial

An Italian prosecutor has ordered four former and current Google officials
including senior vice president David Drummond to stand trial on charges related
to a video of a taunted youth with Down syndrome posted on its Italian website,
court sources said. The prosecutor, Francesco Cajani, ordered the defendants to
appear in a Milan court on February 3 to face charges of defamation and failure
to exercise control over personal data.