Single-digit rise in salaries at Wipro; Lucideus CIO joins CarDekho parent

Indian information technology (IT) services firm Wipro reportedly has hiked its employees' salaries in the single-digit range effective from the beginning of this month. 

According to The Economic Times, offshore employees serving in India have received their raise in high single-digit and onsite staff working in the US and Europe have received a low to middle single-digit hike.

Wipro has also given special rewards to employees who have been working with technologies leading the digital transformation business. 

In April, the software services exporter, whose board recently announced that Azim Premji's son Rishad would assume the role of chairperson till 2024, had said that its consolidated net profit for the fourth quarter of 2018-19 grew 38% year-on-year while revenue rose nine per cent for the same period.

The Bengaluru-based company’s consolidated net profit for the three months ended March 2019 stood at Rs 2,483 crore, up from Rs 1,803 crore for the corresponding period a year before.

Consolidated revenue for the quarter increased to Rs 15,006.3 crore from Rs 13,768.6 crore a year before, with Wipro’s mainstay IT services business growing 11.1%.

Naveen Gulati

Former chief information officer (CIO) of John Chambers-backed cybersecurity startup Lucideus, Naveen Gulati, has joined as the CIO of Girnar Software Pvt. Ltd, which owns and runs automobile portals CarDekho.com, BikeDekho.com and Gaadi.com, The Economic Times reported.

According to the report, Gulati in his new role will work closely with the senior leadership team (executive committee) driving digital transformation and further enhancement of technology in the company.

Prior to his stint in Lucideus, Gulati, who holds a master’s degree in engineering from Indira Gandhi Open University, worked at Ricoh India for over seven years, starting from the position of an IT executive, then heading IT and finally becoming CIO.

Before Ricoh, Gulati served as a software engineer at NIIT Technologies.

Industry 4.0

The Indian government may soon give incentives to enterprises in the form of tax benefits, relief or subsidy for adopting digital technologies to bring in Industry 4.0, The Economic Times reported. Industry 4.0 is the use of data, machine learning and artificial intelligence in the manufacturing process.

The report, which quotes a senior government official, said that the scheme was being mulled by the central government’s top policy think tank Niti Aayog, which would soon start a consultation process to discuss the statutes with stakeholders.

Further, the sops may come in the form of price subsidy on any kind of electronic parts such as sensors, motors, displays -- all components necessary for Industry 4.0.