Gabriel Rozman… Uruguyan Wizard of TCS

During the India- Latin America Business Seminar in Buenos Aires on 2 July, when it was announced that a Senior Vice President of Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS) in charge of Latin America, Spain, Portugal, Middle East, Africa and East Europe, would make a presentation, the audience expected to see a Chandrashekar or Srinivasan. They were surprised and puzzled when Gabriel Rozman, a Uruguyan came on the stage. The Argentine dignitary sitting on the stage next to me shrugged his shoulders,raised his eyebrows and looked at me. I told him Gabriel Rozman is a Uruguyan of Hungarian origin, holding a US passport. Most of the time he is up in the sky in planes crisscrossing the oceans. Even when he is next to you, he is constantly fiddling with his Blackberry. He has houses in Punta de Leste, Buenos Aires and NewYork and may be he is buying one in Mumbai.

Picture above: Rozman speaking at the Seminar.

It is not only the audience in Argentina who are puzzled by the unexpected Rozman-TCS combination. Clients in Latin America, US, Europe and the emerging markets are also taken aback when Rozman markets TCS services to them. He reels off the history and reputation of TCS and Tata Group with passion and pride. His opening line is ¨somos el grupo mas importante de la India - We are the most important group of India¨. Rozman is a regular speaker on India and IT at the international and regional business conferences in Latin America.

Rozman joined TCS in 2001 and started the company´s operations in Uruguay in 2002 with 15 staff. Today the company employs 800 Uruguyans and plans to expand and double the strength in the next few years. The Uruguay Center of TCS provides offshore IT services to US, Europe and Latin America. Being a small country, Uruguyan IT human resources are obviously limited. To meet this challenge, TCS has started a Regional Training Center in Montevideo for Uruguyans and Latin Americans. This has already trained over 500 professionals and the target is 3000 within the next two years.

When Rozman proposed to TCS that Montevideo would be the launching pad for Latin America, the bosses in Mumbai were skeptical. They knew Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. But Uruguay.... hmm... such a small country with a tiny amount of human resources and unviable local market ! To answer these questions and convince the company, Gabriel arranged the visit of Ratan Tata, the Chairman of the Tata Group to Uruguay in January 2004. Tata had readily agreed after seeing the business climate of Uruguay and the seriousness of the Uruguyans.

Picture above: from left to right, Rozman, Ramadorai CEO of TCS, Rattan Tata and Battle President of Uruguay.

To my knowledege, this was the first ever business visit of Ratan Tata to Latin America. It was after this visit that the Tata group has started taking Latin America seriously.

From Uruguay, Rozman expanded the TCS operations to Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Chile through the organic as well as the inorganic route. Rozman managed to get President Felipe Calderon himself to inagurate the Mexican centre of TCS in 2007. Rozman got two large contracts of more than 150 million dollars each from Banco Pichincha in Ecuador and the Mexican pension fund system. Six percent of the global revenue of TCS comes from Latin America.

Currently, TCS employs around 6000 Latin Americans including 2000 Chileans, 1700 Brazilians, 1000 Mexicans, , 800 Uruguayans, 150 Argentines and a few hundred Ecuadorians and Colombians. Latin Americans form 48% of the non-Indian staff of TCS, whose total strength is close to 100,000.

Rozman´s conquest of Latin America lead to his promotion in January 2008 from Head of Iberoamerica to the next level of Executive Vice President for Emerging Markets. As part of TCS’ Executive Leadership team, he is responsible for leading the company’s strategy to enter new markets and other strategic corporate initiatives.

Rozman is undoubtedly the secret behind the success of TCS in Latin America. I remember when I was Consul General in Sao Paulo, TCS was struggling to enter Latin America through Brazil. The Indian representative of TCS who was working on the Latin America entry strategy in SaoPaulo was frustrated that despite the impeccable reputation and competitive pricing the Latin Americans did not take TCS seriously. The Latin American clients were willing to pay more to North American IT companies who would in turn outsource the job to India. It was Rozman, with his multicultural skills, who changed their mindset and made them feel confident and comfortable in dealing directly with Indian IT companies. Rozman´s Latino charm, understanding of Indian culture and American style of aggressive marketing paid off. It was only after his success in opening Latin America for TCS that other Indian IT companies including Infosys, WIPRO have started entering this region. But the business of other Indian IT companies is a very small fraction of the turnover of TCS in the region even now.

Rozman has used diplomacy too. He has succeeded in convincing Ramadorai, the CEO of TCS to become the Honorary Consul of Uruguay in Mumbai. I guess the patriotism of Rozman is also behind the success of a Uruguyan architect Carlos Ott who got a contract to build the 250 million dollar IT complex of TCS in Chennai. It will be one of the largest IT complexes in the world with 30,000 staff .

The TCS success in Latin America has pioneered a new 12/ 12 business model for Indian IT companies for delivery of offshore services to North American clients. Twelve hours of service from Latin America ( the same time zone as that of North America) and twelve hours from India. This is better than the 24/7 model in which Indians dont get time to sleep. In the 12/12 model. the Indians get time to sleep while the Latin Americans work !

The second advantage is the multilingual skills of the Latin Americans. They are proficient in Spanish, Portuguese,Italian, French and German since their grandparents or great parents came from Europe. Of course, many graduates speak English. One should also remember that USA has about 50 million Hispanics who have become the largest minority there and Latin America is a base from which to reach out to the US Hispanic market.

Latin America, like India, has lot of young people. They are better tuned to American and European culture, fashion and mindset than the Indians. They are also creative, imaginative and free-spirited. These traits are especially useful for design and creative work.

Gabriel Rozman-TCS success is an example of the emerging strategic win-win partnership between India and Latin America in the IT sector. I hope this will be an inspiration for more Latino Rozmans and Indian companies.

Uruguayan touch to Indian Tech

The new office of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Siruseri, Chennai is a signature building with a spectacular architectural design. This unique edifice has been designed by two Uruguayan architects Carlos Ott and Carlos Ponce de Leon. The Uruguayan touch has certainly enhanced the tech image of TCS.
The building is a welcome change and an aesthetic addition to the city of Chennai notorious for its culture of giant cut outs of film stars and ubiquitous statues of politicians.

The futuristic building complex looks like a butterfly with a 400 metre central spine forming a majestic atrium at a height of 42 metres.

Photo – façade of one of the six blocks

How did the design contract for this prestigious building go to architects from an obscure little dot of a country, Uruguay, on the other side of the world, with a population of just three million, less than half of Chennai?  This is because of a special win-win connection between TCS and Uruguay. TCS put Uruguay in the global IT map by setting up the first Global Delivery Centre in the country. In return, Uruguay helped TCS  find its place in the Latin American map. Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay was the launchpad of TCS where it established its first Latin American operations in 2002. Gabriel Rozman, a Uruguayan, was the one who convinced the TCS Board to set up its first Latin American centre in Uruguay. He got special facilities from the Uruguayan government which welcomed enthusiastically TCS the first global IT company to set up shop in their country. From Montevideo, Gabriel Rozman spearheaded successfully the expansion of TCS across eight countries ( Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica besides Uruguay) in Latin America.

More on Rozman's contribution to TCS http://businesswithlatinamerica.blogspot.in/search?q=gabriel+rozman

 Photo - Ramadorai ex-CEO of TCS with Carlos Ott ( middle) and Carlos Ponce de Leon

photo- aerial view

Photo – front side of the atrium 

Today TCS  employs over 10,000 Latin American staff- including 1000 Uruguayans- who develop software and provide off-shore services to US and European markets besides working for Latin American clients. The company has targeted the region for ten percent of its global revenue. 

It is in recognition of this Uruguayan connection that TCS had invited the Vice President of Uruguay Danilo Astori to inaugurate the building in 2011. 

Uruguay, as the Indian football fans know very well, had created history by winning the World Cup twice, beating Argentina in 1930 and Brazil in 1950 in the finals. The Indian football enthusiasts were thrilled with the Kolkatta visit of Diego Forlan, the Uruguayan star in 2011 after having won the Golden Ball award in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Uruguay has also become famous because of its unique President Jose Mujica. In contrast to the many corrupt and pompous Indian politicians, Mujica is uncorruptible and the poorest president in the world. He lives a simple life in his own ramshackle farm hut, rejecting the presidential mansion and protocol, growing vegetables and fruits and driving his own old Volkswagen Beetle. He was an ex-guerilla fighter who spent fourteen years in jail during the military dictatorship.

Carlos Ott and Carlos Ponce both studied architecture in Uruguay. It is interesting to note that every Uruguayan architecture student has visited India. The school of architecture in the University of Uruguay has a tradition of sending out their students on mandatory global tours including for about ten days in India. 

Carlos Ott has won many international awards and projects of which the most prestigious was the project to design the modern Paris opera house 'Opera de la Bastille' in 1983. The French had inaugurated this building in 1989 to commemorate the bicentenary of the French Revolution. Ott was selected from a large panel of over 744 architects from around the world. He has done projects in Europe, US, Latin America, Middle East and Asia.

Both the Carloses are thrilled at the opportunity to make their mark in India, a country they admire for its tradition, culture and wisdom. They are hoping to get more opportunities to give their Uruguayan touch to other buildings in India.They are fascinated especially by the architecture of the temples in Tamilnadu from which they have drawn inspiration. Although they found the Sambar and Rasam too hot and spicy, they say that they enjoyed Iddly, Dosa and Vada. Even now they get to eat them when invited by the two dozen Tamils who work in the TCS office in Montevideo. 

The five million square feet office complex of TCS is spread over seventy acres.  There are six blocks on each side of the spine of the atrium forming part of the wings of the butterfly. Water bodies please the eyes and cool the air inside and outside the atrium along with the exotic plants and trees giving a lush green touch to the bluish glass and steel structure.

The building has won many awards for energy and water management and it is a Gold rated Green building. Its state of the art technology, advanced materials, solar control and thermal insulation systems designed specially for the heat and humidity of Chennai, make the building maintenance less expensive and more efficient and environment-friendly.  

Here are links to two videos of the building

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSbwdEgKuUA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A2canbLEkc  T

The Siruseri TCS complex is the largest corporate office in Asia with a capacity for 25000 staff -whom TCS calls as 'Associates' - who feel as though they are in a luxury spa resort with all the elements to delight the heart and soothe the soul. At the same time, the mind of the young Associates, whose average age is under 28, is excited and stimulated by the engineering and architectural masterpiece which makes them proud. Surely, when a TCS Associate from this building visits a client in US or Europe, he or she is not going to feel overwhelmed by the offices of their clients. The inspiring building and the innovative global work being done by the TCS Associates is a matter of pride for India and ..yes for Uruguay too.

The New Latin America and The New India - seminar

¨Palabras de Pasion¨ ( words of passion) was the title of my opening speech in Spanish.

I said,

-The New India is the one in which a TCS nerd has the nerve to tell God ¨Why dont you outsource your mandate? TCS will do it at half the cost and twice the efficiency

- The New Latin America is the one which does not tremble when IMF officials visit. Now it is the IMF which trembles while requesting Brasil for funds to rescue Europe.

- The New Latin America sings

Dejanos imaginar

que no existe el pasado

que nacimos el mismo instante en que nos conocimos

Let us imagine

that there was no past

that we were born at the moment in which we met each other..

-India is more than a commerical partner for Latin America. It is a democratic partner with spiritual synergy ( Bikini- Bindi ) and cultural complementarity ( Soya and Yoga)

- Latin Americans come back from visit to india with their spirit and soul enriched. Indians return from Latin America...happier and younger. Some do not return...stay on ..fall in love .. and marry Latin Americans..

Full speech of 18 minutes in Spanish in Youtube

This seminar is the first of its kind. It is the first one which has covered commercial, economic, political and cultural aspects of the relations between India and Latin America comprehensively. We had put together economists, policy makers, businessmen, academics, diplomats and a journalist on the dais. The focus was on the future...promise and potential. Not wasting time on the forgettable past.

Osvado Rosales of ECLAC ( Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean based in Santiago - our partner in organising the seminar) released a new publication ¨India and Latin America and Caribbean- Opportunities and Challenges in trade and economic relations¨ This is the first- ever ECLAC publication on India. Here is their Press Release.

India could become an important trading partner for Latin America and caribbean

Their Press Release got wide coverage in Latin American media as well outside. The full report in their website.

Marisol Argueta, Head of Latin America and Senior Director of World Economic Forum ( former foreign minister of El Salvador) talked about ¨Latin America- the decade ahead¨ and recalled the conclusions of the last WEF Latin America Summit held in Rio in April 2011 which were optimistic about the prospects in this decade. She exhorted the Latin American policy makers to make use of this historic opportunity by focussing on education, innovation, poverty alleviation, infrastructure and policy reforms.

Mr Samuel Guimaraes, the High Representative of Mercosur and ex-vice foreign minister of Brasil spoke ( humour and irony about IMF and some hard truth about China too) on India- Mercosur partnership.

Horacio Salvador from the Argentine foreign ministry highlighted the common approaches of Argentina and India in multilateral economic issues.

Jai Shroff, CEO of UPL, is planning to increase his agrochemicals and seed business in Latin America from the current turnover of 350 million dollars to a billion in the next 4 years. He is a prime example of the new mindset of Indian entrepreneurs who are going global with confidence, vision and optimism.

In the business session, the five Indian speakers

-were upbeat about the opportunities in Latin America

-outlined their plans for more investment and expansion of business

-expressed happiness with the Latin American human resources

-highlighted the cultural aspects of interaction between Indian and Latin American staff.

Arvind Sharma from Punjab who is settled down in Santa Cruz, Bolivia for the last 20 years, talked about the 2 billion dollar Jindal iron ore mining project.

Satya Muley who has built up from scratch a 50 million dollars business of adhesives and chemicals for Pidilite exuded confidence about his Brasil-expertise. He is a Guru for those who want to know the ropes of doing business in this large but complicated market. Brasil, they say, is not for beginners...

GV Mani was happy with the quality of Argentine human resources for the high-end financial research business of Crisil which wants to recruit more people.

Kapil Gulati wants to increase his business of lighting equipments to 600 million dollars from the current 200 million in the region.

Ram Karuturi has no business in the region..yet. He seeks South American expertise, technology, equipments and partnership for farming of his 300,000 hectares of land in Ethiopia.

Gabriel Rozman, the uruguayan wizard behind the success of TCS in Latin America ( employing 7000 Latin Americans in 8 countries ) inspired the audience with his humorous anecdotes and was proud of his association with Tata the legendary group of India.

Gustavo Grobocopatel's eyes were shining while he talked about the huge potential for South America ( lot of fertile land, abundant water, best practices, professional, scientific and large scale commercial farming) to supply protein and food requirements of India ( growing population and food consumption but losing agricultural land, water table going down, constraints of small scale farming) in the long term. Gustavo is called as the King of Soya and pioneer of APO- Agri Process Outsourcing. Playing on his name, he claims(jokingly) to be a relative of Sardar Vallabhai Patel !! For sure, he is Gujrati in his enterprising spirit.

Left to right- Arvind Sharma ( Jindal Steel Bolivia), Ram Karuturi ( Karuturi Global- largest cut rose producer in the world), Satya Muley ( Pidilite Brasil), Sergio Suarez ( Ayurvedic specialist and more Indian than me), Gabriel Rozman (TCS), GV Mani ( Crisil), Kapil Gulati ( Havells Sylvania) and Gustavo Grobocopatel ( Los Grobo Group).

Jorge Heine, who is writing a book on India ( to be released in the first half of 2012) and who was the Chilean Ambassador to India, talked about the unique aspects and advantages of India over China.

Oliver Stuenkel, the professor from Getulio Vargas Foundation, Sao Paulo

- One cannot understand India using the western norms and theories. India's democracy, growth and promise defy conventional wisdom.

Siddharth Varadarajan, Editor The Hindu

- India's rise as a power is peaceful unlike the old powers which wanted to dominate and caused wars. India and Latin America should work together in setting global agenda ( to the extent possible) rather than reacting to the agenda of the fading old powers who try to manipulate.

Raul Rivera, author of the new book ¨Nuestra Hora ¨ ( our time ), who was the last speaker mesmerised the audience with his unconventional and humorous comparison of Latin America with the rest of the world. He entertained the audience with his wit, satire and colourful language.

Left to right: Raul Rivera ( Chile), Oliver Stuenkel ( Brasil), Jorge Heine ( Chile) and Siddharth Varadarajan ( India)

We raffled 4 Qatar Airways tickets to India among the participants in the seminar and the guests at the Gala evening. The seminar has stimulated new enthusiasm, energy and vision among Indians and Latin Americans about the growing win-win long time partnership based on cultural and spiritual bonds.

The seminar was followed by a cutural programme with Rabindra Sangeet and Manipuri groups which came from India. While the Argentine artistes danced Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Bollywood dances, an Indian Sharukh Merchant danced Tango. Cultural complementarity...

The India- Latin America spiritual synergy flourished in the cocktail with the wine made by a Vietnamese- speaking, French passport-holding Pondicherry Tamil Aziz Abdul in his winery in Mendoza, Argentina.

¨The New India and the New Latin America – Synergies and Complementarities¨ Seminar on 5 December 2011

India is the fastest growing democratic free market set to be the world´s third largest economy in the next three decades. Latin America too has undergone a paradigm shift and 2011 is said to be the dawn of the ¨Latin American Decade¨. The two sides, in their latest reincarnations as The New India and The New Latin America, have synergies and complementarities for growth and prosperity.

¨India : Latin America´s next big thing ?¨ was the title of the study published by the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) in 2010. India represents more than just investment and trade for Latin America The growth story of India within a pluralistic democracy amidst a vast diversity resonates among Latin American democracies. India adds value to Latin America by its spiritual and cultural richness and the Indians and Latin Americans bond with each other easily.

Bilateral trade in 2010 was 23 billion US dollars. India has invested 12 billion US dollars in the region in sectors such as IT sector, pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, energy, mining, steel and manufacturing employing 35,000 Latin Americans.

What is the scenario of India and Latin America in the coming decades? What are the new complementarities and synergies? How can they be leveraged for mutual growth? What are the challenges? What should be the strategies? What could they learn from each other from their successes, failures and best practices? What makes Indians and Latin Americans bond with each other? These will be discussed and analysed by economists, policy makers, businessmen and intellectuals in the proposed seminar, which is the first event of its kind to look at all aspects comprehensively.

Programme

1400 hrs. Arrival of guests

1430 hrs. Ambassador Viswanathan ¨Adding passion to the Synergies and Complementarities¨

1450 hrs. Osvaldo Rosales, Director of International Trade and Integration, ECLAC ¨Latin American economies - an overview¨

1510 hrs. Jai Shroff, CEO, United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) ¨The new mindset of Indian entrepreneurs¨

1530 hrs. Ambassador Horacio Salvador, Director General, Ministry of External Affairs of Argentina

1540 hrs. Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes, Secretary General, Mercosur, Montevideo

¨India-Mercosur Partnership¨

1600 hrs. Marisol Argueta de Barillas, Senior Director – Head of Latin America, World Economic Forum ¨Latin America - the decade ahead¨

1620 – 1630 hrs. Coffee break

1630 -1800 hrs. Session on India- Latin America business

Moderator: Dr. Sergio Lais-Suarez, Honorary Consul of India, Cordoba

Speakers:

1. Gustavo Grobocopatel, President, Los Grobo Group,

Argentina

2. Kapil Gulati, Director for Americas, Havells Sylvania, San Jose, Costa Rica

3. G.V. Mani, Senior Director, CRISIL, Mumbai

4. Gabriel Rozman, Executive Vice-President, TCS , Mumbai

5. Satya Muley, CEO, Pidilite Brasil, Sao Paulo

6. Ramakrishna Karuturi, founder &Managing Director, Karuturi Global, Bangalore

7 Arvind Sharma, Director Jindal Steel, Santa Cruz, Bolivia

1800 – 1810 hrs. Coffee break

1810 - 1920 hrs. Session on the markets and mindsets of the New India and New Latin America

Moderator : Dr. Jorge Heine, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Ontario

Speakers:

1. Oliver Stuenkel Assistant Professor, Fundaçao Getulio Vargas (FGV), Sao Paulo

2. Mr. Siddharth Varadarajan, Editor, ´The Hindu´ newspaper of India, Chennai

3. Raul Rivera, President, ForoInnovacion, Santiago

1920 hrs. Raffle of two Qatar Airways tickets to India

1930 – 2100 hrs. Indian classical music & dance, Bollywood and Tango (by an Indian) Dances

2100 – 2230 hrs. Cocktail

The seminar is being organized by the Embassy of India in Buenos Aires in collaboration with the Economic Commission for the Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC) based in Santiago (Chile).

The Seminar is part of the IV Festival of India 3-13 December, organized by the Embassy. This includes performances by Indian classical music and dance groups, bollywood dance by Argentines, food festival, yoga and meditation sessions, film festival, tourism workshops, painting and photo exhibitions, cultural seminars, handicraft exhibition by 50 Indian companies and India Cup golf tournament.

Business with Uruguay

During my trip to Uruguay last week, I had a meeting with the uruguay-India chamber of Commerce in Montevideo. The Chamber is vibrant and has an elegant office and the members of the chamber are enthusiastic about business with India. India's exports in the first ten months of 2007 were 39 million dollars and imports 7 million dollars. There is scope to increase the trade to 100 million dollars in the next 3-4 years.
TCS, Mahindra and Mahindra and Biotech international have operations in Montevideo. Our Honorary Consul Daniel Bajuk has an agency selling Bajaj and Hero motorcycles.Indian vegetable oil producers' consortium is seriously looking into the possibility of investment in agribusiness including soya farming in uruguay.
Martin de Castro, the Montevideo-based Commercial officer of our embassy is dynamic, knowledgeable and is commited to assisting indian business. his contact decastromartin@gmail.com


meeting with the Chamber


I visited the bonded warehouse of Grupo Ras in Montevideo Port, where the Central Warehousing Corporation of India has rented 2000 sq metres for use by Indian exporters. The bonded ware house of Grupo Ras has 40,000 sq metres of modern space and moves 100 containers a week. They have offices in other South American countries. Ruben Azar, the young, energetic and dynamic owner of this company with turnover of 40 million dollars has been biten by the India bug. He has been to india several times and sees great potential for business with India. His facility has been used by Reliance, Aurobindo and other Indian companies. Grupo Ras is not only offering warehousing facility but also marketing of indian products in the region. More info www.gruporas.com




here is a picture of the bonded warehouse





below is the CWC space and Ruben Azar

I attended the inaguration of the new building of TCS at Zona Americas in Montevideo. The inaguration of this 4 million dollar building was done by the Uruguyan vice president. The new building will house 250 professionals out of the 800 being employed by TCS in Uruguay. They have plans to increase staff. TCS has also set up a regional IT training centre in Montevideo for candidates from all over Latin America. the credit for success of TCS in latin America goes to Gabriel Rozman.

This is the new building of TCS.

TCS inagurates Knowledge Development Centre in Uruguay

TCS has set up a regional training center for Latin America established in the Knowledge Development Center (KDC) which is hosted by the Uruguayan technology lab (LATU). The KDC site, which was inaugurated by Jorge Lepra, the Uruguayan Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, will also serve as a hub for training needs of local software companies in Uruguay.
The TCS training center will be based in Montevideo, Uruguay and will serve as a training platform to upgrade the technology skills of the firm's employees across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and other countries in the region.

With increasing demand for IT and BPO services in Latin America, the opportunities for job creation in this sector are immense but the supply of trained manpower could serve as a barrier to growth. "Latin America today is becoming an increasingly important IT services marketplace, with some of the highest projected growth rates over the next five years. It is also rapidly becoming an important hub for global sourcing of IT skills. It is crucial that the proper investments are made in training in technology skills, global client orientation and English language skills. TCS' investment in collaboration with the Uruguayan government could serve as a valuable example of public-private co-operation to meet this growing need," said Bob Welch, Group VP and GM of IDC's Global Services Research.

TCS invests more than 6 percent of its annual revenues in training and development and will bring in experts from across the world to serve as faculty in its Latin America Training Center. The center is also expected to give a boost to the local software industry in Uruguay and help promote technology careers and jobs in the country. "We intend to train over 3,000 employees in the next four years in a wide range of technologies, methodologies, language skills and cultural sensitivity in serving clients from offshore," said Mario Tucci, Vice President of TCS Iberoamerica.

TCS currently runs an extensive Global Delivery Network in Latin America with centers in Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Chile serving over 150 clients. The Uruguayan operations, which recently underwent a major expansion, employ over 800 professionals and also provide nearshore services to major US and Europe headquartered clients. "We chose Uruguay as a location for this regional training center due to its geographic centrality, excellent human resources, high quality academic environment and superior cost structure. This center will serve as a backbone to our high growth plans in Latin America by ensuring our human resources in this region are at par with the best in the world," added Gabriel Rozman, President of TCS Iberoamerica.

Mexican IT company Softtek acquires Indian software firm

This is the first time that a Latin American IT company has acquired an Indian software firm to make entry into India. So far it was the other way. The Indian companies have acquired and established operations in Latin America employing 20,000 Latin Americans.

Softtek, the Mexican IT firm has now acquired an Indian software company Systech Integrators, founded by Indian Americans and headquartered in San Jose, California with centers in India and US. Systech specializes in SAP solutions and services.

Softtek employs 8000 staff and operates in 30 countries including in India and China.

Another point of interest - Gabriel Rozman, the Executive Vice President of TCS and who established TCS in Latin America was the CEO of Softtek in 2000 before joining TCS in 2001.

President of Mexico inagurates TCS centre in Gudalajara

Mr. Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico inaugurated on 29 May the Global Technological Development Center of Tata Consultancy Services in the city of Guadalajara in Jalisco state.

President Felipe Calderón was accompanied by Mr. Fernando Guzmán, Secretary General of the Government of Jalisco, Mr. Federico Hernández Corona, Magistrate of the Tribunal Superior de Justicia; Mr. Rinzing Wangdi, Ambassador of India in Mexico; Mr. Gabriel Rozman, President of TATA Consultancy Services in Iberoamerica, and Mr. Ankur Prakash, Director General of Tata Consultancy Services in Mexico.

This Centere's initial investment is about 10 million USD, and will employee about two thousand Mexican engineers and technicians.

Jalisco has a state-of-the-art technological corridor called as the Mexican Silicon Valley.