Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group,Kumar Mangalam Birla,who is named in the FIR in the alleged coal block allocation scam,today met finance minister P Chidambaram for the second time in less than three weeks. The industrialist did not comment on the meeting that lasted for more than 20 minutes. The industrialist had met the FM on October 18 after the CBI named him in the FIR. As of now,I am not worried about it. There is nothing wrong (that) has been done,so why should one worry? he had told reporters when asked if the FIR would cast a shadow on the Aditya Birla Groups application for a bank licence. Cognizant aims higher as net jumps 15.4% Press Trust of India Mumbai,November 5 Software outsourcing firm Cognizant Technology today reported a 15.4 per cent rise in net profit at $319.6 million in the quarter to September driven by a strong ramp up in demand for outsourcing services,up from $276.9 million a year ago. Its revenue rose 6.7 per cent to $2.31 billion on a sequential basis and 21.9 per cent ($1.89 billion) on a y-o-y basis. Our performance during the quarter was stronger than anticipated due to a faster ramp up in demand for outsourcing services and strong discretionary spend on consulting and technology services, Cognizant president Gordon Coburn said in a statement. Continuous reinvestment in business continues to help Cognizant strengthen its capabilities to address clients dual mandate of driving greater performance,he added. The US-based firm with 75 per cent of its workers located in the country,has also revised its full year revenue target. For 2013,it now expects revenue to be at least $8.84 billion,a growth of at least 20.3 per cent over 2012. The company had given a guidance of 19 per cent growth in revenue ($8.74 billion) compared to 2012. We delivered yet another quarter of industry-leading growth that was broad-based across our portfolio of industries,services and geographies, companys chief executive Francisco DSouza said.
