Infosys Technologies Ltd, the technology bellweather, will be setting up a second campus in Hyderabad, spread over 550 acres of land. Infosys’ first campus is in the Gachibowli area of Hyderabad, a district which is also home to Microsoft Corporation, which has its India Development Centre, and Wipro Ltd, which is building its own campus.

The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to allocate the 550 acres of land to Infosys at Mammidipalli village close to the international airport, government sources told this newspaper on Sunday. Infosys chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy will be signing the memorandum of understanding with the government on Monday for setting up the new campus.

The land will be sold to Infosys at the rate of Rs 12 lakhs per acre, the sources said. Asked why the land was being given away for such a low rate, when the market rate was far higher because of the presence of the international airport, the sources said, "We wanted Infosys to set up the campus in Mammidipalli, and as we were competing with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, we decided to match the offers made by our neighbouring states."

Infosys will be setting up a software development and IT-enabled services centre at the new campus. Asked how many jobs Infosys had committed to create at the new campus, the sources said, "Infosys has indicated that eventually the campus will have more than 25,000 employees." Infosys and its subsidiaries had 49,422 employees as of December 31, 2005.

The sources said Infosys’ current campus, set in 50 lush green acres, had filled to overcapacity. "They have over 5,000 employees at the campus, and were looking to expand, and we wanted Infosys to expand its operations in Hyderabad," the sources said.

Meanwhile, Wipro Ltd has also been allotted 100 acres of land near Gopannapally for a campus, and work on its construction is expected to begin soon, the sources said, citing a recent interaction with Dr A. Lakshman Rao, chief operating officer of the company.

Werner Heesen, 58, is general manager, passenger sales, India, and director, South Asia, of Lufthansa German Airlines, the German flag carrier. He was appointed to the post in September 2003, and he supervises Lufthansa’s sales and marketing activities in South Asia, covering India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Mr Heesen joined Lufthansa in 1971, starting his career as tours promotion manager based in Dusseldorf, Germany. Mr. Heesen had an earlier stint in India as deputy area manager for northern India based in New Delhi and subsequently regional marketing manager in 1986. Prior to his current posting in India, he worked in Cairo and became general manager, passenger sales, Egypt, and director, Northeast Africa and Yemen.

Excerpts from an interview with SHAUKAT H. MOHAMMED:

Where does India fit into Lufthansa’s big picture? Lufthansa has identified two markets as strategic. They are India and China. Both these are emerging markets. Therefore, India is very important. We are currently operating 42 flights per week to and from five destinations in India — New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. We have been consistently increasing the number of flights, nearly doubling them from 23 in 2003 to 42 now. Lufthansa is the only European airline operating the largest number of flights to India. There were double-digit increases in passenger kilometres, passengers and capacity.

Will Lufthansa be flying to other destinations in India as well? We are exploring options in eastern and western India, in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Which is the bigger market, India or China? India is the bigger market because there is a lot more business travel, particularly in the technology industry. Therefore, the passenger volume is higher with technology industry workers, especially from from Bangalore and Hyderabad to the United States via Frankfurt. Our seat load factor on routes to and from India is one of the highest in Lufthansa’s Asia-Pacific network.More importantly, we believe that the Indian market is a sustainable market because of the strong growth in the economy and stability.

How’s the partnership with Air India going? Lufthansa has a codesharing arrangement with Air India. Under this, Lufthansa operates codeshare flights carrying Air India flight numbers. The partnership operates 402 weekly joint flights to and from the five destinations in India and 12 destinations in Germany, Europe and the US.

What are the other areas Lufthansa is planning to invest in, in India? Lufthansa has a very strong presence in maintenance, repair and overhaul, through Lufthansa Technik. We are planning to set up an MRO unit in India, because India is yet to get the technical expertise. An MRO is being seriously considered. It’s around the corner. Lufthansa is very sure about the MRO business, and it has MRO units in Hamburg and Berlin in Germany and in Ireland. The cargo segment, too, is growing. Lufthansa Cargo has been operating in India since 1969, and flies to five destinations in India, with 47 frequencies per week. Lufthansa has launched its own catering unit in Bangalore and Hyderabad, which delivers Indian cuisine to all Lufthansa flights from India. Lufthansa has a joint venture with the Bird Group, RDM India, which develops and offers support to the travel industry.

What’s Lufthansa doing to address the shortage of trained commercial pilots in India? Lufthansa is seriously considering setting up a pilot training facility in India. The airline has such a facility in California. The pilot training facility, too, is around the corner. We are on a fact-finding mission in India with regard to the pilot training and MRO facilities.

What do you think the Indian government should do to encourage the civil aviation sector? A lot has been done already. The government has abolished royalty payments for every flight operated. It has allowed an increase in frequency of flights. There are some infrastructure bottlenecks, like congestion at the New Delhi and Mumbai airports. But these are being addressed as well. Lufthansa has a stake in Fraport, which is part of the consortium that has been awarded the contract to renovate the New Delhi airport (On March 24, Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it has increased its stake in Fraport AG, which operates the Frankfurt airport, to 9.01 per cent from 5.01 per cent)

The guessing game is over — Google Inc. is joining the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, giving investors another reason to scrutinise the online search engine leader’s already closely watched stock.S&P announced its decision to include Google in the influential index on late Thursday, snapping the company’s stock out of its recent doldrums.

Google shares soared nine per cent, or $30.82, in extended trading on the news. They had closed the regular session at $341.89 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.The Mountain View, Calif.-based company will join the S&P 500 on March 31, replacing Burlington Resources Inc. That Houston-based oil producer is being bought by ConocoPhillips Inc. in a deal worth about $35.6 billion.

Google’s admission into the elite club is not a surprise because its whirlwind success and market value had already made clear that it belonged."It hasn’t been a question of if, only when" Google would become an S&P 500 member, said David Garrity, director of research for Hapoalim Securities.

The inclusion into the S&P 500 provides Google’s stock with an immediate catalyst because so many large mutual funds are based on the index’s composition. Once a stock is added to the index, money managers typically must buy shares as they readjust their portfolios.

What’s more, some conservatively managed funds are permitted to invest only in companies that belong to the S&P 500, so Thursday’s move will make Google’s stock available to a larger pool of investors.

Now that Google will be in the S&P 500, Mr Garrity thinks some investors who couldn’t previously buy Google’s shares might decide to sell some of their stock in Yahoo Inc. — another Internet icon that is already in the index. "Some of the benefit that Google gets from being in the S&P could come at Yahoo’s expense," Mr Garrity said.

Thursday gave no inkling of that happening. Yahoo’s shares gained $1.08 to close at $31.83 on the Nasdaq, then added another 60 cents, or 1.9 per cent, in extended trading. The S&P anointment comes at a good time for Google’s stock, which has fallen from its record high of $475.11 during the past two months amid concerns about a slowdown in the company’s rapid earnings growth and questions about its sometimes cryptic communications with Wall Street. Those jitters had wiped out more than $20 billion in shareholder wealth. (AP)