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This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Also in this letter
■ Cognizant says CEO Brian Humphries was terminated
■ Handset output down by up to 20% since January
■ Infographic Insight: Few Indians are buying apple products, services
Google appeals Delhi HC order directing CCI to take up ADIF complaints
Google has filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court against a single-judge order directing the CCI to look into complaints filed by the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), an industry body representing a group of Indian startups.
Delhi HC order: On Monday, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela had directed the CCI to consider the complaints by Wednesday (April 26), when Google’s new billing policy is scheduled to become operative.
The arguments were primarily around whether it was within the ambit of the law for the CCI to take the complaints up, given that the commission currently has only two members and is, therefore, lacking a quorum.
ADIF’s complaint: The body, which represents Indian startups such as Paytm, Matrimony, MapmyIndia and TrulyMadly, alleged that Google was engaging in anti-competitive conduct by implementing the new policy, and that it was taking advantage of the CCI lacking a quorum to look into the industry body’s complaints.
Under the system proposed by Google, app developers need to pay a commission of 11-26% to the US-based tech giant.
‘Ray of hope’: Post the HC verdict, ADIF had said that the order provides ‘a ray of hope’ to Indian startups, against Google’s ‘unfair lagaan’.
“ADIF will present more factual evidence to buttress our point and assist the CCI in making an effective adjudication of the contravention applications moved by us,” it said.
Cognizant says former CEO Brian Humphries was involuntarily terminated
Former Cognizant CEO Brian Humphries
Over three months after abruptly announcing the elevation of Ravi Kumar S as chief executive officer, Cognizant has revealed that his predecessor Brian Humphries was sacked.
Details: Humphries was involuntarily terminated without cause, the company said as part of its stock exchange filings. The statement said that its relative total shareholder return (TSR) performance had not met expectations, leading to the decision to change leadership.
Jargon buster: When an executive is involuntarily terminated without cause, it means the termination is not related to any misconduct or malfeasance, and they are entitled to severance payment.
Underperformance concerns: Humphries’ termination followed multiple years of underperformance by the company compared to its peers.
ET had reported in August 2022 that the company’s board was likely to make leadership changes given Cognizant’s loss of senior executives, ‘inability’ to hire leaders from technology companies, the decision to stay away from large deals, and ‘relative underperformance’ compared to tier I offshore and global peers.
Appointment of Ravi Kumar S: The IT major had on January 12 announced that it has named Ravi Kumar S as CEO and a member of the Board. It had earlier announced that Kumar will oversee business across the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
Mobile phone companies have reduced production capacity by up to 20% year-on-year between January and April due to the continued steep fall in sales in the last six months, industry executives said.
Shipments decline: Smartphone shipments — a proxy of sales — declined 30% year-on-year in the October-December 2022 period and by 18% in January-March 2023 as compared to the same period last year, per the latest numbers from industry researcher Counterpoint.
Quote, unquote: “The mobile phone industry is impacted not just in India but across the globe, taking a toll on demand,” said Pradeep Jain, managing director of Jaina Group, which manufactures smartphones for several companies besides retailing its own Karbonn brand. “Companies have cut production to align with the demand scenario and this pressure is likely to continue for some time,” he said.
Not the first time: This cut in production is the first this calendar year. The industry had resorted to similar cuts last year in the April-July period and again post-Diwali, in November and December. But those reductions were lower, at 5-10%, industry executives said.
IT accessories, peripherals demand to stay resilient: The demand for information technology accessories and peripherals in India is expected to remain resilient, according to the latest release by industry researcher GfK. The pandemic had stimulated demand for such products as businesses and households adapted to remote working, it said. GfK said the less-than-10% penetration of personal computers (PC) in the country will drive growth of accessories and peripherals.
Apple this month opened its first two stores in India, in New Delhi and Mumbai. CEO Tim Cook attended both openings.
According to a survey by Statista, between 13% and 15% of urban Indians said they were or had been an Apple Music or Apple TV+ customer in the past 12 months, while 12% said they had ordered from Apple.com in India.
At 12%, EarPods and AirPods, were the physical products reaching most consumers in India closely followed by the iPhone, the Apple Watch and the iPad at 11%.
At 6-8%, fewer people had MacBooks and stationary Mac computers available to them (measured on a household level).
Apple had first launched an online store in India in 2020. The company is avoiding steep import fees by assembling phones in India, making its products more affordable in the country.
Yet, iPhones and MacBooks remain out of the reach of many, including many urban Indians surveyed online by Statista.
Tweet of the day
Truecaller in talks with telcos to weed out pesky calls, messages, curb fraud
Truecaller is looking to work with telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea to weed out spam and phishing scams through its artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions.
Steps taken by the company: Truecaller said it has recently launched an AI powered SMS fraud protection solution, which recognises fraudulent senders and messages. The company has already been offering a solution to curb spam calling.
Quote, unquote: “We have built a solution to respond to (SMS frauds) and to safeguard our users, and we’d be happy to work with both the regulator and carriers on this side. In fact, we are in conversations with them,” Nami Zarringhalam, chief strategy officer and cofounder of Truecaller, told ET.
Privacy fears: Truecaller also rebutted privacy fears around Trai’s consultation paper on calling name presentation (CNAP) in telecommunication networks. “This is a welcome step by Trai as they are looking at this problem and seeing that it is an issue in society that we should try to address,” Zarringhalam said.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Erick Massey in New Delhi and Megha Mishra in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
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