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A fresh dispute among the Patni brothers over the rights of the new investor in Patni Computer Systems is delaying the stake sale process in the IT service firm. This was one of the major issues holding back the sale of the Patni borthers’ in the venture, as potential buyers wanted management control with clear rights.

Under the current shareholding structure, all three Patni brothers hold equal stakes of around 14% in the company. Ashok and Gajendra Patni are selling part of their stakes, while Pe firm General Atlantic that holds around 16%, is selling its entire stake. The new investor buying their stakes would become the single largest shareholder in the company.

Following the stake sale, Narendra Patni was supposed to cede management control and function as non-executive chairman. The board framework of the agreement was that present chairman and CEO Narendra Patni would retain some of the rights he enjoys.

However, the new investor would have the right to appoint a new CEO and also have a say in operational issues and the future growth strategies. However, the process seems to have run into a roadblock once again.

The deal was to be concluded this month and Patni Computer was to make a public announcement of the intent of its major share-holders to divest. PE firms Blackstone, Carlyle, Apax Partners and Texas Pacific Group were in the list of final rights having been sorted out, negotiations were to be centred primarily around the price.

Share of Patni Computer Systems that have taken a beating along with that of other IT stocks in the last few weeks, closed at Rs.442.25, down 2.2% from its previous close on the BSE.

Japan’s ageing population is a boon for Indian IT companies and Indian IT professionals. Japan needs three lakh IT professionals. There are presently 2000 Indian IT professionals working in Japan and there is scope for thousands more to be absorbed there.

After signing a joint venture agreeement with the Japanese IT firm Sanwell Company Limited, Arham Technologies Company (Japan) Ltd director Atul Hemani said that the business of Indian IT firms based in Japan is currently growing at over 40 percent compound annual growth rate in Japan compared to the IT sector in India which is growing at around 30 percent annually.

Mr.Hemani said that the size of the Japanese IT industry was over $150 billion. He said that around 60 percent of 5400 software companies operating in Japan were small to medium sized enterprises. They were facing an acute IT manpower crunch because of the dearth of young population in the country, he added.

He said that the business of Indian IT firms presently operating in Japan is currently growing at over 40 percent compound average growth rate although the Indian IT sector is growing at about 30 percent per annum, since India is the largest IT manpower provider in the world.

Mr.Hemani said Japan was in need of about three lakh more IT professionals to cater to the rising demand for software services in the country.

Sanwell, President of Sanwell Company Ltd said that most of the small to medium sized Japanese IT firms were keen on signing joint venture agreements with Indian IT companies. He said Japanese entities looked forward to offering infrastructure facilities towards sales and marketing initiatives and were willing to train Indian IT professionals to design softwares in the Japanese language.

Mumbai based Omnitech Infosolutions Ltd has bought 60 percent stake in Arham Technologies Company Ltd. The remaining 40 percent stake lies with Japanese IT service provider Sanwell Company Ltd.

The internet space in India is set to witness fresh action as newer players are entering the online digital photo market driven by growing number of digital cameras, mobile phones and rising broadband connections.

The photo printing market in India is largely in the unorganised space. The recent entrant in this space is ZoomIn, a start-up focused on providing digital photo services including sharing and printing of images. Market reports also indicate that Hewlett-Packard (HP) will soon launch its online digital photo service in India.

According to ZoomIn CEO Sunny Balijepalli there is strong growth potential for this segment in India provided one is able to provide premium quality of printing services and adequate privacy to users. For starters, ZoomIn’s target segments will be the Indian metros abd non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the US.

The demand for online digital photo service is primarily fuelled by the growing number of digital camera sales as, typically, every user of this product has access to internet. According to Gartner, the market size of digital camera in India was $110 million in 2006 and is expected to grow 20-22% CAGR through 2011.

However, it is not just digital cameras which are fuelling this demand, but also mobile phones with cameras. Gartner says the number of mobile users in India will be more than double in the next five years, growing from 185 milion to 462 million in 2011.

These online ventures derive their revenues from the printing services they provide. For example, an user can order printed photos completely online and these are delivered through courier services. In case of ZoomIn, its printing facility is located in Mumbai.

Mr.Bharadwaj said that the success of online ventures will depend on the price advantage provided for their users. However, industry observers see reasons to worry in people taking more photos than they actually printing.