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Hard for traditional BPM firms to invest big in AI: WNS CEO Keshav Murugesh
Shivani Shinde Avik Das Mumbai
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Keshav Murugesh, chief executive officer (CEO), WNS, is a veteran in information-technology (IT) services and business process management (BPM). After being in charge of the company since 2010, he decided to merge the firm, spun off British Airways in 1996, with French IT services company Capgemini earlier this week. In a video interaction with Shivani Shinde and Avik Das, Murugesh talks about the future of BPM and the reasons for the deal. Edited excerpts:
From a turnaround CEO to dealmaker, what made you say 'yes' to this deal?
I have not done any acquisition. I turned around companies that were

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Fibre2Fashion
2 hours ago
- Fibre2Fashion
New EU Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes partnership to boost French textile sector
The European Union's (EU) Pact for Skills recently unveiled a new regional skills partnership in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region in France. Home to over 800 companies with a skilled workforce of 18,000, the region generates €3.5 billion in revenue a year, making Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes the French leader in technical and functional textiles. Dedicated to improving competitiveness and sustainability in the textiles industry, the new partnership focuses on regional strategies to strengthen skills development and tackle workforce shortages in the sector, an official release said. An EU Pact for Skills partnership in France's Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region will improve competitiveness and sustainability in the textiles industry. It focuses on regional strategies to strengthen skills development and tackle workforce shortages in the sector. It will help textile companies anticipate and adapt to evolving skills needs driven by economic, technological and societal changes. The Pact for Skills is one of the flagship actions of the European Skills Agenda. It aims at supporting public and private organisations with upskilling and reskilling, so they can thrive through green and digital transitions. The textile sector faces challenges that threaten its sustainability and competitiveness. One of the primary concerns is the sector's ability to stay competitive amidst the rise of energy costs, limited access to raw materials and the increasing demands of the ecological transition. In addition, the sector faces work-related challenges, with 63 per cent of companies struggling to fill key roles. An ageing workforce, shifting skills demands and limited training capacity have intensified the challenge. The Regional Skills Partnership will create a resilient and adaptable textile workforce that can respond to ongoing changes. It will help textile companies anticipate and adapt to evolving skills needs driven by economic, technological and societal changes. In addition, the partnership will promote lifelong learning through apprenticeships and will support professional integration and inclusion across the sector. It will also work to raise awareness of careers in textiles, attracting, guiding and retaining people through training programmes. Together, these efforts will strengthen the sector's resilience and competitiveness. These ambitions are driven by key objectives to boost the sector's adaptability and European reach. Finally, the partnership will position Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes as a leading European textile region by contributing to the TCLF Skills Alliance, a collaborative initiative focused on enhancing skills development within the textile, clothing, footwear and leather (TCLF) industries in Europe, and EU initiatives like the TCLF SkillBridge. To meet its goals, the partnership will design new training frameworks and transform existing training courses to meet companies' needs. These will be focused on sustainability-related objectives. It will also monitor emerging trends like adopting artificial intelligence. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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Business Standard
2 hours ago
- Business Standard
EU ministers plan measures to counter Trump's 'unacceptable' 30% tariffs
EU trade ministers have agreed that US President Donald Trump's announcement of 30 per cent tariffs on the European Union was "absolutely unacceptable", and they are studying a new set of countermeasures to respond to the move. The ministers met Monday in Brussels following Trump's surprise announcement over the weekend of such hefty tariffs, which could have repercussions for governments, companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. The EU is America's biggest business partner and the world's largest trading bloc. Maro efcovic, the EU's trade representative in its talks with the US, said after the meeting that it was "very obvious from the discussions today, the 30 per cent is absolutely unacceptable". He said that the commission was sharing proposals with the 27 member countries "for the second list of goods accounting of some 72 billion euros ($84 billion) worth of US imports. They will now have a chance to discuss it. This does not exhaust our toolbox and every instrument remains on the table". Lars Lkke Rasmussen, foreign minister of Denmark, which recently assumed the presidency of the EU, said the ministers vowed to work together in negotiating a trade deal with Washington or agreeing on countermeasures. "The EU remains ready to react and that includes robust and proportionate countermeasures if required and there was a strong, feeling in the room of unity," Rasmussen told reporters after the meeting. The tariffs, also announced for Mexico, are set to start on August 1 and could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the US, and destabilise economies from Portugal to Norway. Meanwhile, Brussels decided to suspend retaliatory tariffs on US goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month. The "countermeasures" by the EU, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries, will be delayed until August 1. Trump's letter shows "that we have until the first of August" to negotiate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday. Maro efcovic, the EU's trade representative in its talks with the US, said negotiations would continue Monday. "I'm absolutely 100 per cent sure that a negotiated solution is much better than the tension which we might have after the 1st of August," he told reporters in Brussels on Monday. But he added that "we must be prepared for all outcomes". "I cannot imagine walking away without genuine effort. Having said that, the current uncertainty caused by unjustified tariffs cannot persist indefinitely and therefore we must prepare for all outcomes, including, if necessary, well-considered proportionate countermeasures to restore the balance in our transit static relationship." The letters to the EU and Mexico come in the midst of an on-and-off Trump threat to impose tariffs on countries and right an imbalance in trade. Trump imposed tariffs in April on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals. As the three-month grace period ended this week, he began sending tariff letters to leaders, but again has pushed back the implementation day for what he says will be just a few more weeks. If he moves forward with the tariffs, it could have ramifications for nearly every aspect of the global economy. The American Chamber of Commerce in the European Union, an influential industry group representing major American corporations in Europe, said the tariffs could "generate damaging ripple effects across all sectors of the EU and US economies" and praised the EU's delay of countermeasures. In the wake of the new tariffs, European leaders largely closed ranks, calling for unity but also a steady hand to not provoke further acrimony. Just last week, Europe was cautiously optimistic. Officials told reporters on Friday they weren't expecting a letter like the one sent Saturday and that a trade deal was to be inked in "the coming days". For months, the EU has broadcast that it has strong retaliatory measures ready if talks fail. Reeling from successive rebukes from Washington, efcovic said Monday the EU is "doubling down on efforts to open new markets" and pointed to a new economic agreement with Indonesia as one. The EU top brass will visit Beijing fora summit later this month while courting other Pacific nations like South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia, whose prime minister visited Brussels over the weekend to sign a new economic partnership with the EU. It also has mega-deals in the works with Mexico and a trading bloc of South American nations known as Mercosur, and efcovic will meet with his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates next week. While meeting with Indonesia's president on Sunday, Von der Leyen said that "when economic uncertainty meets geopolitical volatility, partners like us must come closer together". (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


Mint
4 hours ago
- Mint
Europe draws up retaliatory tariffs for US goods in case no trade deal is reached
The European Union is readying a fresh list of American products—ranging from aircraft to alcoholic beverages, coffee and medical devices—to hit with retaliatory tariffs if a trade deal isn't reached by President Trump's Aug. 1 officials on Monday unveiled the list after Trump's latest tariff threat over the weekend revived a debate in the bloc over whether it should fight back, and how forcefully, if the two sides can't reach a EU in April froze an initial package of retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. after Trump said he would limit blanket tariffs on most countries to 10% for 90 days. The new EU list, circulated to the bloc's 27 member states and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, covers American imports that were together valued at roughly $84 billion last year. The list covers about $77 billion worth of industrial imports, including aircraft, machinery, automotive products, chemicals, plastics and medical devices. It also covers about $7 billion worth of agricultural and food products, such as fruits and vegetables, wine, beer and spirits. European officials are debating what would trigger those tariffs, and whether to go further by preparing additional measures that could put levies or other restrictions on American services, not just physical goods. The EU's approach to U.S. tariffs is getting renewed attention this week after Trump sent a letter to the bloc threatening to impose 30% blanket tariffs on European imports beginning Aug. 1. The move surprised EU officials who thought they were close to a preliminary agreement with the U.S. Trump on Monday said that 'the deals are already made. The letters are the deals…There are no deals to make." He added that recipients of his letters 'would like to do a different kind of a deal, and we're always open to talk…including to Europe." French trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin speaks to EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic on Monday in Brussels. EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said Monday that a 30% tariff would be 'effectively prohibitive" to trade between the two economies. He said he would continue to talk with U.S. officials. 'I cannot imagine walking away without genuine effort," he said. But Sefcovic added that ministers from the EU's 27 member states who met in Brussels on Monday were clear that if no deal could be reached, the bloc would need to take steps to protect the economy by imposing what he referred to as rebalancing measures on the U.S. During the EU meeting, shortly before Trump's comments at the White House, the view that the bloc must respond if it can't reach an agreement, 'was the strongest I've witnessed since we started the discussion with the U.S.," Sefcovic said. 'Everything is on the table, but we'll take it step by step." One way to demonstrate the bloc's power, some European officials argue, is through an untested legal tool known as the anticoercion instrument, which could allow for levies on American services, among other measures. U.S. services exports to the EU include financial services and digital products such as online advertising. It is unclear exactly how the EU might wield the instrument in a trade fight with the U.S. Other options under the anticoercion instrument include restricting American companies' intellectual property rights in Europe or making it harder for them to participate in public tenders. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested in April that the EU could consider a levy on American tech companies' digital advertising revenue. The EU is looking for relief for its auto industry, which faces 25% U.S. tariffs. Von der Leyen said Sunday that the EU would continue to negotiate until Aug. 1. She said the anticoercion instrument is for extraordinary situations, adding, 'We are not there yet." A challenge for the EU in considering any potential retaliation is that Trump has linked tariffs to policies unrelated to trade. The bloc continues to depend on the U.S. for security in Europe, and officials worry that Trump could once again cut support to Ukraine, after announcing Monday that the U.S. would sell Europe weapons to arm Kyiv's forces. The EU last week was closing in on a deal that would require it to accept blanket U.S. tariffs of 10% on most goods, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Some EU countries view the idea as a major concession. Officials hope such a deal could give the bloc some protection from further increases. The two sides had discussed possible exceptions from the blanket levy, including for spirits, aircraft and their components. The EU had also sought relief for its automotive sector, which now faces 25% U.S. tariffs. The bloc's discussions on retaliation were largely paused in recent weeks as officials focused on trying to secure a deal with the U.S. An initial package of tariffs that would target more than $24 billion worth of American imports, ranging from chewing gum to motorcycles and peanut butter, was approved in April in response to U.S. metals tariffs. It was swiftly put on hold, however, after Trump paused some of his tariffs to allow for negotiations. That package had been due to take effect this week, but the commission said on Sunday that it would keep it on hold until early August. The bloc's second proposed package of retaliatory tariffs, which was presented to member states on Monday, was pared back to cover U.S. imports valued at roughly $84 billion, down from an earlier level of about $111 billion, after consultations with industry and member states. The new package still needs the formal approval of member states. 'There's an old saying, if you want peace, you have to prepare for war," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Monday about EU trade preparations. 'I think that's where we are." Write to Kim Mackrael at