8.9 magnitude earthquake hits Japan, causes tsunami

A massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake occurred in northern Japan early on Friday. The earthquake's epicenter is 130 km (81 miles) east of Sendai, in the Honshu island of Japan. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter was at a depth of 24.4 km (15.2 miles).

The earthquake triggered tsunamis in various parts of the country. Japan issued a tsunami warning immediately after the earthquake, followed by tsunami warnings for New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Chile,Guam, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Hawaii, Northern Marianas (USA), Taiwan, andCalifornia. It is confirmed for the Philippines that if the tsunami doesn't hit the country for 2 hours (5:00 - 7:00) it will be slightly safer, it is currently alert number two for all regions.

The tsunami attained a height of 10 meters, and swept houses, buildings and cars according to reports.Shinkansen stopped the bullet train service following the quake. According to reports, an oil refinery was set ablaze by the quake at Ichihara, Chiba prefecture to the east of Tokyo.

2011 Sendai earthquake - refinery fire

The National Weather Service said that earthquakes "of this size" often "generate tsunamis potentially dangerous to coasts outside the source region." "Based on all available data a tsunami may have been generated by this earthquake that could be destructive on coastal areas even far from the epicenter," it added.

About 20 people were reportedly injured in Tokyo following the collapse of a roof of a hall. 4 million people are estimated to be without power in the capital. In Sendai, several people are feared to be buried under the remains of a collapsed hotel.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said there had been no nuclear plant radiation leaks caused by the disaster. He expressed sympathy to all victims in his address, promising help, and stating that an emergency response headquarters had been set up. 288 people have been confirmed dead so far.

However, a 2-3 km area around the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant has been evacuated as a precaution as the temperature inside on of the nuclear reactor has "remain[ed] at a high temperature" despite the plant being shut down. Trade Minister Banri Kaieda advised that there is a possibility of a radiation leak at the plant.

Oracle India head Bhaskar Pramanik quits

Company’s India technology sales head Sandeep Mathur will succeed.

In less than a year since he took over to lead software maker Oracle India's business, Bhaskar Pramanik, the managing director of the company, has put in his papers. Sandeep Mathur, vice-president, technology, has been appointed as the new MD.

Oracle India spokesperson confirmed the development in an email to Business Standard. "We confirm that Bhaskar Pramanik, MD, Oracle India, is resigning to pursue other opportunities. The new MD is Sandeep Mathur, who was the vice-president, technology, leading the company's database and Exadata business in the country," said the email.

This development follows the high-profile exit of Ravi Venkatesan, chairman and corporate vice-president, Microsoft India operations.

A graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Pramanik has over three decades of experience in the technology industry. He joined Oracle India as MD last April, after Krishan Dhawan relinquished his position after serving the company for five years.

Industry insiders say Pramanik's appointment was driven more by the need to integrate Sun Microsystems, which the company acquired for $7.4 billion in April 2009. He headed Sun Microsystems India.

Even though the reasons behind Pramanik’s exit is yet to be ascertained, industry observers say the company wanted to re-energise its India team by bringing in a fresh set of leaders as most of its competitors such as SAP and Microsoft were moving aggressively.

India is an important market for Oracle. According to a third-party-data, India is a $1.5-billion revenue unit for the company. After the acquisition of Sun, this went up to almost $2 billion. "There are certain segments where Oracle has no competition in India, such as customer relationship management (CRM), database etc. They will not want to let go of this," said an analyst from an advisory research firm.

Oracle has been operating in India for over 20 years, first through a distributorship and since 1993 through its subsidiary. They employ over 24,000 people in India and its revenue at the end of 2010 was $26.82 billion.

"There was a buzz that Oracle might want to get someone else for this role. India is a big market and integration with Sun Microsystems did play a major role in choosing Pramanik. Also, he is a hardcore technology person with expertise in servers and storage. On the other hand, Oracle has aspects like application, software, server and database," said a source on condition of anonymity.

Industry sources also confirmed the much-needed integration of both the companies, is yet to take place. "The marketing and sales personnel at Sun still maintain a different accounts team, pre-sales team etc. Even issues like a common email ID and visiting cards are yet to be sorted out," said another source. However, this could not be confirmed individually with the company.

Sandeep Mathur, who succeeds Pramanik, joined Oracle in 2003 as a director of Oracle Direct, the North America sales where he was instrumental in setting up offshore inside-sales operations. A BE in Electronics and Communication from Bangalore University, he held many senior level positions in Oracle's Asia Pacific business being responsible for strategy, business development and specialist sales for the technology business across the region.

In his previous role as the VP, Technology at Oracle India, Mathur was responsible for driving sales and increasing Oracle’s market share in India across its technology business including database and Exadata.

Earlier, Microsoft India had announced the resignation of its chairman Ravi Venkatesan who left the company citing personal reasons The company is yet to announce his successor.