Infosys hit its 52-week low at Rs 1,065 per share,

Wipro, Rs 196.50; TCS, Rs 358;

HCL Tech, Rs 89.70; and

Cognizant’s low was $17.37 on the Nasdaq.

This was at a time when companies were reworking on their operational strategies, optimising costs and embarking on rationalisation measures, even sending people back home. The writing is on the wall: India’s vaunted technology companies must upgrade their business model or face dwindling profits and market share.

For years, India’s top six software companies (sometimes referred to as SWITCH: Satyam, Wipro (WIT), Infosys (INFY), Tata Consultancy (TCS.BO), Cognizant (CTSH), HCL) have roiled global IT markets with their high-quality, low-cost software and tech-related services. They gave India a new hope, and their success became the accelerator for the country’s growth. Companies such as IBM, Accenture, and Electronic Data Systems (EDS), which ruled the roost with their high-end offerings, saw business slip away to the Indians. SWITCH seemed unbeatable, especially as the group grew in sophistication. On the back of bagging major deals from large clients in the US, share prices of these companies are back ruling the roost. On Thursday,

Infosys scaled a new 52-week high at Rs 2,600.

HCL Tech at Rs 373.30 is hovering near its annual high of Rs 377.

And TCS isn’t too far from its peak of Rs 805 when it closed at Rs 746.80 on Thursday.

This euphoria is not restricted to Indian companies. IBM and Cognizant too are trading near their 52-week peaks. IBM is trading at $130 against a 52-week low of $80.52, Cognizant which has a large India presence, is trading at $46.25 against its year low of $17.37.The most immediate crisis is the U.S. economic downturn. Over the years, the Indians have grown less dependent on America as their main market and have expanded business to Europe, Japan, and other parts of the world. But they’ve neglected their home turf. According to a study by Everest, the Indian domestic tech market is currently worth just $1 billion but will be valued at $15 billion within five years. That’s a massive opportunity, not just in terms of money but for innovation

Silicon Valley sees a profitable future in the humble brick thanks to a low-energy production process that illustrates the greening of the U.S. technology capital.

Brick maker Calstar Products is heavy on PhDs and backed by venture capitalists whose vision is to create buildings less expensively and in a way that saves energy.

“We think it is time for a second industrial revolution,” said Paul Holland, a partner at Foundation Capital, which invested $7 million in Calstar. EnerTech Capital led another round that raised $8 million for the business.

Calstar Products Chief Executive Michael Kane stands next to submerged samples of experimental high tech bricks undergoing testing.Silicon Valley sees a profitable future in the humble brick thanks to a low-energy production process that illustrates the greening of the U.S. technology capital.

“We and dozens of others are trying to create green alternatives for all the things that happen in the building industry,” Holland said.Currently about 40 percent of U.S. energy use goes toward the heating, cooling and general operation of buildings.

Silicon Valley is finding high-tech ways to make age-old materials, pursuing carbon dioxide-eating concrete, windows that insulate better than walls, and wood substitutes.

The field is still new. Venture investments in green buildings have waxed and waned with the recession, but involved 45 deals worth about $350 million the past year, according to Cleantech Group LLC.

3,000-YEAR WAIT

Bricks have been made pretty much the same way for 3,000 years, until Calstar’s scientists came up with their new technique, said Chief Executive Michael Kane.

Ordinary bricks are fired for 24 hours at 2,000 degrees F (1,093 C) as part of a process that can last a week, while Calstar bricks are baked at temperatures below 212 F (100 C) and take only 10 hours from start to finish, Kane said.

The recipe incorporates large amounts of fly ash – a fluffy, powdery residue of burned coal at electric plants, that can otherwise wind up as a troublesome pollutant.

“Ours is a precise product” that relies on getting the chemistry right, said Amitabha Kumar, Calstar’s director of research and development.Calstar’s Improved Bricks

The process of making the bricks, which look and feel like any other brick, requires 80 to 90 percent less energy and emits 85 percent less greenhouse gas than ordinary bricks, according to Calstar.

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