Firstware, involved in the manpower consultancy business, is in talks with a number of major foreign software players. However, senior officials declined to divulge details about the investment for the proposed foray.

Brilliant Tutorials managing director T Neelakantan said the company will soon have an offshore software development centre in Chennai. At present, Firstware employs eight professionals at its Chennai unit.

B.School, a part of Brilliant Tutorials, has introduced M'Power, a two-year post graduate diploma programme in management for executives. The group has invested about Rs 2 crore in creating this programme.

The company has roped in 42 teachers from premier management institutes for the purpose. In addition to this, the programme involves practical insights from over 120 industryprofessionals. The programme is structured into 100 lessons covering core concepts, marketing, finance, operations/manufacturing and HRD.

Each lesson is presented in three media forms - video, audio and text. These will be sent by courier in study kits containing four lessons a month over a 25 month period. The course also involves six contact programmes and 12 assignments for participants.

It also offers a corporate learning centre option and group study scheme for companies. "Availability of quality management education has been constrained by many factors like lack of qualified faculty, physical infrastructure and high cost of courses," B.School chairman Biji K Kurein said.