Wipro's Automotive Practice Sets New Sights; Becomes First Indian Services Company to Join Automotive Standards Major, STAR

BANGALORE, India--March 2, 2006--Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro Limited , today announced that it has joined STAR, the IT standards body for the North American retail automotive industry. Wipro Technologies will also be the first Indian services company to join STAR.

STAR (Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail) is a non-profit, auto industry-wide initiative to create voluntary IT standards for the data elements and transmission format used by manufacturers, dealers, and retail system providers to communicate with each other. STAR's initiatives will result in a more efficient data exchange between dealers and manufacturers, with lower costs, more accurate and timely data, and increased levels of customer satisfaction

Wipro's membership on STAR will help Wipro drive standards for its automotive customers and reduce development and deployment time. This will also help Wipro address a hitherto untapped marketplace in the automotive industry value chain.

"Wipro has demonstrated success in enabling integration of OEM's IT systems with those of Dealers and we have an understanding of the key problems in these processes and its application to other constituents of the automotive industry value chain," said N S Bala, Senior Vice President of Wipro's Manufacturing Solutions Division. "We believe in the potential of STAR to address the challenges in these areas. As the first Indian offshore services vendor to become a member of STAR, we look forward to contributing to the adoption of STAR standards by the industry."

"We're excited about Wipro joining STAR and sharing their knowledge within the industry body," says Eric Purdum, STAR Chair.

Wipro has a dedicated automotive solutions practice spanning North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, catering to clients ranging from global auto manufacturers to their suppliers. The Automotive Centers of Excellence at Windsor, Ontario and Bangalore, India, create solutions to address the requirements of automotive companies in dealer management systems, inter-plant information exchange, warranty management and customer management. Wipro through its industry leading global delivery model, high quality processes, and deep technological skills and expertise across multiple technologies and platforms can assist Automotive clients with process & quality consulting, systems integration, enterprise architecture strategy & implementation, business process outsourcing, business application integration, business intelligence & data warehousing, enterprise resource planning, and customer relationship management solutions.

For details about Wipro Limited & forward-looking and cautionary statements please see link below:

http://www.wipro.com/newsroom/about_wipro.htm

For details about STAR please see www.starstandard.org