IT News

AFTER CONSIDERABLE debate, it now appears that he government is keen on legalising Internet telephony with an eye on ushering in a low cost alternative for domestic and international long distance calls in the country.

A top government official told The Hindustan Times that "the issue has been discussed at the highest level and an informal decision has been taken to explore the possibility of lifting the ban".

As a result of these discussions, the department of telecom (DoT) has set up a special internal group headed by the deputy director general (regulation) for recommending a strategy to achieve this objective.

The group is, however, faced with a complex task that involves assessing the entire telecom environment, addressing issues of financial viability of existing service providers like Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and suggesting an
appropriate regulatory and licensing mechanism for this kind of service.

It is expected to make its formal recommendations to the Telecom Commission soon, which will then take a final view on the matter.

The Group is also faced with another key issue relating to the present regime of separate licences for different telecom services like cellular, basic and Internet access. Sources said that it would try and find out an acceptable licensing regime for Internet telephony.

Although other bodies including the Group of Ministers on Telecom and Information Technology (GoTiT) headed by finance minister Yashwant Sinha have listed this issue on their agenda in the past, no conclusive decision was taken.

Sinha's group, while settling more than 100 policy and industry matters over the past one year had demurred from taking a final view on this matter.

The entire policy establishment is in fact walking on a tight rope as opinion is sharply divided on the pros and cons of internet telephony.

While on the one hand, a technology enthusiast like Chief Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal is a vociferous supporter of this service, on the other, influential government and private telecom operators who have huge stakes in the long distance market remain sceptical.

Surprisingly, SK Gupta, chairman of the blue-chip Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, expresses quite a balanced view on this matter.

"Although, my company shall definitely be affected, I am convinced that the march of technology cannot be stopped", he said and added that a low-cost service held tremendous opportunities for the masses.

"My personal view is that before a decision is taken on lifting the ban, we must cut call tariffs of conventional (circuit switched) telephony by at least 50 per cent from present levels. Without doing this, it may not be desirable to take this step", said Gupta.

Duty on hardware part imports may fall to zero
Business Standard 22.01.2001

The government may bring down the import duty on hardware computer components to nil in the Budget 2001-02.

According to senior government officials, the ministry of information technology is expected to demand the reduction in its recommendations for the Union budget.

Besides, the IT ministry is likely to demand a duty difference of 10 per cent between the finished goods and components in the budget

'To develop the Indian IT market, we think that there is a requirement of 10 per cent duty difference between finished goods and components,"said sources.

Currently,basic customs duty on inputs of computer hardware industry varies from zero per cent to a peak of 35 per cent, and on finished goods the basic customs duty is uniform at 15 per cent.

Information technology minister Pramod Mahajan is likely to meet the finance minister Yashwant Sinha to present the views of his ministry to the finance ministry on the Budget 2001-02.

It is also learnt that the IT minister will be meeting various infotech industry associations in the coming week.

"The IT minister is meeting the finance minister to present the ministry's suggestions for the budget. Besides, the IT minster is also meeting various IT industry associations to gather their views," a senior IT ministry official said.

The information technology ministry is also expected to recommend changes in EHTP scheme, so that the companies operating under this scheme will be under no export obligations.

The IT ministry is also expected to demand simplifications of deemed export procedure by setting time limits for getting project authority certificate, special import licence and custom duty exemptions.

Besides, the IT ministry is also expected to lobby for rationalisation of local levies.

"Currently excise (14 per cent) and SAD (4 per cent) account for over one fifth of the price of IT products. The ministry has the opinion that this should be rationalised so that the cost of computers and IT products can come down," source said.

India needs Internet infrastructure
Deccan Herald 18.01.2001

NEW DELHI, Jan 16 (UNI & DHNS) Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers today said India needs an internet infrastructure to match its burgeoning software engineers. Cisco, world leaders in routers used for computer networks and power data traffic, is eyeing India as a prominent base for out sourcing.

Mr Chambers said top of the line engineers from India are cheaper to employ than their US counterparts. "But it is the infrastructure costs that add to overheads," he said at an industry gathering here. But, India can emerge as the leading nation supplying network maintenance engineers to other nations, he said.

India, which is poised for an economic leap, can catch up with its neighbor China in this field. "Unlike China, India has a strong education system for software engineers," Mr. Chambers said. China now accounts for as much as five per cent of Cisco's business while India makes up only 33 per cent. Cisco predicts a worldwide shortage of two million networking professionals by 2005. It is also emphasizing a future where manufacturing design, learning, e-commerce, management information and customer support will be conducted over seamless networks of voice, video and data supported by integrated software solutions.

Cisco, eyeing India as a key base, already has two software development centers in the country in addition to about 1,500 dedicated engineers working for Cisco in three Indian companies.

Cisco announced last evening it will set up 34 training academies in India to produce about 100,000 Internet network executives to make up for the expected professional shortage.

Wipro Corporation Chairman Azim Premji today called on Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers here and proposed to build a partnership with Cisco Systems so that Wipro could become the service provider partner of Cisco in the Asia Pacific region.

Mr Premji met with Mr Chambers, who is on a three-day India tour, along with president of Wipro Infotech Suresh Vaswani and A L Rao, president of Wipro Technology.

Mr Premji has also proposed new initiatives and technologies that both Cisco and Wipro could work upon together to strengthen their relationship.

Wipro Group has a six year relationship with Cisco with which it worked as a development partner in engineering functions. Wipro Infotech is the largest system integrator in the country for Cisco over the last five years and has contributed in the developmental activities of Ciscos global network too. For Cisco, Wipro Technologies works on high technology areas such as ATM, Frame relay, ISDN, voice over IPs and network management.

National Advisory Committee on IT
to meet again on April 14
Financial Exp.17.01.2001

THE National Advisory Committee on IT. which met on Monday to set the future agenda for IT sector growth, has decided to meet again on 14th April this year.

The next meeting will be focussed on issues primarily on human resource development for IT sector, the sources said. However, the meeting will I also review the budget implications on the IT industry and specially the impact of the budget on hardware sector. The shortage of skilled IT manpower being experienced by the Indian IT industry was the most talked about issue in the last meeting of the advisory committee. The discussion also revolved around the participation of private sector in the higher education as a payback route to the nation.

The idea of allowing more and more private sector funded deemed universities was also discussed in the meeting. The growth of hardware sector was the next important issue discussed in the meeting. Besides asking for bringing down the duties and excise on hardware components.

the industry also suggested setting up an exclusive industrial area for export oriented hardware manufacturing units. In a written response to the IT minister. the Wipro chief Mr Azim Premji recommended that industry is looking for reduction in excise and sales tax on hardware products

Convergence BIll gets
GoM nod, commission likely by 2002
Economic Times17.01.2001

INDIA is well on its way to having an independent authority to regulate the telecom and broadcasting sectors. With the Group of Ministers on convergence, headed by the Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha giving its final approval to the draft Communications Convergence Bill 2000 today, the Communications Commission of India is expected to be in place latest by 2002.

In fact. after the US and Malaysia which have addressed the convergence issue in 'limited' way, India could well be counted as one with a complete convergence law on its way.

The sub group on convergence met more than 20 times, while the GOM constituted in January last year met at 1'easta dozen times. As minister for information technology, Mr. Pramod Mahajan says:

"There was no minister who did not raise objections and there was no part of the draft which was not debated on."

While the GOM's nod to the draft Bill prepared by a sub-group headed by jurist Fali S Nariman, brings India one step closer to a clear framework for convergence, there is no indication of what will become of the ministries that are now exercising power over these sectors. This has always been dismissed as an 'administrative' matter by the ministers concerned.

The draft by Mr. Nariman only envisages the setting up of the CCI which would be vested with the powers to grant licenses, manage spectrum, resolve disputes, as well as determine the conditions for fair, equitable and non-discriminatory access to network facility and service.

It would also have the powers as vested in a civil court under the Court of Civil Procedure, 1908.

Aiming to promote, develop and regulate the carriage and content of communications, the Bill would perforce repeal: The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885; The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933;

Telegraph Wire Unlawful Possession Act, 1950; The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.

After some rewriting, the draft comprising more than a 100 clauses will be put up on the Internet within a week but it is only at the end of the year that the Bill is presented to Parliament.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr. Mahajan said a period of 30 days would be given to allow the public to give its responses. The responses received will then be studied by the sub-group which. will get back to the Group of Ministers with any further recommendations, based on the suggestions received.

Hence changes can be expected even at that stage.

Thus fine-tuned, the draft will then be referred to the Union Cabinet with whose approval it will make its way to the Parliament and later to the standing committee.

If everything goes clockwise and there are no undue delays at the various stages, Mr. Mahajan is optimistic that the Bill will be passed in the next Winter session.

Ministry plans IT Policy for domestic sector
Business Standard 15.01.2001

The Ministry of Information Technology is looking at formulating a national IT policy for the domestic infotech sector.

According to senior government official the policy will formulate an action plan to address issues like cost, infrastructure, tariff structure and investment requirements in the sector.

"We have various export targets for the domestic FT industry. The national IT policy will chart out a frame work needed for achieving these targets. Besides, the policy will also chart out an action plan for the state governments in the IT arena," a senior' infotech ministry official told Business Standard.

India has an export target of $50 billion for the software and $10 billion for the hardware sectors respectively by the year 2008.

The government is expected to take the inputs towards this in the second meeting of the National Advisory Committee on information technology being held on Monday.

The committee will also discuss a possible collaboration between the government and the industry for taking information technology to the masses and identify ways to tap the tremendous employment potential in the hardware sector.

IT panel to review societies' working
Economic Times 06.01.2001

The information technology ministry has constituted a committee to review working of the autonomous societies including Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Education and Research Network (ERNET) and DOEACC Society.

According to ministry sources, the restructuring would be aimed at giving the right orientation and ethos to these bodies as they were the instruments of the new economy.

"In the new market economy, the ministry expects each of them to play a strategic role and even earn their own keep,' said a ministry source.

There are more than a dozen societies functioning under MIT including National Centre for Software Technology, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), Electronics Research and Development Centre of India (ER&DCI), Centre for Electronics Design & Technology of India, Centre for Materials for Electronics for Technology and Centre for Liquid Crystal Display.

The committee will look into the change in role of each of these societies. For instance, how to make C-DAC more market-oriented, or how to strengthen NCST further, how to tightly couple ESC with STPIs and what would ERNET have to address now that the Net has come to stay in the country

Is India ready for e-governance
Business Standard 01.01.2001

The declaration of the 2001 as the year of e-governance is a step in the right direction, 'so the quality of public services in india can be improved. The state government of Haryana too has set an ambitious target of electronic-governance by 2005. But the question is whether the declaration will turn out to be mere hype, or whether it can potentially change the relationship between government and governed.

The Internet offers huge advantages for governance to turn around and create a special relationship with the people. It offers 24-hour service, seven days a week. It can transform the way public services are delivered.

Transactions with the government are rarely a matter of choice, but the challenge lies in making dealings with the government simpler, convenient and customer focused. The average government has over fifty different departments and agencies, organised vertically, which for the public, are quite cumbersome to deal with. Within a particular department, citizens have to move from desk to desk to get their work done, and they have no way of knowing the progress of the whole process. Can't we create a Dell Model on the Internet, where customers can track the delivery and performance of their work within the government?

Internet portals, like consumer ones such as Yahoo, offer a one-stop shop for all that a citizen needs. Government portals can be designed to allow users to find out what they are looking for by asking simple questions such as 'How do I....?'. The citizens do not need to know about the complex organisational structure behind the scenes and the government workers processing the work. The portal lakes them wherever they want to go.

Services created on the Internet in other countries offer hope for a country like India. A Central government portal of this kind launched in Singapore has simplified the lives of ordinary citizens, Web sites like Nsman and MINDEF set up by the Ministry of Defense offer convenient services for a wide variety of applications, in knowing about the personal details of compulsory services in the armed forces. Internet-based procurement system launched under the umbrella site has saved the government millions of dollars on procurements. In an international survey of sites offering integrated service delivery through the Internet conducted last year by America's General Services administration, Singapore's e-citizen centre was found to be the most developed example of integrated service delivery in the world.

There are other examples of on-line experiments in the US, the UK, Austria and Spain. Governments are now realising that it is time to improve the governance and refurbish their image. Citizens used to the Internet, in matters of e-commerce and web related services are asking questions as to why governments cannot make use of the web and deliver the same level of services.

But what are the essential requirements for e-governance?

First, it requires a wide penetration and accessibility of the new technology. Internet services in India right now are available through personal computers alone. The US and Singapore, at over 60 per cent, are leading the world in Internet connections, and therefore experiments in e-governance have struck popularity among the users in these countries. The UK too, is not far behind with an Internet penetration rate of around 35 per cent Some of the Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway have a very high level of Internet connection, ranging between 50 to 70 per cent, and therefore apt to adopt e-governance. However, level of PC penetration in India is less than 1 per cent, and Internet connection is just 0.3 per cent'. The latter,-though, is expected to grow up to 5.2 per cent by 2005.

The other important dimension is the geographical spread of the net-savvy population, which is largely concentrated in metropolitan cities and among the more literate section of society. A country where 50 per cent of population is illiterate, the low level of the reach of technology will remain a huge barrier for promoting e-governance in the country An innovative approach is required for the benefits to percolate to the masses. Experiments through setting up cyber cafes, as has been done in many countries, for instance by Easy jet (Easy everything) in the UK, would, to some extent, promote Internet-usage among the people.

Cell phones and other wireless devices, such as PDAs, can also be used to access the Internet In two to three years' time, when broadband becomes a reality, these devices will become fully interactive and can be used for e-governance.

Planning for the long term would mean availability of services through multiple devices. The PC's growth has slowed down recently as computing power is giving way to expansion of services on the 'network of computers' through multiple devices. The success of' I-mode' services of NTT DoCoMo in Japan is a clear example of how commercial services have been exploited through the cell phone. We need to move fast to liberalise the telecom sector, to enable wider and faster reach of services.

How e-ready are we ? In a study conducted by McConnell International, India has been ranked behind South Korea, Taiwan and China in factors such as connectivity, e-leadership, info-security, human capital and e-business climate.

E-governance, not to be underestimated, creates a new platform which requires a paradigm shift in current thinking. The entire paraphernalia, culture and structure of the bureaucratic organisation, the hierarchy, the recruitment and promotion process, has to change. To operate a young technology, you need to put younger people in command, and in a flatter hierarchy Deep layers of bureaucracy are an antithesis to the philosophy of the Internet Nokia's experience in inventing attractive designs of cell phones, by putting younger people in the design team, is a good example. DoCoMo has repeated the same magic by promoting younger people in charge, where 'I-mode' services have caught on like wildfire among the younger Japanese. What a coincidence that the entertainment industry has put up a demand for a young chief at the Communication Commission of India, which will oversee convergence matters.

There are a host of other issues such as investment in new technology by the government and tying up with banks and financial institutions to develop real-time e-commerce services which need to be addressed.

And last but not the least, the ministry of information technology needs to be re-organised for the twenty first century, to take care of full benefits of e-governance. And without doubt, we need a very high level of commitment from the highest levels of decision makers so that e-governance does not end up a hype.

Nasscom to push for IIT in every state
Economic Times 31.12.2001

In an effort to create a quality IT personnel � pool in India, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) is pushing for one Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or Indian Institute of Information Technology (IDT) for every state in its pre-Budget proposals. "We will also speak to the finance minister about identifying and upgrading 43 regional engineering colleges (RECs) to the level of IITs, if not in terms of complete infrastructure, at least in terms of basic facilities being provided Dewang Mehta, president Nasscom, told ET.

Nasscom placed these proposals before the ministry of human resources development as early as last March. By mid January 2001, Nasscom is also set to launch Operation Knowledge. "As private industry we have worked out what the current requirements are to improve quality of IT education and training. And along with government resources, we want to pitch in our share," says Mehta. His reasoning is simple. "Software will not grow in isolation and we also have programmes in basic education and healthcare lined up for 2001,' he adds. Recently, Nasscom's tele-medicine project, linking patients in remote areas of Lahaul-Spity districts of Himachal with a hospital in Shimla, has been very successful.

Mehta is not willing to place his bets on any one area as the 'hottest' in software for next year. "But ecommerce, telecom and communications software for next generation Internet will see a lot of activity and growth,' he feels. Nasscom plans a seminar with Cisco chief John Chambers on what direction Indian IT companies should take when he is in Delhi on January 15.

"Out of our 700 big IT exporters, 340 are into banking solutions and that is likely to emerge as another big growth area,' adds Mehta.

In Web-enabled services, call centres and animation will be the sectors to watch in 2001. "Animation software exports is likely to rake in $500 million,' stresses Mehta.

Nasscom isn't too perturbed by the slowdown in the US economy either. "When there is a marginal slowdown, it increases outsourdng. And India could actually benefit from that. And in any case, at $4 billion exports last year, we are still too small to feel the impact,' he says. Nasscom puts the current year's software exports at $6.2 billion and targets $9.5 billion for next year. In the domestic market, e-governance, e-banking, e-commerce and e-procurement have been identified as new growth areas.

"The IT Act is in place and by February-March certification agendas should be in place. So, in the next financial year, e-commerce will take off with issues like digital signature being addressed Mehta hopes.

"Every state is jumping on the e-governance bandwagon in some form. There are plans for e-judiciary, health, education,' says a confident Mehta. In fact, the new states of Uttaranchal and Jharkhand are working on their IT polices.

"We are in talks with Union power minister Suresh Prabhu for e-procurement in power plants. This will bring in more transparency at the technical level" feels Mehta.

Some of the issues that still need to be sorted out for software industry indude availability of domestic bandwidth and the early goahead for the National Internet Backbone. "We will need statewide Net backbones connecting to form the national backbone,' says Mehta.

"Availability of good quality power is also essential for the IT industry,' he stresses. In fact, according to Mehta, it is Bijli and bandwidth, which will get roti and kapda for our people.

Tax relief for IT sector to take time
Economic Times 20.12.2000

THE IT sector will have to wait for the promised relief in Section 10 A and 10 B of the Income-Tax act. Revenue department officials said that the changes would come about only in the budget session of Parliament and not in the winter session as promised. Industry had been gungho based on the promise made by the finance minister to industry on the sidelines of one of the IT conferences sometime ago that the winter session would see the introduction of these changes. Indications are that the revenue department would now be agreeable to making changes in the provisions affecting mergers and amalgamations. However, it would be unwilling to bring back the other incomes of IT companies under
the definition of export earning.

Till the last budget, the IT Act did not differentiate between export earnings of IT companies from other incomes. Hence all the incomes of companies set up under the provisions of Section 10 A and 10 B were lax exempt. However, the last budget defined export earning and extended the tax cover available under the two sections only to export earnings. This had caused a furore, particularly from consultants, who represented the interests of companies which were earning substantial incomes from other incomes, who found that they had to henceforth pay a tax on these earnings. Revenue department officials said that the definitions introduced in the budget would remain, though it would be making changes to provisions which were hampering mergers and amalgamations.

Industry has so far been objecting to the new insertion which would deny a unit tax cover under these sections, the second 51 per cent stake is transferred to a new owner. Industry and consultants have argued that this would hamper amalgamations and mergers.

Officials point out that the new norms were inserted in the finance bill 2000, because at that time the government proposed to end exemptions under 10 A and 10 B from April 1, 2000. However the need for this insertion has ceased to exist. The insertion was made to stop existing companies to extend their 10-year tax benefit through mergers.

Proposed Convergence Act by Dec 21:Pramod Mahajan
Times of India 19.12.2000

Union information technology minister Pramod Mahajan said on Sunday that a final review by the government on the proposed replacement to the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, with a Convergence Act would be undertaken on December 21.

The draft Bill, after its examination by the group of ministers on convergence, would then be made available on the government website from December 25 to invite suggestions and comments.

"With this, India will be the second country in the world after Malaysia to have a Convergence Act," Mahajan said while addressing the valedictory function of the two-Day conference on Information Technology and Biotechnology here. Mahajan's announcement is significant as the proposed Bill promises to mark a major step towards
revolutionising telecommunications in India. The Bill and eventually the Convergence Act is expected to lead to the repeal of a large number of legislations such as the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933. the Telegraph Wire Unlawful Possession Act, 1950, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.

He reiterated the government's commitment to push for the greatest possible growth in Information Technology through attractive policy measures and a liberalised environment. "India's future truly lies in IT and biotechnology," Mahajan said while recalling Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's assertion that "IT was India's tomorrow".

Mahajan emphasised that innovation, growth and development by Indians in IT and biotechnology would help create "enormous wealth" for the people. "We can change the lives of one billion people through the creation of wealth through IT and biotechnology," he said. He said that he considered innovations and development in biotechnology as far more important than IT as it had the potential to bring prosperity to "Bharat".

Mahajan lauded the efforts of Congress Rajya Sabha member Suresh Kalmadi in organising the "e-merging technologies" conference to promote Pune as an IT/Biotechnology destination.

Kalmadi said that the Pune Vyaspeeth forum would organise a much bigger event in December 2001 to promote the city as an ideal IT/biotechnology destination in India. "We hope that the Union and state governments will back this project to make Pune a prominent
IT/biotechnology centre."

Focus to be high on hardware sector in 2000-02:Mahajan
Business Standard 07.12.2000

Information technology minister Pramod Mahajan today said that the government would accord the highest priority to the hardware sector in the year 2001-02 as part of the strategy to build a worldclass hardware industry in India.

Inaugurating the IT World 2000/Comdex India here, Mahajan said, "Next year, we are concentrating on the hardware sector to reduce the mismatch with the software sector. This is needed to make India a true global player in the IT sector."

He said that government would come out with a slew of policy reforms that will help boost the hardware sector in India. He however did not specify details.

'Today, India has become a colony for developed nations to tap software talent. We must grow from this. Developing a healthy hardware sector is a key to it. The IT ministry's efforts next year will be towards this," Mahajan said.

He also proposed setting up of 10,000 community information centres in villages across the nation so that IT would percolate to the masses.
"This is a proposal we are considering. We will seek the help of World Bank to implement this project," the IT minister said.

Giving details of the Operation Knowledge project, which the government has drawn up to increase the availability of IT manpower in India, he said. "We have prepared a blueprint which envisages doubling of intake in engineering colleges from the next year and then tripling it from the year after. By the year 2005, India will be a reservoir of IT manpower."

India has also sought the help of the World Bank in implementing the Operation Knowledge project Mahajan also suggested greater cooperation between the old and new economy companies to popularise IT among the masses.

Meanwhile, Dewang Mehta, Nasscom president said, "Nasscom is undertaking a series of initiatives to help make the Indian police and judicial system more adaptable to IT and the new rules and regulations of the IT Act We will be conducting a series of workshops in association with state governments for officials in the judiciary and police. This will help the officials be better equipped with the legal implications in the digital era."

Mehta also called upon the government to take initiatives to improve the infrastructure facility in India.

"Power conditions in India E so bad that 70 per cent of software companies in India have their own captive power stations. One of the main reasons why the hardware industry is not improving in India is the lack of quality power." Mehta said.

Nasscom has also demanded improvement of the physical infrastructure in India.

"We need the Airport and road infrastructure in India to improve. So that the industry overall would benefit from it," he said.

Voice-enabling of Net is critical in India
The Hindu 27.11.2000

VOICE-ENABLING the Internet is a critical factor for e-businesses to succeed in India, according to Mr Daniel Louppe, Director of Marketing, Internet Communication and Data Centre Group of Intel Corporation.

Delivering the keynote address at the IT World 2000 Comdex India, Mr Louppe said that voice-enabling the Internet is the surefire method to ensure that there are no barriers created among the diverse communities in India.

He said that Intel was working towards creating voice- enabled Internet in India by building necessary technologies.

"The Internet must address the needs of a larger section of people and voice-enabling it is a must," Mr Louppe said.

He also said that the other crucial issues confronting the growth of the Internet in India would be the high cost, availability of skilled manpower and lack of standardisation in the Internet space.

Also, the high import duty structure prevailing in the country — around 40 per cent — is a major stumbling block in acquiring new technologies and could emerge as a slowdown factor."The Indian business leaders should set for themselves the goals of accelerating the
adoption of the Internet, investing in IT and telecom infrastructure and rapidly implementing e-busi-nesses."

On Intel's experiments with the Internet, Mr Louppe said that 95 per cent of the chip giant's business transactions are over the Net. In India, it is 100 per cent."Today, we manage 18,000 personalised sites over the Internet, which otherwise would have required deploying at least 6,000 employees." ,

Mr Louppe said that going by the current figures of 400 million personal computers and 350 million regular Internet users, it was safe to assume that there would be one billion Internet users in the world by 2005.

Riding high on hardware, Taiwan seeks closer IT ties
Pioneer 27.11.2000

TAIWAN is planning to increase trade ties with India. Currently, a 25-member business delegation is visiting Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi scouting for investment and trade opportunities.

"India is now a recognised player in the information technology (IT) sector. We plan to use Taiwan's predominance in hardware to build closer ties with this country. We would definitely look towards Indian software companies investing in Taiwan also," Mr Luke Lu, director economic division Taipei Economic I and Cultural Centre told ET.

Indo-Taiwanese bilateral trade, Mr Lu continued, is estimated to be around $1 billion. There is immense trade potential and fixing an upside for this would be difficult, he added.

"This visit of the business delegation is a preliminary visit. This visit would help the business managers to gauge the business potential before entering the Indian market," Mr Lu said.

Besides representatives from the IT industry, the delegation also includes members from companies dealing in electric motors, consumer plastic products, chemicals, energy-saving lamps, textile auxiliaries, woven or knit products, adhesives and electric wire and cable machinery.

Mahajan say's he'll soon put his crown jewels on the block
Economic Times 25.11.2000

The Union government will soon put public sector undertaking CMC and other premier organisations under the ministry of information technology for divestment.

This includes National Informatics Centre, Software Technology Parks of India, C-DAC and Semi-conductor Complex.

The ministry of information technology , which is barely a year old, has dedded to turn itself into a lean, mean policy-making body, according to infotech minister Pramod Mahajan.

Speaking at a private party organised to felicitate him upon completion of one year as the infotech minister, Mahajan said, ' Though these are our flagships, I am planning to get rid of them as there is no point having so many sodeties under the ministry."

While Mahajan's announcement raised a lot of eyebrows, particularly those of the heads of some of these organisations who were present at the function, it was at the same time cheered by the private industry hon-chos.

The dedsion of the ministry, however, seems as surprising as it is illogical since barely two months ago, the minister had said that the government's plan to divest its stake in CMC from 80 per cent to 51 per cent, which had been okayed earlier by the Union Cabinet, had been put on a hold due to unfavourable market conditions.

"Why should we sell stake in our blue chip companies and sell them for a song," Mahajan had then said. However, the minister said this time that since he was considered a reformist, he was keen to sell these. bodies and restrict the role of the ministry of information technology to a dedsion-making body.

What surprised some industry observers was also the fact that when the ministry was formed a year ago, the government had carved out National Informatics Centre from the Planning Commission to bring it under the ministry of information technology umbrella.

Meanwhile, the ministry has secured a commitment from the World Bank chief, who recently visited India, that IFC will fund at least 20 per cent of the expansion activity the government plans to undertake under its 'Operation Knowledge'.

The plan, Mahajan said, was ready and would be announced soon. Under the blueprint, ministry of information technology planned to treble the output of FT professionals in India by 2005. At least 20 per cent of this would be funded by the World Bank, said Mahajan. '

Security-main concern for e-governance
Pioneer 23.11.2000

THE KPMG report on managing the public sector has revealed that the agencies worldwide has pointed out concerns over the security and confidentiality in the implementation of e-governance.

But the case will be little different for India, said Atui Pradhan, executive director of KPMG. India is very much suited for the implementation of the e-governance.

According to the survey, governments and agencies of all forms displayed a strong commitment to greater use of technology. National targets for the delivery of services on line often reinforced this trend. The governments are largely using information technology for the purpose of sharing information with constituents and other organisations and increasingly for simple online transaction and basic interactivity.

The report further added that security and accessibility remain significant concerns. However, governments are keen to pursue the broad potential that new technlogies offer for greater efficiency, service convenience and speed, and scope for greater citizen participation. They also seek to provide a lead role in the e-revolution as means to display their world competitiveness. "Governments are responding to more demanding
expectations from customers-citizens, employees, businesses and other levels of government and they are achieving this through innovative public management," he added.

It also said that governments including those in India are actively pursuing private sector involvement with a focus on greater accountability and governance.

The report which was released on Wednesday by chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) N Vittal reveals that government leaders are consistently focusing on expanding public-private partnerships and adopting 'e-government' technologies as they negotiate strategies to redefine government roles and responsibilities.

Mr Vittal said the year 2001 is the year of e-governance. The country which is suffering from large scale corruption is largely due to the lack of transparency and procedural delays and could be checked through introducing e-governance, he added. What we are now seeing are alliances or joint ventures, such as private financial initiatives, that reflect a greater level of sophistication. Although core services and roles vary, the government officials are searching for new and better ways to develop public-private partnerships, said Mr
Pradhan.

He said governments were entering a brave new phase, from the re-invention and re-invention of the past decade to 'e-invention' with technology at the forefront.

KPMG which has set up a dedicated governance practice in india this year had already conducted structured interviews during the the first quarter of 2000 with 97 senior government officials from nine developed nations including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the united states.

Intel unvelis Pentium 4
Business Standards 21.11.2000

The world's largest microprocessor manufacturer, Intel Corporation today launched its newest chip. Pentium 4, in two speeds of 1.5 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz, which will be priced at $819 and $644, respectively, for 1000 quantities.

Because of its geographical location, India became the first country to taste the power of Pentium 4.

The prices would be cut by the end of 2001 as a part of the chip maker's strategy to bring Pentium 4 into mainstream computing and replace its current volume desktop chip, Pentium III.

"Next year we will bring the chip to the mainstream by cutting their price. By the end of the year, it will occupy the place that Pentium III currently enjoys," Avtar Saini, Intel's director, South Asia, said here.

A 2-Ghz version of the chip, which is based on the high-performance Intel 850 chipset and is targeted at desktop computing, will also be available in the third quarter of 2001.

All major hardware vendors, both Indian and international, as well as software suppliers have been working on developing products based on Pentium 4. The big desktop
PC makers already have workstations based on Pentium 4 and many manufacturers are expected to start taking orders today for PCs based on the latest chip.

Certificate course in IT in M'tra colleges
Observer of Business and Politics 20.11.2000

THE Maharashtra government would introduce a certificate course in information technology in all the non-technical colleges in the state from January 1, according to Mahara&htra minister of state for technical education Anees Ahmad.

Thus the state would be the first one in the country to introduce a certificate course for the benefit of arts and commerce students, Mr Ahmad told reporters here.

Initially alt the government-col- -leges will provide the course facilities, he said.

The course will be of 144 hours duration, he said adding that ten major IT players have been identified who would spend Rs 20 lakh at each centre.

Students from Sindhudurg to Gadchiroli in rural areas would be benefited by the course, he stated, Mr Ahmed, along with Nagpur University vice-chancellor Arun Satputaley also announced holding an 'International career and placement fair,'
being organised by National Service Society (NSS), HRD ministry of Centre in city from January 12 to 14.

Thirty institutions' providing professional education have confirmed their participation in the fair, Mr Ahmad. who is convenor of the fair, said.

Cyber surprise:Hackers team up with digital security firm.
Business Standard 18.11.2000

Set a thief to catch a thief seems to be the mantra of eAlcatraz, a digital security & consulting start-up, which has floated a security advisory club for the corporate sector.

And those who are part of the club include amateur hackers and those with a passion for technology.

"We have a team of "white hat' hackers who conduct penetration tests and form the core of our solutions team," says Venky S, the chief executive officer of eAlcatraz.

Venky said the club offers free services to corporates, including includes regular alerts, security advisories and free information. "Indian corporates have taken security very seriously but some are equally ignorant about the issue," Venky said.

To them (corporates), it means building firewalls, installing anti-virus software, but for us it is a state of mind which starts from the gate of corporates," Sri Ram, the chief technology officer of eAlcatraz said.

eAlcatraz, which officially commenced operations in November, is set to get around $3 million in the first round of funding from EURIndia, a UK-based venture fund.

It had earlier received around $1 million from ePowern as seed capital and has spent nearly half a-million dollars on its research and development laboratory. Venky said that eAlcatraz is derived from the infamous Alcatraz (meaning rock") prison, which, according to
legend, only one prisoner has been able to escape from. "Our company wants to protect the information assets of corporates and create a digital Alcatraz," Venky said.

"We maintain contacts within the security and hacker communities to stay abreast of the latest intrusion techniques," he said.

According to Venky, a professional hacker is dangerous and difficult to combat. They are experts at finding holes in security systems and exploiting weaknesses in soft

ware. Once inside a. system they can-remove data or change a website. A new phenomenon among cybercriminals is to demand cash from organisations after hacking systems.

Venky said corporates must have a well-thought plan on how to respond, contain and recover from information incidents.

"We have a dedicated on-call security response team (SRT) which is composed of security professionals dedicated to providing 24x7x365 incident response support," he said. He said it is critical that security is built into business processes from the start and from the bottom up not bolted on after the processes and systems have been designed and implemented.

Sri Ram said the team consists of professionals certified skill sets .such as .Checkpoint Cisco, Sun and Microsoft. ISS the company has developed structured framework, to offer organisations an end-to-end secure life cycle solution comprising of risk assessment,security
architecture design. mentation, staff education monitoring.

Among the services offered by eAlcatraz include Access Control Systems, the first in information security at the network point, and public key infrastructure (PKI), a secure infrastructure that enables electronic integrity within an organisation's local area network and its external business
partners.

Bank ready to fund IT
Economic Times 14.11.2000

'"THE World Bank has expressed "hundred per cent interest" in partnering with the ministry of information technology in its programmes to bridge the digital divide in the country in particular the IT for masses and the Operation Knowledge programmes.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with IT minister Pramod Mahajan, World Bank president James Wolfensohn said no country was in a better position than India was to use IT for the poor. To this end, he has asked Mr Mahajan to send a project report on the proposal to expand the Community Information Centre (CIC)programme which is already being rolled out across 446 blocks in North-East and 40 blocks in Sikkim. A pilot project has already been implemented in 30 blocks of North East and Sikkim at a cost of
$ 3 million.

Mr Mahajan said he proposed to extend the CIC plan to the entire country. This proposal to be sent in 2-3 days to the World Bank president, envisages tile extension of the CIC programme to S,000 blocks across the country at an estimated cost of $ I billion.

VSNL slashes Internet leased line rates by a hefty 70%
Economic Times 14.11.2000

The war has begun. After Internet access, it � is now the turn of Internet leased lines and international private leased circuits (IPLCs). VSNL today sounded the bugle with a 70 per cent cut in Internet leased line tariff for a 2 mbps link per annum. The rates for IPLCs have been slashed by 7 5 per cent. From January 1,01, Internet leased lines will cost Rs 12.5 lakh per year for a 2 mbps line against Rs 41.8 lakh now, while IPLC of a similar capacity will cost Rs 40 lakh as against Rs 163 lakh now.

These rates are applicable for Mumbai and Cochin, the landing points for VSNL's undersea cables, and for taking the traffic from these cities to any other part of the country, the customer would have to pay the domestic leased line charges which are currently Rs 15 lakh per annum for a 2 mbps link. Along with the reduction in tariffs, VSNL has also announced a streamlining of these tariffs. The tariff for leased lines, which was earlier different for European and American subcontinents, has now been streamlined and a single unified tariff is applicable worldwide. The tariff is also uniformly applicable to all customers. The latest price reduction follows a 50 per cent reduction announced in January, 2000, whereby the prices of international private leased lines were reduced by half for ISPs and 25 per cent for general category customers. "We will still see at least a 200-300 per cent jump in bandwidth demand following the move. Our revenues, which are currently at about Rs 260 crore (or half of the total value-added services revenue), will continue to grow at about 20 per cent even after these steep cuts," VSNL's finance director RSP Sinha told ET.

He said that the move will benefit a host of corporates, especially activities like call centres and software exports. Highly placed sources said that the move is VSNL's answer to a spate of private players deciding to set up undersea cables networks. It was felt that before these players can fructify their business plans, it would make sense to cut tariffs and grab the market share.

VSNL had only recently come out with a "monsoon package" for Internet access where it offered free access during night and on Sundays for three years. The package got it 50,000 new subscribers.

"International bandwidth rates are falling sharply. As our procurement price for bandwidth is coming down, we feel that we can pass on the benefits to our customers," said Mr Sinha.

Digital signature for first citizen
Pioneer 14.11.2000

WITH INFORMATION technology era beckoning the nation, the country's first .digital signature certificate is to be issued shortly to its first
citizen. President KR Narayanan. Prime Minsiter Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Cabinet colleagues, however, will have to wait for sometime to
acquire their respective digital signature certificates till the Government becomes more sure in tackling cyber crimes and the IT system of
various ministries is made absolutely secure and hack-proof. The newly-appointed IT Controller in the IT Ministry, Mr K N Gupta, has already begun the process of issuing and authenticating the digital signature certificate for Mr Narayanan, sources said.

The process for issuing digital signature certificates for common citizens, including corporate and industry leaders and other professionals in trade, commerce, finance, education,legal sectors etc will start from January 1, 2001.

The Government, however, has decided to adopt extreme caution, in issuing digital signature certificates to the Prime Minister arid his Cabinet colleagues owing to extremely sensitive nature of their jobs. It is feared that any hacking into their IT.systems by unscruplous elements might spell disaster for the country.

Accordingly, the government has decided to delay issuance of digital signature certificates to them till it attains better grip over controlling cybercrime and hack proof systems for various ministries.

Meanwhile, the Information Technology ministry, in consultation with its subsidiary National Informatics Centre, has prepared training modules to orient all police officers, belonging to Indian Police Service and state police services towards the cyber laws and cyber crimes.

DoT green signal for VSNLInternet project
Business Standard 05.11.2000

After dilly dallying for months, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has given the green signal to Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) for national rollout of its Internet services.

Currently, VSNL, which recently crossed the five lakh mark in Internet subscriber level, offers net services in six cities — Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Chennai, Calcutta and Bangalore.

The international telephone carrier is in the process of setting up gateways in 22 cities where it will be able to unveil Internet services over the next two months.

Amitahh Kumar, VSNL director (operations), said: "We have been accorded a Category A licence to spread our net operations in other parts of the country. However, the expansion will be in a phased manner as we want to grab the maximum potential in each market"

Even after lobbying with the government for more than eight months, VSNL was not allowed to operate across the country because of opposition from private ISPs.

Leading private ISPs had said that VSNL's planned entry into all cities would hamper their growth.

The international telephone carrier is in the process of setting up gateways in 22 cities where it will be able to unveil Internet services

The entry of VSNL into other cities is seen as a significant step in the Indian Internet marketplace, which has already seen a slew of tariff wars.

VSNL sources said, DoTs approval of the national Internet licence was a part of the compensation package offered to it for living upits monopoly in the international telephone segment by 2002.

The ISP has already received some incentives for its proposed foray into national long-distance telephony, while talks are on with the government for another set of sops for its cellular venture.

The recent launch of an aggressive marketing campaign and schemes has helped VSNL beef up its subscriber-base to 5.07 lakh from about 4.5 lakh in just a few weeks.

The company is also planning to hive off its Internet division into a separate subsidiary called VSNL Seamless Services (VSSL), Company officials, however, said the board was yet to decide the timing of the demerger.

"VSNL is" also chalking out strategies to become an integrated multimedia services company. It believes that the convergence of telecom, infotech and broadcasting is now virtually complete, and multimedia services will dominate the market in the coming years.

Cabinet clears DTH with 49% foreign equity cap
Business standards 03.11.2000

The Union Cabinet today gave a formal nod to the reception of KU-band television signals direct in Indian homes, putting in various FDI and cross-media restrictions as a safeguard against creation of a monopoly and cultural invasion. This ends over three years of impasse on DTH services in India.

The total foreign investment, including by FDI, NRIs, OCBs and FIIs inthe DTH company shall not exceed 49 per cent, wherein the share of foreign direct investment has been limited to 20 per cent

As a safeguard against vertical monopoly by diversified media companies like Zee and Star, the government has laid down that no broadcasting company and/or cable company shall be eligible to own more than 20 per cent of the equity of a DTH company.

Convergence Bill likely in winter session
Financial Express 02.11.2000

THE comprehensive Convergence Bill 2000 is to be tabled In the winter session of Parliament. Union Minister for Information Technology Pramod Mahajan sald at the Ficci-JM Morgan Stanley seminar: "The comprehensive Convergence Bill is almost ready and we will hopefully be able to introduce it in the latter part of the Winter session of Parliament."

He also reiterated the Vaj payee government's comitment to "one law. one regulator'. He was speaking at the Ficci-JM Morgan Stanley international conference on 'Convergence: The Emerging Reality" which began in the Capital on Wednesday.

His key message at the seminar was: Economic and technological issues apart, convergence is about social, cultural and ethical issues. "We have to have new sets of written or unwritten la\\'sforcontent."he said adding that content was a powerful tool to influence the minds in the years to come.

' The conference, which began with the welcome address by Fled president Mr G P Goenka. which was followed by a theme presentation by Mr.John S Wadsworth. chairman, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Asia. had more than a healthy dose of caution and pragmatism.

The first plenary session in the conference on "Key Convergence Trends — How will carriers/channels/technology change?" was chaired by Prasar Bharti CEO RR Shah. And the conclusions were near unanimous: While there might be convergence of networks and delivery systems, device converge for practical purposes is not likely to happen and the customer will truly have the choice to determine what and how he/she want it.

Setting the pace was Mr Crawford Jamieson. executive director. MSDW. Hong Kong. who enunciated MSDW's reports on Asian wireless Internet and B2B scenario in Asia.

Sunil Bharti Mittal. chairman and managing director. Bharti Enterprises, sounded a word of caution on a single licence issue saying that Infrastructure requirements are going to be the key Issues in India for the next three years at least. "Internet in the pocket is not likely to become a revolution till prices are more affordable."

Amit Sharma, vice-president, Motorola. however, was more bullish on the future of mobile Internet than the other panel members. "3G has more commercial viability In Asia because most governments have not taken the auction route to licenses." he added.

This was followed by Indus Ind Entertainment COO Ashok Mansukhani's presentation who elaborated on the issues of bandwidth.

One of the most insightful presentations of the day was that of Ramesh Venkatrainaii, partner. Mckinsey & Co. He spoke about the battles occurring in the last mile connectivity and what the situation portends for India.

The session was wrapped up by Discovery managing director Kiran Karnik who pointed out that several emerging trends. which might be technically and commercially feasible, might not actually take off in practice.

India IT super-power core group set up
Business Standards 02.11.2000

The Planning Commission has set up a core group of experts with the aim of developing India as a knowledge super-power. The group includes Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, Dr R A Mashelkar and N R Narayana Murthy as members.

Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission K C Pant, who inaugurated Asia's largest IT show, Bangalore IT.Com today, said that the country should use the advances made in the information technology sector to spurt 100 per cent literacy, more employment, entrepreneurship and economic growth. He said the core group of experts will submit its report shortly.

Pant said the government plans to alter certain laws governing connectivity, which would lead to services like call centres; medical transcription and other support options generating massive employment. "It will help rope in India's educated woman power that will be able to work from home by pressing the right keys," Pant said.

He said one of the agendas under the special action plan of the Prime Minister is to make India a global information technology superpower and one of the largest generators and exporters of software in the next 10 years. He said a task force on human resource development in information technology has been set up to prepare a long-term strategy for increasing the number of well-trained IT professionals. The task force has drawn up a plan to optimally use the existing infrastructure of the IlTs, RKCs and other engineering colleges.

"The Indian software industry is the arrowhead of our IT weaponry. It has made tremendous strides, improving its stakes in markets both at home and abroad," Pant said.

Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna said the codes for all Kannada letters as well as the order had been standarised and Microsoft's chief Bill Gates would be requested to incorporate the standards in their next Windows version as promised by him during his visit to India recently.

Ramifications of the IT Law
Observer of Business and Politics 24.10.2000

The government deserves all praise for legislating and enacting the Information Technology Act in record time. Though the bill was passed by Parliament I last May and assented to by the President in June, some time has understandably been taken in framing the necessary rules and working out the other modalities of its implementation. The new law came into effect on October 18 by virtue of a notification issued by the government and the appointment of the controller of certifying authority (CCA) for the authorisation of digital signatures. With this, India becomes one of the few countries in the world — and second in Asia, after Singapore — to have an IT law.

The greatest impact of the new law will be on electronic commerce. Even if e-commerce might be slow to pick up domestically, most export-import companies would require it increasingly for dealing with their clients abroad, who are already on e-commerce. Many trade transactions abroad are all based on e-commerce solutions and those countries that do not have a legal framework for e-transactions are bound to lag behind in the emerging world trade scenario. The IT Act, thus, will have a significant role to play in India's positioning in world trade. Apart from authentication of digital signatures by the CCA, the act provides for the use of electronic documents for all kinds of e-commerce activities, including their acceptance by government offices. It also brings under the ambit of law electronic crimes such as hacking, which are rampant in the cyber world.

Though concerns have been expressed in certain quarters over the wide powers given to police officials in preventing cyber crime, the new IT law should be viewed as an evolving exercise. The government should be willing I to learn from experience and apply necessary correctives from time to time. There are also concerns about third party liabilities for service and access providers. Incidentally, the new IT Act itself might be short-lived, as a larger i convergence legislation has been recommended by the Fali S Nariman sub-group and accepted by the group of ministers. This legislation will subsume the IT Act and its institutions, all of which will come under the proposed communication commission of India that will regulate both the carriage and the content.

However, the cyber legislation needs concurrent development of legal expertise, as most lawyers are not conversant with it. This is a serious lacuna that can restrict widespread use of e-services. Institutions such as the Bar Council of India should take up this challenge i and facilitate education of legal practitioners and judges to create a pool of expertise in cyber laws. There is also need for a parallel review of other legislations, such ,as the Income Tax Act to make their provisions compatible with the IT Act.

Entrepreneur club from Nasscom
Economic Times 25.09.2000

NATIONAL Association for Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) is launching a new initiative, Entrepreneur Club, on October 2 to promote entrepreneurship in the information technology sector in India. The club will bring together angel investors, incubators, venture capitalists and mentors and provide a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs to set up startups, Nasscom president Dewang Mehta said.

As many as 150 CEOs and vice-presidents joined the club and volunteered to be mentors as well as angel investors, he said here yesterday after delivering the keynote address at Cyber-entrepreneurship 2000, a two-day conference organised by the department of management studies, IISc here yesterday.

CoS for pruning key ministries
Business Standard 25.09.2000

The Committee of Secretaries A on downsizing is working out the details of bringing back some key ministries into the shape that they were in before the National Democratic Alliance government came to power.

Unlike the perception created by the NDA government that the creation of new departments and ministries will smoothen the industrial development, the committee is apparently of the view that the plethora of departments is actually creating too many levels in economic decision-making.

Accordingly, the CoS has recommended that the ministry of heavy industry and public enterprises, ministry of small-scale industry and agro and rural industries, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the Department of Industrial Development be merged into one.

To reduce the time taken to clear major investment decisions Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee recently announced the creation of a special management group in the PMO to cut short the process.

Also, the industrial aspects like industry regulation of the petroleum ministry should be transferred to the new ministry. The proposal also envisages the merger of textiles ministry and the departments of chemicals, coal and food processing with the industry ministry.

In an attempt to bring about a convergence in government policy making, the CoS has also suggested that the ministry of communication which would consist of the Department of Telecommunication and department of posts consequent to the corporatisation of the departments oftelecom operations and telecom services —should be merged with the ministry of information technology that was set up last year

The government is also looking at restructuring other ministries and departments including mines and minerals.

There is a proposal to create a ministry consequent to the merger of department of mines and minerals. The new ministry would also include oil exploration and laws pertaining to the mines and minerals.

Bill Gates pledges million dollars a year for rural education programmes

Thursday, September 14 (New Delhi):

India's rolling out the red carpet for the world's richest man and Microsoft head--Bill Gates. This morning, he met with the Information Technology minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan.

The Microsoft founder arrived at the IT Ministry at around 11:00am (IST) in the morning and held a closed door meeting with Pramod Mahajan for nearly 50 minutes. Apart from exchanging gifts, there were some important decisions.

Mr. Bill Gates has pledged a million dollars a year to the IT ministry for rural education programmes. Mr. Pramod Mahajan has also suggested developing the Windows software in Hindi and some regional languages. A Media Lab India in MIT was also proposed by the minister and Microsoft has expressed its interest in helping with this initiative.

Bill Gates to meet Pramod, CMs
Hindustan Times 12.09.2000

Bill Gates , who will arrive here this Wednesday, will meet Minister for Information Technology Pramod Mahajan on Thursday.The meeting is slated at 11 am in the IT Ministry.

According to IT Ministry sources, depending on what transpires at the meeting and the proposals that Gates will moot, the minister may also join in at the luncheon meeting organised by the Nasscom and Microsoft on the same day.At the luncheon meeting, Gates, who has taken over as the Chief Software Architect of Microsoft, is also expected to interact with at least nine chief ministers, those of Andhra, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and U.P are likely to attend the meet.

Mega plans to boost no. of tech students
Observer of Business and Politics 08.09.2000

UPGRADATION of regional engineering colleges and increase in intake of students in information technology studies are but a few measures the government is contemplating to meet the forthcoming challenges on the human resources front in the knowledge
industry arena.

In view of the growing demand for software professionals around the globe, and likely shortfall in human resources in IT sector, the government is planning to double the intake of number of technology students in the next academic session in professional colleges.This indication was given by a senior official of ministry of information technology (MIT) P V Jayakrishnan at a function to launch a research project of .Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT)

IIT has entered into an agreement with Sun Microsystems for collaborative research in cutting edge technologies. IIT Delhi, Kharagpur and Kanpur will be participating in the research project, a JV between the premier technological institute and private sector.

India chums out about 73,000 students every year in the field of information technology. The secretary of the ministry said that the government was focusing on about 60 to 70 institutions, including academic bodies and private companies offering education in
information technology, as part of the plan to boost technology graduates, he said.

"Our concern is now of quality (of graduates)," said Mr Jayakrishnan, adding that a government panel was studying the issue to make appropriate changes at the faculty level to increase the number of students.

McKinsey and Co said last year that aided by appropriate policies, the sector would account for 2.2 million jobs by 2008.

Earlier, global IT major Sun Microsystems entered into an agreement with IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur for launching its 'collaborative research programme' aimed at focused joint research in cutting edge technologies.

"Under the memorandum of understanding (Moli) Sun would team up with faculty and students from the institutes and undertake collaborative research on technologies such as protocol verification of mobile systems, replication of web resources and server selection," Sun Microsystems Lbs director Jeff Rulifson said.

Other areas of research would include mobile agent based transcoding framework, compilation issues in Java software and high performance digital design.

The intellectual property right (IPR) for projects initiated under the programme would be jointly owned by Sun and the concerned university, Mr Rulifson said adding that India was the only country in the Asian region where Sun had launched the collaborative research programme.

The company is also negotiating with other premier institutions including Indian Institute of Science (HSc) Bangalore and IIT Mumbai for rolling out the programme.

Elaborating on the step, Mr Rulifson said that the programme co-ordination would be done by Sun employees, who are alumini of the respective institutes

Netizens opting for cable route will increase; dial-ups number to shrink
Business Standard 07.09.2000

Internet access through cable will account for 24 per cent of the overall volume by the end of March 2005, while access through dial-up subscribers is expected to decrease from the present level of 84.6 per cent in March 2000 to 70 per cent by March 2005.

In a report titled Indian bandwidth requirement for Internet Services (2000 -2005), the American consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan further says that the share of leased line in Internet access will decrease from the pre sent level of 7.7 per cent to 2 per cent in March 2000.

Similarly, Internet access through Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines, which permits communication of data voice and other traffic, will decrease steadily from the present level of 7.8 per cent to only 1 percent at the end of the 200405 fiscal. The firm predicted a bandwidth demand of only 1 gbps for ISDN services.

The forecast for the bandwidth requirement for cable Internet access services in March 2005 is 8.4 gbps.

Besides cable access services, direct subscriber link (DSL) is the only segment which is likely to improve its share.

The share of bandwidth requirement for DSL services is predicted to increase from 2 per cent in 2002 fiscal to 3 per cent in 2005. "Given the late introduction of DSL services, the likely growth in four years period is tremendous," manager telecom practices Anil Joseph said.

The bandwidth requirement for the provision of services by 2005 is likely to be 1 gbps. The demand for higher bandwidth lines from corporates is expected to help the leased line segment from a drastic decline despite its likely low share in total Internet services market," Joseph added.

The share of ISDN segment is expected to drop from 7.8 per cent to 1 per cent during the forecast period of 2000-2005.

The major reason for the drop in the share of ISDN services is its low effective bandwidth requirement compared to DSL and leased lines.

Construction of a production line for system LSI non-memory semiconductors is to begin in October and aims to produce 30,000 eight-inch wafers a month.

Samsung said its sales in the non-memory sector would increase from this year's expected $1.7 billion to reach $3 billion in 2002 and $5 billion in 2005.

New forum to help country better its say in e-commerce
Asian Age 06.09.2000

Electronic Commerce Network of India was formed on Tuesday, with an idea to meet requirements of all e-commerce businesses in the country. This association will represent an ever-increasing number of professionals and organisations engaged in e-commerce and Net ecomony.

The association lead by Rajiv Karwal, senior vice-president, Philips India, plans to expand its services at a global level in the near future. Currently, Ecomnetlndia has 1,000 members listed and will register two million members by 2002.

"The prime objective is to create and manage tangible opportunities for its members and in the process create and inform exchange for the society at large. It aims to provide important information, which is essential to make appropriate business decisions. It also serves as a link between the members and those with an abiding interest in the country's e-commerce software business," Mr Karwal said.

The association through its network aims at establishing itself as an interface between members and the government and other regulatory authorities and represents the country's e-commerce interest internationally.

It will interact with overseas association and bodies to import new technologies and ideas and will be engaged in analysing the resources available and required in the future to meet set targets. It will catalyse shaping the future of Indian trade and commerce. "We are making a sincere effort to reach out to the information deprived in remote areas. It would be a vital link between the masses and the hi-tech world.

British doors open for Indian IT experts
Business Standard 05.09.2000

The British government has imposed a new set of "relaxed s" to help Indian entrepreneurs who are willing to set up businesses in the field of e-commerce and other technical areas ie United Kingdom.
Sritish secretary of state for ie Jack Straw announced after our-long meeting with Union ie minister L.K Advani that the law, which came into effect yesterday, would facilitate Indian entrepreneurs to establish their ventures in UK without any ble.deferring to stringent immigration laws, Straw said the government would relax the immigration laws shortly to avoid trouble for those willing to visit his country.

"In fact, ninety percent of the visas were granted," he said, adding the British government would make a provision to enable all those denied visas to appeal to higher authorities.

The relaxation in immigration laws assume significance in view of the fact that there is much demand of trained manpower in information technology (IT)in the UK.

Straw pointed out that his visit to India was a sequel to the visit by Advani only three months back.

Straw who led a high-level delegation, also admitted that his government shared the concern of the Indian government on the issues of terrorism, drug traffick ing. He said that it was agreed in his meeting with Advani that a joint working group (JWG) of the two countries would be set up to evolve mechanisms to check ter rorism and drug trafficking. "This is an attempt to co-ordinate the joint effort," he said.

Advani informed that officials of both me countries would meet and work out details about the JWG. A team of Indian officials would visit UK in October to discuss the issue, he added.

In the meeting, Straw did raise the issue of the detention of Peter Bleach, the prime accused in the Purulia arms drop case. Bleach was arrested for air-dropping weapons in Purulia along with four Latvian nationals. Though the Centre has released the Lativians, who assumed Russian citizenship, under pressure from Russia, Peter bleach continues to be in jail.

Straw said he had raised the issue with Advani but did not elab orate on the discussions. Such is sues could not be discussed un der the "glare of media", he felt..

In response to a query about the British national involved in ter rorist activity and released in the wake of the hijacking of the Indian plane, Straw said though the mat ter had not come up during his meeting with Advani, the British government was ready to accept any request for extradition of a person involved in crime in India. Advani and Straw described their meeting as cordial and fruitful.

India well placed to meet IT manpower demand till 2008
Hinduastan Times 03-09-2000

India is comfortably placed till 2008 as far as the domestic demand for information technology (IT) manpower is concerned, at present levels of demand.However, the concerns enlisted in the discussion paper presented at the first meeting of Task Force on Human Resource Development in Information Technology, are the unpredictable growth of IT sector world wide, the consequent exodus of IT professionals as also the country's inability to move up the IT value chain.

According to the Ministry of Information Technology (MIT), there will be no shortfall of manpower supply till 2008. On the demand side, it has worked out a figure of 23.67 lakh in three categories - 2 lakh in software products, 5.77 lakh in IT services and 12.9 lakh in IT-enabled services and e-business.

Based on the current intake capacity in various institutions and projected additions till 2008, around 2.63 lakh postgraduates (including MCAs), 7.85 lakh graduates and 7.42 lakh diploma holders will be added. Taking into account the migration of professionals from electronics and communications,10.48 lakh IT graduates will be available for the hard-core IT sector and 7.4 lakh for the IT-enabled services from the AICTE recognized institutions. Also, under the drive to increase intake, during the current year, nearly 16,000 seats are likely to be added.

Institutions like IITs, IIMs and IISe are expected to add nearly 10,000 graduates by 2008. Therefore, against an additional requirement of nearly 7.6 lakh for hard-core IT sector, 10.6 lakh graduates will be added to the system by 2008 providing adequate cushion for international migration and attrition.

But, being unable to put a figure to the global demand, the discussion paper has proposed the setting up of a nodal center that can project supply and assess demand in IT sector. Keeping in mind the need for training and retraining IT professionals, it has recommended government's intervention, for which Rs 2,800 crore have been earmarked. These initiatives include increase in the intake of quality institutions and improvement in others. Taking 1999-2000 as the base year, it has suggested that intake could be doubled by the next academic year and made three-times by 2003-04.

This apart from introducing new courses in select institutions like the IITs and RECs. It also proposes to adopt for this purpose 250 institutions, out of which 205 will be government-aided.

To meet infrastructure and faculty requirements, the paper proposes a cluster approach, comprising 65 institutions including 6 IITs, 2 IIITs, IISe Bangalore and the 6 IIMs and 50 other select ones, wherein they can synergise the strengths by sharing the faculty, courseware, good insructional resources, etc.

An amount of Rs 90 crore has leen sanctioned for the IITs for upgradingthe infrastructure from within the normal )udgetary allocation.

An amount of Rs 8-10 crore vould be required for computing and ntworking facilities for the 50 institutes. The dditional classrooms and faculty requiremots in all the 65 institutions will require anther Rs 200 crore and Rs 50 crore pe annum, respectively. Another Rs 50 core per annum will be required for tracing and retraining teachers under the Faculty Development Fund.

Other suggestions include innediate implementation of the PG Review Committee, which recommends siting up of schools of advanced study an special research groups; focus on post gradate education and research given that weproduce only 25 Ph.D and 300 M.Tech degre holders in a year as compared to 800 PIDs and 10,000 masters degree holders prcuced in the US.

Also, the demand in the hardwal sector, which is expected to generate direcfcmploy-ment of 16 lakh and indirect emploment of 32 lakh, has to be addressed.

Maharashtra IT infrastructure plan envisages 15 technology parks
Business Standard 22-08-2000

MUMBAI: Maharashtra has chalked out an ambitious IT infrastructure plan for setting up 15 information technology parks with built up area of
41.40 lakh square feet spread over 900 acres of land. The state's FT vision hinges on a five-fold strategy of providing infrastructure,
connectivity, fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, human resource ; development and institutional framework, state industries and water ;
conservation minister Patangrao Kadam said at the NEC-Enkay I telecom show yesterday. Maharashtra Industrial Development I Corporation
(MIDC) and the state government were trying to create , a climate in which FT sector will flourish, he said adding, in this direction the
government has also allowed software units in residential areas and no-development zone.

Netscape ties up with ERDCI to set up ASP, call centres
Financial Express 25-08-2000

DELHI-BASED call center solutions company Netspace Communications and Electronic Research and Development Center of India have entered into an alliance to set up an Internet-based Application Service Provider (ASP) service, a customer relationship management competence center and a voice and Web-based call center facility.

The CRM competence center will be spread across 10,000 sq feet and will be located within ERDCI building in Noida near Delhi.
It proposes to train over 500 students each year for a career as call center agents, said Netspace managing director, Pankaj Garg.

While ERDCI, a scientific society under the Ministry of Information Technology, will provide the neccessary infrastructure and equipment, Netspace will provide the hardware and software support.

Though both sides will put money in the venture, Garg refused to disclose the amount being invested in the project, "When fully operational, all three activities will require a large sum which will be equally shared by ERDCI," he said. The entire project is expected to be up and running within two months.

The call center facility will initially have 50 seats and be expanded to 100 in the second phase. It will target domestic customers, but look at international offshore clients later. "We are putting in the switch-based communications infrastructure, scalable servers and other world-class facilities which are often missing in other call centers directed at a domestic audience. Our aim is also to offer the entire gamut of services and solutions to companies wanting to set up call centers," said Garg. The Netspace will also develop a Website, erdci-netspace.com, to be be used for the eCRM and ASP services. It will also rent software applications to corporate, PSUs and government.

IT literacy may be a clause for govt. jobs by 2002
Businees Standard 25.08.2000

The government is consider ing to make literacy in information technology compulsory for recruitments by the year 2002.

The ministry of information technology has made the proposal which is presently under government consideration. The IT ministry wants the basic course parameters to be prepared that would define IT literacy.

In cases where a person has to be recruited without IT literacy, he/she would be made to acquire the skills within one year of recruitment.

For the existing staff, the government is considering to make them attain IT literacy in the next two years.

For this, a panel of recognised training institutions at central and state government level is be ing set up. These institutions, in private as well as public sector, will be updated from time to time to keep pace with technology.

The proposal also wants all central and state government de partments to prepare a time-bound plan to establish govern ment intranets with connectivi ty to each other and the Internet. The ministry also suggested that steps should be taken to ensure that the information technology infrastructure is in place by year 2003.

The government feels that for the information technology ser vices to be developed and sus tained, it is necessary that the necessary infotech infrastructure is established and made available to the working-level staff.

The proposal envisages that all IT-enabled services be made web-centric so that they are accessible to the public through the Internet.

The government has already taken a few measures in this regard. The advisory committee on information technolgy has suggested upgradation of 43 engineering colleges, up to the level of the Indian Institutes of Technology.

The activities of National Centre for Software Technology are being expanded in Karnataka at Bangalore and in Maharashtra at Navi-Mumbai to impart advanced education and training.

The computing and networking facilities in the six IITs are being upgraded to global standards. In addition, capacity of graduate and postgraduate programmes at premier institutes is being in creased. The government has also set up Indian Institutes of Information Technology at Gwalior and Allahabad in the central and at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Trivandrum in the state sector.

The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) is encouraging new self-financing engineering colleges in IT-related programmes. The council also wants that the intake capacity for other programmes like Masters of Computer Application be increased.

Mori announces new Japan-India partnership
Business Standard 24-08-2000

Anew Japan-India partnership with a people-to-people focus was announced by Japanese Prime Minister Yushiro Mori and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee after talks yesterday.

As part of the interaction between India and Japan, more multi-entry visas valid for up to three years to Indian IT professionals working in Japan, the training of 1,000 technicians in the Japanese language and business practices, the Mori fellowship to be awarded to 1,000 young people every year for the next five years; and more frequent meetings between Japanese and Indian leaders at the political level are planned.

Japanese and Indian IT professionals will also get the support of their governments in holding FT symposia and expert-level meetings.

The cooperation between the private sector in Japan and India, foreign direct investment and humanitarian assistance to India will continue," external affairs minister Jaswant Singh said.

In addition, an economic mission will come to India in October to take the economic aspect of the dialogue forward, Jaswant Singh said.

As part of the exercise to widen and deepen cooperation, the Indian Prime Minister has been invited to Japan next year. President K R Narayanan will also be visiting Japan. At the political level, Japan has condemned all forms of terrorism. However, Jaswant Singh said, in reply to a question on whether sanctions had been lifted, that of all countries in the world, India was most sensitive to Japan's feelings on the issue of weapons of mass destruction, because Japan had been a victim of these. Over the years, Japan had developed various laws and regulations on the relationship it should have with countries which had nuclear weapons.

Its reactions were a result of domestic consensus. At the same time, he said, India did not subscribe to the notion of sanctions, and expected that Japan would be as sensitive to India's security concerns.

More importantly, Japan had agreed to continue its dialogue with India and had actually invited India to discuss strategic issues, he said.

Govt. frames draft rules for IT Act
Tribune 16-08-2000

The government today framed the draft rules and regulations for the IT Act 2000 and said that the formal notifi-of final rules would be issued by september 15, following online feedback from the industry and the draft rules envisage appointment of the Controller, the adjugating officer, the presiding officer and the cyber Appelate Tribunal, IT Minister Pramod Mahajan said inaugurating an e-governance centre here.

IT Act was passed by Parliament in mid-May and got the assent of the President in June. The Act will allow the government to carry out its business online. He said it was necessary to frame rules so that a complete set of legal infrastructure was in place to enable and support electronic commerce.

Mr Mahajan said the government proposed to keep these rules on a web page for about two weeks during which suggestions and objections would be invited from representatives of trade, industry and business associations besides members of public.

On receipt of these, the rules will be suitably modified and then finally published, he told reporters after inaugurating the Centre for Electronic Governance set up here by the ministry.

The centre for e-governance has been set up with a view to collating and disseminating the best practices of e-governance for use by the central and state governments.

The activities of the centre include demonstration of feasibility of the concepts in e-governance to decision makers through workshops, video demonstrations and tele-conferences, help the central and state governments in defining and implementing the process and policy changes.

The minister said the first area of draft rules involved the appointment of certain authorities for implementing various provisions of the Act.

Under this, rules have been provided for the appointment of the Controller, the Adjudication Officer, the Presiding Officer, and the Cyber Appellate Tribunal.

One of the key functionaries would be the Controller, who will lay down standards and supervise activities of the certifying authorities.

The other important issue which has been dealt by the rules is one of specifying qualifications of becoming a certifying authority. He will be granted a licence to issue a digital signature certificate. The security of transactions taking place on the net will depend on the quality and control that he has on certificates.

The rules specify the amount of paid-up capital, the bank guarantee and various other requirements that one will have to fulfil before one is granted a licence for issuing digital signature certificate. They will also cover issues like the period of validity of licence granted and the payment to be made.

The rules also provide for procedures for creating secure electronic record and secure digital signature. They have been framed on the man

ner in which the adjudicating officer will hold an inquiry if disputes arise.

The e-business focuses its element on telephone, computers and web sites as the basis for deciding competitiveness of a country.

It can help the companies to lower costs dramatically across supply and demand chains, take their customer service to a different league, enter new markets, create additional revenue streams and re-define business relationships.

According to a Nasscom-McKinsey study, no more than Rs 131 crore of e-commerce was transferred in 1999, while investments exceeded Rs 1000 crore. But, revenues will more than double this year to Rs 450 crore.

IT ministry jumpstarts innovations
Times of India 16-08-2000

The government celebrates August 15 with work shut- down. Or by issuing ministry advertisements proclaiming its invaluable contribution to a coming golden age. Which is why the Union ministry of information technology deserves some applause.

It marked the day with two innovative steps. One, it put the entire draft of rules for enforcing the landmark Information Technology Act on its website. for citizen reaction. For any law the government usually prepares the all- important rules behind closed doors and notifies them without bothering to check with the public.

For a change, the information technology ministry has invited citizens' reactions to its set of rules at the ministry website http://www.mit.gov.in in a fortnight. including suggesting where to locate and what to name the key posts created under the Act.

"We'll then examine the feedback and complete this job in another two weeks," says IT minister Pramod Mahajan. "The final notification should be out by September 15.'' On which date, then, India will have an entire legal framework for electronic transactions, from digital signing to a multitude of others. Besides provisions on cyber crime.

The second interesting Independence Day event at Electronics Niketan, the meandering complex housing Mahajan's ministry, was the opening — with cabinet secretary Prabhat Kumar and administrative reforms minister Arun Shourie attending — of a Centre for Electronic Governance. A demonstration-cum-training centre. it houses the best innovations in e-governance being pioneered in various parts of the country, all under one roof.

For instance, a system has been developed for the Jaipur police, allowing the filing of a police case (FIR) online, without coming to the station. Another system developed for Maharashtra's public works department does on-line tracking and supervision of the contracts, approvals, stores, work-in-progress reports and accounts control.

Another system. for the Vijayawada municipality, enables on-line applications and responses on various functions: building approvals, health programmes, registration certificates, engineering works and so forth. Citizens can access data on any of these and also get their work done without coming to a municipal office; at the other end, their needs can be serviced, their suggestions registered, all without processing paper files and applications.

All these, and many more — the "best practice" inventions — have been brought under one roof. And programmes are being readied to call for training staffers in government offices from all over India, to jumpstart a national revolution in governance, using IT. Hardware, software, ideas, personnel — it's a one-stop shop.

"The idea," explains Union IT secretary P V Jayakrishnan, "is to avoid duplication and enable replication, in all states, of the best practices, selected from everywhere." Arun Shourie told Mahajan he's already booking for two things: Revamping the administrative reforms department's functioning and thinking and, once the planned disinvestment in 17 state-run undertakings gets going, to have them put in place a bidding and evaluation system which is "as open as possible."

IT ministry sets up centre for e-governance
Observer of Business and Politics15-08-2000

In an initiative to promote procedural simplicity, speed and convenience and facilitate e-governance, the Ministry of Information Technology has set up a centre for e-Governance at its premises in New Delhi.

According to an official release here on Monday, apart from offering e-governance solutions and services, the centre will showcase applications by various IT majors like CMC, Microsoft and Oracle.

The centre will be formally inaugurated by IT minister Pramod Mahajan on the Independence Day.

The centre would offer services such as technical consultation, proof of concept and thematic presentations, besides creating awareness amongst decision makers at the central and state level and helping them in defining and implementing process and policy changes, the information technology ministry said.

"The centre would also draw upon leading companies, technical institutions and business partners within the country and abroad and help initiate projects to address specific needs," the statement added.

The centre would showcase applications by C-DAC, CMC, National Informatic Centre, Microsoft, Oracle and IQ Virtuals to start with.

"The centre has also drawn up a calender of events for its various activities including seminars on effective electronic governance in the network age, e-governance technologies. showcasing state initiatives and success stories, seminars on outsourcing services and govern ance models it said.

In addition, the centre would organise guided tours for IT ministers, parliamentarians, legislators and decision makers on regular basis.

The ministry would also launch its e-office solutions package aimed at promoting procedural simplicity and speed in direct interaction with citizens and day-to-day office management.

The package would facilitate online interaction between citizens and information technology ministry, the statement said adding that the new product would also allow online submission of research and development (R&D) proposals.

"Consequent administrative procedures such as calling of meetings, minutes of meetings, generating sanction orders would also be available online," it further said.

"The package would also facilitate online interaction with scientific and academic community on important issues," it said.

Other features of the package include ability to obtain approvals for tours and leave electronically, it said.

E-Com revenues may touch Rs 48,000 cr in '05'
Business Line 28.07.2000

INDIA can earn revenues of Rs. 48.000 crores from e- business services by 2005, according to Mr. Dewang Mehta, President, National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).

For 2000-2001, revenues from e-business services will account for Rs. 7,250 crores, out of which Rs. 6,700 crores will come from exports and Rs. 50 crores from the domestic market.

This would represent a growth of more than 200 per cent over the revenues of Rs. 2,500 crores in 1999-2000, said Mr. Mehta at the conference E-biz India 2000 here on Thursday.

To achieve the projected revenues of $10 billions by 2008, the Government will have to take a series of initiatives centred around e-commerce, The must include the passage of the Information Technology Act, approval to 100 per cent foreign direct investment in B2C e-commerce and ISP companies and zero per cent taxation of e-commerce in the current year, said Mr. Mehta.

Nasscom demanded a three to five-year moratorium on taxes on e-commerce transactions. In addition, it asked for infrastructure facilities such as an access of at least two Mbps of bandwidth for every citizen within the next two years, and for the right of way facilities to optical fibre networks along highways by Union and State governments to be implemented quickly.The body also demanded action against cyber-squatting.

DOT plans to meet bandwidth demand
Observer of Business 28.07.2000

DEPARTMENT of telecommunications (DoT) secretary Shyamal Ghosh on Thursday announced that the National Bandwidth Advisory Committee had agreed with Nasscom that supply must precede the demand for bandwidth in the country if the bandwidth issue has to be tackled.

To implement this, the government plans to offer bandwidth on demand within two months, he said at the inauguration of Nasscom's E-biz 2000, the national conference on e-commerce and e-business.

Explaining the delay in the implementations of documented plans for the provision of bandwidth, Mr Ghosh said that it took about five months for the DOT to get clearances from various departments after the tenders were issued, out of which two months were taken by the Centra

Vigilance Commission (CVL). IT CVC gives its approval in a week, lots of time will be saved," he said "VSNL will be doubling its international internet bandwidth from 325 Mb to 780Mb by the end of this year.

Currently the government-owned VSNL holds a capacity of 325 Mb of international internet bandwidth: It has a few limitations In increasing the bandwidth mainly on account of the regulatory procedures. Nasscom president Dewang Mehta, however, pleaded with the DoT secretary to increase the bandwidth to provide 2Mbp per person in India figuring the boom in the e-commerce business in the country. "To meet the demand of domestic bandwidth, the government has already laid 17 lakh kilometers of optical fibre cable network throughout the country and by the end of the year plans to lay another one lakh kilometers," he said. The state has planned the laying of optical fibre via pipelinesunder main highways and other roads during the construction work itself. This will eliminate the exhaustive process of excavation required to lay the under ground network of cables.

Inaugurating E-biz India 2000, " Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh thanked Mr Mehta for declaring Mumbal as the e-commerce capital

Nasscom for setting up toll-free nos intl connectivity
Economic Times(25.07.2000)

NASSCOM'S project Operation Bandwidth has recommended setting up toll free numbers facility to connect the international telecommunication links to Public Switch Telecom Network (PSTN) on either side to software export companies. It has also asked to allow interconnectivity between networks of different service providers.

Nasscom has also suggested a drastic reduction in tariffs to encourage more value addition from India and has recommended steeper volume discounts so that the companies can take more bandwidth and provide better customer service. The survey pointed out that connecting international telecommunication links to PSTN would help India become a customer service hub in future and attract various organisations to set up their customer service centres in India. PSTN is what MTNL has in Delhi and Mumbai network. According to Nasscom, this business alone was projected to bring in an additional $30 billion in foreign exchange by the year 2008.

Most US IT companies have set up toll free numbers to contact employees of Indian IT companies on a ongoing basis. The charges for such calls do not exceed Rs 6 per minute and in some cases are aslow as Rs 4 per minute, the survey said' As world class IT companies, Nasscom said, India was expected to leverage technology to provide ubiqutious access to employees to corporate and customer network. For instance, an employee must be able to check email using a remote PC or a regular phone. This requires interconnectivity between all forms of networks.

Operation Bandwidth

Interconnectivity between networks of different service providers
Drastic reduction in tariffs toencourage more value addition
Steep volume discounts to help companies take more bandwidth and provide better customer service
This business aione was projected to bring in an additional $30 billion in foreign exchange by 2008
It-enabled services cos be permitted to directly negotiate capacity requrements with fibre optic companies :
Web-based call centres

The survey pointed out that DoT was not totally equipped to provide 24 hours a day and seven days support needed to operate in the global markets. Also, most companies were dependent on DoT to providethe last mile of connectivity and the service becomes critical to the survival of the IT companies.

Nasscom said there was a strong need to permit interconnectivity between call centres as the load sharing between the centres would lead to optimum utilisation of international bandwidth. It would give 24 hours and seven days support for critical operations as even a few minutes down time was not acceptable to international customers and could lead to loss of credibility.

It has also recommended that the IT enabled services companies be permitted to directly negotiate the capacity requirements with the international fibre optic companies. In addition to this, the survey has asked to allow web based call centres.

Net Users to grow to 23 million by 2003
HindustanTimes 25.07.2000

INDIAN MALES outnumbered females in accessing the Internet at 77 per cent compared to 23 per cent. Internet access is most widespread amongst the 18-24 year age group followed by 28 per cent in the 25-39 year age group, while a significant development is that almost 11 per cent of people over the age of 40 now access the Internet.

These findings are part of the Internet survey conducted by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASS-COM), which released its projections of Internet usage in India here today. "The capital cities ( New Delhi and state capitals) accounts for 77 per cent of Internet connections across the country," says the survey report.

The survey revealed that these users are on an average are estimated to be accessing the Internet for 6 hours a week. The Internet penetration in India has grown from a mere base of 1.70 lakh subscriber in November 1998 to more than 1 million subscribers as on June 30, 2000.

The survey, conducted in 68 cities and towns in June -July 2000 constituting 92 per cent of the total Internet users in India, revealed that the profile of Internet users in India is currently dominated by the professional/corporate segment.

This accounts for approximately 43 per cent of Internet usage, the student community that con-

GROWTH OF INTERNET (In Millions)
YEAR CONNECTIONS	USERS
March2001 1.6	5.0
March2002 4.0	10
March2003 8.0	18
Dec2003 11.0	23

tribute close to 38 per cent of Internet surfers and finally the emerging housewives segment that accounts for 4 per cent. "Over half ( 59.2 per cent) use the Internet as an information resource, 11.3 per cent use it as an educational tool and just under 8.2 per cent use it for entertainment," says the survey.

When asked what are the most frequently used service online was, 73.4 per cent answered e-mail, 77 per cent answered search engines and 23 per cent said they use it for downloading /uploading software.

Commenting on the survey findings, Mr Dewang Mehta, president of NASSCOM said, "With improvements in bandwidth and penetration of Internet through PCs as well as cable TV, the Internet user base in India is likely to grow to 23 million users by December 31, 2003"

The NASSCOM survey is the first Internet survey in India, which also provides detailed demographics of Internet users in India.

According to NASSCOM's survey, 36 per cent of the world's population accesses the Internet today and India with 3.7 million users accounts for a mere 0,37 per cent.

The Internet and e-commerce industry employs approximately 82,000 people. These include web developers, web designers, system analysts, ISP infrastructure providers, marketing staff, e-software professionals etc. It is projected that by March 2003, the Internet and e-commerce industry would employ 5,00, 000 people.

State IT meet to focus on national policy
Business Standard (10.7.2000)

The state IT ministers and chief ministers' conference on IT, to be held on July 15, will initiate discussions on a concrete National IT policy. The first ever such meet, to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister in New Delhi, will also discuss and finalise the action plan implementing the government's plan for the information technology for masses.
      "The main agenda for the meet is to give final touches to various government policies in the information technology arena. The meet will give final touch to many of the action plans too," said a senior government official.
     Although the main agenda does not feature any discussion on the national IT policy, senior officials point out that the Union government will take up the need for a comprehensive IT policy.
     "Though we are not expecting to finalise the national IT policy there, deliberations will be initiated towards this end. However, a decision regarding this will be taken up only after anlysing the mood of the meet," he said.
       The discussion regarding IT for masses will finalise the action plan to implement this strategy. It will also discuss various issues like developing applications to help IT reach masses and finalise an integrated action plan for this.
      The meet is also expected to review various schemes and major initiatives taken by various government agencies for taking IT to masses, to identify potential areas and applications for deployment of IT for masses, to recommend development schemes/ programmes for citizen participation for taking IT to masses and prepare a comprehensive plan for taking IT to masses.
       The meet will also deliberate on various actions regarding electronic governance, enabling literacy and education for masses, fulfilling local information needs of people and enabling better economic conditions of people using information technology.
     It will further focus on IT applications relevant to masses to be implemented in the country following major issues require to be handled on priority, establishment of IT infrastructure including communication network of good quality and at affordable prices with its reach up to rural area.Discussions will also concentrate on various initiatives that should be taken to introduce IT education in schools and way to spread IT as a curriculum in various syllabi. "The government is keen on introducing IT as a curriculum at school levels. We will initiate discussions in this regards," he said.
     In addition to this, the meet may also discuss on ways to streamline various state government procedures regarding the right of clearances to various service providers willing to lay fibre optic cables. "The industry has been demanding streamlining the various policies existing in the states. The main among them is streamlining the right of way policies," source said. There will also be a review of various government regulations and procedures to be recast in a manner that IT infrastructure and services to be established by people at any place in the country. The industry has been demanding allowing the facilities by the government without requiring to go through complicated procedures of approval.

Use regional languages in IT: Mahajan Business Standard (9.7.2000)
NEW DELHI

Union minister for information technology Pramod Mahajan yesterday called upon the Indian IT industry to come up with solutions in applications that will help regional language computing possible.
    Quoting the example of China, Mahajan said, "In China, IT industry is based on their local language -Chinese -and they have managed 1.5 crore internet connections while back home IT has not touched many of our lives as it is based in English and not more than three to four per cent of Indians can communicate in English."
    Speaking at the launch of apnamail.com, Mahajan said in 5 to 10 years, voice recognition will become a widespread phenomenon. That is when a lot of emphasis will be given to the regional languages and the usage of local languages will go a long way in removing the digital divide between those who are Net-savvy and those who are not, he added.
    Elaborating further, Mahajan said the increased usage of the Indian languages in IT will be the empowering tool in not only taking the benefits of IT to the masses, it will also be the key ingredient in outlining road map for India in becoming an IT superpower development of any new technological frontier.
   The multi-lingual, multi-font sites indialanguages.com and apanamail.com is self funded by Ninad Pradhan, Poorva Keskar and Pankaja Munde, who are also the directors of IndianLanguages.com PvtLtd.
    This company is jointly promoted by CyberShoppee and Marg Technologies Pvt Ltd, which has developed a state-of-the-art Input Method to address the special text input needs of the Indian languages.
    "Apanamail.com is a unique mail system used for any font and any keyboard. It provides dynamic fonts and users need not install any special system in their PCs to view the popmail and the normal e-mail in the regional languages. Indianlanguages.com has a huge database about Indian language websites on the web," said Ninad Pradhan.

Indian IT industry clocks 63 pc growth in '99-2000:Computers Today survey
Financial Exp. (7.7.2000)
New Delhi

THE total Indian infotech industry grew by an impressive 62.9 per cent in 1999-2000, according to the annual industry survey released by Computers Today, of India Today Group.
    The total industry revenue stood at Rs 29.513 crore (approximately $6.6 billion) in 1999-2000, up from Rs 18.120crorein 1998-99. This represents the highest annual growth rate in the last decade.
    The software industry, as usual, ruled the roost. In 1999-2000. Indian software exports earned Rs 15,290 crore, a 69 per cent over the 1998-99 revenues of Rs 9,048 crore.The domestic software industry showed a better performance with 94 percent increase, from Rs 1,810 crore to Rs 3,523 crore in the last financial year, a release issued by the Computers Today says.
    The baton to lead the infotech industry changed hand four years ago in 1997-98,when the software segment (Rs 6,690 crore) raced past its hardware counterpart (Rs 5,072 crore). In 1999-2000, the hardware industry, involving even the peripheral sales and data communications equipment, posted revenues of about Rs 7,720 crore, which is less than 40 percent of the total software industry turnover. What's more, among the CT 101 companies, more than 80 were purely software and services Firms. For the rest too, the software component often accounted for more than half of the gross sales.
    That is, however, not to belittle the hardware industry's performance. After a constant slide since 1996 and a negative growth of six-percent in 1998-99, this segment has turned around impressively with more than 52 per cent increase in 1999-2000. The hardware industry revenues totaled to Rs 7,720 crore from Rs 5,072 crore in 1998-99.
    Hardware exports have jumped up 100 per cent, to Rs 600 crore. A sweeping frenzy for Internet and the affordability of PCs has contributed to PC sales crossing the ever-promised and long-touted one million mark. The total PC installed base now stands at just above 2.7 million units. In revenues, the PC industry grew from Rs 3,296.5 crore in 1998-99 to Rs 4,810 crore in 1999-2000.

TN to decide on site for Tidel Park-II

The Hindu - Business Line (6.7.2000)

CHENNAI, July 5.

THE Tamil Nadu Government is looking at two possible locations for the Tidel Park-II.
    During the inauguration of the park on Tuesday, the Chief Minister. Mr. M. Karunanidhi, announced that another software park would be set up "very soon" in Chennai.
    According to official sources, the Government has the option of setting up Tidel Park-II on a 10-acre plot of land belonging to a Government department on arterial Anna Salai.
    A business-cum-financial centre was proposed to be developed on this site, for which the Government even invited bids. But, this proposal has been put on the backburner. This centre was to have a plinth area of 11-lakh sq.ft.
    The Government is now looking into whether it can put up the proposed Tidel Park-II at this location. The software park will be right in the heart of the city and hence command a premium, according to the sources. However, they point out that issues like whether the road will be able to take high density vehicular movement from one point (at least 2,500 vehicles) need to be considered before taking a decision.
   The other location would be on the Old Mahabalipuram Road, past the Tidel Park, where land is available. The State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Sipcot) is establishing an IT park extending over 1,000 acres at Siruseri on the Old Mahabalipuram Road.
   At the inauguration of the Tidel Park, the Chief Minister referred to the State's efforts to promote IT and urged the Centre to encourage STPI to set up international data links throughout Tamil Nadu. He also wanted the Union Human Resources Development Ministry to establish an institute of information technology and management in Chennai at the earliest. Besides, Mr. Karunanidhi wanted the Center to establish a landing point in Chennai for the inter-continental, undersea fibre optic cable.

Plan panel recommends opening of Net telephony

Economic Times 6.7.2000 THE Planning Commission has recommended the opening of Internet telephony, coming out stridently against the existing policy, which does not permit transmission of voice over public Internet.
    The telecom chapter of the Planning Commission's Mid-Term Review of the 9th Five Year Plan says the opening of Internet telephony will lead to optimum use of resources and provision of least cost services to the consumers. It further says that since VSNL, DoT and MTNL are already leading ISPs, opening up of Internet telephony would provide them with a greater opportunity to be major players in this area.
   The opening of Internet telephony will not harm national interest in any way, the document says. "In fact, it is bound to revolutionise the long distance communications as it will provide services at a fraction of the present cost. The existing policy should not be allowed to hold back the benefits accruing from technological innovations if it is not against the interest of the nation and the consumers. Opening of Internet telephony like data services will not harm national interest in any way," it reads.
    The Planning Commission further says that with the convergence of technologies, service segmentations and a separate licence for each service becomes redundant and work only as artificial barriers. It recommends a single licence for all telecom services and evolving a common revenue share formula. Telecom services would include fixed line telephony. Internet, mobile telephony and satellite services. This will help in the liberalisation of the sector and ensure a desirable perfect competition model.
   Contrary to DoT's views, the Planning Commission is against competitive bidding for the award of national long distance (NLD) licences as this would restrict the number of players. It suggests a one-time entry fee and no restriction on the number of NLD operators. DoT has been known to be opposed to this idea.
   The final blow to DoT is the Planning Commission's recommendation that NLD operators should carry intra circle long distance traffic as this would increase competition and give the subscriber the option of choosing the NLD operator of their preference.
     The recommendations say the artificial distinction between intra circle and inter circle long distance connectivity would become redundant in the face of emerging technological innovations. The liberalisation of the ISP sector is a befitting model to prove that unrestricted competition helps expand the user base and reduces cost to the customer, the report urges.

Cybercrimes may keep police on tenterhooks

Business Standard 6.7.2000

THE NATIONAL highways and thecyber highways, both of which play vital role in the development of country, have uncanny similarities as far as crime and criminals go.
   A spurt in crimes in the cyber highways of India, though much less compared to advanced countries, worries the experts a lot - for the law enforcing agencies are still groping in dark about the means and mode to check them.
    Rajan Bhagat, ACP, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) section in the Crime Branch of Delhi Police says " the IT Act has given extra responsibility to the police to check the offence in the cyber world. We have to see how we can approach the problem as and when it comes."
   Cyber crimes have several manifestations - Hacking, stalking and squatting. The national security could be endangered if sensitive sites are hacked to destroy and mutilate documents. A person can be stalked on the internet causing a lot of harassment without even revealing the identity and by squatting, a cyber criminal can misuse the name and fame of a reputed person.
"The new Information Technology Act talks about criminal and civil offences in the Cyber world. But the offences defined in the Act are by no means exhaustive. The drafting of the relevant provisions of the IT Act makes it appear as if the offences detailed in the Act are only cyber offences that can be commited," says noted cyber law expert Pavan Duggal.