| COUNTRY BUZZ Laptop Naidu Lands Elated
After a recent two-week business tour of the US, the
laptop-friendly Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has brought back some
concrete investment proposals (see chart) particularly in the infotech arena.
Global software giant, Microsoft, has also commited itself to
invest more in its Hyderabad development centre. Microsoft's Bill Gates was enthusiastic
about establishing an independent campus in Hyderabad. Naidu courted the US giants to take
a "more active role" in the Indian Institute of Information Technology coming up
in the state.
IBM did not lose the chance to sign an MoU to set up an
autonomous electronic governance concept centre in Hyderabad. Naidu also wooed telecom
majors, Motorola and AT&T. Motorola responded by promising to hold a one-day
information exchange workshop in Hyderabad this month. Motorola would be a big gainer if
the forthcoming meeting fructifies into a business relationship because Andhra Pradesh is
looking for wireless technology for networking within the state.
Lucent Technologies and Cisco have offered to prepare a
blueprint for a high bandwidth data communications network. The high capacity datacom
network is part of Naidu's plans to make the state a hub for IT and telecom industries.
Naidu has also convinced the World Bank to take a more proactive role in the development
of his state. After Naidu's meeting with president James Woolfensohn, the World Bank
agreed to assist in setting up distance learning projects and promised to reexamine its
procedures for financing infotech projects. The International Finance Corp. has also
evinced interest in exploring the possiblity of taking an equity stake in the AP
Infrastructure Initiative Fund. Global investment bankers Morgan Stanley also offered
their services to promote Andhra Pradesh for investment purposes.
Supercomputers Ought to
be Out of Labs: Say Scientist
Supercomputers can now do more than just languish in the
corridors of scientific research, so suggests V. Rajaraman, honorary professor at the
Supercomputer Education and Research Centre at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc),
Bangalore. Supercomputers in India need to be customised and the government should focus
on marketing so that the commercial applications get started, he said, while pointing out
that with the cost of these machines plunging and the speed increasing, it is time for
supercomputers to emerge from pure research and defence-related usage and other government
departments to be exploited commercially in diverse fields.
Some areas where the role of high-speed supercomputers is
becoming crucial are database warehousing and mining, financial markets and systems,
designing drug modules and other medical research, geographical and geological
applications, mapping ocean currents, ozone depletion, space research and advanced and
sophisticated designing of aircraft and automobiles. Rajaraman suggested that high-speed
supercomputers could find a place in graphics and that the film industry could also use
them for high-quality special effects.
There is, however, an obstacle in the form of lack of the
appropriate software for supercomputers, which could be attributed to the high cost of
software development. However, companies could take the initiative to develop software
just like Silicon Graphics Inc. which has developed software for Cray supercomputers, he
pointed out.
Supercomputing started in India almost a decade ago when
Pune-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) embarked on developing the
Param series of supercomputers. The Param series, however, could not find a place in any
application other than in scientific research.
Punjab Set to Reap the
IT Harvest
 Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal,
has unveiled his plans to make Punjab a haven of information technology. Within the next
three years, the state plans to spend Rs 100 crore to ensure IT percolates to every level.
Badal is intent upon making Mohali into a model IT town. Badal plans a venture capital
fund, separate IT department, compulsory IT education at high school level, improving
infrastructure, creating more software technology parks and more. The next state budget
will have more sops for the IT industry. The real brain behind Badal's interest in bits
and bytes is his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, a junior minister in the industry ministry at
the Centre. Badal, at last, has joined the meaningful rat race among politicians. The
transformation is truly revolutionary: Badal is a vocal proponent of free water and free
electricity for Punjab farmers, not the kind of decisions planners and economists would
appreciate.
Vintage PSU at
Crossroads
 The IAS lobby in the Department of
Electronics (DoE) has mounted a rearguard action to scuttle any move towards dilution of
government grip over Electronics Trade and Technology Development Corp. Ltd (ET&T).
The Disinvestment Commission is believed to be in favour of
offloading equity to salvage ET&T and turn this 24-year old public sector undertaking
into a money-making unit. But all is not well, admits DoE secretary Rabindra Gupta (see
photo), under whose control the organisation functions. "We are neck deep in debts,
interests and liablities," he says. ET&T had posted a turnover of Rs 45.57 crore
in 1996-97.
Gupta said he does not share the Disinvestment Commission's
viewpoint that dilution of government equity--read privatisation--would automatically lead
to better performance. Instead, he is planning to give it an uplift by whetting its focus
on new fields of activities such as training and software development which currently
offer tremendous potential. "Making the existing staff adequately capable with fresh
in-service training," is also part of the drive, revealed Gupta.
ET&T was established in 1974 with the twin objectives of
import/export trade and technology development in the field of electronics. Its initial
thrust was to build up bilateral rupee trade with the then USSR and other East European
countries and to serve as a nodal agency for inter-governmental electronic trade
agreements. Following the collapse of the erstwhile Soviet Union and the changed economic
scenario at home, ET&T redefined its mission to provide products and services in the
field of electronics, telecom and information technology support to the end-user sector
with contemporary technology, material and training inputs.
In its sixth report submitted to the government a few months
ago, the Disinvestment Commission recommended that ET&T should "discontinue all
its operations with immediate effect". Naturally this set the IAS lobby to scuttle
the same because it wants to retain its control in as many government-owned companies as
possible.
Iridium All Ready to
Bring Out Global
Satellite Phone Service
 Global Mobile Personal Communications by
Satellite (GMPCS), the next step in the future of telephony services, is set to debut in
India with Iridium India Telecom Ltd getting a letter of intent by the Department of
Telecommunications (DOT), for launching its satellite-based digital telecom systems. If
all goes well, Iridium will be able to offer its service in India commercially by November
1 this year, the date set for the service's international launch.
The letter of intent has been issued three years after the
system was first proposed to the Government. A licence fee of some 15 percent of the total
revenues generated by Iridium India Telecom has been specified by DOT. Significantly, as a
new dimension in the world of global mobile communication service is round the corner,
"India will direct the course rather than be a mere spectator," said Jaydev H.
Raja, managing director, Iridium India Telecom Ltd.
By investing $70 million in the project, the consortium of
Financial Institutional Investors (FIIs) in Iridium India Telecom has acquired the rights
to an Iridium gateway for South Asia. The franchise for Iridium India Telecom gateway
covers Bhutan, India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The Foreign Investment
Promotion Board (FIPB) has also cleared two proposals submitted by Indian telecom firms to
offer GMPCS. These are Reliance Communications and ACeS India Pvt. Ltd.
Planning Commission
Determined To Arm
Indian Software Sector
 The country's fixation with software
industry, luckily, has not abated yet. A new proposal to enable the growth of 10,000
entrepreneurs within a 10-year time span in the software industry alone is doing the
rounds in the Planning Commission. As part of this proposal, a unique Rs 1,000 rotating
venture capital fund is being contemplated. According to P K Sandell, vice chairman of the
Electronic and Computer Software Promotion Council, entrepreneurs will be provided with
seed capital at zero interest for an initial period of 2-3 years without any liabilities
attached.
As per the estimates prepared, the country requires Rs 25,000
crore to achieve Rs 50,000 crore worth of software export by 2003-4. Despite funds being
funnelled from usual sources such as promoters' initial capital, equity offerings, public
deposits, foreign investments, term loans as well working capital requirements, the total
volume will not be adequate to meet this stiff target. Jaswant Singh, deputy chairman,
Planning Commission, is also considering seriously a suggestion for the creation of a
Software Industries Development Corporation, say sources. |
