Computers Today, July 16-31, 2000; Country Buzz pg1

July 16-31, 2000 COUNTRY BUZZ

COMPUTER BUSINESS
Bharti Starts WAP Service, Opens Telecom Institute

Bharti Enterprises, which offers the AirTel brand of mobile phone service in Delhi to over 200,000 subscribers, has unveiled plans to introduce a comprehensive suite of WAP (Wireless Applications Protocol) services. In addition, it has decided to set up Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management at IIT Delhi with an investment of Rs 20 crore. For the WAP services, Bharti has licensed Phone.com's WAP platform to bring innovative wireless Net-based services to India. Sanjay Kapoor, CEO of Bharti Cellular, told CT, "The WAP service from AirTel will be a completely integrated, end-to-end solution with firewalls incorporated to ensure security of applications and services. The WAP platform will act as a content aggregator in providing access to WAP-based information as well as for carrying mobile Net traffic. AirTel will also develop a hub for accessing a range of mobile Net services. These would contain a range of services on the lines of news-based services, E-commerce, security, billing, marketing, regular Net services and wireless data transmission. The revenue streams would be generated from services such as E-commerce hosting, advertising, service charges, access charges and airtime tariffs.

AirTel has already made an investment of about $1 million to create the infrastructure supporting WAP services. All AirTel subscribers using mobile phones equipped with a WAP-browser would be able to access Internet-based services and applications. The services are likely to be launched commercially in Delhi in about eight to 10 weeks.

Bharti Enterprises has chipped in Rs 20 crore to set up Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management in IIT Delhi. "The Bharti group is already in the forefront of telecom projects and services in India; what lacked so far were initiatives regarding manpower development," Sunil B. Mittal, chairman, Bharti Enterprises told CT. "Many expatriates are running successful software and telecom initiatives worldwide. The IIT-Bharti combine would now produce professionals who can run such ventures from the country," he added.

According to Mittal, of the Rs 20 crore corpus, Rs 10 crore would be used to set up a modern complex within the IIT campus to house the school, while the balance would be deployed for funding day-to-day activities undertaken by the institute. "The institute would have a laboratory, a library and a hands-on training facility on the lines of training institutes set up by international telecom giants like Cable & Wireless, AT&T and Motorola," Mittal informed.

To begin with, the school would conduct two post-graduate courses-an 18-month M.Tech in telecommunication technology and managem- ent (TTM) and a two-year full-time MBA in telecommunication infrastructure management (TIM). First batch with about 100 students will commence from July 2001.

Infotech Majors Post Huge Profits in Q1

A huge rise in total income and a corresponding increase in net profit for the quarter ended June has been reported by infotech majors like Infosys Technologies Ltd, Satyam Computer Services Ltd and Aptech Ltd. Infosys emerged on top of the list, reporting a rise of 109 per cent in net profit and 101.4 per cent in net revenues for the first quarter (April-June, 2000) of the current financial year. An upbeat N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman and CEO of Infosys, said the company would continue to post earning growth in line with the rest of India's software companies.

Infosys reported a net profit of Rs 126.79 crore on a total income of Rs 370.64 crore as against a net of Rs 60.01 crore on a total income of Rs 184.06 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Income from the export of software products and services registered a rise of 108 per cent at Rs 351.06 crore (Rs 168.62 crore), while domestic sales rose 171 per cent to Rs 4.47 crore (Rs 1.65 crore). As anticipated, E-commerce-related earnings also registered a higher growth, accounting for 28.7 per cent of the total revenues as against 18.8 per cent in the first quarter of last year.

Satyam Computer Services registered total revenues of Rs 240.72 crore for the first quarter as against Rs 136.81 crore for the same period previous year. Its net profit amounted to Rs 50.36 crore, up 95 per cent from Rs 25.84 crore. Aptech Ltd announced a 50.7 per cent increase in global revenues to Rs 241.28 crore in the first half of 2000 compared to the first half of 1999. This is result of the firm's growth in its software and consulting division.

Singapore Firm Acquires Stake in Satyam Infoway

Satyam Computer Services Ltd has received $49.3 million towards full payment of the sale of 1.6 per cent stake of Satyam Infoway (SIFY) to the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. Pte. Ltd (GSIC). Salomon Smith Barney, a memb- er of the CITI group, facilitated the deal involving sale of 347,200 shares of Satyam Infoway to GSIC. Says B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam, "We are very happy that a blue chip firm and long-term investor like GSIC will now be an important investor in Satyam Infoway. We greatly value their participation." Satyam had earlier received approval from the FIPB to sell the equity shares.

IBM to Strengthen SW Operations in India

IBM India Ltd has unveiled plans to strengthen its software operations in the country. On a recent visit to India, Tom W. Kendra, vice president, software, IBM Asia-Pacific, told CT, "Marketing will be stepped up for IBM's software offerings, which include DB2, Lotus, Tivoli, MQ Series and a range of Internet software like WebSphere and SecureWay. Also, the two select IBM centres in India-the IBM solutions research centre in Delhi and the solutions partnership centre (SPC) in Bangalore-will participate in path breaking research projects for IBM worldwide."

Kendra said that IBM's E-business software centre, which was recently set up in Gurgaon near Delhi, will act as a resource facility for the customers of its E-business and E-governance solutions. Only the second such IBM facility in the world after China, the centre will provide end-to-end sales services such as implementation planning, solution architecture, application design and development, deployment and training. It will also offer services like technical consultation, concept and technical presentations. He said IBM is committed to making more such investments in India in the near future. "Under the E-business initiative, the firm would partner with various independent software vendors (ISVs), content providers, application service providers (ASPs), Internet service providers (ISPs) and system integrators," Kendra said.

Ex-SGI Chief to Head Pentamedia's US Unit

Chennai-based entertainment graphics major, Pentamedia Graphics Ltd has appointed Ashok Desai, former director of SGI Asia-Pacific, to lead its US subsidiary. Desai will spear-head the unit as its chief executive officer and president. The subsidiary is aimed at becoming a global one-stop-services shop for the graphics, multimedia and broadcast industry, enabling multimedia authoring and content services for broadband and wireless markets and bringing excellence in Net interactive content creation, management and distribution services. Desai has put in 14 years of services with SGI, where he set up the firm from scratch in Singapore. He replicated the same success in India by bringing in a new management philosophy and business practices that helped the firm grow manifold.

Gartner Group to Set up Subsidiary in India

Partha Iyengar, country manager, Gartner India, had pushed hard for the incorporation of an Indian arm when he was at the company headquarters in the US. Three years after the inception of Gartner India, Iyengar's new goal is to make it a fully-owned subsidiary of the group. "It's only a matter of time, and we'll use our forthcoming seminar on E-reality as a launching pad for this," he said. Meanwhile, Gartner India is going to organise 'Strategy 2000' in Mumbai on August 2 and 3. The summit is aimed at slashing the existent hype about E-business, and portraying a realistic picture in front of a 500-strong gathering comprising of top level management staff, dealers, vendors, venture capitalists, consumers and others who form the locus of the new economy.

Sun Unveils New Facility in Bangalore

Sun Microsystems, a global leader in Net technology, has established its industrial and allied facility in Bangalore. It houses the entire Sun India office, which includes the India engineering centre (IEC), the enterprise services; Sun education services; a demo centre and a solutions centre. Speaking at the inauguration of the complex, Lionel Lim, vice president and managing director, South-Asia, Sun Microsystems Pvt. Ltd, said the company was emerging as the most sought-after solutions provider among a host of competitors.

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