 |
| Tuesday, August 8, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
|
IT industry posts 38 per cent growth College students are among the most wired of all groups. On many US campuses, 100 per cent of students (and faculty staff) have net access — if not via their own PCs, then through campus computer labs and libraries. Online penetration in universities far exceeds that of the general US population. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CHENNAI, Aug 7 — The biotech market in India is expected to touch $ 2.5 billion by 2001 as against $ 500 million in 1997-98 thanks to growing multinational collaborations and indigenous R and D efforts in the field. Pak to USA: forget
jets, send soya oil
|
|
IT industry posts 38 per cent growth NEW DELHI, Aug 7 (PTI) — Despite predictions of a post Y2K slowdown in India’s software and services business, the IT industry witnessed a 38 per cent growth to touch Rs 33,052 crore in 1999-2000 with IT giant HCL Group accounting for a significant Rs 2,922 crore during the period, a survey has said. While the domestic market clocked a Rs 17,002 crore, showing a healthy 29 per cent growth, the export segment grew an exponential 49 per cent to clock Rs 16,050 crore, the survey on IT industry performance by Dataquest said. Although by virtue of contribution towards the total IT revenue HCL followed by Tata emerged as the top groups, it was Bangalore-based Wipro which led the IT industry in individual company rankings with revenues touching Rs 2,036 crore. “Although HCL’s three companies at Rs 2,922 crore were ahead of Tatas by Rs 110 crore, in individual ranking it was a tight battle for the number one slot between Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with Wipro ahead by just Rs 2 crore,” it said. IBM, Tech Pacific and Hewlett Packard (HP) emerged third, fourth and fifth biggest firms in the individual company rankings. Other highlights of the survey included crossing of the million mark by desktop Personal Computers (PCs), growing at about 45 per cent in unit sales, it said adding “HCL continued to dominate the branded PC market, followed by Compaq and HP”. During the period, the domestic hardware market grew by 58 per cent to touch Rs 9,538 crore. Also with the Tandons back in action, the industry saw hardware exports shooting up by 576 per cent to touch Rs 446 crore from the earlier Rs 66 crore, it added. |
|
Campus websites turn commercial College students are among the most wired of all groups. On many US campuses, 100 per cent of students (and faculty staff) have net access — if not via their own PCs, then through campus computer labs and libraries. Online penetration in universities far exceeds that of the general US population. Yet websites serving campuses have, until recently, been pretty dull. Sites run by colleges themselves — featuring class descriptions, student directories, etc — have been largely utilitarian, lacking the pizzazz of commercial sites. The websites of campus newspapers, meanwhile, have offered little more than “shovelware” — articles and content copied from the print edition. It’s a rare college newspaper that has the resources to be at the leading edge of online publishing. This is all changing. American colleges are getting flashy websites featuring the latest in Internet technology, as the dot.com industry figures out ways to “monetise” students by creating local websites to serve them. Three types of site are emerging to serve individual college and university campuses: First the campus newspaper’s portal. While many Internet-savvy journalism students would no doubt love to build state-of-the-art online newspapers, a simple lack of resources has prevented this on most campuses. But Campus-Engine.com, a California-based company, is riding to the rescue with a plan to turn campus newspaper websites into local “portal” sites, leveraging the content of local papers and adding slick new features and services. Second the school-sponsored commercial portal. The competition for the campus-newspaper portals will come from school-run portal sites operated by commercial entities on the schools’ behalf. Typical of this model is a new company called zUniversity.com, based in Connecticut. zUniversity creates commercial campus portal sites that are affiliated with the schools. Where typical .edu websites are basically intranets serving staff and students, the zUniversity sites can provide a variety of services — entertainment listings or online ticketing for off-campus events. Third taking .edu sites to the next level. The final category involves taking the existing .edu website, supercharging it with the latest technology, and paying for it with advertising. This approach is represented by companies like Campus Pipeline. The Campus Pipeline platform integrates with a school’s databases, providing web features such as online registration for classes, web-based e-mail, and online academic results.
— By arrangements with the Guardian |
|
PMO calls IT meet on Aug 10 NEW DELHI, Aug 7 (PTI) — For implementation of various plans related to IT and telecom announced by the Prime Minister including opening up of national long distance market, the PM’s Office has convened a high-level inter ministerial meeting here on August 10. The PMO has asked the secretaries of the IT, Communication and I&B Ministries to attend the meeting which will deliberate upon the implementation procedure of various incentives announced by the PM during the state IT
ministers’ conference held on July 15, official sources said here. The meeting, which is expected to be attended by
officials from Ministry of Finance, will also discuss the corporatisation of the Department of Telecom Services (DTS) scheduled for October this year. The other issues that would figure at the meeting include direct accessibility of submarine bandwidth by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). |
|
German men defend their skills in bed BERLIN: German men defended their prowess between the sheets on Monday, hitting back indignantly at survey evidence showing nearly half the nation’s women were left unsatisfied by their partners. Male readers of best-selling newspaper Bild, which on Friday exposed what it called “The bitter truth about Germans in bed”, said women who complained about their lovers’ skills — or lack of them — only had themselves to blame. “My wife doesn’t turn me on properly,” said a man from the northern town of Bremerhaven identified only as Peter M. “Men are visual creatures — and before you slap a quarter-pound of make-up over your faces, it would be better if you took a trip to the solarium, shaved your legs and thought a bit more about what men need,” he wrote in a letter. Fred W. from the western city of Mainz said women were too focused on capturing their man — but then made too little effort to keep love and sex alive in their relationships. “Men have no choice but to satisfy their secret desires and fantasies in some other way,” he told Bild. “If their own wives weren’t to boring, there would be less infidelity and fewer marriages and relationships would break up.” Women complain it is more a case of their partners neglecting them, or being too rough when they do have sex. A survey of 345 women between the ages of 18 and 59 by the INRA research institute said younger women were most dissatisfied. — Reuters Pakistan creates artificial rain ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Meteorological Department has succeeded in creating artificial rains in drought-hit Thar desert, Cholistan, Khuzdar and other areas. Making this announcement, the department’s Director-General Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry told the Press here that of the 24 cloud-seeding experiments conducted during the last six weeks, 15 had been successful. Chaudhry said suitable clouds for the experiment were identified first, before chemicals were sprayed on them with the help of aircraft from the Army Aviation and Plant Protection Department. The chemicals used for cloud seeding were absolutely environment friendly, and included silver iodide, calcium chloride, salt, dry ice, dust, and liquid carbon dioxide. “In our experiments we used salt to create desired atmospheric conditions for the rainfall. We used 40 kg of salt for a 50-square-kilometre radius in our experiments. So literally, we only paid for fuelling the aircraft, costing about Rs 8,000 for one-hour flight,” Chaudhry said.
— IANS Qualis leads MPV segment BANGALORE: Toyota’s premium MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) Qualis, which hit the roads in June is leading the MPV segment, with retail sales figures touching 2,299 in July, 2000. Toyota, barely seven months old, has sold more than 10,000 vehicles and established a niche market both in the MPV and luxury car segment. Being the only MPV projected as a family vehicle, Toyota Qualis has done remarkably well, a company release here has said. Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s Qualis has got on to a good start and in view of the overwhelming
response from the customers has increased production from 20,000 units to 25,000.
— PTI Helpline for kids’ books Calcutta: wondering which titles to pick up for your children? Call up Ladybird Helpline 08450366600 or click on to www.ladybird.co.uk. For the first time in children’s publishing, the innovative Ladybird Helpline will advise parents on how to select the best books for their children. Set up as part of the 60th anniversary of the “Ladybird” series, the helpline will give suggestions to parents on all aspects of reading. —
PTI |
|
Biotech market in India to touch $2.5b CHENNAI, Aug 7 (PTI) — The biotech market in India is expected to touch $ 2.5 billion by 2001 as against $ 500 million in 1997-98 thanks to growing multinational collaborations and
indigenous R and D efforts in the field. According to papers presented at a recent workshop on gene revolution here, the product market for health biotech alone was expected to reach $ 1.5 billion by 2001. Of this, human biotech accounts for 60 per cent of sales, agro biotech and veterinary biotech together accounts for 15 per cent and medical devices, while contract R and D and reagents and supplies accounts for the remainder. It was pointed out that although India has a large market for bio-tech-based products, most of these were at present imported. However, some diagnostics, plant tissue culture products and a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine have been developed and marketed locally. According to official statistics presented at the workshop, the Indian biotech industry employs about 10,000 people which is expected to grow to 20,000 by 2001. Of this projection, 50 per cent will be in the research sector, 35 per cent in the technical and service sector and 15 per cent in the management sector. Immunology kits for pregnancy detection blood grouping, ameobiasis, typhoid, hepatitis B and malaria had already been developed locally the experts said. Meanwhile, the vaccine market currently totals about $ 100 million and was growing at the rate of 20 per cent annually, it was pointed out. Besides major companies like Smithkline Beecham, Hoechst-Roussel and the Serum institute which are already active in vaccine business in the country, the latest entrants include Shanta Biotech which has for the first time in the country produced and marketed a genetically engineered recombinant vaccine HBsAg. Meanwhile, the centre has of late granted marketing licences for about 25 recombinant protein therapeutics. The workshop was told that several companies including Wockhardt, Piramal and Dabur were exploring the manufacture of biogenerics and in addition Dabur India was working on a natural substance-based immunomodulator. The veterinary biotech or the animal health biotech market is expected to touch $ 200 million by 2001 with the increasing demand for veterinary vaccines diagnostics therapetics and protein feed. Many multiantionals have already set up their Indian subsidiaries and a company like Eli Lilly-Ranbaxy will be marketing Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone to increase milk production in cows and buffaloes. Agricultural biotechnology is stated to be an important R and D business in the country which is the world’s largest producer of milk and the second largest for fruits and vegetables. Analysts predict that by 2010 India can become the world’s largest exporter of agriculture. The genetically engineered seed market in India has an estimated value of $ 250 million while the total seed market has been estimated at $ 500 million with an expected sales of $ 1.5 million by 2001. There are about 50 Indian private seed companies with a total annual sales of $ 500,000 million US dollars. Monsanto is planning to launch the country’s first genetically engineered crops like corn soyabean and cotton, it was stated at the workshop. The highly promising biotech scenerio is also supported by various governmental measures such as the move of the Centre to provide exclusive marketing rights to multinationals in pharmaceutical and agri-biotechnology. |
Pak to USA: forget jets, send soya oil ISLAMABAD, Aug 7 (PTI) — Pakistan has asked the USA to supply soya seed and soya oil in lieu of the money it paid for undelivered F-16 jets, media reported today.
“We have formally informed Washington we would accept soya seed and soya oil equal to the outstanding amount for the undelivered F-16 aircraft,” said a senior government official.
The outstanding payment amounts to nearly $ 80 million. Pakistan had paid $ 658 million to the USA for 28 F-16 fighter jets. The jets never reached Pakistan. And neither did the refund. Under the settlement reached between the two nations, Islamabad received over $ 350 million while the rest of the amount was to be repaid by the USA in the form of food commodities. Both countries had agreed in 1998 that 30 per cent of the total outstanding amount, about $ 140 million will be paid in the form of commodities. It is not yet clear whether the USA would agree to supply soya seed and soya oil. “They are still considering the request and a final decision is expected any time,” said the official. |
co
by Ashok Kumar Start purchasing scrips selectively THE weakening of the Indian rupee seems to have unnerved FII’s which, in spite of already being in cash following their high voltage sales in the past few months, have chosen to remain along the sidelines and adopt a wait and watch approach. However, sooner rather than later, they will take the plunge and perhaps the trigger for the same could be the firming up of the Indian rupee coupled with aggressive buying by dosmestic institutional investors. Again, we reiterate, once the uncertainty factor is discounted, domestic mutual funds and institutional investors will find value for money, especially in the ICE sector that continues to be where all the action, and more importantly, the growth potential lies. Traders can thus strike while the iron is hot and those with a bullish temperament can consider long positions at the counters of Satyam Computer at Rs 2378 (square up at Rs 2598) and Hindustan Lever at Rs 237 (square up at Rs 254). Bear operators could consider taking up short positions at the counters of Bajaj Auto at Rs 367 (cover up at Rs 351) and Colgate at Rs 189 (cover up at Rs 172 ). The portfolio pick of this week is Nestle whose efforts are beginning to yield results again. Finally, the optimal strategy for this week is – start buying selectively. |
cr
SingTel to pick up stake in 2 Bharti firms NEW DELHI, Aug 7 — Singapore Telecom (SingTel) today announced an investment of $ 400 million in India to pick up minority stakes in two Bharti group companies as a part of plans to set up under sea mobile communication, domestic long distance and other mobile projects. SingTel will acquire 20 per cent equity in Bharti Televentures Limited and 15 per cent in Bharti Telecom. ‘‘The $ 400 million, the highest ever invested by a Singapore company in India, will be available in the current fiscal and more will follow soon,’’ SingTel President and CEO Lee Hsien Yang told reporters here today. The company was looking at other partners to invest in the country where it expects ‘‘tremendous scope’’ in telecom expansion. ‘‘In a couple of years, India’s ISPs will shoot up from 2 million to 18 million,’’ Mr Yang said. There is more than enough room for growth since tele-penetration is low in India. Bharti Enterprises Chairman and group Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal said: ‘‘We will also focus on broadband networks through acquisitions or installation of larger pipes both domestic and offshore through submarine cabling.’’ MUMBAI, Aug 7 (PTI) — Castrol India will supply its complete range of oils to Chennai based Rane Engine Valves Ltd and also undertake lubrication management for the company. As per an agreement signed by the two,
CIL will be responsible for lubricant management of all four REVL unit. Jain Internet, H-P tie-up for e-services NEW DELHI, Aug 7 (PTI) — Hewlett Packard today entered with Jain TV’s Net subsidiary, Jain Internet, for jointly rolling out e-services such as corporate messaging and for providing project finance for the latter’s IT infrastructure. “Under the agreement, H-P and other third party vendors will provide Rs 50 crore of finance which has the option of being converted into crore of finance which has the option of being converted into equity after three years,” Ankur Jain, Managing Director of Jain Internet which operates under the brand, Free Dial In, said.
|
bb
BANGALORE, Aug 7 (PTI) — Wipro Technologies has launched Wipro CyberMine, an open, scalable solution for addressing web mining and datawarehousing requirements of e-business. This “productised” service, developed by Wipro, will reduce costs, provide customised services and slash delivery times for customers, according to a Wipro release here.
Indya.com NEW DELHI, Aug 7 (PTI) — Former India Today group Online Chief Operating Officer Arun Katiyar was today appointed as the Executive Vice-President (Content and Services) of “indya.com.
Nuchem CHANDIGARH, Aug 7 — The United States Trade & Development Agency has given a grant of $ 2,50,000 to Nuchem to conduct a study on setting up further capacity for manufacture of Nuwud medium density fibreboard. The grant MoU was signed today by Mr Richard Celeste, US Ambassador to India and Mr R.C. Barar, Managing Director, Nuchem.
Oceanic offices CHANDIGARH, Aug 7 — City-based Oceanic Consultants, an Australian immigration company, will open its Delhi office on August 9. According to Naresh Gulati, MD, the company will open another office in Amritsar in the near future.
Fabmart NEW DELHI, Aug 7 — For those who do not possess a credit or debit cards, fabmoney has been introduced by Fabmart, the country’s virtual supermarket on the Net. Fabmoney in different denominations would have a secure 17 digit number which the consumer will have to key in as part of the payment process, thus ensuring security to payment.
Gili diamonds NEW DELHI, Aug 7 — Gili have launched “agni” an enigmatic collection in diamond clusters set in yellow and white gold with designs in pendants, ear rings and rings.
|
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 120 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
