Monday, June 4, 2001		Newsscape

IT fair

Connect-2001, an international conference and exhibition on information technology, communication technology and bio-informatics, will be organised in Chennai by the CII from September 13 to 16 in partnership with the Tamil Nadu Government. The exhibition will feature not just hardware and software, but also focus on the opportunities for serving user industries, reports The Hindu.

Casio centre

Japanese electronics giant Casio is setting up a centre in India to produce embedded software for the company’s digital products. The centre will initially have 50 engineers, reports The Economic Times. It will also do research on future products of the company. Meanwhile, Casio has taken 100 per cent stake in its Indian arm, by buying out the Japanese engineering major Mitsui, which had a 3 per cent stake in Casio India.

IBM tool

IBM has announced the launch of its latest database management tool, DB2 version 7.2, in India. The improved version of DB2 offers customers superior capabilities to handle their next-generation solutions in areas such as B2B, business intelligence, data warehousing and e-commerce. Since database management tools play a critical role in an e-business environment, the new tool offers capabilities that integrate e-business, business intelligence, and content management. It integrates easily into existing systems. In addition to being integrated with MQSeries and WebSphere, the latest version also offers access to information stored in Informix, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases.

Infosys bags deal

Infosys Technologies Ltd is expanding its presence in Germany with a new engagement for BHF Bank. The company will assist BHF Bank realise business-critical IT initiatives by building new-generation IT applications as well as meeting current business imperatives, says a Press note. Infosys’ list of clients in Germany includes BHF Bank, Adidas, Prois24.com and Franklin Templeton Investments.

Gaming ban

The Australian Government has vowed to push ahead with a proposed Internet gambling ban to keep tabs on the nation’s betting problem, shrugging off threats by gaming companies to move offshore, reports Reuters. Last year, the conservative government slapped a 12-month moratorium on granting new licences to Internet gaming services while the industry was reviewed. However, the move has been criticised by the industry as flawed as it won’t stop Australians from gambling at overseas Web sites.

WAP meet

A two-day international conference on wireless Internet, WAPCON2001, is being organised at Bangalore on June 14 and 15. There will be several sessions on various aspects of wireless Internet technologies and related developments. The conference is being organised by IWIN (India’s Wireless Internet Initiative) in association with the Karnataka Government’s Department of Information Technology.

Aimster targeted

The entertainment industry forged ahead in its quest to squash alleged piracy on the Web as major music companies and several divisions of AOL Time Warner Inc. filed copyright infringement suits against file-sharing service Aimster. Aimster is a Napster-like program that piggybacks on an instant-messaging service run by AOL, reports Reuters.