Mobile Manufacturing Giant - Elcoteq comes to India

Business World reports about the entry of the 2-billion Finland-based Elcoteq, the world's third-largest supplier of handsets to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Director (business development & marketing) Henry Gilchrist has been to India 24 times in the last three years. In the last 10 months he has spent 50 per cent of the time here. As Gilchrist puts it, "I have spent more time with India than with my family."

Last year 16 million handset were sold and expected to double this year but none of the mobile handsets were manufactured in India. Motorola & Flextronics had shown some interest in the past but were put off by the indian red tapes. In india telecom operators like Reliance Infocomm and Tatas are very bullish with telecom roll out & implementations and the network is growing very fast. India is already home largest base to the FWP (Fixed Wireless Phones) installations. LG is giving tough competition to Nokia in number of handset sold & growth rate by dominating in the CDMA handset market with its association with Reliance Infocomm.

China right now is the world leader in manufacturing handset, if not beat can atleast india join the race?

Caller ID Falsification Service by Star38.com

Register.co.uk reports about this yet to be launched Interesting(?) service by Star38.com which will allows licensed private investigators and bill collection agents to spoof a number and call you. You wont be able to realize who is calling you and may pick up the phone innocently and become the prey to this tactics. The article also provides the two expert's view on the legal possibility of this service.

SecurityFocus took the site for a test drive, and found it worked as advertised. The user fills out a simple Web form with his phone number, the number he wants to call, and the number he wants to appear to be calling from. Within two seconds, the system rings back, and patches the user through to the destination. The recipient sees only the spoofed number displayed on Caller ID. Any number works, from nonsense phone numbers like "123 4567" to the number for the White House switchboard.

Jepson says the backend system doesn't rely on the most common methods of Caller ID spoofing - PRI lines and VoIP - but otherwise declined to comment on how it operates, for fear that competitors will launch copycat sites.

Privacy & Billing Woes

Mahesh Jethani mentions his own experience of Unethical practices by Hutch India collection agents who called up his friend to ask Mahesh to pay up the bills. Soon to follow :

- Your Doctor will call your friend to tell that you should take your AIDS medicine daily
- Your wife will call your fiend to tell that yesterdays 'act' was not so good
- Your Lawyer will call your friend to pay up your due fees, otherwise he would take him deposit instead.

And never mind those tele-marketing calls recieved by tele-marketing girl who doen't even know to spell telephoon. Sir Mai Kya Bol Raheli Hai, Aap ek aur Credit Card Le Lenge to Aap ke Baap Ka Kya Jayega ?

Blogs in the developing world

[ Via Emergic] Exceprts from an interview with Ethan Zuckerman founder of Geekcorps.org

In free market journalism you're allowed to print whatever stories your audience wants to read. And because you know your audience is more interested in Michael Jackson than Jesse Jackson, you're going to run fewer stories on policy and more on the abuse of boys on Neverland Ranch. Unless you get some extremely strong current of countervailing opinion, your coverage tends to fall towards the lowest common denominator. That's why the international news hole in domestic television coverage has shrunk to almost nothing in recent years. The assumption is that no one's interested.

That's why a blogging community that pays attention to the rest of the world is so important. If bloggers talk about what's happening in Africa, say, that not only means that more people have access to information about what's going on there, it also means that there's a countervailing force which shows the editors at the New York Times that people are interested enough in these issues to read about them.

One of the kinds of bridges I'd like to build is between talk radio and blogging. For much of the world, talk radio shows are their blogs: you have something to say, you find a platform to say it on, lots of people can hear you say it and they respond to it. Encouraging people to blog in Ghana is all well and good, but at the moment, most of the interesting debate there is happening on talk radio.

What's interesting about digital technology is not just that it lets you create tools and hand them out to large audiences, but that once you figure out how to use those tools you're able to build new tools for your own local, specific purposes, but in ways that contribute to the rest of the world as well. It's not just about getting computers into hospitals and schools. What it's really about is ensuring that we have software developers all over the world who can help those doctors and teachers design the tools they need.

It's not about cheap labor, you cheap

Why US should not worry much and why India should not be very proud of, it's just trade stupid…. There is nothing cheap in the world and especially in the trade where intellectual property is involved.

Cost of A Coffee example:
I came through this wonderful example through Niranjan Rajadhyaksha's article in Business World (India) article – Thoughts over a Cup of Coffee. He bases his article on the finding of two Dutch economists, A K. Chapagain & A. Y Hoekstra that 140 liters of water is needed to make a cup of coffee . That is, whatever agriculture you produce and boast you exports, you must basically realize that what you are exporting water, the most precious thing in the world and may be the reason for 4th , 5th or 6th world war (depends on how Mr. Bushes of this world do in between)

What's the point? :
So when a job gets exported from X Country to Y Country it does not mean that Coffee of X is given to Y and Coffee of Y is given to X. In coffee's case you would just drink it or throw it, but what about the Water? Now we should not get into the debate that whose coffee cup was bigger and who has 100 liters of water and who has 140 liters of water? One should ask how the water is being utilized. The smarter one multiplies and dumb one divides the water, it can be a win-win situation, win-loss situation, super win-win situation and win-super win situation, anything is possible.

So some blames are for real and some are not, but in any case the water is not cheap. One of the sides on the coffee cup exchange table is cheap.

What is Water? Water is knowledge
A Java programmer's job gets transferred from USA to India. So what gets transferred the programming job or the technology?
Similarly an Indian engineer does the coding in Java and many others also join the race and start doing Java jobs (due to population and outsourcing avalanche). So are they contributing to Java as a job or Java as a technology?

Take this example: UTstarcomm is a company which is listed in BusinessWeek's Infotech 100 and growing at the rate of 60% annually in the telecom business where American telecom giants like Nortel are loosing. UTstarcomm, an American company is growing because of the heavy telecom usage and deployments in Asian countries. In this case water is still with both the countries but in different & new hands and new cultivation. UTstarcomm has a customer in India, development
center in India & profits in America.

So is the market moving or is the market expanding? And if the market is really expanding won't it create a small change in the density, per capita so and so job? A gives something to B, B gives something back to A, A now gives something more to B and now B gives something more back to A. Somewhat similar to a feedback amplifier in electronics.

So even if a job basic call center job gets transferred to some Li or Rajesh who rapes your mind with his mediocre English & support. Even in such cases you have exported English as a language to that country and would reap the benefits of feedback amplification. Same as importing oil and getting fuel; exporting English and getting Scientists in NASA. Thus Wikipedia becomes the largest online English Encyclopedia with the open contributions from Tom, Dick & Harish / Hussain / Hu. So is the open source or open trade.

On the other hand, people in India call these new workers inside the ITES's Outsourcing, BPO & Call Center as Content Coolies, Code Coolies and Cyber coolies. I think this coolism is better than scratching your bums as a civil servant (government employee) or molesting the accounts as white collar tight-ass consultants in some big X Consultancy Company. By the way what does a top-notch MBA do? They do a great favor to creativity by selling soaps, colas and detergents for top multinational brands.

And I am not counting any political opinion on this. Because in developing countries where the governments have not guaranteed safe drinking water (due to corruption and inefficiency), how can it dictate whether to drink Coke or not? If Accenture is good for me or not?

Some other experts cry about the ill-effects of health, the identity crisis and the night shift. This is called changing times, once upon a time our forefathers hunted for their food, do we now? We have to adjust, modify our biological clocks even have to give up something in lieu of this change. Haven't we given up our tail to evolve as the humans of today? How useful would have been our tails, both as an instrument to do some work or to satisfy some kinky fetish fantasy.

In short it is everything about the water management, preserving underground water and forests and discovering alternative methods like rain-water harvesting.

So if you are feeling thirsty in India or America, please find out who has played Enron with your water first. Your water is not costlier or cheaper than somebody else's water.

What Global Sourcing Means for U.S. IT Workers and for the U.S. Economy / Catherine Mann

Slashdot discusses about the view put by Catherine Mann, from the Institute for International Economics, who has a put up her viewt What Global Sourcing Means for U.S. IT Workers and for the U.S. Economy at acmqueue.com. Here is the warm up :

Every reader of Communications likely knows someone who has lost his or her U.S.-based IT job since the technology bubble popped four years ago. Most of these job losses came when Y2K projects were completed and investment in IT hardware, software, and services plunged. But others have come as some firms have outsourced the production of IT hardware, software, and services to other U.S. firms and to firms in other countries. What are the gains to the U.S. economy and to its IT workers from global sourcing? What are its costs? And what, if anything, should be the policy response?

It may come as a surprise, but global sourcing in the 1990s, by reducing the price of IT hardware, yielded increased investment in IT and more jobs for U.S. workers with IT skills. Going forward, the global sourcing of software and IT services will further reduce the price of these products, yielding a further increase in jobs demanding IT knowledge and skills. The problem of global sourcing, then and now, is that new IT jobs may not require the same skills or be in the same sectors of the economy.

Geekcorps.org

A Slashdot discussion about Geekcorps.org
GeekCorps : A US-based, non-profit organization, that places international technical volunteers in developing nations. Also contributes to local IT projects while transferring the technical skills needed to keep projects moving after their volunteers have returned home.

cynical writes "WorldChanging has a new interview up with Ethan Zuckerman, founder of Geekcorps, fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and editor of BlogAfrica, the best source of access to African bloggers around. Zuckerman talks about the growing role of blogging in the developing world, fighting corruption and censorship online, the emerging world of "social source software," and a lot more. It's a long, wide-ranging conversation; clearly, this guy is thinking big about the power of the web, especially outside the United States."

Built for America, Sold (Cheaply) to the World : NY Times

NYT reports about the latest phenomenon in the global telecommunications; Telecom Majors from India , China and other non-American countries are acquiring Telecom Networks at fraction of the cost of the original investment. According to Sam Paltridge, an economist at Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris -
Some $30 billion in international telecommunications infrastructure owned by United States companies was sold to foreign-owned entities from 2000 to 2004 for a total of about $4 billion.

Take our very own example Reliance Infocomm has acquired FLAG telecom and now it is competing with TATA-VSNL for the aquistion of Tyco International's global fiber-optics network, 37,000 miles long and connecting three continents. On the other hand , Bharti Enterprises and Singapore Telecommunications have teamed to build a cable called i2i.

Related Story :
* IHT | U.S. loses dominance in global telecoms [ Asian firms lead rush to buy assets of ailing American giants ]

Expectation from Mobile data services revenue

According to Gartner as reported by Business Standard Cellular data services Revenue in India will account 20.5% of the total cellular revenue by 2008 and i.e around 71,800 Crore INR from total revenue of 14,760 Crore INR. Gartner also expects compound annual growth rate of 28.3 per cent during the next five years in Cellular Service in India.

Kobita Desai, principal analyst, telecom, Gartner India, said: “Indian cellular operators are realising that voice-only services are not generating adequate revenues and are exploring ways to offer more value-added services to increase the ARPU. EDGE networks will pave the way for UMTS deployments, supporting both data and voice streaming with great efficiency by optimal use of spectrum. E-mail is the driving application for most mobile workers and as it becomes more pervasive, e-mail is also becoming more comprehensive.”

Expectation from Mobile data services revenue

According to Gartner as reported by Business Standard Cellular data services Revenue in India will account 20.5% of the total cellular revenue by 2008 and i.e around 71,800 Crore INR from total revenue of 14,760 Crore INR. Gartner also expects compound annual growth rate of 28.3 per cent during the next five years in Cellular Service in India.

Kobita Desai, principal analyst, telecom, Gartner India, said: “Indian cellular operators are realising that voice-only services are not generating adequate revenues and are exploring ways to offer more value-added services to increase the ARPU. EDGE networks will pave the way for UMTS deployments, supporting both data and voice streaming with great efficiency by optimal use of spectrum. E-mail is the driving application for most mobile workers and as it becomes more pervasive, e-mail is also becoming more comprehensive.”

Cyber Cafe Success Story : Sify

Cybercafe's in this of Mumbai suck with their pathetic cramped up spaces and mediocre connectivity, it has become something like PAN shop or STD/ISO booths. In Good Old Dotcom days Good or 'branded' cybercafes started in posh areas where today Pizza Hut and Barista's exists. Somehow people didn't realize that , in posh areas it was just matter of time & awareness and they would be the first ones to have Internet connectivity at home through Dial-Up or Cable. The actual need of the cybercafes is near School, Colleges, Hospitals, Railway Stations, Markets and densely populated commercial areas or resedential complexes.

Companies like Dishnet DSL started their Cybercafes with a big bang and closed with the equal force. They were following the ownership model and now others have realized from such examples that it would be better idea to have a partnership or franchisee model. Sify seems to be following both. I am only aware of Mumbai and the two visible in this space are Tata & Satyam, Satyam's Sify iWay being more visible.

According to the latest press release by Sify it has Sify has opened its 2,000th iWay Cyber Cafe in New Delhi coinciding the 60th birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi whose vision ushered in the era of Information Technology and IT services in India. Of the 2,000 iWays 34 are owned by Sify and 1966 are owned and managed by franchisees.

Allocation on 1900MHz spectrum will follow International Norms

The Cellular Operators like Bharti, Hutch, Idea and BPLhad approached the department of telecommunications (DoT) for allocation of frequency in the 1900 Mhz, required to implement 3G mobile services. Goverment responded that they would follow international norms in the allocation of the 1900 Mhz spectrum to the mobile service providers.

The International Telecommunication Union has specified a standard norm, called “IMT-2000 technology family” to deliver third-generation (3G ) services. It identified a “core band” of 1920-1980 Mhz paired with 2110-2170 Mhz for terrestrial 3G services. Most probably what we are talking here is about W-CDMA not be confused with the CDMA offered by Reliance Infocomm & Tata Indicom :

W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a wideband spread-spectrum 3G mobile telecommuncation air interface that utilizes code division multiple access (or CDMA the general multiplexing scheme, not to be confused with CDMA the standard), is a 3G mobile communications standard allied with the GSM standard. W-CDMA is the technology behind UMTS (aka 3GSM). Networks using W-CDMA are a form of cellular network.

More explaination about the technology can be obtained through WorldIQ.com & UMTSworld.com

Utstarcomm recieves $8.2m contract from BSNL

UTStarcom Inc has revealed in a press release that it has received an order worth $8.2 million to supply telecoms equipments to India's state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). UT's Technology will support Pan-India Rollout of BSNL's National Internet Backbone. Recently UTStarcom was named 5th fastest growing company on InfoTech100 and praised as a Telecom Star on Business Week. In the four years since its initial public offering (listed on Nasdaq : UTSI) , its sales have increased ten-fold, to $2 billion in 2003.

Vote For World Communication Awards 2004

You can vote for Most Influential Person in Communications here :
http://wca.totaltele.com/poll/poll.aspx
My personal favorites though u can vote for maximum 5 people :
* Mukesh Ambani Chairman and managing director - Reliance Industries
* Niklas Zennström CEO - Skype
* Steve Jobs CEO - Apple Corp
* Sunil Mittal Chairman & Managing Director - Bharti Televentures
* Jeff Pulver Thought Leader - VON
* Eric Schmidt CEO - Google
* John Chambers CEO - Cisco Systems

The Six Challenges Of Computing

Rajesh Jain writes about the six challenges of computing :

Affordability: The existing solution, created by and for people with very high incomes, is too costly for most people in developing countries. While hardware costs have dramatically and monotonically declined over time, software has become more expensive to own and manage. Consequently, the total cost of ownership of computing solutions is still very high. (Piracy is a commonly used workaround when it comes to software. But most have to take the non-consumption route when even the pirated software plus the hardware costs exceed their budgets.)

Desirability: The utility of computers derives primarily from the services that it provides users. Even if the total package of hardware and software was affordable, people will not buy unless the services they derived from the computer were relevant to their lives. Furthermore, while the utility of computers is a necessary condition for their widespread adoption, it is not sufficient. People have to be knowledgeable about the utility of computing.

Accessibility: Given the low per capita incomes of developing countries, only a relatively small fraction of the population can afford to own even low-cost computers. Yet a significant number of people who cannot afford to own computers can still derive benefits from having access to computing services and be able and willing to pay for these.

3 More ....Manageability, Security & Ubiquity, Read here on his blog

Rural & Cheap Computing : Akshaya & PCtvt

A small backward district Malappuram in Kerela state has turned into India's first e-literate district, deploying the world's largest rural wireless broad-band network. Payment of electricity bills, getting birth certificates can be done by e-mails, by bypassing beurocratic babus and red tapes. The star attraction is 'Akshaya Kendra' highlighted as A Kerala State initiative for creating powerful social and economic e-networks with a motto of : Connecting Zero to infinity : A PDF brochure is available here. The Akshaya Kendra Kiosks are being modelled and marketed like the STD/ISD/PCO booth, a successful strategy which led to great public telephony penetration in India in 90s.

The panchayat in Malappuram has spearheaded a computer literacy programme, offering 15-hour PC and Internet training to one member from each of 600,000 odd families in the district. "Our mission is to make entire Kerala e-literate by 2005. We will extend Akshya Kendras to remaining 13 districts," says Aruna Sundararjan, secretary, IT mission.

Similarly Professor Raj Reddy professor of AI (Artificial Intelligence) at Carnegie Mellon University has designed a wirelessly networked personal computer PCtvt in collaboration with Microsoft (?) and Trigem.

“Entertainment, communication and education must be made affordable and accessible to the 4 billion people living below the poverty line”

Join this discussion on Slashdot. I think it would be lot cheaper, thin and effecient if it would have been made around the open source model. These kind of products & technologies should have have a 'community aspect' to it so that engineer & researchers around the world can open it , plug it , patch it and improve it.

IIT Delhi : the first in protocol testing

Voice & Data reports that The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT Delhi) has decided to deploy protocol-testing capabilities using Canada-based Sangoma Technologies WAN EduKit protocol simulating and testing kit which can run on a single PC.

The Sangoma WAN EduKit? is a self-contained Wide Area Network and is used to bring to life the inner workings of selected WAN protocols such as ATM, Frame Relay, and X.25. This product is a natural accompaniment to enhance the theoretical concepts commonly taught in data communication courses and will allow the student to gain practical insight into the details of the protocol at hand.

Sample laboratories accompany the WAN EduKit so as to facilitate rapid integration of this tool into the traditional curricula. The WAN EduKit consists of a single PCI adapter (dual-CPU), a loop-back cable and software. Each CPU emulates one side of the network, resulting in a completely self-contained WAN without having to access commercial data lines.

The EduKit software presents as an easy-to-use graphical interface that is compatible with both the Windows and Linux operating systems. This software allows the student to exercise the protocol while at the same time monitoring data transfer using an extensive array of debugging tools and line traces.

The WAN EduKit is available to certified educational institutions and includes all required hardware, software and sample laboratories for ATM, Frame Relay and X.25. - From Sangoma Web Site

Infothela : IT On Wheels

The current PC penetration in India is very low about 0.2 percent , I am not sure. Whatever GDP growth rate we might achieve still it would be inaccessible to many due to priority, affordibility & accessibility issue. In country where the constant Electric Supply is availble to the fortunate fews of the urban landscape how can the mass rural population of India access the PC & the internet. But smart dudes of IIT have got the answer ; the answer is Infothela :

What is Infothela : (From Smartmobs)

Infothela is a mobile internet kiosk on a tricycle meant for providing and exchanging information through fax, internet, and telephony to people in rural India.It's specifications are "a mobile platform located on a re-engineered tri-cycle rickshaw with a 1711 colour display and a CPU, powered by a 12V, 135 AH battery through an inverter. The battery and the inverter are mounted below the platform. The battery is charged overnight in a nearby town through an electric point and charging is also supplemented by an inbuilt pedal power generator.It is connected to internet through 802.11 p-t-p link by a small wireless antenna on the top of the Infothela roof."It is a project of the Media Lab Asia Kanpur-Lucknow lab.

Links :
* Media Labs Asia | IIT Kanpur
* Infothela: Information technology at your doorstep
* IITians devise ‘infothela’ for rural healthcare delivery
* IITians develop computer to help in agro business
* Digital Village

Bharti got edge

Bharti will be providing EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution)service in Kolkata using Siemens Edge Wireless Systems. This order is Siemens 3rd Edge order in Asia and 12th worldwide. More information is available in my previous post The 3G GSM & CDMA in India

Vinod Dham's Compensation Theory

Vinod Dham who is called father of the Intel Pentium Chip , in one of his interview in Discovery Channels Documentary provided the explaination on - Why (typically) Indians are so successful in Silicon Valley ? I have named his theory as the "Compensation Theory".

The Compensation Theory : India is a country with huge population here everybody is accustomed to 'compensate' the mistakes of others to make a living or to be successful. For example, on the road one has to compensate for others criss-crossing the lane for himself to be a safe driver. This compensating nature comes very handy in startups, in a startup lots of things can go wild and cannot happen in a 'systematic way' or in a 'certian fashion'. Indians have proved themselves to be effecient in tolerating the mistakes and compensating them by right actions at right times. People from other culture may not accomodate mistakes so easily and are not ready to compensate for others. This is why Indian's are so successfull in the valley.

(Not word to word )

Ek Choti Si Olympics

Rural Olympics, The Event
A country sports event held annually in some not so known village in Punjab.

Attractions:
* Strongest man competition
* Ox Cart Race
* 100 m race for 80 + young sardars

(And you thought 80+ should be in Rajbhavans and running your country and not running on their (very) own legs.)

Only Disappointment:
Mr. Fauja Singh 90 yr old sardar ji from UK didn't turn up to take part in the race. May be he was scared of 80yr young Mr. Daleep Singh.

Spice :
Bhangra true Punjabi ishtyle, some cool authentic Punjabi babes singing in their high pitched voice, fire crackers and lots of lots of grand old budhdha sardarjis who can give complex to any Arnold, Sylvester or even Hrithik , Sanju's & Salmans.

Broadcast :
Discovery Channel, prime time 9-10 pm. Produced by Bang Productions , HongKong

Acutal Event Sponsorers:
Whatever my eye could catch (the partial list from the field) : Coca-Cola, MAK pumps, Bharat Gas, Yuasa Batteries & so on.

Mukesh Ambani on entrepreneurship

Mukesh Ambani comments on business and entrepreneurship during the 42nd Convocation of the indian Institute of Technology (bomb).

In the new age, Mr ambiance said, "Business will be a two transaction. For instance in entertainment, you can not only watch spider, but can create or reinvent Spiderman of your own." Technology will permeate from root to leaf and then from leaf to root via broadband and other IT technology, he added.

"In the knowledge age, entrepreneurship just cannot remain with the chosen few. Creativity will have an edge over capital in the coming era and hundreds and thousands of you have the opportunity to become 'a Bill Gates or a Dhirubhai Ambani.' You will have to change India and you can change it," he told the IIT students.

The net telephony boost

The TRAI paper is supposed to give a boost to the Net Telephony market in India by providing unrestricted access to net telephony to telecom operators. If it is implemented by the Govt. of India Telecomm Operators will have edge over ISPs to provide IP telephony since the high entry fees proposed by the regulator for offering these services by ISPs.

Also, for the first time TRAI is seeking public opinion on unified licence .

Link :

* Draft Recommendations on Unified Licensing [PDF]
* India offers its telecom facilities for experiments

India Broadband Policy TO be Announced Next Week

Communication and IT Ministry has announced that they will be realeasing the Broadband Policy for India in the next week which will result increase in the Internet usage through tax sops and incentives. The numbers of initiatives has been suggested like :

* a five-year service tax holiday for the ISPs,

* a waiver of the entertainment tax on broadband subscription,

* removal of anti-dumping duty on recycled personal computers imported into India and

* 50 per cent reduction in income-tax for Web-hosting services for five years

By this policy is TRAI is expecting 20 million broadband and 40 million internet subscribers by 2010, which translate into penetration levels of 1.7 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively.

MAKING TECHNOLOGIES WORK FOR THE POOR

Dr. R. A. Mashelkar (Secretary DSIR & Director General, CSIR ) writes for Press Information Bureau : MAKING TECHNOLOGIES WORK FOR THE POOR. Here I take the exceprt related to the Computer Based Functional Literacy program

The great doyen of Indian IT industry, Shri F.C Kohli believes that this can be done through his recent breakthrough. He has developed a unique Computer-based Functional Literacy (CBFL) method. It is based on the theories of cognition, language and communication. In this method, the scripted graphic patterns, icons and images are recognized through a combination of auditory and visual experiences by using computers. The method emphasizes on learning words rather than alphabets.

Based on this method, Shri Kohli's team has developed innovative methodologies using IT and computers to build a reading capability among the adult illiterates. This experiment was first conducted in Medak village near Hyderabad. Without a trained teacher, the women started reading the newspaper in Telugu in 8 to 10 weeks. Thereafter, his team has carried out more experiments in 5 States and in 5 languages. So far, 40,000 people have been made literate in these pilot experiments.

The team ran these lessons on Intel 486s and the earlier versions of Pentium PCs modified to display multimedia. There are around 200 million of such PCs in the world that are obsolete and discarded. They can be made available free of cost. By using these PCs, the cost of making one person literate would be less than Rs.100.

How does one set up a telephone exchange in a village in the Rajasthan desert in India, where temperatures that go beyond 50 C and the sand storms create unmanageable dusty conditions. It was Centre for Development of Telecommunications (C-DOT) in India that designed the rural exchanges, which could withstand these aggressive conditions.

Growth In Indian E-Commerce

Business Line reports the growth in Indian E-commerce :

INDIA is expected to log the highest compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 83.7 per cent among Asia-Pacific countries in e-commerce revenues between 2003-08, even exceeding the growth rate displayed by neighbouring China in the five-year period, according to research firm IDC.

"On a country-by-country basis, India is expected to show the highest CAGR of 83.7 per cent in e-commerce revenue from 2003 to 2008, thus marginally exceeding the CAGR of 81 per cent expected in China," according to IDC's forecast on Asia Pacific internet market.

The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators for FY 2003-04

The latest TRAI report The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators for FY 2003-04 provides an update on the growth trends for the telecom services for the year 2003-04. Due to the Unified Access Service Regime, the details under mobile services cover both GSM & CDMA known as Cellular & WLL (M) services respectively. The Fixed service details also include WLL(F). Business Line reports some highlights of these report.

The Data Protection Risk In the BPO

The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in India is growing at 40-50 percent per annum despite protests against shipping of jobs in some countries and generating revenues to the tune of $3.6 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004. The new concern in the BPO sector is about the "Data Protection" and India is considered to be 'risky' but according to the new survey conducted by Hill & Associates ; Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad have emerged as key no-risk locations and there is no such great risk at other locations also.

Detailing the findings of the survey on information security, Sonal said, “Globally, 60-70 per cent of corporate frauds are estimated to have been committed within the organisation. These include factors like security breaches, loss of information and damage to reputation.”

Infact, we have a seperate programme for pre-employment screening to address this issue."

Stating that focus needs to be given on data protection, he said that data moves out of the company as and when an employee moves out of the organisation.

"Today, nearly 20 per cent of the security concerns are on falsification of resumes, especially when an employee moves to another organisation. If this cannot be addressed in a cohesive manner, it becomes market knowledge and people will stop applying for jobs in such companies."

Bharti & Reliance against direct intra-circle connectivity

Navindtimes reports :

The telecom operators - Bharti and Reliance have petitioned the central government to stop any proposed move to allow cellular operators direct connectivity between two circles, by-passing the STD operators saying this could result in a whopping Rs 1,800 crore loss annually to the two rendering their businesses ‘unviable.