Govt plans Rs 2500 cr IT project

The Task Force has been holding discussions with various multinationals like Intel on the subject and several options have emerged following the talks the group has had in the past few days. Whatever the option the fact remains that India must have its own mega- fab plant keeping security concerns in view, he said after a meeting of the Task Force in Hyderabad today.

Replying to a question Seshagiri said there were four states in the race for setting up the mega-fab facility. Each one of these states which includeAP, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu had some chip related projects coming up and each of the governments have shown considerable interest in the project though Andhra was at the forefront of them, he said.

The Task Force has also decided to set up three working groups on areas of importance to the IT sector and development in the coming years, Seshagiri said. The first working group headed by union commerce secretary PP Prabhu is on IT and Citizen Interface, while the second headed by Professor P V Indiresen is on Manpower requirements in the IT sector while the third headed by co-chairman of the Task Force Prof M G K Menon is on IT product oriented research and development.

The Task Force group on hardware which submitted the first part of its report to the Prime minister recently met here to work out a long term plan for hardware development in the country. The meeting among other people was also attended by the Task Force co-chairman N Chandrababu Naidu, Rajender Pawar of NIIT, R Chandrasekhar,secretary IT governemnt of AP.

The meeting also took up the issue of developing an affordable computer, a desire which the prime minister had expressed recently. The Task Force has mooted a strategy for the Vidyarthi-Sikshak scheme wherein a low-cost multi-media PC at a cost of just Rs 20,000 would be developed.

The Task Force has had meetings with various computer vendors and it is indeed feasible to come out with such a computer, Seshagiri felt. A strategy was being worked out for this and various options like hire-purchase and leasing were being worked out in association with the ILFS.

At the express request of the AP chief minister and co-chairman N Chandrababu Naidu, the Task Force has also decided to work out a plan to make feasible a "set top box" for cable-Internet connectivity within the next six months.

The costing has been worked out and it is possible to make it available at just Rs 12,000 per set if manufactured in sufficient numbers, Seshagiri said. In fact the product will roll outwithin the next six months, he assured.

Satyam to become first internet service provider

HYDERABAD: Satyam Infoway Ltd will become the first private Internet service provider in the country on Sunday when the Prime Minister inaugurates its service at the Hi-tech City here.

To be launched in the state capital initially, Satyam’s service through Satyam Online Ltd will be offered in 12 other cities within a few days, covering all the major metros. The company plans to provide leased lines, ISDN and dial-up connectivity in 25 major cities by January, way ahead of MTNL which expects to roll out in December-January in just two metros.

The cities to be covered in the first phase will be Kochi, Pondicherry, Chennai, Bangalore, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Delhi and Calcutta. However, the Rs 40-crore company will not resort to drastic under-cutting vis-a-vis VSNL.

The tariffs fixed for now will be Rs 3,600 for 100 hours and Rs 9,900 for 500 hours apart from a one-timesubscription fee of Rs 300. It may be noted that Satyam Infoway was the first private sector company to be awarded a category A licence. The company has an added advantage that it has a fairly large network running for corporates in the country.

It has been doing the groundwork while waiting for the ISP policy to be announced for the last one and a half years and is therefore ready to move in speedily to become the first challenger to VSNL’s monopoly.

Satyam has an existing 64 kbps network in most of the cities.This bandwidth is now being upgraded to 2 mbps and is slated to increase in line with the traffic.