Monday, October 15, 2001		Newsscape

India’s software export targets would come under a major review for the third time this year if US-led air strikes on Afghanistan are to continue, PTI reports. "Software companies would feel the heat in the third quarter (October- December) due to the impact of the war. There may not be any dramatic change between the possibility of the war last month and the actual event of the war, but there is no uncertainty now of the impact," Ravi Sanghal of the IDC told the news agency. Soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA, IDC had revised its software exports target to 25-30 per cent for the year 2001-02

The Bengal government is planning to offer the same incentives to the telecom sector that it gives to the IT industry, The Telegraph reports. The telecom lobby is demanding that the 5 per cent consumption tax slapped on telecom equipment should be withdrawn. They claim that the benefit would be passed on to the consumers. However, state IT minister Manab Mukherjee said discussions were still in the early stages and details were yet to be finalised.

Wireless Internet

High-speed wireless Internet in Singapore is set to expand, as the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) last week freed up sections of the 2.4 GHz radio frequency spectrum previously allocated to the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system, The Straits Times said. The 2.4 GHz spectrum is the radio spectrum used by wireless communications technologies, like the 802.11 b wireless technology that powers wireless Internet in homes, offices and cyber cafés here. Previously, wireless communications equipment in Singapore could use only the upper end of the 2.4 GHz spectrum, as the 2.400 to 2.4385 GHz range was reserved for the ERP. With the liberalisation, wireless Internet providers will now have more radio spectrum to deploy their services, allowing providers to set up more robust, and better quality, wireless systems.

Microsoft’s decision to withdraw the special upgrade pricing that enabled smaller users to migrate to a current version at a special price will hit individuals and small businesses using Microsoft’s software, Hindustan Times said. Earlier, each time the company released a new version of a product, it used to offer an upgrade version which enabled consumers to migrate to better software at cheaper rates. But as per the October price list available with the resellers, if end-users using an earlier version wish to shift to a newer version, they will have to buy a fresh licence. This means users using Windows, Windows ’95 and ’97 will not have the option to operate to Windows 2000 or XP at a special upgrade price. Microsoft, however maintains that the new 6.0 licencing program has made life simpler for customers.

Rana Informatics Limited (RIL), a Chandigarh-based 100 per cent EOU, has established a state-of-the-art internationals inbound and outbound call centre at Chandigarh. According to Dr B.S. Gill, coordinator, projects, this is the first voice-based call centre in this region that would use the latest technology from Cisco, AT & T, Parsec, Intel and VSNL. The centre will also provide help desk and telemarketing to US-based clients and the company plans to have 200 seats operational by March 2002.