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Saturday,
December 15, 2001, Chandigarh, India
  
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Stone of
first IIIT in region laid Punjab
takes a step to board IT bus? Tata, BSES
to sign pact on DPC soon Policy on
power on the cards Graphic: Assets
of Nationalised banks
VSNL
recommends 750 pc
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Dr
Reddy’s to sell asthma drug
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Stone of first IIIT in region laid SAS Nagar, December 14 Mr Rudy, who was in the town to lay the foundation stone of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), claimed that the resolve of the BJP-led coalition to induce market reforms had been acknowledged all over, adding that the disinvestment reforms were part of it. Quoting the contents of a World Bank survey in the USA, he said most of the IT vendors ranked India as their first choice for software-development services. The Indian IT professionals were the first choice of 82 per cent of the companies in the USA. He said the revenue earned by the Indian IT industry during 1999-2000 was around Rs 37,000 crore, which shows a growth of 50 per cent as compared to a revenue of Rs 24,781 crore in 1998-99. With 150 major hardware players and 800 ancillary units, the IT industry grew at rate of 53 per cent in 1999-2000. Seeing a role of Punjab in the projected growth of jobs for IT professionals, Mr Rudy said the concept of IIIT’s, wherein the private sector handles its own schools in specialised areas of IT, would be able to fill in the gap between the demand and the supply. The IIIT at SAS Nagar was the seventh such centre being set up in India, the others being at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gwalior, Chennai, Allahabad and Kolkata. He claimed that the IT industry had registered a growth rate of more than 42.2 per cent, which was almost double of growth rate of the industry in many developed countries. The minister said for a targeted software export of $60 billion by year 2008, India would have to register a fast growth rate. Deviating from his written speech, he said the Opposition was raising hue and cry about the disinvestment reforms of the BJP-led government. Of around Rs 74,000 crore invested in PSU’s the returns were very less, he observed. Citing the Balco case, he said even the Supreme Court had found the disinvestment move right. He said the potential of Punjab in the IT was proved from the fact that the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) was proposing to start its centre at Jalandhar after SAS Nagar. Mr R.I. Singh, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Punjab, said the software export from units in SAS Nagar had touched Rs 52 crore this year. As per the concept of the IIIT, the industry prescribes the syllabus. The IIIT at SAS Nagar was established by the State Electronics Corporation in collaboration Mahindra and Mahindra group. at a cost of around Rs 45 crore. It would have an built-up area of 25,000 sq metre. In the first phase, admissions would be done for the academic session starting July 2002. He said the state government had set up an IT vision group. The group had proposed the creation of a department of IT and setting up of a Punjab IT service to facilitate the IT usage in government departments. Allowing software units in residential premises and provision for automatic approval from Pollution-Control Board had also been decided, he said. Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, MP, and Prof Jagir Singh Bhullar, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Punjab, also spoke on the occasion.
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Punjab takes a step to board IT bus? So Punjab will finally have an IIIT at Mohali. It’s a major achievement and the Punjab Government and the three companies — M&M, Fortis Heathcare and Ranbaxy — deserve to be cheered. But how long will it take to complete? The Mahendras, who started their knowledge park at Mohali more than three years ago and are still at the preliminary stage, are also associated with the proposed Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) and one can only hope that this project is not delayed. Punjab has already missed the IT bus. It is much behind Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in realising the IT benefits. This sounds painful, given the fact that many Punjabis have excelled in IT globally. So many others have missed the opportunity because of lack of IT teaching infrastructure in Punjab. The IIIT at Mohali will, therefore, meet a long-felt need. It was almost three years ago I read a detailed study on Punjab’s proposed IT projects authored by Mr
N. S. Kalsi, an IAS officer. Most of them have remained on paper. The Punjab Government, enthused by the IT wave then sweeping the globe, set up a separate department for IT development, but it has remained dormant. The government set up a task force of experts. It has never met. A sum of Rs 100 crore was earmarked for IT development, but much of it perhaps remains unspent, if not diverted to more pressing areas. The concept of e-governance is at remained the talking stage only. The IT benefits to agriculture have remained unrealised. The government did make a commendable beginning to introduce IT as a subject in schools and colleges with the participation of major companies. The state’s technical university, better known as PTU, went to an extreme when it allowed franchise to many private parties of unsound financial credentials within and outside Punjab. They opened up IT shops without the required infrastructure and qualified faculty. As a result, students lost money and precious time. The UGC has now banned this practice. An IT institute now requires to meet the minimum UGC prescribed standards to claim recognition. The scope for producing IT experts to meet the global demand is tremendous. Punjabis have displayed talent for computers and can gladly work anywhere. Had the CM devoted as much time on building e-governance as he does on politicking, he would have earned the gratitude of many Punjabis. If every public-dealing government department sets up a site on the Internet to genuinely answer queries and give the required information, people would be saved from harassment and humiliation meted out in offices. Corruption would be minimised, if not eliminated. But officers and babus will not let that happen. Using the Internet to run the administration requires a bold and informed leader like Chandrababu Naidu. In agriculture computers can work wonders. Providing Internet access to villagers will help them learn the latest farming practices, get latest information on commodity prices in different markets, understand demand and supply of farm products, get medical and veterinary help online, know about the weather in advance and cheaply interact with their relatives abroad through e-mail. The Chennai-based M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation floated an information village project in Pondicherry in 1998 with a view to “reaching the unreached” and made these services available at the village level. The project, started with a $120,000 grant from Canada’s International Development Research Centre, has now earned the Foundation the Stockholm Challenge Award. Can’t the idea work in Punjab? More importantly, will someone try?
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Tata, BSES to sign pact on DPC soon
Mumbai, December 14 “Enron, GE and Bechtel have agreed for carrying the due diligence of their $ 3 billion plant and will sign the confidentiality agreement to be finalised by the lenders, early next week,” a senior financial institution official told PTI from Singapore today. Enron India Managing Director K. Wade Cline, however, said the multinational had assured both Indian and foreign lenders that he would apprise the other two shareholders, GE and Bechtel, which hold 10 per cent stake each in DPC, before coming to a final decision. Cline said Enron “will communicate its final decision to the FIIs once the other two shareholders concur for a due diligence, which will begin soon.” IDBI Chairman P.P. Vora said the two-day marathon negotiations had ended on a “positive note and a road map has been worked out” to go ahead with the proposed sale of DPC’s 2,184 mw plant in Guhagar, Maharashtra.
PTI
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Policy on power on the cards
Chandigarh, December 14 Clean, uninterrupted and economic power is the need of the industry to survive in the era of global competition. "Reforms and privatisation of certain areas of this important sector will go a long way in improving the situation", said he. The Centre is to prepare a National Electricity Policy and Tariff Policy. Mr R. L. Mahajan, Vardhman Spinning and General Mills, Mr Kirpal Singh from the PSEB, Mr Andleeb Jain and Mr K Sachdev were present.
TNS
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