From: gnreddy@cbnewsf.att.com (G.Narotham Reddy)
Newsgroups: misc.news.southasia
Subject: India - Bhaba Atomic Center Unveils High Speed Computer
Date: 27 Dec 92 21:15:58 GMT
Organization: Network Operational Center - AT&T


Source   : Dataquest 
Dated    : December 1992
Country  : India

Headlines:

* BARC unveils high speed parallel computer
* Indo-French Network Pact
* NICnet open to private sector
* Bombay Library Network Goes On-line
* TCS sets up video conferencing facility near Bombay
* Arabic Operating System 
* What experts foresee for the Indian IT industry
* Asia's software Industry

                            * * * * * *

Today's News      [ Source: AIR Regional News, Dec 27, 1992 7:30 am EST ]

* British Prime Minister John Major and Home Secretary Kenneth Clark will
  visit New Delhi next month. Mr.Major will be the chief guest at the 
  Republic day celebrations [Jan 26] and is the first British Prime 
  Minister to be present at the Republic day celebrations, the radio said.

* The winter session of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly is to commence 
  tomorrow under the leadership of the new Chief Minister Mr.Veerappa Moiley.
  Eleven new bills are likely to be tabled during this session.

* Senior Karnataka Congress leader Mr.Basava Lingappa died of heart attack
  in Bangalore this morning. 

* A division of Indian Railways has completed a major overseas project in 
  Turkey connecting Istanbul with another major city.

  [ Source: DATAQUEST ]

* BARC unveils a high speed parallel processing computer

Bhaba Atomic Research Center(BARC) that has developed an indigenous
high-speed computer, that uses parallel processing. The supercomputer
is believed to have one-fifth capacity of a Cray Y-MP.
	According to BARC director, Dr.Chidambaram, the computer is based
on indigenously available hardware. Its performance and power are
likely to be upgraded shortly.

* Indo-French Network Pact

India and France have signed an agreement for settingup and operating
high speed digital communication networks. The major beneficiaries will
be software exporters who will have direct access to western countries
via the network. The agreement was signed between the public sector
Satcom and the French firm Alcatel. Alcatel will hold equal stakes in
the $6.6 million venture. It will set up network stations at Bombay,
Bangalore and Delhi by March 1993.
	France has also given India a loan of Francs 17 million for a 64
kbps datacom network, according to DoE secretary N.Vittal. An agreement
to this effect was signed between Satcom and CESIA - a French public
sector undertaking.

* NICnet open to private sector

NIC has finally decided to open NICnet to the private sector. It has
also setup up a national mission on multimedia.
	Negotiations are on with the banks for use of NICnet in the
financial sector. This was once prohibited by the Government.
Membership for private databases on NICnet is now open. "One company
has even offered to put its database for tenders on NICnet, on a daily
basis."

* MoC computerizes

According to a ministry of Commerce spokesman, B.L Malhotra, all
state capitals, export promotion organizations and the MoC will be
linked through NICnet.
	The office of the Director General of Commericial Intelligence and
Statistics has already been computerized. This office compiles data on
trade statistics pertaining to exports and imports.

* Bombay Library Network Goes On-line

The Bombay Library Network (Bonet) project, setup by the National Center
For Software Technology(NCST), inaugurated by N.vittal, secretary DoE
in Bombay last month. Bonet will make available on-line, quality
information to researchers at low cost.
	Using networking facilities Bonet will enhance inter-library
cooperation and improve research quality in India. Existing datacom
arrangements with more than a dozen institutions in the region are
expected to help the growth of the project, while a technical affiliate
scheme will promote the involvement of various libraries in the
industry.
	Services offered in include on-line catalogues of periodicals,
access to on-line infomation of books in other libraries, inter-library
lending of books and periodicals, information retrieval and on-line
document deliver of items. 
	On-line access to foreign database, subject to the user's
willingness to pay the costs incurred will also be provided.
	Member libraries of Bonet will operate their own computerized
catalogues and access the network from their workstations or terminals.
	Bonet membership will provide access to its centralized catalogues
and for e-mail among the members. However, access to library related
services outside Bombay in India and abroad, would require use of 
ERNET.
	While Bonet addresses application specific activity in the library
networking area, ERNET is the general purpose academic network of
India. It connects a large number of teaching and research institutions
all over the country. The two projects are complementary in nature.
	Annual subscription fee for membership ranges from Rs. 5000 onwards
depending upon organization's size and activities.

* TCS sets up video conferencing facility near Bombay

TCS and Northern Telecom of the US have set up a dedicated
international video conference link at the TCS SEEPZ facility in
Bombay. With NT's bridging facility, the link can be extended to any of
its locations throughout the world. TCS will extend video conferencing
facility to Bangalore at a later date.
	Northern Telecom has commited around Rs 1.5 crore to set up the
advanced telecommunications facility. Initially, the facility will be
used by NT for regular video conferences with TCS to review the status
of its current software development projects in India. Operating via
satellite, the link comprises two 64kbps lines which can also be used for
data transfer. TCS claims to be the only consulting company in India to
have an international video conference facility. Currently TCS is
developing software for Bell Northern Research, a subsidiary of
Northern Telecom.

* Arabic Operating System 

Ivy systems of Delhi has release a total DTP solution in Arabic.
Developed to work on Macs, it consists of an Arabic operating system,
Arabic fonts and an indigenously developed application, Imprint. Apart
from standard features such as WYSIWG and text rotation, it also has an
advanced polygon tool.
	Imprint 1.3/A supports the right-to-left Arabic script "Maskh."

* What the Experts Foresee

The leading market research organization in the IT industry,
international Data Corp(India), recently came out with 'Directions
'93'. A list of what the study predicts:

* TCS (Tata Consulting Services) will be the number one IT company by
March 1992.

* Hardware exports will touch Rs 450 crore in 1994-95

* Gap between the top three - TCS, HCL-HP, WITL will be very small. All
three are expected to be around Rs 300 crore.

* In 1993 the IT industry is expected to grow between 18-20 percent,
grossing around Rs 3,200 crore. 

* DEIL will enter the top five 

* HCL HP will be the leading multi-user systems vendor.

* Unbranded products will hold 20-25 percent of the single user marker.

* Notebooks will be a Rs 100 crore marker in 1994-95.

* Off-shore software exporters will grow at 50 per cent in dollar value
for the next two years.

* International software products vendor will set up Indian
subsidiaries and joint ventures. Networking areas will grow over 30 per
cent in the next two years.

* Increased competitiveness, globalization and reduced duties. A large
demand will be met through imports.

* India's Software Market:

==============================================================================
Year                                 Size Rs. million
==============================================================================

1988                                     85
1989                                     150
1990                                     838
1991                                    1285
1992*                                   4000

* projected figure

==============================================================================

* Asia's software Industry

==============================================================================
Country                      Size of Software Industry ( $ Millions)
==============================================================================
Korea                                  524
Taiwan                                 266
Hongkong                               181
Malaysia                               120
India                                  115
Singapore                               95
Thailand                                85
china                                   27
=============================================================================

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