GREEN IT CONCEPT TO SPUR GROWTH OF DATA CENTRES

L.N. Revathy, Coimbatore, November 24, 2008
The Hindu Business Line

While India has the potential to emerge as a hub for data centre hosting services for nearby markets, the biggest challenge at this juncture is the lack of energy supplies in the country.

Gartner recommends adoption of the Green IT concept and virtualisation technologies by Indian companies building data centres to tide over this issue.

The research firm foresees a spurt in data centre capacity in India. Gartner’s projections reveal that the total data centre capacity would reach 5.1 million square feet by 2012. The capacity is expected to double in the next two years with both — the captive and hosted data centres growing at comparable rates.

In the long term, India has the potential to become a hub for data centre hosting for nearby markets such as West Asia, East Africa and Southeast Asia. There is enough capacity and diversity of network connectivity to these regions to allow applications to be managed out of India.

“However, the country faces a few major obstacles in the development of data centres and these include security concerns and data retention worries. The biggest challenge is the lack of energy supplies in the country,” Naresh Chandra Singh, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner Inc said.

TMB LAUNCHES E-BANKING SERVICE

Madurai, November 24, 2008
The Hindu Business Line

Tuticorin-based Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) has launched its Internet banking service through ‘TMB E-connect’. According to G. Narayana Moorthy, Managing Director and CEO of the bank, the facility provides services 24x7. There would be no extra charge for availing of the facility. Customers can secure all details from their homes, except visiting the branch for issue of demand drafts and opening of new accounts. The bank is in the process of customising the e-banking software for making telephone payments by the customers from their homes, said A. Manickam, General Manager, Information Technology Department, TMB, in a press release here.

STPI TO PROMOTE IT PARKS IN KARNATAKA

Shimoga, November 23, 2008
Business Standard The Hindu Business Line

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) on Saturday said it has decided to extend all facilities toward establishing full-fledged IT parks in important tier II cities in the state. These IT parks will provide various job opportunities for professionals, students and entrepreneurs, STPI Bangalore Director R Rajalakshmi said inaugurating ‘Shimoga IT Forum’ here

SANDISK, HCL TIE UP

November 24,2008
The Asian Age

SanDisk announced a partnership with HCL Infosystems to be the distributors for SanDisk's mobile phone memory cards in the Indian market. SanDisk's offering for mobile phones includes mobile memory cards [microSD(HC) and M2] with capacities ranging from 2GB to 16GB and also MobileMate USB readers (SDHC compatible) which provides users with a solution for transferring music, video, photos and other files between their mobile memory cards and computers.

GOVT PLANS CENTRE FOR ANIMATION, VISUAL EFFECTS

Smitha Venkateswaran, Goa, November 23, 2008
The Economic Times

In what could give a major boost to the animation segment, the Centre has now decided to establish a National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Gaming and Visual Effects and a Moving Image Museum at Mumbai.

The new animation centre, to be set up within next three years will be a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and will focus on creating a talent pool in India, promote post production sectors and facilitate creation of animation and gaming segments. Sharma also announced that the government has set aside, Rs 250 crore for the three projects.

"India has a lot of creative and technological talent available, and can become hub for outsourcing as well as making and exporting original animation films to other parts of the world," said the minister adding that the government has liberalized policies so as to encourage foreign direct investment with a hope that foreign companies will take the benefit to usher in new models that will lead to greater cooperation and greater profitability.

According to a recent Nasscom - Animation India study 2007; to cope with the growing demand India will require over 300,000 professionals in content development and animation segment by 2008; as against the current 12,000 people working in this industry. However there are still no schools set up for providing training in digital post production work; and the country has to create a solution in sight to create such large talent pool. Industrialists feared that such rising demand, while faced with shortage in supply, will lead to huge manpower costs thereby taking away the cost-effective advantage that India has.

Salaries paid to editors and other technical staff have increased many-fold. Most companies, now in a bid to retain their trained, qualified staff, are resorting to a 'service contract;' thereby binding the employee to their company for a brief period of time. "There is not enough talent in India, which is the biggest drawback for the industry to reach its full potential", said K.B. Reddy, CEO, Digiquest Studio.

"We have been discussing this situation with the government. I hope we can find an acceptable solution soon," he added. The company, apart from sending its staff abroad for training, is also in talks with the Andhra Pradesh government for developing a training institute there.