.NET centre of excellence set up at Anna University
Microsoft India and Anna University have announced the establishment of a .NET centre of excellence at the School of Computer Science and Engineering in Chennai. This centre is the first of its kind at an academic institution in India, and is an extension of a MoU signed between the two entities earlier this year. The centre of excellence will cater to the 240 affiliated colleges, equipping students with the latest tools, technologies and infrastructure to create and deploy XML Web services. In addition, Microsoft will support the university in development of its curriculum, software management, faculty development and student technology support programmes.

The .NET Centre will foster and promote academic research excellence in XML Web services related technologies, including local language applications, eLearning, mobility, interoperability and user interface. It will build and test XML Web services-based solutions for applications in industry and the government. The centre will also develop applications in Indian languages and will build applications around e-governance solutions.

ICICI Venture invests in Infowavz
Infowavz, a call centre company, has received $5 million in funding from ICICI Venture. The company plans to use these funds towards expanding its infrastructure in India and overseas. In India, the size of operations is being increased from 300 seats to 500 seats within the next few months, enabling over 1,500 customer service associates to deliver 24/7 services to overseas clients. The funds are also being used towards strengthening international operations, with two new data centres in the US and the UK and a new office in New York. Infowavz currently supports several Fortune 100 companies from its state-of-the-art multi-channel facility in Mumbai, with client services offices in London, Toronto and Los Angeles. Leveraging its international partnership network, Infowavz is able to provide multi-location services from over 80 global facilities for clients interested in multi-site disaster recovery or multi-lingual support.

Access Online launches eMonitor
Access Online, a part of the US-based RAD, recently added eMonitor to its product stable. The eMonitor, according to company sources, helps users to create a safe responsible work environment and also ensures high ethical standards. Access Online believes this product will enable companies to ensure that mission critical data is no longer unprotected during its exchange over the Net. The eMonitor, which enables the user to monitor other PCs from any location, also provides real-time reports of PC usage. The company sees a huge market potential for eMonitor in the corporate segment, as it will enable managements to keep a tab on employee activities.

Upaid selects Wipro Tech to develop m-commerce
Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro, and Upaid, a pioneer of real-time software solutions for next-generation pay-as-you-use roaming and mobile payment services to mobile operators and financial service and content providers, recently announced the signing of an agreement for software development and maintenance services.

Under the terms of the agreement, Wipro will develop new m-commerce, financial services and telecom software solutions for Upaid and also offer maintenance services for Upaid’s existing solutions. Through this association, Upaid will derive significant benefits by leveraging on Wipro’s quality processes and telecom domain expertise and enhance its market lead in developing real-time software solutions.

SAP India signs on its largest ever deal in India with ONGC
SAP signed its largest ever deal in India with the Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) for implementation of the ICE (Information Consolidation for Efficiency) project. The deal, worth Rs 950 million ($19 million) is aimed at consolidating the IT efforts at ONGC through the implementation of a SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package.

The deal with ONGC, a leader in the upstream oil and gas industry in South East Asia, is the biggest deal for SAP India and the largest consulting deal for SAP Asia Pacific. The deal marks many firsts for SAP India like it is the first mySAP oil and gas upstream implementation in India, the first mySAP SRM deal and implementation in India, the first mySAP PLM with document management implementation in this industry, in India and the first mySAP SEM for balanced scorecard implementation.

Windals Infotech partners with Intiqua
Windals Infotech has entered into an alliance with Intiqua International India, a global broad-based services integrator, to offer the enterprise management and supply chain solutions to small and medium enterprises, with a primary focus on the manufacturing and automotive industries. Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has agreed to extend financial assistance to units that intend to install and implement the solution. SIDBI finance will be extended to units through its direct discounting scheme, with a repayment period of three to five years, as desired by the customer.

Adobe Premiere 6.5 hits market
Adobe Systems has launched the latest version of its digital video editing software called Adobe Premiere 6.5. The new software boast of advancements like real-time preview, Adobe Title Designer, supports MPEG-2 export and DVD authoring. The company says that Abode Premiere 6.5 for Windows XP, 98SE, 2000, ME and Macintosh OX 9 and OS X will be available in India in the first week of September through Abode distributors Wipro Infotech and Tech Pacific, at an estimated street price of Rs 29,000. The upgrade price for registered users will be Rs 7,500.

DiData buys 37.45 percent stake in Nihilent from Nedcor
South Africa’s Nedcor Bank, the majority stakeholder in Nihilent Technologies, has divested half of its 74.9 per cent stake in favour of Dimension Data Holdings, a leading global technology services company. This move makes Dimension Data an equal stakeholder to Nedcor Bank (37.45 percent each) in Nihilent, an India-based business consulting and solutions integration company. The remaining 25.1 percent of the shares will continue to be owned by Nihilent employees. The strategic investment by Dimension Data in Nihilent Technologies is part of Dimension Data’s ongoing global business strategy of enhancing its capability to design, deliver and manage applications that run on corporate IT network infrastructures.

Metrowerks CodeWarrior to be used by 3,000 educational institutions
Metrowerks, a Motorola company, has announced a major rollout of its CodeWarrior software development tools at nearly 3,000 of the Indian Computer Institute Association (ICIA) member institutions. The schools are using CodeWarrior development tools to teach students Java programming, as well as programming for the Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. In addition to supplying software tools, Metrowerks also developed a series of instructor-led video courses for the ICIA covering Java programming and object technology. The ICIA is rolling out CodeWarrior development tools for Windows, Java, Mac OS and Linux at its member Institutions. Metrowerks’ cross-platform CodeWarrior compilers support C, C++, Java and assembly programming languages, while allowing programmers to build applications from one unique integrated development environment.

Sybase Q2 revenues cross $205 m
Sybase, a leading enterprise infrastructure and integration company, has announced results for the quarter ending June 30, 2002. For the second quarter of 2002, Sybase reported total revenues for of $205.3 million, compared to second quarter 2001 revenues of $234.7 million. As of June 30, 2002, Sybase reported $403.3 million in cash and cash investments, including restricted cash of $2.5 million, representing approximately $4.13 per outstanding share at the end of the second quarter. During Q2, Sybase repurchased an additional $23.5 million of its stock, with approximately $100 million of its current share repurchase authorisation remaining.

Quantum SuperLoader to be available as part of IBM Eserver Xseries line
Quantum has announced an agreement with IBM to offer the Quantum SuperLoader in its IBM eserver xSeries product line. The IBM 2U SDLT Autoloader is a modular, scalable tape autoloader with the highest cartridge capacity in a 2U rack-mount form factor. This storage solution is ideally suited for departmental, workgroup and remote office environments, while providing enterprise-class features, investment protection, reliability and capacity to IBM customers at an affordable price.

Among the lowest cost per GB automation products on the market, the IBM 2U SDLT Autoloader features a single SDLT 220 drive and 16 + 1 cartridges with two removable magazines for 3.5 TB of capacity and a backup/restore rate of 22 MB/sec. (with 2:1 compression). The ‘+ 1’ capability allows an additional cartridge to be added to a fully populated system. IBM plans to build on Quantum SuperLoader’s modularity by enabling additional drive technologies in the future.