Data Access takes $100 million capacity on NSS satellites
Satellite communications company, New Skies Satellites, is launching its sixth satellite called NSS-6 by November this year, with interconnected beams covering a number of regions including India. The company has signed up Data Access, offering leased capacity worth $100 million over 10 years on its satellites—NSS-6 and NSS-703.
Data Access India is the first customer for New Skies, which is also in discussions with other voice and ISP carriers in the country to lease out satellite capacity. Apart from India, NSS-6 would also be beamed over regions including Middle East, China, South East Asia and Australia.

BankAm signs strategic pact with Infosys, TCS and Accenture
Bank of America (BankAm) said it has entered into strategic agreements with three IT companies—Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Accenture—to deliver application maintenance and development services to the bank’s internal IT groups. BankAm’s division executive (application software engineering), Jim Kelly, said in a media release that together these organisations will support the bank’s vision of being a world class software engineering organisation by introducing best practices and offering valuable expertise in the areas of process, people and technology.

STPI Bangalore to offer plug-and-play incubation stations
Software Techn-ology Parks of India Bangalore (STPI-B) is all set to establish a plug-and-play technology incubation park for IT companies at the proposed Rs 200 crore Cyber Park project of L&T in the Electronics City. The project is expected to be completed over the next 18 months.

This move will also see a number of international technology labs from the US, Sweden, Israel and Ireland joining hands with the incubation initiative to facilitate lab-to-lab technology collaboration.

CADD Centre to start Malaysian operations
Chennai-based CADD Centre, a computer-aided engineering (CAE) training and services provider, will set up operations in Malaysia. The company has entered into an MoU with Perak Foundation, Malaysia, to develop and deliver courses for Malaysians.

“We plan to set up six to 10 centres in Malaysia through the franchise route, which would entail an investment of Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 5 crore,” said R Parthasarathy, executive director, CADD Centre.

ThinkGen plans $5m biotech incubation fund
Bangalore-based ThinkGen, engaged in integrating pharma, biotech and healthcare through IT solutions, plans to establish a new technology incubation fund to part-finance future technologies in this area. The company is planning a $5 million fund initially, to finance incubation ventures in the areas of chemistry and biology integrating IT solutions. The company is looking at various high-end future technologies in the areas of healthcare deliverables, including DNA technologies, especially those that have already been patented and require incubation.

Citibank to take a piece of Daksh’s third round
Citibank Equity Fund is investing $2-3 million in IT-enabled services company, Daksh eServices. As part of its second funding round, Citibank had earlier invested $6 million in Daksh.

According to a source, Citibank holds between 23-24 percent stake in the company. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has cleared the proposal of General Atlantic Partners (GAP) to invest Rs 33.68 crore in Daksh for a 14 percent stake. Investments made by GAP and Citibank are likely to form a part of its third funding round.

Satyam Hosting eyes mobile apps
Satyam Hosting, a division of Sify, has identified mobile applications as a focus area and is gunning for aggressive growth through this segment in the current fiscal. The company’s Internet Data Centre business that began initially with a focus on purely Internet-based applications has expanded its focus to include non-Internet applications. - Financial Express