India News Briefs

Indian research institutes click on Intel HPC clusters
Leading scientific, research and academic institutions in India have chosen Intel-based high performance computing (HPC) clusters for their life sciences and bio-IT initiatives. HPC is a term used to describe computing that pushes the limits of available performance. Two of these institutes are the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) and the Indian Institute of Science’s Supercomputing Education Research unit (IISc-SER). Intel’s vice president and general manager, platforms products group, Abhi Talwalkar, explained that as the life sciences industry in Asia prepares to make significant investments over the next five years, there is a worldwide shift towards cost-effective, industry-standard technology platforms for the new HPC supercomputers that are needed in order to accelerate bio-IT discoveries.

Moser Baer, Imation in strategic deal
Moser Baer India, a removable data storage product manufacturer, has announced that it has signed a strategic long-term sourcing deal with Imation, one of the largest global data storage media solutions companies. In another significant development, both the companies have entered into a joint venture in which Imation will hold 51 percent of the equity. The venture, entailing a total investment of $10 million, will focus on customer servicing, long-term technology transfer and joint research and development.

Government hires TCS to conduct study on coastal shipping
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has bagged the mandate to conduct the study on coastal shipping, beating 11 other contenders. The study, undertaken for the first time, would help guage trade routes, identify potential cargo movement, and suggest a legal framework to facilitate coastal shipping. The time frame stipulated for completing the study is six months. Industry sources said this would be the first such study to be undertaken on coastal shipping, which was otherwise a neglected area in India, despite it having a coastline of over 7,000 kilometres.

RailTel to connect 150 cities in 2004
RailTel Corporation of India, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, floated for the rollout of telecom network infrastructure, plans to connect 150 cities and 1,500 stations on its optic fibre network during the financial year 2003-04. RailTel also plans to provide Internet kiosks at the New Delhi railway station as a pilot project. Besides, it plans to offer Internet services on one of the selected trains during the next financial year. The project, once tested succesfully, will be rolled out to other major cities and trains.

NDS to double staff strength in India
News Corporation-promoted NDS is planning to increase its staff in India from the current 70 to 150. The company, which has encryption systems deployed in direct-to-home (DTH) and cable TV digital set-top boxes, has a software and research development unit in Bangalore. The company is in talks with multi-system operators and manufacturers for using NDS modules and chips in the set-top boxes. It is in discussion with Hathway Cable and Datacom, for being the software vendor for their set-top boxes.

Lovgate.c virus spreads across the globe
The Lovgate.c virus is an e-mail virus that creates a backdoor for hackers in infected personal computers in a number of countries. The program, more formally called a worm, spread rapidly by sending itself as a reply to unread messages in a user’s inbox. Anti-virus companies said the program, which they named Lovgate.c, had spread around the globe, notably in the UK, Germany and other European countries, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. Anti-virus companies also reported incidences of the virus in the US.

— The Financial Express