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Sun to gift Rs 21.5 m worth equipment to Indian schools

Sun Microsystems today announced a grant of Rs 21.5 million worth in equipment donation to Indian academic institutions.

T O D A Y

• Students hit jackpot! • Indiaproperties.com • Sun gifts Rs 21.5 m

"India is a key area of growth for Sun," explained Sun Microsystems President and COO Ed Zander.

"We want to not only help build the technology infrastructure but also provide India with the skills and expertise needed to propel the country into the networked age," he told reporters in New Delhi.

He said by equipping India's academic institutions, Sun is making a long-term investment in the country's people and economy.

The US based multinational will work with the ministry of human resources development to increase information technology awareness on school campuses and provide tools and techniques that allow access to the Internet.

Sun is a leading provider of open network computing solutions to colleges and universities around the world, powering academic, research and high-performance computing systems, campus administrations, digital libraries and student instruction systems.

It is also a leading provider of software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet.

Zander said computer applications over the Internet would become simpler in the future as content developers and communication companies move technological complexities to the backend systems.

He said a new idea emerges everyday to leverage the World Wide Web for competitive advantage by companies across the globe.

In some years to come, cellular phones, pagers, palmtops, organisers, consumer electronics and even plane seats will be Web enabled.

"The idea is that any person should be able to connect anytime, anywhere with any device," Zander said in a meeting of Indian CEOs and leading government officials organised in New Delhi by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Zander recalled that 50 Web based cellular phones were unveiled at the International Telecommunications Union meeting in Geneva last week.

In the near future, cars, washing machines, dishwashers, microwave ovens, refrigerators and toasters will have an interface with WWW, he said.

"There is a new industrial revolution taking place now and the Internet will change the way we use information technology at present. This is taking place everywhere, not only in the United States," he said.

Zander said Indian companies have a tremendous advantage of intellectual capital for increasing their market capitalisation by leveraging the Internet opportunity.

"Businesses in India should worry about competition from outside the country as well," he warned.

More networks services are being added globally as wireless, satellite and fixed telecom technologies are leapfrogging to increase bandwidths, he said.

About 67,000 new Internet users are being added everyday while 10,000 new Web sites are created every week. Nearly 3.5 billion email messages are transmitted daily and the number is likely to reach 2.3 trillion by 2002.

About half a billion people worldwide will use mobile cellular phones by 2002 and the number of Internet users will jump to 350 million.

Zander said 14 per cent of stock trade in the United States is currently executed online.

UNI

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