The Hindu : Business : TN, W.Bengal in race for landing station for cable

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 06, 2005

Business

Business

TN, W.Bengal in race for landing station for cable

Special Correspondent

Maran inaugurates Xenitis Unitek's peripherals unit

HEADWAY IN HARDWARE: The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and the President of Unitek Computer, Sun Yong, at the inauguration of Xenitis Unitek unit in West Bengal, on Friday. The Union Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran (second from left), State IT Minister, Manabendra Mukherjee (second from right), and the Chairman of Xenitis, Santanu Ghosh, (extreme right) look on. — Photo: Arunangsu Roy

CHINSURAH: WEST BENGAL: The Union Communications and Information Technology Ministry is keen to have an underground submarine cable laid to improve telecommunications with Andamans & Nicobar Islands, the Union Communications and Information Technology Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, said.

Talking to the press after inaugurating Xenitis Unitek, India's first computer component manufacturing unit on Friday, he said the landing station for the project would be either in Tamil Nadu or in West Bengal. The underground network would be part of a project for linking up with Singapore.

Mr. Maran said the need for laying an under-sea link to the A&N islands was felt after the recent tsunami, which had disrupted satellite linkages between the mainland and the A& N. "Satellite towers had got tilted after tsunami,"the Minister said. It would take about three months to complete the feasibility study on the project, he said.

Mr. Maran stressed on the need for having a 60 micron semiconductor fabrication unit in India for improving connectivity. He said the project would need water, technical expertise and huge investments and would have to be promoted through public-private partnership.

Earlier, he said projects such as the one launched on Friday, were expected to help increase computer penetration. The Rs. 200 crore joint venture project with Unitek Computer Company Ltd, China, has been promoted on the Indian side by two first generation entrepreneurs, Santanu Ghosh and Tathagatha Dutta, who chose to locate the project in their ancestral place.

The project with an employment potential of 1,700 would make computer cases, keyboards, mouse and CD and DVD drives. Mr. Ghosh, Chairman of the four-year-old Xenitis Group, said the company, which sells under the brand Amar PC in West Bengal and Namma PC in the South, plans to fan out in India and abroad.

The Minister complimented companies such as HCL and Xenitis for launching sub-Rs 10,000 computers in India, saying that this was in tune with the government's three-pronged strategy for computer penetration.

Maran for fab units

UNI reports:

The Government is planning to partner the State governments to set up semi-conductor fabrication plants for increased communications and IT network.

Mr. Maran said the technology solution would be obtained from IBM, which has collaborated with the U.S. based Indian Equipment Manufacturing Company (IEMC) and the cost for a semi-conductor fabrication plant of 16-40 micron stands at $3-4 billion.

"We want to have five such semi-conductor fabrication plants. We will write to all State governments for participating in the project as it requires technology and water,'' Mr Maran said, adding that the projects would be taken up on a public-private partnership basis and the move was initiated since last week.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business