Kerala IT Expo' 2000: a broad look

(NeST) Network Systems & Technologies Ltd had IT buffs falling all over its latest product at the IT Exposition in Kerala- a PC with a Pentium IV processor. One has to admit that it is quick service, for Pentium IV was launched only a few days ago.

As if to drive home the legacy of their achievement, NeST says that such a product would take months to reach the Indian market. Not until January 2001 for sure, they say. The product, which has its own hard disk and motherboard, is priced around Rs 1 lakh. 

A unique Gaming PC with a steering wheel and accelerators and a 19-inch color monitor stole the hearts of the students. It used a Pentium III and had 128 RD-RAM, 20GB hard disk and creative 5 point amplified speaker, all for less than Rs 1

lakh.

Occupying a pride of place was the Total Integrated PC from NeST, which was in direct competition with IMAC from Macintosh in the world market. It had a multimedia keyboard with an optical mouse, and the CD and floppy drive were built into the monitor. Total Integrated PC had a competitive edge over IMAC in the sense, that it was priced around Rs 50,000 whereas IMAC cost about Rs 1 lakh. Other products on display included their Linux range of PCs, e-home series for home segments, AMD series, laptops, palm tops and servers.

Amongst the big shots in IT in country, there was Wipro exhibiting its wares in the PC and Home pavilion, TCS with its e-bank works package for Internet- banking and WAP enabled e-governance initiatives and HCL peripherals, which belonged to the big league. But it was the small and the medium IT companies whom took center stage and their enthusiasm and vigor was that, which filled the absence of the big players.

On display at IT Expo were pointers towards the silent revolution that had been taking place in the IT sector in Kerala. The packages developed by the Information Mission Kerala, to monitor plans in the local self governing bodies, the digitized software for self governance, the package for responsive administration of welfare Network and services, all make you wonder about the strides it has made in e-governance in the local bodies.

Keltron also has a slew of e-governance projects to its credit such as Wide Area Networking of treasuries and departments in the Kerala Secretariat, computerization of Commercial Taxes Department and issue of revenue cards and smart cards. In fact, Keltron was the first to execute a fully automated online issue, on the spot of the delivery of the Voter ID card, prompting the Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill to commend it as the 'most professionally executed among all state projects'.

Not to be left behind, the National Information Center along with IT Department and the Registration Department devised a package for effective administration of registration laws called PEARL, for speedy registration of land. 

But the stall with the maximum foot falls, was that of the Asianet Satellite Communications Ltd, where it exhibited its recently launched Asianet Dataline Services, which is all set to provide Internet through cable television network. 

All you need is an Asianet cable connection and a cable modem, which costs around Rs. 13000, and you have 24 hour connectivity at about 100 times faster speed. After the clearance for setting private satellite gateways for Internet access at Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, it entered into agreement with Singapore Telecom for satellite access bandwidth. Asianet Dataline Services is set to become the first provider of Internet via satellite at lightning speeds. 

Accel ICIM Systems and Services Ltd, a Chennai based company, demonstrated its thin client architecture from Sun at the exhibition wherein the whole computing is done in the server. There is a central Sun server, which is connected through a Ethernet switch to thin clients, which use resources from the central server according to the specific demands of the users. 

As soon as the smart card is inserted into the thin clients, one can start working on it and even retrieve it and insert it in another thin client as per the need. It gives rich user experience as it employs the brand new concept of hot desking and gives session mobility.

ESCO Audio Visual (India) Pvt Ltd, which provides audio visual solutions in terms of integration of AV equipment for conference, boardrooms, training centers, hotels, launched its smallest projector weighing about 11/2 kg, named ASK M3 at the exhibition.

In addition to these companies were a whole lot of other companies which participated in the exposition to let the world know that they have finally arrived in the IT scene, all in the hope that such exhibitions would open up greener pastures for them and broaden their horizons.