Year 2003: A flashback

The year 2003 changed the landscape of the IT industry like never before. It
was a different kind of year for the Indian IT services industry. Multinational
IT enterprises suddenly scrambled to expand their Indian operations. Several
Indian IT companies announced cross-border acquisitions and mergers. In short,
the year marked the emergence of Indian IT multinationals. Finally, the Indian
IT industry has begun to take the threat from China seriously. Several Indian
software companies have established a beachhead in China not just to counter
competition or for business continuity reasons, but to leverage the talent
available in the Chinese soil. Let’s take a quick look at the headlines that
marked the bygone year.

Nehru Place gets the demolition demon–Jan 29: Nehru Place went
through the first of its kind ‘clean-up’ drive by the Delhi Development
Authority (DDA). This clean-up (demolition) drive tore apart the kiosks, glow
signs, banners and almost everything that was outside the premises of the shops
on the ground floor. This drive was armed with two bulldozers, 200 policemen and
several CISF men, accompanied by the DDA officials.

Fire Dept declares seven buildings in Nehru Place unsafe–Feb 26: First
it was the DDA and now it’s the turn of the Fire Department to make Nehru
Place look like a naughty boy, which needs a thrashing before anything is heeded
to. It’s been almost a month since the DDA landed here and took stringent
actions against all the illegal hoardings and occupants. Now, the fire
department has declared around seven buildings–Deepak, Sahyog, Siddharth,
Chiranjeev, Skyline and Shakuntala in Nehru Place as unsafe, which lack basic
fire safety measures.

Moser Baer enters the domestic market with its own brand–April
2: Moser Baer India Ltd, an OEM of optical storage products, has finally
entered the domestic market with its own brand of CD-Rs and CDR-Ws. Positioning
the product range in a price sensitive market like India was not easy and the
company has settled for the middle range pricing.

DQ Week felicitates reseller community with channel awards–July
11: The DQ Week Delhi announced the coveted Annual Channel Partner Awards
for the northern and eastern region at the fifth annual awards held at Delhi’s
Park Royal Inter-Continental. This event also marked the successful completion
of The DQ Week Delhi.

Chandigarh reseller vanishes with Rs 1.25 crore–July 30:
At a time, when the upcountry market is trying hard to conso-lidate itself
in the IT reselling business–Chandigarh has been rocked by a case where a
reseller is absconding with more than Rs 1.25 crore in his kitty. Jordan Loyal,
the proprietor of Fairbrother Marketing, a prominent GID of Chandigarh, is
absconding after leaving out-standing dues of over Rs 1.25 crore and it is
believed that he has packed up his bags for Switzerland with his wife and two
kids.

Red-tapism by government officials hurting SIs in UP–Aug
27: Uttar Pradesh-based System Integrators are having a bad time, as the
state government has decided to route all the big contracts through
organizations like Uttar Pradesh Development Systems Corporation (UPDESCO) and
UPTRON. These organizations in turn, are taking hefty sums of money as bank
guarantee from the SIs for executing orders.

Hoshiarpur dealers form association–Sep 17: Hoshiarpur,
a small town in Punjab, now has an association for the IT channel com-munity.
Some of the leading channel partners of the city have come together to form the
Hoshiarpur Computer Dealers’ Asso-ciation (HCDA). In a meeting held recently
in the city, the office bearers and the executive committee members were
elected.

AMD launches Windows-compatible 64-bit processor–Sep 29:
AMD has introduced Windows-compatible 64-bit PC proce-ssor–the AMD Athlon 64
FX. Claimed to deliver the highest overall 32-bit performance for the demanding
applications and the power of 64-bit computing for the next wave of soft-ware,
this launch comes in close heels of the announcement of the 64-bit PowerMac G5
by Apple last month.

Jaipur’s Computer Supermart establishes company in China–Oct
22: One of Jaipur’s leading channel partner, Computer Supermart, has
established a company in China. Called Mass Hi-Tech, it was set up six months
back and operates out of Shenzhen. It is now looking for regional distributors
in India and also plans to set up service centers in all the major Indian cities
by 2004.

Chandigarh trader nabbed selling fake WeP cartridges–Dec
10: Couple of months back, the Chandigarh market, which is the prime
location of IT trading in north India, was rocked by the news of fake
consumables being sold there. People witnessed major goof-ups in the consumables
manufactured by WeP Peripherals, one of the primary brands in the market.

TVSE re-orients its channel strategy–Dec 17: The Rs
228 crore Chennai-based periheral manufacturing major, TVS Electronics Ltd (TVSE)
is getting aggressive on the channel front to increase its business and reach a
revenue target of Rs 500 crore by 2006. The company has worked out a
five-pronged strategy of increasing the channel partners, reaching more
cities/towns, strengthening the service infrastructure, expanding the product
portfolio, and creating more brand awareness and visibility in the market.