The State of India’s Digital Economy (SIDE) Report measures and analyses India’s digital transformation using data, information and evidence that are specifically relevant to the Indian context. In this, the report departs from the norm for global studies. While global indicators go for breadth rather than depth by choosing the …
IN Tins age of information, telecommunications is evolving at a breakneck pace. While a few years ago, even movie channel through a TV cable was something of a novelty, the technological pundits are today close to realising their vision of sending 500 cable channels into each home, simultaneously. Though this …
Ernesto Zedillo, the President of Mexico has thrown open the gates of the country's telecommunications industry, causing a veritable stampede. Giant inter- national carriers are rushing in to find places for themselves in the vast us $7 billion market; most of them are us players, like AT&r;, MCI,GTE, Motorola and …
Fibre-optic cables can safely lay claim to being the "concrete and asphalt" of the information highway that is set to usher a telecommunications revolution. But inspite of the high reliability and capacity of these cables, there has always been a natural speed-breaker on the information highway: the sound coded in …
THE pitiable status of India's communications infrastructure and information technology was last evident, in sputtering neon, when the Indian government went overboard with its economic liberalisation policy. With its gates open, India made it clear that it had nothing, except primitive runners and piles of curling paper, that could remotely …
With the coming of the fibre optics revolution, information can now be transmitted at the speed of light. At the heart of this revolution is a glass or plastic fibre no thicker than a human hair. A fibre optic cable often only as thick as a pencil can carry a …
Codan, an Australian company, has developed a device that can revolutionise the quality of FAX communication even in remote areas and under extreme weather conditions. Unlike present FAX machines, which use telephone and satellite communications, Codon's 9001 HF fax and data interface makes use of high frequency radio technology. This …
ON OCTOBFR 16, 1994, musicians in Paris, Bombay, Jakarta and Singapore played the tune, We are the world, in perfect unison, while people in the 4 cities watched them on giant video screens. This was possible thanks to the world's longest optical fibre submarine communication cable that was inaugurated in …
Small and medium-sized companies are probably in for a better time, with Germany's Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft setting up a branch in Michigan. The group, which has conducted research worth $648 million, stresses on links between universities and industries, especially smaller firms. "We want to work with the Fraunhofer model because it has …
THE dawning of the free market era in Russia has plunged Siberia into a vortex of contradictions. Although the region is a treasure house of natural resources such as diamonds, gold, silver and oil, its mining towns - established by the Soviets to harness the abundant wealth - are on …
PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, the plastic from which soft drink bottles are made, is about to become the pet obsession of high-profile fashion-conscious North Americans. Wellman Inc, a New Jersey-based textile company, has introduced an entire range of trendy jackets and sweaters made of recycled PET. Last year, it had …
ENVIRONMENTALISTS in Bangkok, Thailand, who are seriously worried about the high level of hydrocarbons that Thais breathe, can now heave a sigh of relief. The ubiquitous tuk-tuks -- nifty little three-wheelers with two-stroke engines -- held primarily responsible for the air pollution, are now being given a facelift by the …
INTEL Corp has introduced a new generation of chips by launching two fast versions of its Pentium microprocessor. This is part of an aggressive marketing drive by the computer giant, the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, the International Herald Tribune reports. The company's is anxious to garner a share of the …
IN JANUARY, after a break of 22 years, the US once again turned its attention to the moon. This time, however, it was not NASA that launched a spacecraft, but the Ballistic Missile Defence Organization (BMDO), the successor to the Strategic Defence Initiative Organization. The spacecraft, christened Clementine, was originally …
NORMAL life came to a grinding halt in Canada when a geomagnetic disturbance hit two of its communications satellites -- Anik E1 and Anik E2. Television and radio transmissions were disrupted across the nation. Canadian Press, the country's biggest news service that feeds information to more than 100 newspapers and …
THE TITLE reminds you of the Edwardian English poet, Walter De La Mare's The Listeners: "'Is there anybody there,' said the traveller?" While De La Mare's traveller rode through time seeking responses, Drake's creatures hover through space. Earth has possibly never been visited by an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) that …
• Nicolas Hayek, chairperson of SMH AG, is looking for a partner to introduce the automotive equivalent of the Swatch watch he made famous in the 1980s. Hayek's inexpensive, stylish and "environmentally correct" car is to have low pollution levels, thanks to a hybrid system of battery- and gasoline-powered motors. …
LABELS such as "Made in Japan", "Made in Germany, "Made in USA" are losing their meaning. Modern communications technology, collapsing international trade barriers and increasing competition are expanding the global economy. As a result, the service and industry sectors are being transformed and integrated across the world in an unprecedented …
IT'S TIME you took your neglected stamp collection seriously, for mail may soon become electronic. The familiar sound of the postman's bicycle bell will be replaced by the beep of the computer and the crackle of telephone lines as electronic mail, or E-mail, transforms communications. Already about 15 million people …
Cables as messengers of information between computers are on their way out. A cableless computer network called WaveLAN, in which each computer is provided with an antenna that picks up data in the form of radiowaves, was launched recently in Britain (New Scientist, Vol 138, No 1874). The new technology …
EVEN AS European Community researchers are developing a powerful computerised translation system that promises to break through language barriers, scientists in Japan, Germany and USA are working on a telephone translation system whose implications for world trade are mind-boggling. Both systems are reportedly in the test stage. The EC project, …
