Indian IT impresses Prince Charles

Tuesday, 04 November 2003, 20:30 IST
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MUMBAI: After royalty in Rajasthan and history at Humayun's Tomb, it was time for India to give Prince Charles a glimpse of its modern present in a display of its technical prowess in the IT sector on the last leg of his tour here. It was the turn of IT tycoons and Mumbai's technocrats to interact and inform the heir to the throne of England about the rapid strides that the country had taken in the IT sector. Dressed in a navy blue suit, the prince sat through a 45-minute long event organised by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) Monday. Head honchos of some of the top IT companies made short presentations highlighting the technological advances made by the Indian knowledge sector. Indian IT industry's biggest player, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), was among the companies that made presentations before the prince. In his power point presentation, TCS official J. Bhandarkar informed the distinguished visitor about his company's expertise in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. He also dwelt on the company's linkages with Britain. Ashank Dessai, head of Mastek, spoke about India's rich IT links with Britain and his company's achievements in the sector. But the prince, who listened attentively, seemed most impressed by the presentation made by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Powai, Mumbai. IIT's K.C. Ramratan spoke of IT being taken to the villages and its multifarious uses, in the collection and distribution of milk by cooperatives, for instance. At the end of the presentation, Charles told the participants that he was impressed with India's achievements in taking IT to the rural areas. He made special mention about the country's attempts to introduce e-learning and the 'e-chaupal', an online platform for villages, experiment in some parts of the country. Under e-learning, students can log on to the net and take courses as well as examinations. In states like Andhra Pradesh, e-chaupals allow farmers and people in small towns to access government documents and land records on the Internet. The prince also noted that using IT to help farmers sell their produce to urban consumers empowers the rural people. The prince, who is staying at the Taj Mahal hotel here, arrived on the dot at 10 a.m. for his meeting with the captains of the tech industry at the same hotel. Security was tight at the venue. Industrialists, journalists and other invitees had to be present an hour ahead of schedule due to security constraints. Traffic movement around the hotel was also tightly controlled.
Source: IANS
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