• India-Finland conclude Science & Technology Agreement
• Nanotechnology is the future of science: Pillai
• Government plans to exploit uranium, thorium reserves

• India's expertise in animation gets global eyeballs
• India leads IT services growth in Asia
• Delhi, Goa among India's top e-governed states - survey

A significant agreement on Cooperation in Science & Technology between India and Finland was signed by Kapil Sibal, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, and Mauri Pekkarinen, Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs, in the city on Tuesday. The Agreement provides for a broad based framework of cooperation in the areas of research, development and innovation policies between the two countries with renowned cutting-edge technologies. Addressing on the occasion Sibal said, "The way forward for our bilateral relations is to set up an innovation industrial R&D fund enabling technology access to market for mutual benefit of the people of India and Finland." The Minster will also call on Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Sari Sarkomaa, Minister of Education. He will also be visiting a number of leading research institutions. Bilateral relations with Finland, an important member of the European Union with proven technological capabilities in ICT, Biotechnology, industrial machinery and paper industry, have assumed a dynamic edge following the exchange of Prime Ministerial visits in 2006. The India-EU Summit meeting took place in Helsinki in October 2006 during Finland?s EU Presidency. Bilateral trade which in 2007 was valued at Euro 645.08 million has grown by over 20 per cent. Two-way investments are growing with Finnish majors like Nokia, Elcoteq, Kone and Wartsila now well-established in India. Indian investments in Finland are also making an impact in areas such as ICT and renewable energy. It is to be noted that Finland has one of the highest investments in R&D as a percentage of its GDP among the OECD countries and is continually increasing. It is now renowned for its environment-friendly, innovative technological capabilities which would be beneficial for India?s booming economic development

Courtesy: www.headlinesindia.com, March 27, 2008

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As the animation industry grows rapidly in India, global players like Walt Disney and Cartoon Network are increasingly looking at the country for content - with the same level of specialisation but at lower cost. Walt Disney, the Hollywood media giant, is poised to invest Rs 13.14 billion (USD 327 million) in two UTV group firms. Pritish Nandy Communications Limited (PNC) has struck a Rs 1.8 billion (USD 45 million) deal with DQ Entertainment (DQE), one of the world's leading animation and gaming production companies, to co-develop and co-produce six animation movies over the next three to four years. PNC had also signed a five-movie deal with Motion Pixel Corporation (MPC), a Florida-based animation company that has its animation studio, Estudio Flex, in Costa Rica. "The absolute key to this business is having strategic partners. It's important to ensure that a property lasts 15, 20, 30 years," said Dean Koocher, managing director of US-based Honest Entertainment, at FICCI-Frames, a media and entertainment meet on Wednesday. Honest Entertainment is the creator of popular characters such as Tele Tubbies and Fido Dido among others. "While ensuring the revenue stream for such a business, one also needs to look at certain other critical aspects such as territories, which is very important in keeping the product consistent," Koocher said. Executive director for Cartoon Network Enterprises in India and South Asia, Jiggy George said, "It is very important to understand what revenue model we are looking at, how margins should be defined. The opening of the retail business could prove to be a huge revenue earner for the Indian animation industry." Chief operating officer of Graphiti Multimedia, Munjal Shroff said, "It is ultimately the content that translates into revenues. Some of the very important aspects of creating a property lie in its uniqueness, appeal, target audience, look and theme." He also felt that protecting property was important. "In India intellectual property rights (IPR) laws have become stricter. With a little time and effort, as the process may well take one and a half years, one can be sufficiently protected," Shroff hoped. The Indian animation industry is poised to attain a market size of Rs 40 billion within the next four years from the current Rs 13 billion, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). "Domestic demand will create the fillip in its growth as well as contribution from international co-productions, especially in the television segment," the report said. FICCI-Frames, the ongoing annual global forum, looks at the business aspects of the media and entertainment industry. It is billed as one of Asia's biggest forums for the entertainment business with some 2,000 Indian and 500 foreign delegates discussing issues like growth and sustainability of the sector and how to address the challenges facing it.

Courtesy: www.headlinesindia.com, March 26, 2008

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The Asia-Pacific IT services market is set to grow by a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 percent to reach US$55.9 billion in 2011, according to new research. Momentum in the region, excluding Japan, will be led by the Indian IT services market, which is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 18.6 percent, analyst house Springboard Research said Tuesday in a statement. Phil Hassey, vice president of services research at Springboard, noted that the IT services market in the Asia-Pacific region is the fastest growing in the world, with a mix of mature and emerging markets. In 2007, the region's IT services market was valued at US$37.5 billion. "The markets of interest [in the region] are not just the top four--China, India, Australia and Korea--but [also] emerging ones like Indonesia and Vietnam, which will register significant growth going forward." China is expected to contribute significantly in dollar terms, and is ranked the most attractive market in terms of opportunities. Factors contributing to market attractiveness include local capabilities, service portfolio and presence, Hassey said. Nonetheless, factors such as existing relationships and prominent clientele can provide expansion opportunities even in limited growth markets such as Hong Kong or New Zealand, he added. Application hosting, Springboard reported, will be the fastest growing area of IT services, with a forecast CAGR of 19.5 percent between 2007 and 2011. In absolute terms, enterprise application integration or linking up various applications to improve business processes will overtake IT outsourcing to be the biggest segment of the IT services market in the region, contributing US$7.8 billion by 2011. IT outsourcing, the largest IT services segment in 2007, will shrink over the next few years due to a lack of demand from Chinese businesses, said Springboard.

Courtesy: www.zdnetasia.com, March 25, 2008

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G K Pillai, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has urged the Indian government to explore into the field of nanotechnology. Terming it as the future of science, Pillai said that India should learn from the countries like Japan who are spending heavily on nanotechnology. However, he added that India would need 10-15 years before using the technology optimally. "Nanotechnology is new and it will take 10-15 years for this technology to develop fully," added Pillai while speaking at the 'Chem Summit 2008' in New Delhi today.

On Energy Front
Laying emphasis on energy security, Pillai urged for increase use of ethanol blend fuel in the country. The Secretary further added that energy security of the country cannot be above food security. On this front he suggested mixing ethanol with fuel, which he said, will increase income of the farmers also. He also said that nuclear energy is a good source keeping in mind its environment friendly nature. "21st century is the century of renewable resources and we should aim for making more use of them. Water resources can become a future energy of India," he added. Pillai further said that three focus areas of the summit nanotechnology, bio-fuels and water treatment are appropriately chosen, as these would be the most relevant in the current future. "21st century is the century of water, and water scarcity would make it necessary to recycle the water. Planned SEZs in the country are already proposing to recycle their 90 per cent of used water. Therefore recycling treatment would be one of the largest businesses and will have a huge market," he asserted. The two day summit, which started today, will focus on various areas like bio-fuels as an alternate energy source in the country, water purification and treatment, the use of nanotechnology to improve productivity and challenges for the chemical industry in the country.

Courtesy: www.headlinesindia.com, March 25, 2008

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Delhi, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were among India's best e-governed states in 2007, a survey released on Monday said. The survey was conducted across 20 states by publisher CyberMedia and intelligence and research firm IDC India, it said in a statement. The participants gave maximum marks to e-governance initiatives in education, income tax and transport services while they were most dissatisfied with those in employment exchanges, police and security as well as the judiciary, the statement said. The worst e-governed states, as per the survey, were Jharkhand, Gujarat and Haryana. Gujarat had the biggest fall in its rankings to 19 from 4 a year earlier, it said. The overall e-governance scores of Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Haryana also fell as compared to those of 2006 as citizens and businesses reported low satisfaction levels with government services, the statement said. Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, was ranked sixth overall.

Courtesy: http://in.reuters.com, Mar 24, 2008

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India has formulated a three-stage nuclear power programme to optimally use its uranium and thorium resources, parliament was informed Thursday. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan told the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, that the government had taken a number of steps to develop appropriate technologies for the utilization of thorium. 'Large-scale thorium utilization is contemplated in the third stage of this programme, where uranium-233 is bred in fast-breeder reactors of the second stage and will be used together with thorium,' he said. Also, a research reactor Kamini at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu using uranium-233 fuel obtained from irradiated thorium will be set up. 'The reactor has been operating since 1997. The fuel for the reactor is bred, reprocessed and fabricated indigenously,' he added. The government has also carried out irradiation of thorium fuel bundles in research reactor at Trombay and in Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). Another major step is design and development of Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) using thorium-based fuel. 'This reactor will serve as a technology demonstrator,' Chavan said. Around 2,00,000 giga watt years (GW-yr) electricity potential exists in India using domestic thorium through the route of breeder technology, he added.

Courtesy: www.yahoo.com, Mar 13, 2008

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