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The PC market in India has taken the unconventional route with major chip makers like Intel and AMD coming out with new designs for computers that appeal to masses both in terms of price and value. The conventional PC dies not seem to be the preferred bet for those looking at increasing penetration of the Indian market as chip makers and hardware manufacturers are coming out with new form factors which suit Indian conditions.

If Intel has come out with its Classmate PC, which is more of a miniature form of notebook computer, then AMD has designed new form factor PCs where the central processing unit (CPU) has been shrunk to a minimal size. AMD’s designed product is being manufactured and marketed by Wipro Infotech under the brand name Protos. Alok Ohrie, MD, AMD India says that they are tying to facilitate a computing environment for the masses and thereby create a new market.

These new form factor PCs are not just about designs itself as they are competitively priced too. The protos comes with a price tag of Rs.14000 at the entry level while Intel’s Classmate PC comes with a bundled cost of around Rs.17000.

However, Ashutosh Vaidya, Wipro personal computing, Wipro Infotech, says it is not just the question of price which will drive these PCs but the value and functionality it generates. In case of Protos, it can be run on a 12 volt battery and can withstand extreme weather conditions and has all the features of a normal PC.

Mr.Vaidya said it is looking at adding more applications on Protos and would like to make it a more solution oriented machine. In the case of Classmate PC, Intel is targeting the education sector especially schools since the machine is more attuned to children.

According to IDC, the installed PC base in the country recorded a CAGR of 32.3% to grow from 9.5 million in 2003 to cross 22 million in 2006, thereby more than doubling in a three year time frame.

Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India said that the country has one PC for every 50 Indians. He said that this represents a watershed era in the history of the Indian PC market. He also said that they still have miles to go as a country to evolve an ecosystem that would help to that the benefits of computerisation reach of masses.

For players like Intel, AMD, Wipro Infotech and HCL Infosystems, it is not just a question of the masses having access ti PCs and broadband but also tapping future market potential. Mr.Ohrie said the innovations have already been getting a positive response from the marketplace especially with the small business community and first-time users.

Probably one of the biggest rages to hit India is that of the Internet, which has grown to become survical requirement for many Indians. This would probably explain why finding and internet cafe today is not such a cumbersome task in urban India and is slowly creeping to rural India as well.

Moreover, there is a noticeable evolvement in the usage of Net. What was once used to simply access one’s e-mails, is now being used for a variety of purposes right from research, mobile downloads, advertising, shopping and even business.

Today names like Google, Yahoo et al are synonyms to search, mail and chat and claim a large user base. However, an interesting observation would be the rise of Indian portals that dare to challenge the might of already established global names, the most popular being Rediff.com, Sify.com and Indiatimes.com.

When rediff came out with its email service in 2004, it promoted its service as ‘lightning fast’ email service that probably caught on with the indian crowd just as fast. Today, Rediffmail can proudly boast of having a user base that stands at 53 million registered users. However, this does not deter counterparts like Sify.com and Indiatimes.com that too have become just recognised names.

While sify might not be really big in its emailing business, it is actively involved in the Internet business that it involves itself in everything to do with the Internet in India ranging from its portals to enterprise services, Internet service providers to gaming. Not to be ignored is Indiatimes who is all set with its latest product that they cal, ‘My Indiatimes’, in efforts to allow users to customise their homepages and inbox to suit their tastes and needs.

While this is the first attempt from an Indian web portal, such services are already provided by giants - Yahoo and Google through their products My Yahoo and iGoogle respectively.

Regarding the launch of the new Indiatimes mail, Dinesh Wadhawan, Managing director and CEO of times Internet Ltd says that the new Indiatimes mail is based on latest AJAX, Web 2.0 technology which offers a user friendly interface and the most advanced features which will allow users to virtually ‘Live out of the Inbox’. The enhanced functionalities and young look will appeal to today’s netizens and new adopters. I am confident that the new Indiatimes mail with its futuristic features will definitely change the paradigm of e-mail usage.

In view of the increasing crunch of engineering graduates, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has just completed its pilot project ‘Ignite’ for transforming 500 science graduates, drawn from 200 colleges accross nine states into software professionals.

The trainees underwent a seven month intensive training programme along with live project experience during which period they drew full salaries from the company.

CEO and MD S.Ramadorai told that the trainees would be deployed in different streams like research and development, programme management, design capability and BPO facilities. TCS is in talks with the Chennai Mathematical Institute and other Institutions for a tie-up so that trainees can enroll for masters and PhD programmes later.

TCS plans to scale up the Ignite programme and hire 2000 science graduates this fiscal. The training programme will equip maths and science graduates with the skills necessary to pursue a career in the IT industry.

Ramadorai said that sixty percent of the pilot batch consisted of women from various states, including the North East, which have not been traditional talent sourcing destinations for IT companies. Over 65 percent of the 500 science graduates are first generation graduates in their families, while 60 percent of the pilot batch came from tier III cities, Class C towns and villages.

The TCS Ignite course begins with logic and problem solving methods and move to their applications in the real world with a high focus on soft skills, customer orientation and project management.

Ramadorai said that TCS Ignite had provided that with the right learning methodologies, science graduates could be empowered with knowledge and skills relevant to this sector, thereby developing new sources of talent to sustain the growth of the Indian IT industry.