IN a significant development, Pratt & Whitney, a division of the US-based major conglomerate United Technologies Corporation, is set to acquire a significant equity holding of 18.4 per cent in InfoTech Enterprises Ltd, a software solutions major.
InfoTech is currently specialising in geographical information systems (GIS) software services with a focus on a number of key vertical markets such as corporate, financial services, telecom, transportation and local government.
Pratt & Whitney, which is an existing and valued customer of InfoTech, currently does not holding any stake in the Rs 6.12-crore paid-up equity capital of the Hyderabad-based company.
Analytical Surveys Inc and Walden are the only two foreign equity holders in the company, with a total stake of 2.89 per cent.
At present, InfoTech has an agreement with Pratt & Whitney for providing various services.
Aimed at having a strategic long-term relationship with Pratt & Whitney, InfoTech Enterprises plans to offer equity stake to the US company.
Pratt & Whitney would be offered up to 12 lakh equity shares and three lakh share warrants, convertible into equity shares, aggregating not more than 15 lakh equity shares altogether, on a preferential allotment basis.
While the equity shares of Rs 10 each would be priced at $ 6 per share, the share warrants convertible into equity shares of Rs 10 each would be priced $ 10 per warrant in the preferential offer route.
The proposed resolution to offer shares to Pratt & Whitney on preferential basis is to facilitate the InfoTech board to complete the transaction after Pratt & Whitney obtains necessary corporate approvals.''
The proposed preferential offer would result in Pratt & Whitney emerging as the second largest stakeholder in the company after the Indian promoters, on the conversion of share warrants into equity shares. On the expanded equity base of Rs 7.62 crore, the holding of Indian promoters would get reduced to 30.7 per cent, while Pratt & Whitney end up with a holding of 18.4 per cent.
However, according to the InfoTech official, the proposed preferential offer would not result in any change in control over the company and the Indian promoters would continue to have management control.
As per the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two parties, Pratt & Whitney would be entitled to appoint a nominee director on the InfoTech board. The US company would have up to 20 per cent voting rights in the company after the conversion of warrants into equity shares and not exceeding 16 per cent voting rights prior to conversion of warrants into equity shares, the official said.
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Hispasat Selects Astrium to Build Amazonas Satellite
Hispasat Board of Directors selected Astrium to build Amazonas 1 for launch in the spring of 2004. The spacecraft is licensed to carry 63 transponders, 36 of which will operate on Ku-band frequencies with north-south and transatlantic connectivity and 27 on C-band frequencies. The satellite will be positioned at the 61°W orbital slot. The investment for the project is Euros 300.5 million euros of which US$213 million (Euros 240.4 million) is planned for the construction of the satellite and launch. Euros 60 million will be used to build a control station for the satellite in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Hispasat has secured an eight-year loan of Euros 30 million from the Spanish Official Credit Institute to cover some of the costs associated with setting up a Latin American affiliate to manage Amazonas. Telemar, of Brazil, is a minority partner in the project.
UP, India to make register of landed property
The UP government proposes to prepare a register of landed property in all major cities of the state through the remote sensing satellite system.
UP minister for civic affairs and tourism Lalji Tandon hopes this will improve the revenue of municipalaties and also establish ownership of unclaimed land.
Speaking to reporters , Tandon said as many as 40 per cent owners of houses were evading payment of house tax because they did not appear in the civic administration records. The remote sensing satellite system was also being applied to locate underground potable water in different areas. During such an exercise, an extensive table of sweet water free from fluoride contamination has been found below the earth crust in Agra district.
The Underground Water Board has now been entrusted with the job to drill deep trial wells at half a dozen places for commercial purposes.
Tandon said that since the holy city of Hardwar was now in the newly formed state of Uttaranchal, the UP government proposed to develop some less important pilgrim centres. In this context, efforts would be made to improve the ghats of Garh Mukteshwar in Ghaziabad district by channelising the water of the Ganga from Brij Ghat. The pilgrim city of Vidyachal in Allahabad district was proposed to be connected to Sitamarhi by a bridge.
The twin towns of Mathura and Vrindavan would soon have piped drinking water because the Gokul dam over the Yamuna was nearing completion. An attractive garden was proposed around this dam.
The minister said the state government was contemplating framing laws so that members of municipal corporations could be allocated funds to carry out developmental activities within their constituencies, like MLAs and MPs.
Sewa-100: policing at your fingertips
A wrong number dialled by a friend in America inspired a young Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, his orderly and a friend in Meerut to develop a software which brings effective policing on one's fingertips.
The push of a button on the keyboard and the entire district police machinery comes alive on a computer screen. The unique features of the software - Sewa-100- are its "constable compatibility" and its surprisingly low cost.
Sewa-100 is backed by a comprehensive database of all the city roads, banks, bars, colonies, fire stations, hospitals, hotels and offices. It enables one to locate a "distress call", monitor immediate police assistance. It was recently tested in Noida, near Delhi, and the results were encouraging.
"My friend in America was making a call to me from a public booth when he accidently pressed 911 (distress call number to local police) instead 91 (international code for India)", says Navniet Sekera, a 1993 batch IPS officer and the brain behind Sewa-100. the police had been able to react so swiftly because the police department has a software which has the telephone numbers and locations of all the telephones in the district.
This inspired Navniet to develop something of the kind in India.
The main component of Sewa-100 is a large, actual and on-scale digital map of the district on a computer screen. This not only enables one to locate a place but also helps in keeping a constant watch on all the police vehicles in the district.
Kibo Lab Pushes Asia Space Race
Caged by yellow catwalks in a hangar outside Tokyo, Japan's most hyped and technically advanced space project looks more like a bus-sized dog food can than a space station module.
But when launched into orbit three years from now, the research capsule will be the only part of the international space station designed, built and run by an Asian country.
Japan's high-tech wizardry boosted it into that elite club of space travelers. Bristling with pride, Japan bills the vessel, called Kibo - or Hope - as Asia's first manned spacecraft.
Yet as the 16-year, $4 billion venture entered the final phase of testing in November, Japan's space program was faltering. And as an Asia-wide space race is just beginning to heat up, it's all Japan can do to keep a tenuous lead.
The Asian space race may lack the high-profile propaganda of the Cold War sprint for the moon. But it mirrors that showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union in one important way: It is driven more by strategic goals than scientific ones.
Calling Kibo a manned spacecraft is a bit of a stretch.
While the vessel has room for four astronauts to conduct experiments, it will tentatively be launched into space by the U.S. space shuttle in three separate shots beginning in 2004.
Japan doesn't have a rocket big enough to budge the 16-ton package and the country isn't seriously entertaining plans to eventually launch its own astronauts.
China, on the other hand, has placed great prestige on and poured an undisclosed amount of resources into its secretive 31-year-old space program. Some estimates say China could be ready to put astronauts aloft in two years.
Japan's $1.65 billion a year space program was shackled from its inception, in part by the country's pacifist constitution. Human flights were off limits because the re-entry technology needed to bring astronauts home safely was too closely linked with intercontinental ballistic missiles, Nagasu said.
But that thinking changed when North Korea lobbed a rocket over Japan in 1998. Japan not only became more interested in human space flight, it vowed to send up its first spy satellite by 2003.
To put its own probes in space, Japan has even embarked on a new rocket program, the H-2A, which could pit it against Europe and the United States in the lucrative commercial launching market.
If the Jan. 31 final test launch is a success, Japan will proceed with 11 scheduled operational launches through 2005.
Kibo gives Japan access to the state-of-the-art outer space air conditioning, life-support and energy-supply systems used by NASA (news - web sites). And for the first time, Japan will be training its own astronauts for the space mission, instead of having NASA do the work.
China, long isolated by both the United States and Russia, at first had to develop portions of its space program from scratch and specializes in basic, but reliable, spacecraft,
By contrast, Japan has focused on high-tech gadgetry, often with mixed results.
It has successfully put a satellite in orbit around the moon and docked two satellites in space by remote control. But it also has a history of mechanical breakdowns, budget overruns and two failed launches, only recently reversed with the successful first liftoff of Japan's next-generation H2-A rocket in August.
Kibo is considered a bright spot.
``Before this, Japan never had its own manned flight system,'' boasts Shiraki, waving a hand at the hulk behind him in an assembly room the size of a sports stadium. ``I'm proud.''
Two round windows at the end of Kibo's 33-foot long pressured cabin peer out like eyes over a platform - or ``back porch,'' where a robot arm can carry out experiments exposed to the vacuum of space.
But even that feature, unique of all contributions to the international space station, shows just how far Japan has to go in being accepted as an equal, independent partner.
NASA has the right to use half of Kibo's research facilities for its own experiments.
And perhaps more symbolic - Japan's spacesuits, while emblazoned with rising sun flag on one shoulder, are also festooned with the U.S. stars-and-stripes on the other - something unthinkable in China.
