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BUSINESS
INFOTEC REVOLUTION
IT Revolution raises
15-20 million Indians above poverty line every year" says Dr Ashwani
Kumar
Photo (L to R) M N Chaini, President-elect, IMC, Dr. Ashwani Kumar,
Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Industry an Niraj Bajaj,
President, IMC
Since the advent of the 21st century, the telecom revolution has
raised 290 million Indians above the poverty line, said Dr Ashwani
Kumar, Union Minister of State for Industry. "About 15 to 20 million
poor rise to join the ranks of the middle classes every year – roughly
equal to the population of Australia" he said speaking at the two-day
conference on Communications Convergence organized by IMC at Hotel
Hilton Towers in Mumbai recently.
Addressing a special session on 'Telecom Revolution', Dr Ashwani Kumar
said, “By 2011, 58 per cent of the rural population will have mobile
phones, and 95 per cent of urban people. 80 million phones are
purchased every year, as against 15 million bicycles, indicating that
India’s people are using mobiles rather than bicycles to achieve
connectivity,” He pointed out that there was a tremendous deficit in
India’s capabilities for manufacturing IT and communications hardware.
“If present growth trends continue, India’s import bill for
electronics will exceed its oil import bill by 2050”.
F.C. Kohli, former Deputy Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services said
that IT is hardware, software and communications. And its development
has made enterprises, government and individuals highly efficient. He
said, "As late as in 2001, our position was that Indians were
borrowers of technology, but not initiators. However, thanks to some
major strides in government policy, we have made significant progress
in this regard. We are now confidently able to state that we are
initiators of technology too,”
Maharashtra's Minister for Finance & Planning, Jayantrao Patil in his
inaugural address said that the State Government has planned to link
9000 villages with the State Data Centre through wireless connectivity
soon. Patil was addressing the inaugural session 6th International
Conference on “Communications Convergence - Wireless Communication in
Today’s Age”, Patil said that the State Government had recently
connected the treasuries at all taluka centres with state
headquarters. “This has enabled the Government to monitor and regulate
the cash flows at a pre-determined rate,” he said. He announced that
the State was implementing a pilot project for releasing the payments
directly to the bank accounts of recipients. In a similar way, it was
also launching another pilot project for tax collection and also
disbursal of dues through banks.“Very soon, we are setting up a
website for direct and realtime communications with pensioners,” he
said. It had also planned to set up a website soon for enabling common
people to track the pace of their applications in the government
corridors, he added.
Speaking on the key role of cable technology in rendering wireless
services, Deepak Chhabria, MD, Finolex Cables, pointed out that the
precipitous drop in the cost of cabling over the past two decades had
greatly aided the IT revolution. The use of fibre-optics was more
prevalent now, enabling a massive increase in bandwidth. “And now,
with the development of band-insensitive optic fibres, a new
revolution is about to begin, wherein high levels of communications
convergence through household wiring will turn the home into an
‘intelligent house’, with voice-activated controls and appliances that
you can switch on and off remotely by a mobile call.”
Ashank Desai, former chairman of Nasscom in 1996-97 and at present
Chairman, Mastek Ltd., pointed out that IT professionals consumed
about 60% of the nation’s telecom bandwidth. The bandwidth connecting
India to the US had grown a millionfold over the past 20 years, while
the cost had near halved in the last 3 years alone. He pointed out
that poor physical infrastructure was choking growth of IT and
communications. This included shortage of power, roads and telecom
infrastructure in tier 2-3 cities, which could otherwise register
massive growth in the IT and BPO sectors.“There is also a need for
convergence between ministries,” he pointed out. “Otherwise, a lot of
necessary policy measures will fall through the cracks between
different ministries and departments, which are unable to track the
rapid growth of technologies.”
While IMC President Niraj Bajaj welcomed the guests, Nanik Rupani,
Chairman, Electronics & Telecommunications Committee, IMC explained
the significance of this annual conference. Niraj Bajaj said that the
last mile access was one of the major constraints in the growth of
broadband connectivity. “The greatest challenge is to achieve the 20
million broadband subscribers target by 2010, which is only 3.13
million today,” he said.
Vijay P Bhatkar, Chairman, ETH Research Lab, Gopal Das, Director,
Planning & New Services, BSNL, Dewang Neralla, Director-Technology,
Financial Technologies (India) Ltd. and Vijay Mukhi, Managing
Director, Vijay Mukhi's Computer Institute also addressed the
inaugural session. Proposing vote of thanks, Murlidhar N Chaini,
President-elect, IMC said that the sessions of the conference on both
days – would be highly significant, with a lot of take-home value.
VV Kamat receives lifetime contribution award
'Hall of Fame Lifetime Contribution in Hospitality Industry Award'
given at the ITB, Berlin 2008
The International Council of Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA)
today honoured Vithal Venkatesh Kamat, Executive Chairman and Managing
Director of Kamat Hotels India Limited (KHIL) with the “Hall of Fame
Lifetime Contribution in Hospitality Industry” award at Saal 9 at the
annual ITB Convention in Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany.
International council of Pacific area travel writers association
The aim of the PATWA Award is to honour entrepreneurs who make an
invaluable contribution in the tourism & hospitality industry. Kamat
Hotels is today a large hospitality business group with interests in
luxury and budget hotels, restaurants, catering, travel and
educational institutions. About Mr Kamat, who has been an innovator in
the hospitality industry for close to four decades, the citation read,
‘we are honored to present the award for the substantial contribution
Mr. Kamat has made for the hospitality industry’.
As a recipient of more than 50 awards, Mr. Kamat is a much honoured
person. He is a distinguished entrepreneur and a multifaceted person
with varying interests and has authored books in Marathi on his
initiatives. He is a keen environmentalist and this has rubbed off on
his professional life as well: all Kamat hotel properties have
stringent eco-friendly policies.
In 2007, Mr. Kamat received the PATWA International Award for the Best
chain hotel for Eco Tourism for Orchid Hotel. In recent years, he has
received the CII-ITC Sustainability Award 2007 – Commendation
Certificate for Strong Commitment among Medium Business Organization,
the Today’s Traveler Achievement award for “Innovative Hospitality
Concepts 2003, and “The Business Man of the Year” by the Maharashtra
Chamber of Commerce. Adding to these achievements, he was also
felicitated by Galileo as the best CEO and received a special Indian
Express Editors Choice Award in 2004.
Mr Kamat expressed his gratitude and delight at receiving the
prestigious award: “I thank ITB for this honour. It is a wonderful
feeling to be acknowledged by your peers, and this award will motivate
us to do even better. There is tremendous potential for innovative
concepts and service excellence. As a part of our continued
commitment, KHIL has recently introduced three niche hotel chains in
India; ‘VITS’, the luxury business hotel chain, ‘Lotus Resorts’ and
‘Gadh Hotels’ that are based in forts. We will continue to offer top
quality hospitality services to travelers”
With more than 180,000 visitors from 180 countries, ITB Berlin has
become one of the most sought after trade & travel shows in the world.
As a driving force in the travel industry, ITB Berlin gives important
impulses to a continuously growing market. Like every year industry
decision makers met again at the leading think tank of the global
tourism industry. This year, the four-day convention took place at the
ITB Berlin from March 05-08, 2008.
Box
About KHIL:
Kamat Hotels (India) Limited (KHIL) is one of the fastest growing
hospitality groups in the country. KHIL was initiated on March 21st,
1986 by the late Venkatesh Krishna Kamat, a visionary in the business.
His guidance and support helped Vithal Vekatesh Kamat, current
Executive Chairman and Managing Director, steer the company into a
successful public limited company in 1994.
Kamat's is today a large hospitality business group with interests in
Luxury Hotels, Budget Hotels & Restaurants, Travel Business, Catering
& Educational Institutions, Departmental Stores and of course,
Restaurants. With a turnover of over Rs. 80 crore (2006-07) and
approximately ten thousand shareholders, KHIL is listed on the Bombay
Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
After leading the environmentally sensitive initiatives in the hotel
industry, KHIL will be pioneering the Business hotel space with VITS
Luxury Business Hotels. The chain has been started in Mumbai & Belgaum
and will be followed by followed by Aurangabad, Nagpur, and Pune
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