UIDAI AIMS TO REGISTER 600 MILLION USERS BY 2014

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is looking at registering 600 million users by 2014. UIDAI aims to check fraud or impersonation by collecting multiple identification details of a person on a biometric system recorded on a term life insurance.

R S Sharma, director general and mission director of UIDAI, said, “We are talking to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Petroleum Ministry, and others, who can work as registrars for us. It can help LIC policy holders to claim disbursements, among other benefits.”

UIDAI is going to float tenders next week to finalise software companies for the software application development. “Our in-house technology team is looking into the architecture of the process. We should be ready by the end of this year or early next year,” said Sharma.

UIDAI expects to ensure even those who were "ghosts" with no documents to prove they existed would bag the benefits that the state wanted to provide them. “Currently, a lot of people have more than one Pan cards. Also, we do not have one identity card, which can be used everywhere and valid. So, this card will be unique and accepted nationally. The UIDAI will become the single source of identity verification,” Sharma added.

NEC INDIA TO EXPAND PRESENCE

NEC India Pvt. Ltd. on Thursday said it would increase its focus on the fast-growing hospitality sector by launching its latest products and increasing its pan-India presence.

Range of solutions

Unveiling its latest enterprise communication solution on eczema treatment, NEC India Managing Director Koji Oda said: “India as a market is of strategic importance to NEC globally. It is one of our fastest growing markets today and we are committed to addressing the needs of this market.” “As a part of our growth road map, we are looking at strengthening our partner network by enhancing depth and reach through specialised system integrators and consultants who can target specific verticals.

Our tailor-made solutions help reduce operational costs. NEC offers a wide range of solutions that are applicable for the hospitality sector, including state-of-the-art IP telephony solutions that enhance business productivity and energy efficient IT solutions,” Koji Oda added.

NEC India Country Head (Private Network Systems) Ravinder Raina said: “With the growing demand for hotels, NEC seeks to fortify the hospitality industry with its assortment of solutions.

We are uniquely positioned in this market segment as a holistic solution provider that helps hoteliers create strategic business advantage by increasing operational efficiency, improving guest safety and strengthening differentiation. Among the flagship products of NEC, we have the IP telephony solutions which help in keeping track of the staff and ensure their optimal productivity.”

25,000 INDIAN EMAIL IDS FOUND ON HACKER FORUMS

The last couple of years have seen criminals hacking websites to steal personal information for monetary gains. Now, security firm Trend Micro has come out with a report, which said that there are about 25,000 Indian email addresses and passwords on different hacker forums on the Internet.

The report further stated that the information is a mix of email ids and passwords from sites like Yahoo, Gmail, Sify, different webmail addresses and a number of corporate email addresses as well.

Abhinav Karnwal, APAC technical marketing manager - enterprise, Trend Micro said the data is posted on numerous hacker forums on the underground. “These websites are not published. If a person wants to access it, they have to choose specific DNS servers or channels,” he said.

As per Trend Micro researchers, the nature of the list indicates that the email providers themselves were not hacked, but third party websites on which these users were registered were compromised.

“This is similar to the cases of the ChristianSingles and Faithwriters websites in the US last year, where a security issue with those websites allowed hackers to gain access to the complete user list and passwords for those websites,” said David Peterson, consumer products director, Australia and New Zealand, Trend Micro.

In the ChristianSingles and Faithwriters cases, the users had reused their email addresses and passwords across multiple websites and enabled the hackers to compromise the victims’ email accounts, social networking accounts, financial data through eBay and PayPal and even their business extranets.

“Many of these websites have adequate security measures in place, but those that do not have adequate security mechanisms are putting their subscribers at a serious risk. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible for a typical internet user to assess the vulnerability risk level of such websites without some form of third-party accreditation system in place,” Peterson added. He also said NC short term health insurance is the recent buzzword among many these days.

FIRM UNDER SCANNER IS TOP BIDDER FOR BSNL PROJECT

A Rs 1,000-crore BSNL project has run into rough weather with a company, charged with evading customs duty worth Rs 55 crore, emerging among the top four bidders. The WiMAX Rural Tender Project II, a wireless broadband project for which BSNL and MTNL are the only ones with the licence, proposes to cover rural areas across the country.

As per tender norms, the four lowest bidders would share the work. While the tender evaluation committee cleared the first three lowest bidders on November 26, 2009, it raised objections in awarding the contract to the fourth bidder , Vuppalamritha Magnetic Components Ltd (VMCL), Hyderabad, because the company had come under the scanner of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in 2008 for alleged customs duty evasion of Rs 55 crore in the import of transmission equipment for BSNL.

Chief general manager of Southern Telecom Project Circle (STP) of BSNL, P R Ananthan, in a letter to director (consumer mobility) at BSNL corporate office, R K Aggarwal, on December 21 recommended handing over VMCL’s case to the chief vigilance officer (CVO) of the BSNL saying the bidder had violated the “integrity pact” by falsely claiming that there was no criminal charge pending against it.

However, instead of referring the VMCL case to the CVO, the deputy general manager for WiMAX at BSNL corporate office, Anil Bhardwaj, asked Ananthan to clear VMCL’s case. His letter said, “The case with regard to VMCL has been examined. Approval is hereby conveyed to issue APO (advance purchase order) to M/s Vuppalamritha Magnetic Components Limited, Hyderabad, who has been evaluated as L4 bidder in Rural Tender Project II.”

But the vigilance department has now put the brakes on the deal . When TOI sought BSNL CVO Sat Paul’s reaction, he said, “The corporate office of BSNL has not forwarded VMCL’s case to me. But I got an independent representation, based on which I called for details from DRI. I got the DRI papers only on January 13. Meanwhile, I have sent a communication to the corporate office not to proceed further on VMCL’s case till our investigation is over. It is wrong to award a tender to a firm against which a DRI case is pending. So far, I have not got any response from the corporate office for my letter.” Sure this issue will reduce belly fat of his :-)

As per CVC guidelines, every private company, which a government of India department or PSU deals with, should have high integrity and ethical standards. This is to ensure transparency in tender procedures and awarding contracts. The WiMAX project is for a second-generation protocol that enables more efficient use of bandwidth whereby transmission of video, voice and data from even a mobile phone is made easy. BSNL and MTNL are the only operators in India to get spectrum for rolling out WiMAX broadband services.

The DRI showcause notice (equivalent to a chargesheet) says VMCL and its sister concern Prithvi Information Solutions Ltd (PISL) had “conceived, devised and formulated the scheme of defrauding the government” of Rs 55 crore. The DRI rapped the BSNL too. It said, “BSNL officials helped in the execution of the conspiracy.”

However, BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal said contracts have so far been awarded only to the first three bidders of the WiMAX project and that the VMCL contract was being kept on hold till the issue was resolved. Interestingly, even after DRI issued the first show-cause notice to VMCL and PISL on February 10, 2009, close to Rs 480 crore worth purchase orders were issued by BSNL to these firms.

V V Rama Rao, VMCL chairman, when contacted, refuted the DRI charge saying the DRI had wrongly interpreted the case. Also, “the case is pending adjudication by the customs collector and as of now we are not guilty of committing any crime. We are confident that the adjudication authority will give us a clean chit,” said Rao. He confirmed that even while the DRI case was going on, BSNL had awarded contracts worth several hundred crores of rupees to his firms. “But what is wrong in it? Every other company that deals with telecom equipment, including the BSNL, has similar cases against them,” he claimed.

The 350-page DRI showcause notice said the two firms split the hardware and software components of dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) equipment “with a view to avail(ing) undue benefits of customs (duty) exemption for the software portions.”

But Rama Rao denied that his firm had committed duty evasion. “DRI’s claim that the hardware contained embedded software is wrong. Some hardware had software, which was loaded for testing purpose. They cannot be called embedded software. DRI has gone by the test report given by the C-DOT. We have disputed that. We are awaiting the adjudication by the customs collector. We participated in the WiMAX tender last year because till now we have not been pronounced guilty in the DRI case.”

PATNI APPOINTS ANIL GUPTA AS EVP, HEAD OF OPERATIONS

Patni Computers has appointed Anil Gupta as executive vice president and chief of business operations.

Gupta is going to focus on sales operations, enterprise resource planning, business continuity, enterprise risk management, global travel, IT, procurement and facilities.

“He will work close with Jeya Kumar, CEO, to augment business operations globally in line with Patni’s strategy of intellectual property led verticalised growth and renewed focus on emerging geographies,” stated the company’s press release.

Kumar said: “Gupta comes to Patni at a crucial time in our growth trajectory. As we head into the new financial year, we have ambitious plans for our micro vertical approach as well as geographical expansion.”

Prior to joining Patni, Gupta was working as chief operating officer of Aditi Technologies and has also worked with Sun Microsystems for 11 years in different executive roles. Read the supplement reviews for more info...

APPLE SEES NEW MONEY IN OLD MEDIA

With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs is betting he can reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television much the way his iPod revamped the music industry—and expand Apple's influence and revenue as a content middleman.

In developing the device, Apple focused on the role the hgh supplements gadget could play in homes and in classrooms, say people familiar with the situation. The company envisions that the tablet can be shared by multiple family members to read news and check email in homes, these people say. For classrooms, Apple has been exploring electronic-textbook technology, these people add. The people familiar with the matter say Apple has also been looking at how content from newspapers and magazines can be presented differently on the tablet. Other people briefed on the device say the tablet will come with a virtual keyboard.

Apple has recently been in discussions with book, magazine and newspaper publishers about how they can work together. The company has talked with New York Times Co., Condé Nast Publications Inc. and HarperCollins Publishers and its owner News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal, over content for the tablet, say people familiar with the talks.

EBAY BEATS IN QUARTER ON PAYPAL, E-COMMERCE GROWTH

EBay Inc forecast 2010 results above expectations after posting double-digit revenue growth in PayPal and its main online marketplaces unit, sending shares up 8%.

The company, which is in the midst of a turnaround as it battles Amazon.com and other retailers like acne products, also beat Wall Street profit estimates in its closely scrutinized holiday quarter.

EBay, which connects buyers and sellers over the Internet, has been overhauling its main marketplaces division to increase transactions on its site. Revenue rose 15% at that unit during the quarter.

Gross merchandise volume, which measures the total value of goods sold on eBay, rose 24%. That marked a huge improvement over the negative trends seen earlier in 2009.

EBay said it expects full-year 2010 adjusted earnings of $1.63 to $1.68 per share on revenue of $8.8 billion to $9.1 billion. That was above the $1.60 per share expected, on average, by Wall Street analysts.

“It’s fair to say a turnaround is taking shape,” said Morningstar analyst Larry Witt, calling the results the best in at least a year. “You’re going to see more of the same (in 2010).”

“Pay Pal is hitting the ball out of the park,” he added.

That fast-growing Web payments unit, which represents more than a third of overall revenue, saw a 28% revenue rise during the quarter.

Gains in marketplaces, which includes Shopping.com, StubHub and other e-commerce units, were driven by more sold items and more goods purchased for fixed prices, rather than in an auction format.

The company has sought to increase selection, enhance security and make it easier to buyers and sellers to conduct transactions on the site. A lower tax rate and a stronger US dollar also helped results in the quarter.

GOOGLE GETS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY IN CHINA

One night in the mid-1990s when I was working as a journalist in Beijing, I went out to dinner with some Chinese friends. I had just finished reading a book called The File by the British historian Timothy Garton Ash and was listening to my MP3 players . It’s about what happened in East Berlin after the Berlin Wall came down and everybody could see the files the Stasi had been keeping all those years. People discovered who had been ratting on whom—in some cases neighbours and co-workers, but also lovers, spouses and even children. After I described the book to my Chinese dinner companions—a hip and artsy intellectual crowd—one friend declared: “Some day the same thing will happen in China, then I’ll know who my real friends are.”

China today is very different from Soviet-era Eastern Europe. It’s unlikely that its current political system—or its system for blocking foreign websites known widely as the “great firewall”— will crumble like the Berlin Wall any time soon. Both are supported and enabled by the current geopolitical, commercial and investment climate in ways that Soviet-era Eastern Europe and the Iron Curtain never were.

I do believe, however, that in my lifetime the Chinese people may learn more about some of the conversations that have taken place over the past decade between Internet company executives and Chinese authorities. When that happens, they will know who sold them out and who was most eager to help the Chinese Communist Party in building a blinkered cocoon of disinformation around their lives—and in some cases deaths.