India IT News Capsule - May 06, Issue 3

• Stockholm Challenge awards for the best ICT projects in the developing world have been announced. The best project in each category will be winning 5000 Euros. India's ITC eChoupal has won the best project under the Economic Development category.

• Bangalore, Chennai and Gurgaon are the leading centers for writing code that is finding its way into the next generation smart cars being produced by General Motors (GM), Daimler Chrysler, Ford and BMW. These include software controls for infra-red vision in head lamps and in-car Bluetooth applications.

• Indian railways has taken the next big step in going online next to its e-ticketing services. Customers will soon be able to track packages sent via Indian railways. The Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) is looking to make available the entire Freight Operation Information System (FOIS) online, so that users can keep track of their packages via the Internet.

• Reuters reports that Indian mobile firms have added another 3.9 million (39 lakhs) new subscribers in the month of April, taking the total subscribers to 94.4 million, more then the combined population of Greece and Germany. Experts attribute this rapid growth that has made India the fastest growing mobile market in the world, to the ridiculously cheap mobile rates anywhere in the world. Just 2-3 cents per minute !!!

• Infosys director, Mohandas Pai, has warned of a severe human resource crunch that might slow down the pace of growth among ITES companies in the coming years. Though close to 5 lakh students come out of engineering colleges each year in India, only 2 lakh students are eligible for employment. This means that the industry that requires 3 lakh new engineers every year based on current growth might find itself stifled.