VSNL, TIDAL Park forge pact: The Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has entered into an agreement with TIDAL Park of Chennai to provide the latter with a full range of telecom infrastructure. As per the agreement, VSNL will link TIDAL Park with optical fibre and microwave links to its earth station in Chennai. Besides, it will also provide an ATM-based optical fibre network which will effectively link the units operating in the complex. TIDAL Park is being promoted by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu and Tidco for providing infrastructure to infotech companies.

DSQ Software bags Hikal Chemicals order: DSQ Software Ltd has bagged an order from HikalChemicals for implementing a process enterprise resource planning (ERP) package and an asset management solution. Under the contract, DSQ will implement the process ERP package of Prism that will integrate Hikal's different locations.

Seagram India's R&D centre: Seagram India's in-house research and development (R&D) centre located at Chinchwad, Pune, has been awarded recognition by the department of scientific & industrial research, ministry of science & technology. The centre is the first and only research facility in the country working on grain fermentation technology. The certification has a special significance since it marks the first recognised R&D centre of any multinational firm in the beverage-alcohol industry.

NTPC chief Rajinder Singh bags award: The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) chairman Rajinder Singh has won the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises' (Scope) `Scope award for excellence and contribution to public sector management' for the year 1996-97. Thecommittee of jury under the chairmanship of justice PN Bhagwati met here on August 20 and decided Singh's name for the award, a Scope release said here on Friday. The award carries a cash amount of Rs 1 lakh, a gold plaque and a citation.

Online MBA programme: The Centre for International Management Education (CIME) has introduced an 18-month on-line MBA programme, affiliated to the US accredited Bellevue University in Nebraska. CIME general manager Rahul Kulkarni said students will get 24-hour access to the US-based faculty via the Internet in addition to regular class room sessions and seminars at the Sinhgad Institute of Management, at Vadgaon Budruk, nearPune.

Modular Systems office applications: Modular Systems, leaders in software products, recently launched Ankur, a new suite of Indian language office applications. Ankur has a built in multi-lingual word processor and a multi-lingual executive/personal diary, which allows the use of Indian scripts and keyboard layouts in anEnglish-oriented environment. This in turn allows the user to use Indian scripts and fonts in any of the Windows-based applications like MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PageMaker and CorelDraw.