The Maharashtra government is planning to spread cyber-culture in the state by promoting affordable access to internet services for the commonman and jobs to educated unemployed youth, especially in rural areas.

Official sources told PTI that Chief Minister Narayan Rane was expected to discuss an ambitious scheme with infotech experts, including telecom wizard Sam Pitroda, from the London-based WorldTel on April 6.

The government would work as a catalyst in providing information to establish internet communication centres, they said.

Pitroda, who is spearheading the group, has proposed that WorldTel would create the infrastructure and build an organisation that would operate the community internet communication centres on a commercial basis by setting up a company in collaboration with nodal agency designated by the state government. WorldTel would mobilise the required investment through discussions with its core investors and with the Maharashtragovernment, the sources said.

According to the proposal, the government would develop software and create data-base to promote use of internet for on-line application for admission to schools and colleges, information on employment, health care, housing and land records, the sources said.

Sharp decline in Indian computer server market

The Indian market for high-end computer servers declined significantly in 1998 along with other markets in Asia-Pacific, a survey has shown. Since with the exception of China and Australia, the decline was all-pervasive in the Asia-Pacific region, India managed to hold on to its overall market share. There was only an insignificant fall in its share, a survey of the International Data Corporation (IDC) said. The end-user revenue in the Indian server market saw a shrinkage from $211.9 million in 1997 to $180.3 million in 1998. Its market share slightly declined from 5.4 per cent to 5.3 per cent.

Total revenue in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) was down by$490 million in 1998 over the previous year. The survey showed that the first half of 1998 gave the maximum blow to the vendors and the decline was somewhat checked in the second half of the year. "Reductions were subtle in the second half of the year and the top markets continued to perform," IDC said expressing the hope that the "worst is over for the Asia-Pacific market". It attributed the poor performance of the server market to effects of the Asian financial crisis which had caused widespread recession and the resultant budget cuts for many companies and governments. It was no surprise that the markets of Indonesia dropped by 71 per cent, Malaysia 51.7 per cent, Thailand 45.2 per cent and Singapore 12.1 per cent. Among vendors, the worst hit was the Compaq Group 21.3 per cent, Unisys 6.7 per cent, Hewlett-Packard 6.9 per cent and IBM 4.7 per cent.