Russia has offered to India a unique mortar and artillery tracking radar, "Zoopark-1", which is capable of pinpointing enemy firing positions for their subsequent suppression, defence sources said. Produced at the Vektor plant of Yekaterinbug, "Zoopark-1" needs to track an enemy mortar or a shell for just eight seconds to project its the full trajectory from the firing position to the place it is going to land, allowing pinpointing and thereby suppression of enemy firing positions within a range of 20 kms, the sources told PTI. Vektor plant sources said the radar, mounted on tracked armoured vehicles could have saved lives of many Indian officers and jawans involved in Operation Vijay in Kargil had they been utilised in the battle zone in the Kashmir mountains.

HCL Comnet

HCL Comnet Systems & Services Ltd has launched its e-commerce-based shopping mall - www.hclcomnet.com. The site will be the first multi-media, multi-vendor and multi-technology site forinfotech products for the Indian businesses. The shopping mall will bring to the domestic corporates the ease of purchase experience. The company is expecting to do $10 million worth of product sales in the first year along with $5 million longer term service contracts from the site. A press release said the e-commerce initiative is starting with networking products and services from 35 vendors.

Net-based trading to boost volumes

Internet-based trading, currently under consideration by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), would lead to a minimum 20 to 30 per cent rise in volumes, according to DH Patil, managing director of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). "Volumes will definitely go up as internet trading will increase the reach of the trading network," he told PTI. However, this would largely depend on the interest shown by stock brokers. "Volumes are directly proportional to the number of participants and web-based communication between the investor, broker and exchangewould magnify the reach of the trading system," Inter-connected Stock Exchange's (ISE) whole-time director, V Shankar added.

Satyam gets 70,000 new subscribers

Satyam Online has bagged 70,000 new subscribers from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for its virtual campus initiative (VCI). Using this service, the computing students of IGNOU will be able to access information from the Web as well as get courseware, interact with the faculty, peer groups and external experts. Satyam Infoway collaborated with IGNOU in this mammoth task in creating the first virtual varsity, through which it will provide internet access during the semester, to every school of computer and information sciences student.

Punjab telephones

As many as 2.40 lakh new telephone connections would be released in the current fiscal in Punjab which till now has 10.90 lakh telephones. Punjab telecom circle chief general manager RN Sharma told mediapersons in Phagwara that of 2.40 lakh new lines in Punjab,45,000 lines would be laid in Jalandhar telecom district alone by March next year. He said the waiting list would be wiped out in Punjab by March 2001. Of the 11 main cities taken up for wiring on priority basis, all except Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Ferozepur would have telephone on demand after the end of current Financial year. While in these three cities telephone on demand would be available after the end of 2000-2001 fiscal, he said.