MIT, ESCAP's regional round table meet from June 21
Ministry of information technology and ESCAP are organising a two-day regional round table meeting of ESCAP members countries on "Information technology and development" in New Delhi. The inaugural session of the meet will be addressed by minister for information technology, Pramod Mahajan. The meeting is expected to provide a forum for ESCAP members and associatemember states to examine the increasingly important role of IT in the context of a knowledge-based global economy.

CII call to DoT on variable revenue-sharing
CII's national committee on communications, in a letter sent to the government recently, has urged the DoT to go ahead and sign new agreements with service providers soon. Since the only factor holding up signing of new contracts is the revenue-share issue, CII strongly recommends keeping a variable revenue-share clause in the contracts so that the process can be kept moving. CII further suggests that the process of inviting participants for the next round of bidding for basic and cellular services must also be started. A specific time-frame for implementation of the next round of bidding must be set up by the government. Further, since 3G frequency is now available, the process of inviting participation and issuing licences in this sub-sector must also be initiated, says CII.

First m-commerce system gets mobile
Mastercardinternational, Siemens and Brokat on Monday signed an MoU which will pave the way for millions of mobile phone users to conduct transactions with their mobile phones - including purchasing products and services, paying bills, and even auctioning items. In effect, this agreement will transform a mobile phone into a secure, personal multi-functional tool. With this new development, the three industry leaders are providing companies and individual consumers a number of breakthrough services and solutions, all available at the touch of a mobile phone keypad.

Orpine Systems to enter capital market
Orpine Systems Limited, a Hyderabad-based company engaged in Geographical Information Systems, data warehousing and web technologies is entering the capital market with a public issue of Rs 27,10,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at par, aggregating Rs 271.00 lakh. The company was incorporated in 1999. Orpine Systems plans to part finance a 100 per cent EoU, and set up overseas subsidiaries in USA,Australia and Singapore with the IPO proceeds.