Debit Cards from VISA: Visa International on Tuesday announced the launch of its electronic debit product, Visa Electron, in the country. Citibank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and HDFC Bank will be among the first to issue Visa Electron cards in the first half of 1999,while five other banks will follow suit at a later stage. Local Visa Electron cardholders can access their bank deposits from any of the 5,000 point-of-sale or electronic data capture terminals and over a 100 ATMs. Member banks will process Visa Electron transactions in exactly the same way as they process transactions for other Visa products. No additional investments are called for as existing infrastructure and procedures will be well used.

Microtex unveils Live-In Jeans: Microtex Industries, part of the VIP group of companies, has launched a new line called `Live-In Jeans' in the economy segment. Targeted at teenagers, the contemporary range includes jeans made from enzyme-washed rugged denim and is priced at Rs 550 offering a choice of 10 shades. And Jeans made from mice stone washed ring denim is available at Rs 595.

House of Cartier platinum watches: Cartier has used platinum's incomparable power of fascination to set a non-pareil sparkle of precious stones. The happy union of Cartierand platinum has gone through all different styles, from art deco to naturalist jewels. This year, the House of Cartier has recreated three new watch models in limited editions of 50 each, using the most precious of metals--platinum. The three limited edition platinum mechanical watches are: Tank Cintree Two Time Zone watch (priced at Rs 910,000), Tank Chinois wristwatch (priced at Rs 535,000) and the Diabolo watch (priced at Rs 595,000). All these limited editions are exclusively for the Far-East.

Videocon unveils a new model: Videocon, market leader in the consumer electronics and home appliances segment, has launched a fully-automatic washing machine in Mumbai and other major cities of the country. The new model, V-NA-1311F from the Videocon's Fuzzy Magic series offers features that include dry wash load and ambient temporature sensor, soak wash facility and 24 hour programmable timer. Targeted at the new generation woman, the new model selects and executes the ideal wash cycle from as amany as 2,348 different wash combinations.

Cartier perfume: Cartier has always sought to celebrate those who are in love and can prove it by offering a rare and unforgettable gift..... like a perfume leaving an intimate trace on the skin, an impression which is meant to last, as powerful as a word, an image or an embrace. Declaration: a perfume from Cartier for a generous man, whole-hearted and forceful in the pursuit of his destiny. This perfume is launched in a gentel-feel bottle with a heart shaped cut-away panel. A metal clasp, the sentinel of pleasure, hinges at the top of this elegant flask, guarding the first caught notes of `Declaration'. This premium range perfume is being launched in two sizes of 50ml and 100ml bottles.

Rediff On the Net bags award Rediff On the Net (www.rediff.com) has bagged the `Best Indian Website' award for the second consecutive time in the year. Earlier, at the India Internet Awards'98, Rediff was voted the `Most popular Website of the year'. It also bagged the `BestDesigned Website of the Year,' at the same event which was organised by The Economic Times and Microland.

Internet services providers body appointment: Datapro Infoworld chairman and managing director Rajiv Arora has been appointed as chairman of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (Ispai). Prio to this Arora was the president of Ispai which was earlier known as the Email and Internet Service Providers Association of India. Ispai is a consortium of companies with interest in Internet-related services. The members of the association include Datapro, Satyam Infoway, Crompton Greaves, Global Tele Systems, Wipro, Hughes Escorts, RPG Sprint, Mahindra Network Services and HCL Comnet.

PictureTel Corporation visual collaboration solution: PictureTel Corporation, the world leader in visual collaboration, has intorduced PictureTel StarCast, the first visual colloboration solution to converge videoconferencing and streaming medial technologies. With this product, companies can extendthe funtionality of their video-conferencing systems to include multicasting capabilities which enable hundreds of additional people to simultaneously view a live videoconference at their web enabled desktops.

Sun Microsystems plans: Sun Microsystems Inc has announced its plans to establish an engineering centre in Bangalore as a part of its global engineering development initiative. The centre will augment Sun's existing India operations which include a java competency in Hyderabad, contract engineering in Chennai and the country sales headquarters in Bangalore. Sun also plans to explore opening of additional centres elsewhere in India as demand dictates. The India engineering centre will provide core compentency in enterprise software development in support of Sun's worldwide engineering operations.

Tata IBM unveils 5.2 version of DB2 Tata IBM, in continuation with the evolution of advanced data base technology, has launched Version 5.2 of DB2 UDB. The new version of DB2 UDB is a rationaldatabase which is fully web enabled, scalable from a single processor to symmetric multiprocessors and to massively parallel clusters. It also features multimedia capabilities with image, audio, video, text and other advanced object relational support. It also offeers graphical tool on OS/2 and Windows 32-bit operating systems that makes it easy to install, configure and administer DB2 databases.