A component is a software module that publishes or registers its interfaces. A component system would thus facilitate reuse of framework.

The two organisations will work towards building component software development competence among the Indian software companies. They intend forming a consortium of companies which are in a position to tap the markets in the SAARC countries to begin with, and later Asia-Pacific. CMG is also keen to introduce a Crisil-type rating system to certify the quality of software products and services.

USA-based CMG chairman Thomas Mowbray, accredited to be the pioneer of breakthrough component technology CORBA, is in India to inaugurate India's first component academy. A total of 22 such academies are planned to be set up all over India by March2000. By 2003, CMG hopes to have over 100 such R&D centres in the SAARC countries.

CMG has also reached an understanding with the Indian Institute of Information Technology Bangalore to introduce component academy masters programme in order to help the software industry migrate towards component based development work.

The comprehensive programme will be built around CORBA. CMG president and chief executive Sunil Dutt Jha, a B. Tech with honours from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, says it is his dream to establish component-oriented architecture as an essential element in software systems and component-based methodology as an integral part of architecture-centred information systems development.

STPI director PS Narotra believes CORBA will be central to the next generation of software development methodologies. ``It is high time the Indian software companies move up the value chain. They should build new technologies and a component development based approach will go a long way inavoiding tremendous duplication of work, '' Narotra argues.

Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is an architecture that allows applications to communicate with one another, no matter where they are located, in which software language they have been written, or on what operating system they reside. This permits unrivalled interoperability between applications and consequently permits reuse of framework and code.Known as father of CORBA, Mowbray set rolling CMG India's plans to help place India at the centre of the worldwide migration of information systems to component-based technologies.

CMG is a developer-focussed coalition which has 700 foreign companies as its member. It aspires to build a distributed and connected world using technologies such as CORBA. It has affiliates in place in USA, Canada, Japan, Italy and in India since last year.

This architecture ensures the ability of high-end users to keep up with technology advancements and allow the reuse of prove products and knowledgeacross organisational boundaries. In India, CMG is incorporated as an company with Jha at the helm.

Elaborating upon the applications and acceptance of CORBA, Mowbray says it is already being used in telecom, banking, healthcare and several other fields. ``Successful implementation of CORBA in Iridium project for global satellite telephony highlights its extent and efficiency.

Already, 50 per cent of the Fortune 1000 companies have a migration plan to have CORBA in place. In fact, Gartner group has predicted that 50 per cent of world's IT companies will close down unless they migrate to CORBA-based development,'' he cautions. It has no option but to migrate if it has to survive,'' says Mowbray. MNCs as well as technology-driven small companies would benefit from adoption of CMG architecture, he adds.

Among CMG's first attempts at introducing CORBA to an already acclaimed software development market like India is an annual Component Academy Award for excellence in the area of object computing.