14-year-old boy clears Microsoft MCP examination: A 14-year-old boy from Jaipur has become the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) in the country. The whiz-kid, Govind Jaju cleared the tough examination conducted by the international software giant, netting a high score of 87.2 per cent, a certificate issued by the company says. Govind, a B-Com part one student of Commerce College at University of Rajasthan, had earlier achieved the distinction of passing Senior Secondary Board Examination at the tender age of 13 years. Govind told PTIthat he was inspired by a young boy who became a doctor at the age of 17 in the US. "I wish to be a system engineer in a big company managing its entire computer operations," Govind said.

Ushafone's Yes-T-D-PCO: Koshika Telecom Ltd's cellular service became part of the nation's political history, when it allowed telephone calls to be made to any destination in the world using Ushafone's Yes-T-D-PCO.

According to a company release, the air-time charges for calls made from the Delhi-Lahore-Delhi bus are Rs 8.40 per minute in off peak hours and Rs 16.80 per minute in peak hours. A similar service is operational in a UP roadways associated bus plying on the Delhi-Bareilly route, the company added.

C&W Optus embarks on fresh cost cutting: Cable and Wireless Optus Ltd said on Monday that it has completed a A$350 million cost-cutting programme outlined in its prospectus. Optus chief executive Chris Anderson told reporters that the company was embarking on a new round of cost cuts.

"Projectbreak even is over," Anderson said of the initial cost-cutting phase. "Project break through is not," he said. Anderson said that, under the new programme, Optus would aim to add A$300 million to its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation through cost cutting and revenue improvements.

International electronics cos agree on digital interface: Six Japanese, US and European electronics firms agreed to work together to create a patent pool and to promote industry-wide use of the IEEE1394 high-speed digital interface, they said in a statement on Wednesday. The firms are Apple Computer Inc, Compaq ComputerCorp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, Royal Philips Electronics NV, Sony Corp and Toshiba Corp.

"IEEE1394 is poised to become the most widely used industry standard to interconnect consumer electronics and personal computer devices," Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO, was quoted in the statement as saying.

CSC ups CSA stake to 54.2%: CSC Computer SciencesInternational Inc (CSC) has raised its stake in systems integrator CSA Holdings Ltd (CSA) to more than 54 per cent, Merrill Lynch (Singapore) Pte Ltd said on Monday. CSC bought 433,000 CSA shares, or 0.34 per cent of its share capital, on February 19 at Singapore $1.02 per share. CSC increased its stake to 69.46 million shares, or 54.2 per cent, from 69.03 million shares, Merrill said in a statement. CSC's general offer for CSA at S$1.02 per share was declared unconditional early this month and will remain open for acceptance until March 5, Merrill has said.

ICIL gets SEI CMM Level 5 certification: International Computers India Ltd (ICIL) has become the first software company to receive enterprise-wide SEI CMM Level 5 certification. Being assessed at level 5 by the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model puts ICIL among a elite group of seven organisations in the world which have this high level of capability in their business processes. LC Singh, president and CEO, ICIL, said thiswas an important event for the company as it proves ICIL's delivery capability in producing world class software. In the next three years ICIL aims to be a model software company for India.

PoleStar Awards for IT journalists: The PoleStar Awards for excellence in IT journalism in 1998 have been presented to Anand Parthasarthy, information technology correspondent, The Hindu, and Easwaradas Satyan, senior assistant editor, Dataquest. A release by Noida-based Polaris Software Lab, which instituted the award, said Parthasarathy was chosen by the jury for excellence in writing on "IT for the masses" and Satyan for "IT for competitive advantage".