Sanyo LSI Technology India Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanyo Electric Co of Japan, on Wednesday inaugurated its chip design centre facility in Bangalore. The company plans to expand its design capacity by setting up a second unit adjacent to the existing facility. Sanyo has already pumped in about $2 million for setting up the company's existing unit which houses around 25 engineers. "The total investment in the country will be to the tune of $5 million," Sanyo LSI Technology India director KS Raghunathan said.

American Power power controller:

American Power Conversion (APC) has launched its MasterSwitch network power controller (PCU), with increased functionality of Telnet. The new product enables both 120 and 230-colt models to reboot locked-up servers and Internetworking equipment from remote locations. It also enables remote administration of all the power management features like reboot, power-on and power-down the attachedequipment.

Mastech Corporation practice:

Mastech Corporation has unveiled its customer interaction management (CIM) practice that includes sales force automation and call-centre management services. The company has also announced its alliances with Siebel Systems Inc and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc to enhance such practice. Under the agreement, Mastech will help companies implement Siebels's and Genesys' customer interaction solutions.

Tata Johnson bags orders:

The Pune-based Tata Johnson Controls (TJC) has got a comprehensive order for design, manufacture and supply of seating system for the 178 platform of Palio and Sienna cars from Fiat India Ltd. TJC will be moving to a brand new plant with modern facility and a CAD design centre with multi terminal multi software set up. The company had bagged design orders earlier from Safari, Indica and export order of design for Oriental Summit Industries of Malaysia for Proton Iswara model.

Dataquest man of the yearaward:

Rajendra Pawar, an IT industry pioneer has got the Dataquest IT Man of the Year award for 1998. Pawar was chosen for the award by a jury comprising people from the IT industry under the chairmanship of Nasscom executive director Dewang Mehta. Pawar serves on the prime minister's National IT Task Force. The Dataquest award instituted by Cybermedia recognises excellence and contribution of leaders for their individual contribution to the cause of information technology in the country.

Nokia bags awards:

Nokia, the global mobile phone manufacturer, has been awarded the Advertiser of the year for 1999 at the Media Magazine Advertising Awards and Honourable Mention for Technology Campaign of the year in the Asian PR Awards. The Advertisers of the year Award recognises companies that show commitment to building its brand across the Asia Pacific region and developing creative advertising and in close partnership with its agencies.

HCL Infosystems appointment:

HCLInfosystems has been appointed as prime partner to Southern On Line Services for the turnkey implmentation of SOL's Internet services infrastructure. SOL has been granted the licence to provide Internet services under category B and is preparing to start operations shortly in Andhra Pradeesh. This is HCL Insys's first project under its recently announced WWW.OW initiative.

New Sicom chairman:

Subhash Dandekar, a well-known industrialist and executive chairman of Camlin Ltd has taken over as chairman of the State Industrial & Investment Corpopration of Maharashtra (Sicom). Besides being the executive chairman of Camlin Ltd, Dandekar was associated with organisations like the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce and Mahrastra Economic Council as president. He is the president of Shushrusha Citizen's Co-op Ltd and a member of the management commitee of Ficci.