Speaking to The Financial Express, Lakhotia said, "we are starting a pilot beta version of the internet course in July. The Total Information System Management course of LCC will be offered on the internet in the pilot."Lakhotia hopes to offer a series of courses starting August over the internet. The initial feedback from the pilot course will be available by then and a online counselling system will also be in place by August."Online counselling will mean real-time interaction over the internet. We are starting the pilot with a system that uses a database of frequently asked questions to answer queries from students over the internet," Lakhotia said.

An online test will determine the eligibility of the student. Thereafter, the studentwill be given a password that will allow him access to the lessons. The instructions and examinations will be conducted over the internet too.

"The students will be able to download or take prints of the course material from the internet," Lakhotia said.

To target students in developed countries where there is greater access to the internet, LCC has drawn up a plan to promote the courses. Firstly, the website will be hyperlinked with other educational websites. Panel advertisements will also be taken in various educational websites that will inform about the courses.

Lakhotia said, "our research & development wing is also in touch with the various universities in developed countries like the US where students have their own e-mail accounts provided by the university. We directly e-mail the students telling them more about the courses."

Speaking about the e-commerce course that is about to be launched later this month, Lakhotia said, "there will be great demand for e-commerce professionals in thecountry as the internet-economy the world over will grow to $450 billion in 2000 from $200 billion, at present."

The e-commerce course will start in May in six LCC centres in Calcutta and will be made available at all the 600 centres of LCC all over the country in June.

Lakhotia said, "There is a real shortage of professionals trained in e-commerce applications. In fact, while looking for faculty we had to bring them over to Calcutta from south India."

While the various e-commerce skills are available in India, it is difficult to find people equipped with the entire gamut of knowledge expected of an e-commerce professional, Lakhotia pointed out.

The e-commerce course will cost Rs 48,000. The minimum expected eligibility criteria is that the student must have a year of computer training behind him and must know one programming language.

"The students completing the course will find jobs as e-commerce developers and e-commerce administrators. However, the filed demands teamwork and soon we will launchshort-term courses for people who want to specialise in areas like front-end or back-end applications, Java programming and web page designing," Lakhotia added.

Free Y2K diagnostic software

LCC Infotech is offering a free download software that will analyse the Y2K compliance status of the hardware of the user.

The software is available at www.lccinfotech.com. If the software detects a problem LCC is offering its Y2K Autopass software for Rs 999. The Y2K Autopass will be couriered to the customer.