Sony Corp on Monday said it would begin marketing digital video disk rewritable (DVD-RW) drives for personal computers in the US this autumn. The new drive allows PC users to read and write in DVD-RW disks with a data storage capacity of 3.0 gigabytes. Sony plans to manufacture 10,000 to 20,000 units of the drives per month at a domestic plant ahead of the scheduled US launch in the second half of 1999, a company spokesman said. The company has not yet set a date for the introduction of the drives in Japan, he said. DVD-RW is based on the CD-rewritable technology.

Lashkara goes analog

Lashkara, a digital Punjabi channel, will now be available on analog feed to increase its penetration, according to Reminiscent India Television Ltd, the Indian arm of Reminiscent (UK) Television. Present in 77 countries, the channel is on Thaicom 3 satellite with the downlinking frequency on 3474 MHz, vertical polarization at 78.5 degree east.

Citil bagsexcellence award

Citicorp Information Technology Industries (Citil) has bagged its fourth successive award for excellence in exports of electronics and computer software for 1996-97 from the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council. Citil is one of the leading suppliers of banking solutions. In 1998, International Banking Systems Sales League Table ranked Citil at No. 3 among all banking solution vendors worldwide on the basis of cumulative product sales.

LG Soft to showcase Java

LG Soft India has been appointed as authorised Java centre to showcase capabilities of Java in the areas of real-time, embedded systems and electronic commerce. This serves to illustrate the giant strides Java is set to take in small footprint applications, especially internet appliances, Sun Microsystems has said. The launches comes at a time when internet has created a new avalanche of users and web-enables devices are gaining wide acceptance among consumers.

Internet subscribers set to grow128%

The country's internet subscriber base is set to grow by an explosive 128 per cent in fiscal 1999-2000 to 5.2 lakh from last year's 2.27 lakh, according to IDC. Demand for subscriptions would come mainly from corporates reflecting last year's trend where they constituted 74 per cent of the total subscriptions with only 58,000 going to homes. The main driver for internet subscription among corporates is expected to be e-commerce and business applications in the coming years, it said.

Indian entrepreneurs on the Net

In an effort to help young Indian entrepreneurs, Sanjay Bapat, a senoir management professional has recently launched a website called IndianEntrepreneurs.com in Mumbai. Inagurating the indexed site, Keshub Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra said, "this is an effort to encourage and support the first generation entrepreneurs in India." Specially designed for young entrepreneurs, the website covers critical areas like venture capital, euro information, e-commerce,networking of entrepreneurs, management issues, profiles of successful Indian and international entrepreneurs. According to Bapat, the site is more than a source of information as it also offers a platform for exchange of ideas across the globe. Says Sanjay Bapat: "The website will be a networking agent between Indian entrepreneurs and funding agencies, activists group, corporates, lobbyists and global entrepreneurs."

SAS Institute

SAS Institute Inc, the leading integrated datawarehousing decision support and information delivery, has announced the availability of MetaSpace Explorer version 1.2. The MetaSpace explorer, a Java applet, is an effective decision support tool for organisations that need to communicate information to a large geographically dispersed user base.

MTNL to review internet prices

MTNL is planning to offer a new tariff package for internet connections in an effort to corner a larger chunk of the burgeoning internet market. MTNL is also planning to quadruple itscapacity in Delhi and Mumbai to 20,000 each, MTNL CMD S Rajagopalan said. "I have to match my tariff and packages in the new market to remain competitive. But at the same time market reality has to be taken into account," he told PTI.