The Discovery Channel has announced that the 2002-03 season will include the launch of Discovery Channel Quest, a new initiative designed to inspire and fund the next generation of scientific achievement.

An official release informs that over the past two decades, the Discovery Channel has provided the resources for research that resulted in groundbreaking finds including the recovery of the Liberty Bell 7 space capsule, identification of two new dinosaur species.

Discovery Channel Quest seeks to expand this legacy by funding projects, scientists and explorers who are at the vanguard of their fields. These research activities will be chronicled via online and televised despatches from sites around the world, lecture series, and landmark television specials that capture the toil, genius, setbacks and exhilaration that are the lifeblood of the search for knowledge the release states.

Executive VP and GM Discovery Channel Clark Bunting said: "At a time when many programmers are looking to retrench and conserve, the Discovery Channel is aggressively investing in the highest quality original programming, specials and initiatives like Discovery Channel Quest.

This is the key to expanding our already strong position in an increasingly cluttered television world, and we are looking forward to delivering programming that continue to engage and surprise viewers as well as enabling science and exploration that may change our view of the world."

In addition. the channel announced that the 2002-03 schedule will see six new original series. They include Hi-Tech History which blends past and future by using 21st century technology and techniques to answer the lingering questions of histories‘ greatest mysteries. People Watch combines real life video footage with expert scientific, anthropological and psychological perspectives to analyse everyday behaviors that most of us take for granted.

James Cameron‘s Expedition Bismarck will be the first programme emanating from the Discovery Channel Quest initiative. The director of Titanic searches for the German battleship DKM Bismarck. The program chronicles his personal quest for the submerged wreck and seeks new information and answers to how this seemingly invincible ship was destroyed on its maiden voyage.

The Discovery Channel and BBC will reunite in 2002-03 for a wide range of high profile specials. The coming year features the next installment in the Walking With... franchise. Cavemen will be featured. This all-new special will use the latest research and computer generated images (CGI) to shed new light on what life was like for our human ancestors. The new series also pioneers deep time-lapse, a visual technique that allows viewers to witness incredible scenes of climate change, geological uplift and environmental turmoil spanning millions of years - all in just a few moments. The Great Pyramid recreates a "builder‘s eye view" of the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Other specials coming in 2002-03 include Joined For Life, a program that looks at the daily life of the conjoined 11-year-old Hensel twins. The Hensel family chose Discovery to exclusively document a year in the life of the 11-year-old twins, from March 2001 to March 2002.

The Bharti Group of India and Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) have just marked the completion of the i2i cable network, the world‘s largest in terms of capacity, as well as the first private cable to link India and Singapore.

The 3,200-km i2i cable lands in Chennai in India and Tuas in Singapore. It has been developed by Network i2i, a 50:50 joint venture between Bharti and SingTel, at a cost of US$250 million. It is one of the largest infrastructure projects between Indian and Singaporean companies.

Utilising the latest Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing technology, the 8.4 terabits cable system can support 130 million Internet dial-up connections simultaneously. Construction of the i2i cable network began in late 2000 and it will begin to carry commercial traffic within the next four weeks.

Speaking on this president and CEO of SingTel Lee Shine Yang said: "The i2i cable network is a product of SingTel‘s successful collaboration with Bharti. The cable is linked to SingTel‘s extensive network in the Asia Pacific and will enhance telecommunications connectivity between the Indian sub-continent and East Asia."

The cable will support Bharti‘s introduction of IDD services, another important step in Bharti‘s vision to be a leading telecommunications service provider in India."

Chairman and Group MDirector of Bharti Enterprises Sunil Mittal said, " The cable will create huge bandwidth capacities that will help in making the Indian business environment increase productivity and fuel economic growth."

The domestic and international long distance markets in India were liberalised on 1 April 2002. Network i2i expects this development to stimulate demand for telecommunications services.

CEO Network i2i Ng Seng Sum said: "The Indian telecommunications industry has enjoyed some of the highest growth rates in Asia in recent years.The relatively low penetration rates for fixed-line and cellular services offer significant potential for growth. Continued economic development and increasing use of information technology and the Internet will fuel demand for international bandwidth."

Lee and Mittal also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), on behalf of SingTel and Bharti respectively, to extend the partnership between the two companies.

As part of the MOU, SingTel and Bharti will study the possible enhancement of the i2i cable network to other parts of Asia, including the Middle East and Europe. This can be achieved either through new infrastructure or acquisition of capacity on other cable systems.

The two parties will also develop joint programmes to market the i2i cable and, in support of market liberalisation in India and Singapore, enable open and non-exclusive access to the cable for all carriers in the two countries.

SingTel has invested $650 million in the Bharti Group and presently has an effective stake of 28.5 per cent in Bharti Tele-Ventures, the listed vehicle of the Group.

Bharti Tele-Ventures, a company promoted by Bharti Telecom, is India‘s leading private sector provider of telecommunications services based on an aggregate of approximately 1,553,822 customers comprising Internet, National Long Distance and about 1,274,846 cellular customers (as at 28 February 2002).

Cellular services currently constitute the largest portion of its business in terms of total revenues.

SingTel claims to be Asia‘s leading communications company with a comprehensive portfolio of services that include voice and data services over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms.