After the resounding success of Shaktimaan, Mukesh Khanna now brings Aryamaan- Brahmaand Ka Yoddha.

A fantasy tale of high drama, battles, political intrigue, changing loyalties, betrayal, romance, adventure, thrills and so on, Aryamaan is a story of a warrior prince of Thar empire which belongs to Ariyana galaxy which is millions of years away from planet Earth. The serial is slated to begin telecast from 14 July, every Sunday between 12:00-1:00pm on DD1.

" Aryamaan is ten times bigger than Shaktimaan in terms of backdrop, drama, action, adventure, thrill, production values and special effects,"says Khanna. He believes that Aryamaan will be a trend setter as far as DD programming is concerned and will bring about a turnaround in DD‘s image the same way KBC turned Star around.

Mukesh Khanna in and as Aaryamaan

The first episode of the serial was shown to a select group of journalists last night at the Taj and if it is anything to go by, its grandeur indeed would overshadow Shaktimaan many times over.

With his serials, Khanna intends to create a new genre of programs that would contain high drama, thrills, adventure and weave elements of science fiction in it to make the programs educative as well.

A report from Mike Baker, BBC Education correspondent, broadcast on BBC World, the BBC‘s international news and information channel, has prompted an expatriate British millionaire to donate $500,000 to Oxford University.
The benefactor, Kevin Malone, originally from Nottingham, England but now based in New Jersey, USA, was inspired by the BBC World report which highlighted Oxford‘s efforts to broaden access to higher education for students from low income families by launching the Oxford Bursaries Scheme and featured pupils from inner-city Nottingham visiting Oxford. After watching the report last summer, Malone contacted the university to offer his donation, an official release states.

The $500,000 donation will be used to pay bursaries to students from low-income families. Malone, a regular BBC World viewer who never had the opportunity to go to university and had no prior connection to Oxford, has also now included the university in his will.

Commenting on news of the donation, Mike Baker said: "I have sometimes had viewers offering help to people or schools I have reported on but never to the tune of $500,000 - and probably a lot more as he has now included the university in his will. Obviously raising money for good causes is not our main purpose but it is very nice to know that my report has not only been watched carefully but also acted upon."

The number of active Internet entities increased to 1.29 million in March 2002 indicating an increase of 15 per cent over March 2001. The penetration of Internet among businesses grew to 39 per cent from the earlier 36 per cent and while a marginal increase led to 11 per cent penetration in the households. The business segment now contributes 48 per cent of the total active Internet subscribers and households account for the remaining 52 per cent, according to a finding released yesterday by Manufacturers Association of IT, an apex body of the hardware industry.
The industry performance review for FY 200-02 indicated that the desktop PC market grossed 167,000 units - registering a negative growth of 11 per cent over the previous year. PC sales had clocked a growth of 34 per cent in the FY 2000-01 over that of 1999-2000. The severe recessionary trend in the Indian economy has adversely impacted the domestic hardware market. The market witnessed significant slow-down in IT consumption in general manufacturing, banking & finance and media & professional services sectors. However, with imminent recovery in the Indian market, the IT market is expected to grow at 12 per cent in FY 2002-03, with projected PC sales of 1.9 million units.

MAIT‘s Industry Performance Review - ITOPs, conducted by the leading market research firm IMRB (Indian Market Research Bureau), is bi-annual and aims to address the hardware sector‘s efforts to manage the business environment, gauge the market potential and consumer trends. The first mid-year report evaluates the industry‘s performance between April-September and the second, between October-March. This round of the study involved face-to-face interviews with over 14,000 respondents selected randomly from 16 cities in India. The study was initiated by MAIT in 1996-97 and leading IT hardware vendors subscribe to it. The study encompasses five broad product segments - computers, networking products, printers, other peripherals and Internet.

As per the MAIT-IMRB study the assembled PCs - the smaller lesser known regional brands and unbranded systems - accounted for 46 per cent of the PC sales in 2001-02. The proportion of the assembled PC sales shrunk from 53 per cent in the previous year - a negative growth of 22 per cent. The poor performance reflects the fact that price sensitive market segments deferred their IT purchase plans in 2001-02.

However, the MNC brands maintained a robust performance - a market share of 35 per cent, up from 27 per cent in 2000-01 despite registering a negative growth of 17 per cent. The Indian brands accounted for 19 per cent of the market. The share of the Indian brands in 2000-01 was 17 per cent.

The MAIT-IMRB Review reveals that PC sales, both to the business segment and to the households declined by 11 per cent as compared to the sales in the last year. In the second-half of 2001-02, the market recovered, but not sufficient enough to result in positive growth.

The Sivasankaran-promoted Dishnet DSL, a Chennai-based Category A Internet service provider (ISP) plans to come out with voice over Internet Protocol service very soon and is also looking at offering value-added services to its customers, according to an executive of the company.
"We are planning the VoIP soon and will also supply the phone sets through which customers will be able to use the facility," B Rajan of Dishnet DSL said.

Pointing out that the company will not restrict itself to the core services, Rajan said value-added services will be an added incentive. The services which the company is looking at offering include video streaming, video conferencing, gaming and e-commerce.

"We are also closely looking at e-learning which is a buzz word these days," Rajan added.

Dwelling on the company‘s expansion plans, especially in North India, Rajan said that a hub would come up soon in Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi. "But we are open to partnerships for co-location," he said, hinting that in those places where the company does not have a hub or a gateway it is open to forging alliances.

Dishnet DSL, incorporated in 1998, currently has operations in 37 cities in India with eight licenced international gateways and over 125 Dishnet DSL hubs.

Pointing out the advantages that a Dishnet customer has compared to the one who has a Net connection through cable, Rjana said that while DishnetDSL connections are always on, dedicated and secured lines, a csusbcriber of Net-over-cable may not get the consistency due to cable deficiencies and will not have a complete secure line.

Some of DishnetDSL‘s clients include Coznizant technology Solutions, HCL technologies, Arthur Andersen, Raj TV and Vijay TV.