Spending by the government and its agencies is on increase India, and is estimated to have grown by 60 per cent to $480 million in fiscal 2003-2004 from around $300 million in 2002-2003,

The centre has allocated Rs 600 crores to the National e-Governance Plan, the NEGP, while the World Bank has indicated it would be willing to increase its funding for e-governance initiatives in the country. The World Bank funding, in-principle, could be up to $500 million over the next four years. According to well-informed sources, the World Bank scheme is expected to cover 10 main areas, including land records, property, registration, transport and revenue collection amongst others, across 25 separate projects. The National e-governance Action Plan has identified 22 projects, which are to be implemented in a phased manner over the next 3-4 years by line ministries at the central and state level.

State-based WANs have been identified as part of the core infrastructure for supporting these e-governance initiatives and the department of information technology has earmarked a significant outlay for supporting this activity. As per official guidelines, each department is expected to spend between two-three per cent of its annual budget on IT related activities, including e-governance. Several large IT companies have also launched e governance initiatives in India. Cisco Systems, the world's largest networking company for the Internet, has recent signed an MoU with Ministry of IT and will invest $10 million to establish a rural connectivity programme and set up a next generation network lab with BSNL in Chennai

Cisco will be helping to set up labs in state capitals around the country, under the MoU. The labs will provided SWAN Advanced Technology Enablement. These labs will serve as pilots/proof of concept labs for demonstration of technologies such as LAN/WAN, IP communications, Wireless and security," says Sudhir Narang, senior vice-president, Telecom and Government, India and SAARC, at Cisco Systems.

Mr Narang said the labs will also serve as test beds for State governments to test applications and services before they are rolled out in a SWAN environment. Cisco will also establish "Common Service Centres" in upto 100 villages in India, which will pro-vide citizens on-line access to government services in rural areas Cisco Systems will also be helping the State-owned BSNL to set up a Next Generation Network Lab.

Tata Steel Ltd on Wednesday signed a formal agreement with BlueScope Steel Ltd, Australia, to form a 50:50 joint venture in India. The JV Company will manufacture zinc/aluminium metallic coated steel, painted metallic coated steel and roll-formed steel products and deliver pre-engineered buildings and other building solutions. The new JV Company will invest Rs 1,200 crores as capital cost on units in four manufacturing locations in India and a network of sales offices across Saarc. It will also build a state-of-the-art metallic coating and painting facility at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, at an investment of Rs 900 crores.

The plant will have a metallic coating capacity of 250,000 tonnes and a paint line capacity of 150,000 tonnes annually. It is expected to be operational by mid-2008. Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman said: "Tata Steel and BlueScope Steel share a similarapproach to value creation in the steel business. Consumers would benefit from the range of solutions that will now be available to the building industry. This joint venture company combines the strengths of tly two organisations and would increase the use of value-added steel products." Mr Kirby Adams, managing director and CEO of BlueScope Steel said: "Together, BlueScope Steel and Tata Steel have forged a powerful partnership, which will capitalise on the strengths of our two organisations in bringing premium quality branded products to the building and construction markets of India and South Asia."

Mr Muthuraman and Mr Adams announced that Mr Chetan Tolia, who was chief of strategy and planning, will be the managing director of the joint venture company. Mr Tolia said, "This joint venture will deliver steel based building solutions to the construction industry. The customers will benefit from the increased speed of construction, wider design options, onsite assembly of factory manufactured components, improved site safety and reduced wastage. This will overall enhance the way the building and construction industry operates today."The investment is consistent with the Company's strategy of growing its downstream value-added products business. The decision to proceed with development of a metallic coating and painting facility follow completion of a rigorous 12 months feasibility study.