The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Industry to study telematics operations in Europe

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 09, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Industry to study telematics operations in Europe

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, SEPT. 8. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) proposes to undertake a study on the operation of telematics in transportation in Britain and Germany. It is keen on inviting inputs from experts and professionals, said S. Sadagopan, Director, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIITB), at the concluding session of the two-day Tele Trans 2004 conference and exposition here yesterday.

It was organised by the CII in association with the IIITB, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India and the SAE-India.

Earlier, R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Officer of the Union government, said preliminary reports were submitted by groups, set up by the Department of Atomic Energy on embedded software, telematics, advanced materials and safe recycling, etc, in connection with the pilot project for implementation of telematics in transportation at the Koyambedu bus terminal here. He urged industry to risk investment in research and development instead of taking to R&D merely of the trouble-shooting variety.

State's commitment

Vivek Harinarain, Tamil Nadu Information Secretary, said the State Government's commitment to IT was evident from two IT policy pronouncements and emphasis on "political neutrality" of the sector. The State was a leader in IT, automobiles and component industries and logistics services. It would render all assistance in application of telematics in transportation.

Anant R. Koppar (Mphasis Technologies) said that given the pattern of car purchase decisions and costs in India, the potential of the "after-market" (fitting telematics into cars which are already operating) should not be neglected.

Gopal Srinivasan (TVS Electronics) said only high-volume, low-cost services and products would survive in India, as had been realised by multinationals. Hence telematics should be tried out in two-wheelers to provide emergency services to the rural population and as a means of locating and rushing emergency aid to two-wheeler riders themselves who were the commonest victims of road accidents.

Sanjay Chakrabarty (MobiApps) said opportunities in the Indian telematics market could be tapped not by "waiting" for infrastructure development and Government policy prescription but by taking the plunge and learning from market experience.

Prof Sadagopan said Tele Trans 2005 would be held in Pune.

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