Date:13/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/06/13/stories/2006061304130400.htm

Back Sun Micro in talks with States for e-gov projects

V. Rishi Kumar

To roll out 50 pilot community centres

Hyderabad , June 12

Sun Microsystems, a technology solutions provider, is in parleys with several States for eGovernance projects and is poised to roll out about 50 pilot community centres in the North in partnership with IL&FS.

The Director of Public Services, Sun Microsystems India, Mr Jaijit Bhattacharya, said Sun has had long association with various Government projects both at the Centre and the State level and the effort now is directed at consolidating this engagement, both as a partner and advisor.

On a visit to Hyderabad, Mr Bhattacharya told Business Line that one of the main challenges eGovernance projects are faced with in a large country like India is the issue of standardisationCiting a case of IIT-Delhi, where a project was developed and just when it was about to be released, they learnt that it is proprietary thereby hindering the project. "When eGovernance projects are taken up as pilots, we need to ensure that they conform to standards and can easily be replicated, while ensuring that the overall cost of ownership is under control. This is important to understand, or else a big chunk of this investment would go into software licences", he explained.