In pursuit of the cheap PC

TATTLE

Several people are working on making personal computers affordable to the masses.

The latest to join in is a senior telecom industry executive who recently retired from the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. In order to push internet and broadband services in rural areas, the official (who does not wish to be identified) is trying to rope in banks, hardware manufacturers and service companies to offer PCs on an instalment payment basis.

He argues that this will raise PC penetration levels, help small town India and rural India get broadband and internet services and will be attractive to banks too as they will get clients in rural India.

Ice World columnist Rajesh Jain too has embarked upon a venture that attempts to provide PCs priced at Rs 5,000 with affordable software based on Linux applications.

Still born

The plan to launch a news channel (S1 TV) aimed at the National Capital Region, promised by the Delhi-based real estate company, Senior Builders, seems to have come a cropper. Even before the satellite channel could take off, it's top editorial team has put in its papers.

The channel's editorial head and chief executive officer, Santosh Bhartia (a former member of Parliament and a former editor of "Chauthi Duniya"), has quit even before the recruitment process began. Senior Builders' chairman Vijay Dixit, who promised to invest Rs 115 crore in the television project, was not available for comment.

However, media industry sources say that Bhartia and Dixit could not see eye to eye on several issues, including the technology that was being bought for news operations.

Interestingly, media industry experts feel that this may be the end of Senior Media Ltd.'s television foray -- Dixit has been now been spotted scouting for an editor for a Hindi weekly news magazine.