World Bank announces $665 mn loan for India
Washington: The World Bank has announced loans and International Development Association credits totalling $ 665 million for transport projects and economic reforms in Mizoram, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh will get an additional amount of 65 million pounds from the United Kingdom.

Mizoram state roads project gets $ 60 million IDA credit which will improve road capacity, quality and safety through rehabilitation and maintenance, the World Bank said in a statement.

The Mizoram project will rehabilitate over 700 km of the state's core road network over the next five years.

Kerala state transport project receives from World Bank $ 255 million. The Kerala project will address the rapid increase in demand for road services.
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Rao acquitted in JMM Case
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has acquitted former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and his cabinet colleague Buta Singh in the JMM bribery case, setting aside the judgement of conviction and sentence by special judge passed on 29 Sepember 2000 and 12 October 2000.

Justice RS Sodhi held that the sole approver Shailender Mahato was an unreliable witness. Rao and Buta Singh had filed criminal appeals challenging the findings of the special judge, holding them guilty of the charges framed against them.
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Net telephony from April 1
New Delhi: The government has decided to allow Internet service providers to offer telephone services over the Internet from 1 April.

From April 1, customers of Internet access providers can make voice calls from their computers to another computer within India and to a phone abroad.

The move will provide another income stream for scores of Internet service providers, most of whom are bleeding because of huge costs which they cannot recover from customers.
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IIT-Mumbai, Compaq set up e-com lab
Mumbai: IIT- Mumbai and Compaq India have announced the launch of the Compaq e-Commerce Expertise Lab at IIT-Powai to carry out research and development applications for e-commerce.

Compaq has provided the IT infrastructure in the lab at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore. The facility provided includes Compaq Alpha Server GS160, Compaq Proliant Servers, Compaq StorageWorks SAN, Enterprise Backup solution and desktop computers.

The lab will use Compaq's technological expertise and R&D of our graduate school to develop end-to-end e-Commerce solutions aimed at corporates.
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Telecom tribunal allows limited mobility services
New Delhi: The Telecom dispute tribunal has allowed basic phone companies to provide mobile wireless in local loop (M-WLL) service.

M-WLL enables consumers to have mobile phones as part of basic telephony, at Rs 1.20 for three minute call rates.

Among private companies, Tata, HFCL and Shyam together offer about 60,000 M-WLL connections.
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