TATA gears up for ISP foray with new firm
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tata.com
(Thursday, February 17, 2000)
Rajarshi Roy in Mumbai
Tata Sons executive directors R Gopalakrishnan and Ishaat Hussain, Tata Industries managing director Kishore Chauker and TCS chief executive officer S Ramadorai have taken over as directors on board of the group?s new venture ISP India Ltd, which holds an Internet service provider (ISP) licence.
When contacted, top Tata officials refused to comment on the group's Net plans. "We are not prepared to go to the press with our plans at this stage," they said.
ISP India is a Tata Industries subsidiary, though the shareholding is yet to be finalised. Several other Tata group companies are expected to pick up equity in the new company.
Earlier, Tata Industries managing director K A Chauker had said that the equity base of the new company would be pegged at Rs 20 crore to 25 crore initially.
ISP India will be a service as well as content provider on the lines of Satyam, and is presently finalising details of several portals that it proposes to launch.
ISP India is expected to co-ordinate with other group companies providing Net-based services to ensure that there is no duplication. The group is planning to buy out a string of regional internet service providers and emerge as the largest business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform in the country.
The group is on the lookout to recruit a chief executive officer for the new venture. It is also scouting for talent for the startup, which is expected to go operational by next month, with the launch of its first portal.
The ISP venture plans to cover 40 to 60 cities shortly after it takes off. The company proposes to start with B2B and then go on to B2C (business to consumer) as well.
In the second stage of operations, the company proposes to play the role of applications provider by offering ISP solutions to companies for their business.
Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Interactive Services, Tata Strategic Management group and Tata Tele Services will help in evolving the content base for the new venture. The group is also looking to tap potential content generation capacity within other group companies as well.
-The Business Standard |
