NEW DELHI: Software giant Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates will address
policymakers, state leaders and a host of software developers next week during a
fleeting visit to India to explain his Internet strategy.
Microsoft India managing director Sanjay Mirchandani said the .Net strategy
was as crucial to Microsoft as its switch a decade ago from the plain text based
DOS operating system to the colorful, ubiquitous Windows.
".Net (strategy) is as important as the shift was from DOS to
Windows," he told a news conference.
Gates' one-day visit to New Delhi on September 14 comes three years after his
first visit to the country.
That was followed the next year by the establishment of Microsoft's first
full-scale software development center outside its Seattle home base, in the
southern Indian city of Hyderabad.
Gates, who is now chief software architect after quitting as chief executive
officer, will also hold a news conference in Delhi.
While he will address policy-makers to promote his company's initiatives for
e-governance, or the use of Internet in policymaking, his business with software
developers will be more technical.
India, with its thousands of programmers, is considered crucial for Microsoft
to develop end-use software based on the core technologies that the company
specializes in.
Company officials say India has produced more than 100,000 professionals
certified in applying Microsoft's technologies.
Microsoft officials said the new strategy would center on "software as a
service", an emerging trend in which users would pay for software they
would rent, the XML language which would enable efficient access and display of
data, and emerging smart devices like mobile Internet tools.
Although many of the so-called open standards and technologies driving
Internet are not owned by any one company, Microsoft officials expect to offer a
range of tools and components which would make things easier for developers.
(C) Reuters Limited 2000.