The Hindu Business Line : Gates makes strong pitch for MS products

ON the final day of his India tour, the Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft, Mr Bill Gates, addressed the 4,000-odd developer community here on Friday. Making a strong pitch for MS products — SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 — to developers, Mr Gates said, "Businesses today rely on information technology to make them more competitive. These three products are dramatic advancements."

New versions of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 were launched worldwide last month.

The latest product, BizTalk Server 2006, helps enterprises monitor, manage and deploy their mission critical business processes. Usage of development framework .Net by Fortune 100 companies has gone up to 92 per cent in 2005 from 50 per cent growth in 2002, said Mr Gates.

"In India, developers are constantly updating themselves and .Net enables them to develop using a trusted platform."

He also announced a nation-wide talent hunt — "Code 4 Bill". This will identify the country's best student technologists, and is aimed at pre-final and final year students. "Indian students are setting high standards in the industry. It is important India maintains this edge and continues to nurture and develop its students so they can drive India's progress as an IT leader."

Registrations for the exam will commence in January. Twenty students will get to intern with Microsoft India. Last month, Microsoft announced it would train 100 system integrators and reach out to more than 100,000 developers through e-learning.

Speaking about trends in the IT industry, he said, "Most interesting advances are happening only this decade. Speech recognition, TV on Internet and addressing a project on multiple platforms are trends that are driving the IT industry forward. Over the next decade, Moore's Law will deliver."

Tablet PCs will revolutionise education. "Students will now be able to take home more in-depth information."

Elaborating on the digital revolution, Mr Gates said, "Digitisation has now entered every sphere. A phone will change from being just a voice device." You will be able to navigate using your mobile, to read road signs in different languages and even identify prices of goods, while shopping using the barcode.

"Software has the opportunity to improve things. We will need software breakthroughs in performance and security. That's why Microsoft has increased its R&D expenses to US $6 billion." High-end applications were being developed at Microsoft India Development Centre. "India needs low cost computing. We have brought personal computers to 1 billion people. We need to bring them to the rest of the 5 billion on earth."

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