All these five-star hotels have recently got broadband connectivity from Dishnet DSL.

In the middle of December, 2000, Erich Buerkler, CEO, Dishnet DSL, flew down to Pune to kick-off the city's first 'DSL Ready' five-star hotel, Le Meridien, all of whose 177 rooms and 15 other business spaces went alive with high-speed internet access.

In the next few weeks, Dishnet is going to provide broadband access to 15 other hotels, including The Leela in Mumbai and Goa, Guestline in Mumbai, Radisson in Chennai, Ashoka in Bangalore and Pan Pacific in Canada. "Approximately 4,000 rooms will be 'DSL Ready' within the next four weeks," says Buerkler. "During test downloads in these hotels, DSL has achieved speeds of 0.5 mbps regularly and the system has peaked at 1.5 mbps, which is the fastest speed achieved in India," he adds.

Dishnet's strategy has been to invest in the equipment and so the facility comes free of charge for the hotels who are only too eager to lap it up. That's not all---25 per cent of the revenues goes to the hotels, while 75 per cent goes to Dishnet.

Buerkler was unwilling to disclose Dishnet's investments in these hotels, but Jaswinder Narang, GM, Le Meridien, Pune, reveals: ''We will be charging Rs 250 per hour or Rs 500 for the whole day, on a pay-per-use basis. We are very happy with Dishnet's speed and we were looking for broadband connectivity because Le Meridien, Pune, has become a centre for IT seminars, conferences and summits. As a result, we have guests from all over the world who are exposed to broadband and demand such facilities.''

Vijay Bhatkar, Chairman of Dishnet, also mentioned that IT-savvy travellers are increasing day-by-day and having high-speed connectivity in hotels would help boost tourism and up the occupancy of hotels. Sure it will. Now, if only one could download room service in a jiffy.

"We should be focusing our attention on renewable sources of energy,'' says S.S. Murthy, a former member (Power Systems), Central Electricity Authority, and founder-Chairman of Karnataka Energy Management Systems (KEMS), a premier technical consultancy firm. ''They do not require fuel for power generation and are, therefore, non-polluting and environment-friendly. And considering the abundance of sunshine available practically throughout the year in our country, it is the harnessing of solar energy that should receive the highest priority in our power development programmes.''

Enter the Solar Dish-Stirling (SDS) system. Of the various types of solar energy generation systems developed to date worldwide, the SDS is acknowledged to be the most efficient technology for converting solar radiation into electrical energy. Developed by Schlaich Bergermann und Partner (SBP), a group of premier researchers and consultants in Germany, SDS consists of a tracking system, a concentrator system, and an energy conversion unit comprising a Stirling engine with a coupled 10-kw linear generator. "Overall system efficiencies of up to 30 per cent have already been achieved with several prototypes,'' says W. Schiel, CEO of SBP.

SBP has signed a MoU with KEMS for transfer of technology to India. KEMS, in turn, proposes to enter into agreements with companies interested in manufacturing and marketing of such systems in India and provide the necessary technical back-up and adaptations. The Stirling engine block and the concentrator will be imported from Germany, and the support and tracking system fabricated within the country.

"There are economies of scale involved in this system,'' says Murthy. "The estimated cost of Rs 24 lakh per set at a production level of 100 sets, would come down to around Rs 7 lakh per set at a production level of 10,000 sets.''