Taj Hotels: Are you being served?

The country's hotels form a vital part of the infrastructure that supports the software industry in India. The Taj Group of Hotels, which boasts a presence in virtually every major city across India, has been playing a leading role in supporting the booming software industry. With over fifty hotels in 36 destinations, Taj hotel have a presence in all the major software development cities of India. The group caters to the international business traveler, offering modern facilities -- from business centers to telecom hook-ups. In addition, many of the Taj Hotels are used by software and dotcom companies to meet prospective clients, fund managers, venture capitalists and employees.

The hotels of the group have played host to heads of state, leaders of corporations and the jet set as well those who want to retreat into their own space. The legendary Taj Mahal Hotel, in Mumbai which is the flagship hotel of the group has been welcoming the well-heeled international business traveler in India since 1903. It is one of the seven luxury hotels of the Taj Group. Six of these are members of The Leading Hotels of the World. The business center of this flagship hotel has been ranked as the best in Asia. The recent launch of Yahoo! India took place at the Taj Hotel. A truly Internet and IT savvy hotel, Taj ranks among the unique hotels across the globe that provide high-speed Internet connections directly from its rooms. In short, doing IT business in India is a more comfortable experience when the Taj Group of Hotels is involved.

The Indian domestic market is now maturing and has started showing good growth rates. It used to be just $10 millon in 1991 and has grown to $1.75 billion in 1999. India has 26 states of which 19 have already announced IT policies. e-governance, e-banking, e-manufacturing, e-commerce are the new mantras in the domestic segment. Sun Microsystems has also been playing a major role in fulfilling domestic computerization demands.

By opening additional offices in India in Bombay and New Delhi, Sun is expected to get closer to its customers and deliver high quality products and services to them.

As a part of its new worldwide iForce initiative, Sun has announced that it will invest over Rs. 250 million in transferring technology, and developing skills and services to help Indian organizations deploy the Internet for business advantage. This will be done through partnership with key Indian companies.