Spice sets up PC unit in HP

Attracted by the industry-friendly policy of the Himachal Pradesh government, Spice Net, a leading provider of end-to-end solutions and high-quality hardware products, has recently set up its unit in Baddi in the state for manufacturing PCs and passbook printers.

This is an extension of the existing state-of-the-art facility in Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.

Dilip Modi, chairman and chief executive of Cellebrum, a subsidiary of the B K Modi group, told Business Standard the success of Spice Telecom, the premier mobile service provider in Punjab, had encouraged the firm to concentrate their operations there.

"Baddi has a close proximity with Mohali, where we have our R&D cell," he said.

The chief executive officer of Spice Net, Arun Seth, said the region had great potential because the governments of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh were computerising their operations.

He added that the company had opened offices in Jallandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Bhatinda, Patiala, and Chandigarh. The state governments are expected to go in for procurement in a major way.

Spice Net is primarily a system integrator focused on banking, government, and institutional customers like public sector undertakings.

The State Bank of India is the core customer of Spice Net, which has networked 1,291 branches of the bank.

Other clients include the Securities and Exchange Board of India, Industrial Development Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Unit Trust of India, Pantaloon, Reliance Power, Compaq, HCL, Wipro, Zenith, Madura Coats, Phillips, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, to name a few.

Spice Communications has launched its mobile applications development centre, Cellebrum, in Himachal Pradesh. The company will develop mission-critical mobile applications and market its solutions to telecom operators.

Spice has made an initial investment of over Rs 50 lakh and would focus on user-friendly voice interface and SMS services. The company will also target top corporate houses to extend mobility enterprise solutions.

Cellebrum has already confirmed association with operators across India for offering their services. The operators in tie-up are Hutch, BPL, Idea, Reliance, Escotel, HFCL, and Spice.

Modi said: "We aim to leverage our strengths as an end-to-end telecom service provider and provide one-stop solutions for all VAS and application requirements to telecom operators. With the explosive growth in telephony penetration and increasing demand for value-added services in the market, Cellebrum plans to offer a combination of excellent cutting-edge technologies and content, thereby generating consistent revenue for the operators. Moreover, the manpower in Himachal is good."