CII Announces Collaboration with Tata Communications and Cisco to Set Up TelePresence for CII Offices in India

NEW DELHI, April 29, 2008 - Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tata Communications ( TCL) and Cisco today announced a mutual collaboration to set up Telepresence rooms at four CII offices in India. An agreement was signed at CII's National Conference and Annual Session 2008, attended by senior government officials and leaders of the Indian industry.

CII will collaborate with Tata Communications and Cisco to set up the TelePresence rooms for CII, at four of its key offices in New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and CII Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Hyderabad. A first of its kind initiative in India, Cisco will provide the TelePresence equipment, while Tata Communications' will provide the connectivity services that will link the four CII sites. This will be a major facility for CII members which will be made available on a 'pay-per-use' basis.

"Enhanced networking allows a country to move on a much faster pace than ever before. TelePresence will transform the way geographically-dispersed teams work, by offering a viable and effective virtual meeting solution for our members and corporate India at large. Employee productivity and responsiveness is enhanced without impacting quality of life," said Mr Ashok Soota, Past President CII and Chairman and Managing Director, MindTree Ltd.

The Cisco TelePresence rooms at the CII facilities will be connected to Tata Communications' planned international network of rooms in premier locations worldwide, enabling cost-effective and high definition video conference meetings for Indian enterprises with their partners in India and overseas, seamlessly.

"Cisco TelePresence provides professionals the ability to reduce travel while attending more meetings at the same time. This demonstrates Tata Communications' ability to support mission critical applications that deliver performance reliability, scalability and flexible cost efficiency to enterprises. This facility is being provided to CII and its membership on a new public room model. We visualize it will add considerable convenience to the industry members since it provides global reach into India." said Mr. Vinod Kumar, President, Global Enterprise Solutions, Tata Communications.

TelePresence is an innovative realistic virtual meeting solution that creates unique, "in-person" experiences allowing real-time, face-to-face communication over a converged IP network. It delivers life-size images, ultra-high-definition video, spatial audio and a specially designed environment to create a "room within a room" meeting space, thereby enabling effective global business and increased productivity while allowing for significant savings in travel time and costs.

"Cisco TelePresence is a platform for supporting the emergence of transformational business models at a global scale. We expect these new facilities at the CII offices to spark creative ideas for new business models amongst its members. Our hope is that Indian executives will come away with transformational ideas that take advantage of rural connectivity, such as distance learning, remote healthcare management and virtual business models overall, which will be a catalyst for inclusive growth. Cisco TelePresence will help transform the way CII will do business and communicate with its customers, partners and colleagues." said Mr. Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer for Cisco.

CII, Cisco and Tata Communications are committed to a high level of environmental responsibility in all their activities. Cisco TelePresence is a technology which provides an intensely immersive experience that has the potential to help businesses reduce the carbon footprint currently generated by travelling to face to face meetings across the world.

About Tata Communications

Tata Communications is a leading global provider of the new world of communications, leverages its Tata Global Network, vertical intelligence and leadership in emerging markets to deliver value-driven, globally managed solutions to the Fortune 1000 and midsized enterprises, service providers and consumers. The Tata Communications portfolio includes transmission, IP, converged voice, mobility, managed network connectivity, hosted data center, communications solutions and business transformation services to global and Indian enterprises & service providers as well as, broadband and content services to Indian consumers.

About CII

CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry led and industry managed organisation, playing a proactive role in India's development process. It works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of industry in India, partnering industry and government alike through advisory and consultative processes.