Sunday,January 23, 2005

Now, Your cellphone is turning into a fortune teller

By R. Ramabhadran Pillai

KOCHI, Jan 22. Astrological forecasts will be the latest add-on service from cellphone service providers.

The Kochi-based Astro-Vision says it is in the process of finalising an agreement with a leading service provider.

The company, engaged in developing astrological software, is already providing astrology services to Chirag, an Intemet-based rural area network with more than 600 kiosks in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Talks are also on for offering astrology services on the website of a newspaper.

Astro-Vision has branches in Chennai and Hyderabad and more than 500 Licensee units in various States.

The ever-increasing demand for astrological consultations is the reason for the growth of the company, which was started as a small venture two decades ago to provide assistance to astrologers through a novel software, according to its Executive Director, Binod Hariharan.

Special package

The company has developed a special package of software programmes intended for horoscope casting and matching, vaastu, numerology, and for selecting names for newborn babies and gems for individuals. The computerised services have been launched to cater to the demand from thousands of people, says P.V. Ravindran, Managing Director.

Mr. Hariharan says astrological concepts in ancient teas were analysed by astrologers of repute to give inputs for the software.

The services sector is growing; astrological services are part of this trend. The annual business done by the company and the licensees is Rs. 38 crores, he adds. The software for astrology is now available in nine languages including German and Sinhalese. A French version is under development. Among the Indian languages, there are Telugu, Tamil and Kannada versions, apart from one in Malayalam. The services are available on the Internet too.

Mr. Hariharan says the company has also developed software for use by cooperative banks and clinics.

A novel service to be provided shortly is SMS (short messaging service) in a limited circuit, as in the case of a company to its employees within a city.

Is the company's services posing a threat to conventional astrologers? Not at all, says Mr. Ravindran.

Many astrologers are making use of the Astro-Vision software to make their job easier, according to him.

Accuracy

How is the accuracy of computerised astrology assessed? "We never claim it to be 100 per cent accurate," Mr. Ravindran says. But this is the case with every 'predictive science’, as he calls it.

Even medical practitioners base their findings for treatment on various factors that need not be 100 per cent accurate, he added. Computerised astrology depends on inputs based on panchangas, says R.U. Raajan, an astrologer who follows the manual method for predictions. Entries in panchangas vary depending on their places of origin. The manual procedure has the advantage of taking into account the variations based on multiple factors, beyond those fed into the computer, according to him. Nevertheless, he says that computerised calculations can be 75 per cent to 80 per cent accurate.