Bangalore: Software major Infosys today (Nov 11, 2004) said it would spend AUD 8 lakh over four years in Australia's Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research centre (Smart Internet) for conducting research and development in emerging technology areas.

The money would be spent by Smart for the development, commercialisation and export of Australian intellectual property (IP), while Infosys would find new ways to generate market-driven IP and further augment its competitive positioning, Infosys and Smart said in Bangalore in a joint statement.

The MoU was signed between Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy and Smart Internet Chairman Neville Roach in the presence of New South Wales premier Bob Carr at New Delhi recently.

"Infosys is the first Indian IT firm to undertake R&D with an Australian research organisation. It sets a great example of the substantial bilateral benefits that will flow from greater cooperation between the ICT industries of India and Australia," Smart Internet CEO Darrell Williamson said.

The initial focus areas of this collaborative effort will be banking, commerce, health and entertainment industry segments.

"Smart Internet will work directly with the Software Engineering and Techn7 Summit to examine and recommend anti-money laundering measures worldwide, had suggested setting up of a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

FATF's recommendations are regarded as the key standard in anti-money laundering efforts. In creating transaction disclosure systems, some countries realised the need for centralising this effort in a single office for receiving, assessing and processing these reports. At present, about 85 countries are FATF members and have set up FIUs.