BangaloreIT.biz 2008 Inaugurated   

Bangalore, Karnataka, India, November 7, 2008 (PRESSbooth.ORG) -- The 3-day long event being held at palace grounds will consist of seminars, panel discussions, exhibitions and a host of other events.

Shri. Ashok Kumar Manoli, Principal Secretary to the government of Karnataka, Department of IT, BT and S&T, in his welcome address said that the event was renamed to IT.biz to give a business aspect to it.

“Bangalore is the IT, technology and R&D hub of the nation. The state government is now promoting the growth of tier-2 and tier-3 cities”, Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka Shri. Sudhakar Rao declared. Hailing Bangalore IT.biz as a platform for global thinkers to come together and plan for the challenges ahead he affirmed BangaloreIT.biz as “qualitatively one of the most well-organized and prestigious events”.

Expressing confidence and faith in the federal governments of the world in handling the current global economic crisis Sudhakar Rao said, “The governments must ensure that the meltdown shouldn't become long term.” Looking at the global meltdown as a dark cloud with a silver lining he said, “The Indian industry must now consolidate its position in the global IT arena.”

While releasing Karnataka's IT showcase DVD, Shri. Ananth Kumar - Member of the Parliament said, “By 2010, Karnataka will employ over 10 lakh IT professionals. Over the past 3 years, on an average two new IT companies are set up every week. Karnataka's average growth rate is 36%, 6% more than the average national growth rate.”

Mr. Ricardo Alvarez, Executive director of international promotion, Mexico released the Karnataka IT information brochure and hailed India and Mexico as “Countries of the future”.

“The IT policy is under revision with inputs from the Vision Panel. The growth rate of the IT industry in Karnataka has grown from 17% last year to 28% this year. The semiconductor policy was under review and the focus would be on manufacturing Solar PV Cells required for the generation of solar energy. The Government also proposes to set up an Electronic Hardware Technology Park near Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli. The present Government after assuming power has cleared 32 IT projects involving an investment of over Rs. 3600 Crores. These projects are expected to generate about one lakh jobs”, said Shri. Katta Subramanya Naidu - Hon’ble Minister for IT & BT, Information, Excise and BWSSB, Government of Karnataka

While inaugurating the event Shri. B S Yeddyurappa said, “The state government has committed Rs 1,800 crore for the development of infrastructure of Bangalore, which has been a major hindrance for the easy movement for the IT human resources. Similarly State will also focus on upgrading infrastructure facilities at other cities of the state. Upgrading the facilities of existing airports at Mysore, Hubli, and Belgaum and creating airports in other cities such as shimoga and Gulbarga are on in pipeline."

“Global meltdown is a serious topic to be discussed in the three day deliberations as part of the event, Yeddyurappa. The solutions suggested by the industry captains will be taken into consideration and the government will interfere wherever necessary to maintain the growth of the industry. By implementing these measures, Karnataka will be in a position to contribute at least US $ 20 billion to the total Indian projected IT earnings of US$ 60 billion by 2009-10. These measures will try to arrest the expected slow down of IT export revenue growth to 24% (projected by NASSCOM)”, he added.

Shri. Yeddyurappa said, "Karnataka with US $14.2 billion IT exports is is accounted for 35% of the India's exports. For the first 6 months of the current fiscal, Karnataka has achieved an export growth rate of 15% to Rs 1,500 cr compared to Rs 1,300 cr of YoY period. All of the Fortune 500 companies have their R&D or offshore centers here. "

Gujarat Chief Minister Shri. Narendra Modi, while inaugurating Bangalore IT.biz’s Exhibition said, “India can give to the world a kind of IT Nano. When Indians can contribute 30% to the development of Microsoft Windows, Give Hotmail to the world, why can't we create a Yahoo or a Google. India has the capacity to deliver such end-to-end products and services to the entire mankind. Indian IT and BPO industry has matured enough to start thinking of end-to-end products instead of continuing the outsourced work."

Another area to focus according to Modi is domestic growth. He said, “We need to focus on producing products for the domestic market and to diversify our exports to many destinations in the world instead of focussing on just few countries.”

Referring to the global meltdown, he said, “Depending on few countries like the US and other European countries are dangerous to India's IT industry sustainability.

He also dwelled upon the attrition and revenues compared to cost per employee in India. He said, “India’s IT HR earnings compared to cost are very poor even today. At the same time we are also facing pressure on cost from other service provider markets such as China and the Philippines. Taking all these ground realities into consideration, IT industry captains must mull upon re-engineering their business models.

He also said, “Gujaratis are a highly enterprising business community. India’s 30% market capitalization is owned or operated by Gujaratis. While Singapore, London, Newyork and Tokyo are the financial nerve centre of the present world, there is nothing comparable in our country. Since we are emerging as a strong economy, our needs for financial services are growing rapidly.”

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