Bangalore it.com (nov 1-5, 2004): Gowda plays Pied Piper

In the light of some companies threatening to pull out of Bangalore IT.Com,
Shankaralinge Go-wda, IT Secretary, State tried to put fears regarding the
infrastructure crisis in Bangalore to rest.

He said, "A lot of compa-nies had expressed reserva-tions about their
partici-pation in the event. These issues were sorted out at a breakfast meeting
with 51 CEOs."

The "issues" under dis-cussion included the govern-ment action on
infrastructure problems and their conten-tion that e-governance nee-ded to be
emphasized at IT.com.

Gowda said that the CEOs were satisfied with the state government initiatives
and the government's response to their problems. The meeting included senior
executives from companies like Wipro, Infosys, Aztec, AMD, Zenith Computers,
Infoscript, Novell and others.

BV Naidu, Director, Soft-ware Technology Parks of India (STPI) said that many
com-panies including HP, Infosys, Wipro and others had confi-rmed their
participation. "Nobody has pulled out of the event," he reiterated.

"Both parties agreed that the brand equity of Ban-galore needed to be
stre-ngthened with the strong branding that comes with IT.com, which is the
biggest IT networking event in Asia," said Gowda.

He said that CM Dharam Singh would be holding a meeting with the industry,
Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) and other stakeholders on October 18.
"The industry feels that BATF should be revived and would have to drive the
future growth of Bangalore," he added.

Gowda opined that the pressure on infrastructure was due to skewed growth
caused by industry satura-tion in areas like Electronic City and Hosur Road. He
felt that future growth in the city should spread to other areas like Bangalore
North (close to the proposed inte-rnational airport), and South Bangalore.

Dismissing claims that the government was pandering only to the IT sector at
the cost of the common man, Gowda said that around quarter of a million
popula-tion out of five million in Ban-galore worked in the IT/ITES services.
"Any improvement in the city would benefit every-body," he said.

CyberMedia News

Banglore

Ground Reality

New companies stream in

According to the records, as many as 92 companies have set up shop in
Bangalore from Apr to Sep 2004

The tremendous strain on Bangalore's resources and infrastructure has not
had an impact on new companies coming into the city. As many as 92 companies set
up shop in Bangalore from April to September this year. Announcing this at a
press briefing to announce Bangalore IT.COM, director STPI BV Naidu said that
out of these, 56 are foreign equity companies while 20 are BPOs.

He also revealed that there had been a 39 percent jump in software exports
for the same period, compared to last year. While Naidu did not have the exact
numbers to report, he said that the total investment that had come into the city
was in the area of Rs 1,125 crore.