BangaloreIT.biz kickstarts

The 11th edition of BangaloreIT.biz organized by Dept of IT, BT and Science
and Technology, Government of Karnataka, STPI - Bengaluru and CM of Karnataka BS
Yeddyurappa inaugurated MM Activ and CM of Gujarat Narendra Modi inaugurated the
exhibition. Gujarat is the partner state for BangaloreIT.biz 2008. Mexico is the
partner country, which is represented by 50-delegate team.

The three-day event being held at Palace Grounds will consist of seminars,
panel discussions, exhibitions and a host of other events.

"Bengaluru is the IT, technology and R&D hub of the nation. The state
government is now promoting the growth of tier-2 and 3 cities," Sudhakar Rao,
Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka said.

Expressing confidence and faith in the federal governments of the world in
handling the current global economic crisis, Rao said, "The governments must
ensure that the meltdown shouldn't become long term. The Indian industry must
now consolidate its position in the global IT arena."

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

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 percent last year
to 28 percent 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 3,600 crore. These projects are expected to generate about one lakh jobs,"
said Katta Subramanya Naidu, Minister for IT & BT, Information, Excise and BWSSB,
Government of Karnataka.

While inaugurating the event, BS Yeddyurappa said, "The state government has
committed Rs 1,800 crore for the development of infrastructure of Bengaluru,
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 in Mysore, Hubli, and Belgaum, and creating airports in other cities
such as Shimoga and Gulbarga are on in pipeline."

Marinara Modi, CM, Gujarat while inaugurating BangaloreIT.biz's exhibition
said, "India can give to the world a kind of IT Nano. When Indians can
contribute 30 percent 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 focusing on just few
countries."

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."