Fonocom 2005 takes off

Kailash Chawla, Madhya Pradesh State Minister of Industries and Finance,

inaugurated the Four-day Fonocom 2005-the mega IT and telecom business expo

(Feb 11-15). The show in its 11th edition has Madhya Pradesh Telecom and

Computer Traders Association (MPTCTA) as its organizers and is being sponsored

by Tata Indicom this year. It is being publicized as Tata-Indicom Fonocom.

Highlighting the importance of IT Industry, the state minister urged the

industry to start emphasizing on further expansion of the IT market. "In

big cities and metros there are issues like stiff competition and level of

saturation in the IT and telecom markets. Now is the right time to expand the

mar-ket by penetrating into smaller towns and remote areas of the country,"

he said after inau-gurating the Fonocom-2005.

He added, "I would like to highlighted Madhya Pradesh as a best

destination for any manufacturing unit. The geographical position of the State

cuts down the transpor-tation time to other parts of the country. The State

govern-ment will also extend support to those who invest here."

In his inaugural address, Ajay Pareek, GM Marketing & Sales, Tata

Teleservices Ltd said, "We want to reach out to the people of Indore

through Fonocom."

About 120 stalls have been put up. Some of the IT and telecom biggies like

Canon, Philips, Wipro, Logitech, Lex-mark, Zenith, HP, IBM, Intel, BSNL and Tata

Indicom are the main sponsors.

MPTCTA President Ashish Saxena said, "This year the entire exhibition

area has been turned into an hotspot."

DLink has provided tech-nical assistance in creating the 'Hotspot' at Bal

Vinay School grounds which is the venue of the show. This is the first event in

Central India that had showcased Wi-Fi technology.

At the expo consumers would be given special discou-nts, schemes and there

are fabulous prizes to be won. A bumper prize of Maruti 800 is also on the list.

Apart from this, finance would also be made available to customers. Bajaj

Auto Finance Limited and few other companies are also participa-ting in the

event.

This year, the event has been divided into two segments-business hours and

consumer hours. Business hours would be from 10.30 am to 2.30 pm. An entry fee

of Rs 25 would be charged from participants in this segment. Only corporate

clients and others wishing to do business would be allowed during this period.

Consumer hours would be from 3 pm to 8 pm and Rs 5 would be charged as entry

fee. "During this period, people would be able to visit stalls. This will

certainly divide the visitors into two important groups and help our exhibitors

in a big way," said Saxena.

Last year the trade fair recorded a sale of Rs 60-Rs 70 lakh while this year

they are expecting to touch the magic figure of Rs 1 crore.

Faiz Askari


Indore