Infosys chairman and chief operating officer NR Narayanamurthy told eFE that Mori along with a 60-member delegation (of diplomats & media persons) on his visit to Infosys would get a first hand experience of the company's functioning and capabilities in the software service space. He would also get a chance to see the implementation of its Global Delivery Model (GDM), Murthy added.

``The visit will not involve signing of any alliance with Infosys it will be a step towards strengthening the business ties in the IT sector between India, the state of Karnataka and Japan,'' he said.

Infosys was exploring opportunities in Japan and was already working on e-commerce projects, ERP implementations and re-engineering of legacy applications to newer platforms for Japanese clients ranging from traditional companies, dotcoms and large players like Toshiba and Dell, Murthy said.

According to an official spokesperson from Wipro, Wipro Corporation chairman Azim H Premji had invited the PM to visit Wipro during his visit to Japan recently. The company is currently the largest Indian provider of IT services in Japan, following the setting up of a Japan subsidiary -- Wipro Japan KK.

Wipro's Japan specific operations currently account for close to 10 per cent of its total software export revenues (in both enterprise applications as well as technology services) which stood at $240 million last fiscal.Wipro has worked on projects for Japan serving over 22 large Japanese names like Sony, Hitachi, Epson, Fujitsu, etc across various technology areas. Over 600 Wipro engineers work for Japanese customers from the company's dedicated offshore facilities in India.

On behalf of the IT industry Microland chairman Pradeep Kar said that Mori's visit was expected to pave the way for Japan to set up large scale offshore development facilities in Bangalore to feed Japan's huge and various IT requirements.

Compudyne Winfosys chairman & managing director SS Dahiya said the Japanese R&D body for information technology Softopia would not be involved in Mori's visit to India as this would ``purely be a political and government-to- government interaction.''

While no clear cut figures were available on the expected investment/fund flow, industry responses indicate that significant inflows from Japan are on the cards.

Karnataka's single window clearing agency Karnataka Udyog Mitra managing director N Sriraman said the Japanese premier's agenda for India and especially Bangalore would be worked out in two days in consultation with Japanese Embassy in Delhi. ``Japan will be heavily looking at India's IT strength and expertise.'' Sriraman said.