Karnataka to go ahead with Bangalore IT.COM

Our eFE Bureau in Bangalore

The Karnataka government has decided to go ahead with the Bangalore IT.COM as per schedule on November 1, 2001. The five-day event with the theme, ‘There’s more to the future’, would be a bigger event than last year in spite of the general recession and impact of September 11 attack, said Karnataka IT secretary Vivek Kulkarni.

Speaking to the media Mr Kulkarni said, “There is some uncertainty due to September 11 attacks regarding the participation on foreign delegates, but we are expecting the participation of 15 countries this year”. There will be country pavilions from Mauritius, Japan, Germany, Dubai, Sharjah, Taiwan, Hongkong, Singapore, China, and Belgium etc. The real impact of the situation would only be known on November 1, Mr Kulkarni added.

The trade show of IT.COM will feature over 220 exhibitors from India. In addition to the six events of last year like IT for common man, TiE conference, rural IT Quiz etc, there would be three more events this year including the CEO conclave, a special panel discussion which will be moderated by Mckinsey with the theme ‘more to the future’, a global buyer seller meet where the industry professionals get an opportunity for interaction with companies and technologies that interest them and a software engineering conference in direct collaboration with the Carnegie Melon University.

There would be a special session on the impact of global slowdown on Indian industries by Stanford University. About 60,000 industry professionals are expected to participate this year and the volume of business is going to increase considerably due to the global buyer seller meet introduced, Mr Kulkarni said. It was $200 million last year.
The rural IT quiz conducted as part of the IT.com had the participation of 41,000 students this year. Microsoft is the platinum sponsor of the event and would officially launch Windows XP in Karnataka on November 1.