Ranjeet Rayen & Manoj Chandran

BANGALORE: The Karnataka Government is preparing ground to host the largest ICT event in Asia, BangaloreIT.Com. This year more than 250 companies would be participating in the event and over 1,500 delegates from across the world would attend the event. With the mood upbeat and response level being high both from the domestic and overseas companies, Bangalore IT.com is being viewed as a barometer of the ICT industry in India.

"The response has been quite good so far. We should be able to touch 250 companies (exhibitors), easily. The audience quality has also improved. Overall the mood is good and upbeat," said the man behind the show, Government of Karnataka, IT Secretary Vivek Kulkarni.

Some of the high level foreign delegates visiting the show include, the United Kingdon’s e-commerce minister, the IT minister of Mauritius and Microsoft Corp’s Group Vice President, Orlando Ayala. The event is to be inaugurated by the President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam. With such high profile dignitaries participating, utmost care is taken in the event’s security plan. The President will also give a personal lesson on Internet to the students participating in the Student Internet World.

Kulkarni added, "Apart from the exhibition, which serves as the base platform for the event, a lot of conferences and panel discussions have also been arranged. Among them are IT for the common man, customer centricity, Tie Conference on venture capitalists and business strategies, BPO and IT enabled services summit and IT strategies for Banking and Finance summit.

Countries like UK, Singapore, Germany have taken each evening slot for panel discussion among the delegates and are hosting dinner. PC Quest and Bangalore IT.com will also follow these with awards functions." The event has attracted many countries such as UK, Germany, Singapore, Belgium, Denmark, Russia, Korea, Hong Kong and Mauritius. Indian states participating in the event Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Orissa, Pondicherry and Chandigarh.

As in the last year the visiting hours for business class and general public has been scheduled between 10 AM to 3 PM and 3:30 PM to 7 PM, respectively. The entrance fee also remains the same for both the categories with the business class charged at Rs 200 and general public being charged at Rs 50. "On the overall business transaction, it is very difficult to conclude as deriving a correct figure is very difficult. Roughly about $250 million worth of business is expected to happen in the five days," claimed Kulkarni.