India's largest IT event, BangaloreIT.com '99, begins

BANGALORE: The timing could not have been better. The place was just perfect. The IT industry was awarded a series of morale boosting incentives by Karnataka chief minister S.M. Krishna while inaugurating BangaloreIT.com '99, India's biggest IT event, here in the Electronic City on Monday.

The five-day event, being held in an area spanning 20,000 square feet, is expected to attract more than five lakh general visitors and 40,000 business attendees. Business worth $125 million is expected to be conducted during the event. The chief minister has already announced sales tax exemption on every transaction conducted during the exhibition with a ceiling of Rs 50,000.

In his inaugural speech, Mr Krishna stressed that his government was committed towards the growth of IT industry in the state. "While our state is witnessing a growth of 65-70 per cent annual software exports, we would like to stress that benefits of IT must reach the people particularly riral mass," the chief minister said.

The exhibition will have eight focus pavilions, namely ERP, home, infrastructure (IT), infrastructure (non-IT), Linux, e-commerce, education and software solutions.

In his address, the newly appointed information technology secretary P.V. Jaikrishnan said that bill pertaining to Cyber Laws is expected to be passed by the Parliament during the next few weeks. "During the next session of the Parliament, many things such as IT Bill should be through," he added.

US ambassador to India Richard Celeste said that the biggest challenge faced by those speaking of future of IT is that of imagination. "Can we see beyond our limitations," he asked. Stating that India was fast growing as a global power in IT, Mr Celeste said that the only limitations to the extent of India plays its role in the global IT scene were imagination and education.

The US envoy said that if we were planning for e-commerce, it required high-speed, access and support by the government and patience in terms of tax policies on transactions on the Net. "Bangalore and US are connected all 24 hours of the day. The only things that constraints the connections are bandwidth and H1B visas. We will make sure H1B visas are there," Mr Celeste said in a lighter vein.