BangaloreIT.com on course, assure officials

BANGALORE: In the light of some companies threatening to pull out of Bangalore IT.Com, state IT secretary Shankaralinge Gowda tried to put fears regarding the infrastructure crisis in Bangalore to rest. He said, "A lot of companies had expressed reservations about their participation in the event. These issues were sorted out at a breakfast meeting with 51 CEOs that was held today". The "issues" under discussion included the government action on infrastructure problems and their contention that e-governance needed to be emphasized at IT.com.

Gowda said that the CEOs were satisfied with the state government initiatives and the government's response to their problems. The meeting included senior executives from companies like Wipro, Infosys, Aztec, AMD, Zenith Computers, Infoscript, Novell and others.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) director BV Naidu said that many companies including HP, Infosys, Wipro and others had confirmed their participation. "Nobody has pulled out of the event," he reiterated.

"Both parties agreed that the brand equity of Bangalore needed to be strengthened with the strong branding that comes with IT.com, which is the biggest IT networking event in Asia," said Gowda. He said that CM Dharam Singh would be holding a meeting with the industry, Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) and other stakeholders on October 18. "The industry feels that BATF should be revived and would have to drive the future growth of Bangalore," he added.

Gowda opined that the pressure on infrastructure was due to skewed growth caused by industry saturation in areas like Electronic City and Hosur Road. He felt that future growth in the city should spread to other areas like Bangalore North (close to the proposed international airport), and South Bangalore.

Dismissing claims that the government was pandering only to the IT sector at the cost of the common man, Gowda said that around a quarter of a million population out of five million in Bangalore worked in the IT/ITeS services. "Any improvement in the city would benefit everybody," he said.