Bangalore IT.in to kick off amidst controversies

The eighth edition of Bangalore's premier IT meet, rechristened Bangalore IT.in 2005, will kick off on Wednesday amidst controversies over the role of the IT industry in the state and allotment of land to certain IT companies.

The event, seeking to position India as the global IT destination and Bangalore as its hub, is being dogged for the second year now by complaints over city's infrastructure.

This year, like last year, a section of IT companies threatened to boycott the event to protest the city's infrastructure. They agreed to join the jamboree only after the government formed a public-private mechanism to monitor infrastructure issues.

But controversy resurfaced a few days ago when H D Deve Gowda, chief of the ruling coalition partner Janata Dal (Secular) criticised IT companies and Bangalore-based Infosys in particular for their appetite for land allegedly in excess of their actual needs.

The controversy keeps dogging IT.in as Deve Gowda will be the chief guest at the inauguration. Shankaralinge Gowda, IT & BT secretary, government of Karnataka, sought to play down the controversy.

He said: "Deve Gowda being the chief guest at the event has nothing to do with the controversy. We get directives from the chief minister (on who will be chief guest) and we go forward on it."

However, B V Naidu, director, STPI-Bangalore was more forthcoming in his support of the IT industry.

"We are organising Bangalore IT.in for the eight time in succession because of the growth and support of the IT industry. The event is growing in stature and we owe this to the tremendous growth of the sector," he said, adding he did not want to comment on the spat between Infosys and Deve Gowda.

By changing the name of the event from IT.com to IT.in the Karnataka government is seeking to promote it as an event for the entire country, going above the inter-state rivalry and competition.

Said Shankarlinge Gowda: "This year, we are working along with Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu government and put an Indian face forward at the event. India has to be positioned as the place to be in for the IT sector and Bangalore is the brand for it to build on. This is a pan-India event and the next step for us is to make this pan-Asian."

For the record, the event will see participation from 18 nations, mostly from Europe, besides 16 states in the country. In addition to 150 firms from across the country, about 120 international firms will display their technologies and products at the expo.

"The event will also deal with issues on how to replicate the success of tier I cities in attracting IT investment to tier-II towns. The 'hub and spoke' model adopted by Karnataka has seen the IT sector evincing interest and we have to work further on this," said Gowda.