Chandigarh IT meet on July 15-16

A regional symposium on information, communication, and technology (ICT) will be held in Chandigarh on July 15 and 16. The event called "e-revolution" will be organised by Nasscom, the Software Technology Park of India, Mohali, the Chandigarh information technology(IT) Club and Cyber Media Events.

The objective was to project Chandigarh as an IT destination on the international map, said Vivek Attray, director, IT, Chandigarh.

He said such mega events were held only in Hyderabad and Bangalore. So by hosting such a big event the city would be able to draw the attention of big companies in IT and related fields.

About 400 delegates are likely to participate and experience themselves the young, capable and dynamic spirit in the city's ambience. The participants would also have an opportunity to have informal exchanges at the golf course, Chandigarh.

Attray informed that another 90 acre of area would be added to CTP (Chandigarh Technology Park) Phase 1 and a 250 acre of CTP phase 2 would be built as IT Habitat for residential, community and green areas.

A celebrated name in the IT sector, Madhulika Tripathi indicated that this is the most timely initiative taken by the authorities.

The infrastructure available in Chandigarh is comparable to China and we need to publicise this. She divulged that her company elQuest is keen on setting up a bio informatics centre in the Chandigarh Technology Park.

"Punjab is predominantly an agricultural state and bio informatics can immensely help the farmers to overcome various problems persisting in this geo climatic belt", she remarked.

Bio informatics, she said is a branch of It that does research on cyber tools, enable companies to modify, cut down cost and time to to bring in new drugs and planting material.

Talking to media on the curtain raiser the Director Information Technology, Punjab, N S Kalsi said that due to availability of quality human capital, infrastructure (both physical and social) and facilitation given by the government, the region has become the most sought after destination by the IT and ITES companies.

He proposed to make a CCR (Chandigarh Capital Region) on the pattern of NCR (National capital Region), to promote the region as IT hub in the north.

Chandigarh clocked in Rs 300 crore in 2004-05 from export from IT that is likely to touch Rs 1000 crore in the next three years, said Sanjay Tyagi, Diector STPI Mohali. An export of Rs 700 crore is projected from Infosys alone, he added.

About 250 companies are registered with STPI Mohali; out of which 85 are exporting and remaining are in the gestation period. He maintained that about 25 new companies get registered every year.