BangaloreIT.in: Of IP, SMEs & thining crowds

The BangaloreIT.in, held between October 27 and 31, began on a promising note
with HD Kumaraswamy, CM, Karnataka, indicating that Bangalore city would be
equipped with wireless broad­band access to encourage telecommuting. The
government, according to the CM would set up five sector-specific, fully
integrated, self-sufficient town-ships around Bangalore, which would obviate the
need for travel to and from the city, reducing the pressure on transport
infrastructure. The implemen-tation of 'Bangalore Unwired' project, would
make Bangalore the first city in India providing seamless wireless broadband
connectivity anytime, anywhere, covering a range of about 40km radius. The
wireless connectivity will be based on the latest WiMax technology and the state
government will work as the facilitator with private service providers entrusted
with the task of actual rollout of this technology.

Reasons to cheer

Among the firsts at this year's expo, was the setting up of an exclusive IP
Zone (Intellectual Property Zone) showcasing the city's tremendous potential
for IP creation. The theme 'Innovative India' highlighted the IP created by
11 companies-NXP, Tejas Networks, SemIndia, Ittiam and displayed products
developed by these companies or their customers. The other reasons to cheer was
the participation of 250 companies from 14 countries and13 state governments and
of course an impressive line-up of pavilions such as eNations, Digital and
Lifestyle, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), eStates, eInfocomm and IT
parks.

Tissa Vitharana, Minister for Science and Technology, Sri Lanka (second from right) at the Bangalore IT.in 2006 flanked by MN Vidyashankar, Secretary-IT and BT, Govt of Karnataka and BV Naidu, Director, STPI

Lackluster affair

With so many firsts, the expo somehow appeared like a lackluster affair as was
obvious with the reduced number of visitors. While participants at the expo
included Texas Instruments, Lenovo, Xerox, WeP, Infosys, Cognizant, Reliance and
Wipro, the fact that the big boys-Sun Microsystems, IBM and Microsoft were
missing, raised quite a few eyebrows on whether the expo had lost its sheen.

Although first-time parti­ci­­pants-Germany and Japan were gung-ho about
attracting good business through successful networking and countries like Sri
Lanka and Malta seemed keen on joining the Indian IT bandwagon, there was a
general feeling that the expo did not draw worthwhile participation from across
the seas. Attributed reasons for this were that the event dates were finalized
at the last minute so overseas firms which plan their schedules in advance could
not participate. Other plausible reasons were the change in the IT/BT secretary
twice and also that the event has been more government driven and not quite in
tune with the market developments and the fact that in the last couple of years
the relationship between the government and the industry has not been up to the
mark.

In the end, as the curtains fell on the ninth edition of BangaloreIT.in, one
hoped that the next edition would be better organized and all the reasons for
complain would cease to exist.

DQC NEWS BUREAU