BITA to conduct first IT fair in Bihar

Manisha K

Patna

November 23rd, 2007

Bihar IT association (BITA) will conduct an IT trade fair in first week of
February next year in Patna. This is the first time an IT trade fair being held
in Bihar, which will be sponsored by the government. Elaborating more, Prabhat
Kumar Sinha, Treasurer, BITA said, "We will be organizing the event on a
small scale as it is the first time we are doing it. Only selected vendors like
Intel, HP, Microsoft, TVS-E and Epson will be invited. Apart from vendors,
distributors like Ingram, Iris and Redington have been invited. We want to
create a platform where users, dealers, vendors, manufacturers can come together
and discuss their grievances, resolve issues and help in the betterment of IT
industry in Bihar."

Nitish Kumar, CM, Bihar who is also the IT minister will be the Chief Guest.
"

It will be a three-day event and exact dates have not been finalized. We had
problems with the dates. February being a lean period, partners felt that it
would not be a good time for holding an IT fair but finally everyone
agreed."

He further added, "We are looking forward to a good response and
expecting around 10,000 footfalls. As this is the first IT trade fair in Bihar,
it will be conducted on a small scale and over the period of time, we would make
it a big event."

Sinha further said that post their Annual General Meeting (AGM), they have
submitted a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to the government. "We
discussed the steps to be taken by the association to formulate an IT policy.
Apart from this, we discussed 'Vasuda'-a personal public program (PPP), which is
an interface between government and the common man. Under the program all the
nearly 8000 panchayats will get a PC, printer, fax, telecom line and talks have
been finalized for that with BSNL."