BITA's new executive council gears for the year ahead

The Baroda IT Association (BITA) announced its new executive council for the year 2004-05 at a recently held AGM. Rajesh Mehta has been appointed as the new president, while Paritosh Gupta has been appointed as VP. Amit Shah steps in as Secretary, Piyush Patel as the joint secretary and Jugal Mehta will function as Treasurer. Committee members include Jeetendra Rathod, Hitesh Nalavade, Paresh Patel, Deepak Doshi and Harshad Patel. Yogesh Thakkar will continue as the councilor for the association.

The association has decided on stop doing any cash transactions and accept payments only through cheques to ensure complete transparency in its dealings. BITA has 186 members and hopes to take the number to 210 by the end of this fiscal.

However, the association is firm that it will take only those partners who have Central Sales Tax and Gujurat Sales Tax licenses and
have references from at least two committee members. Membership charges are at Rs 1,000 per annum. 

This fiscal, the association will finalize its constitution, which has been pending since its foundation in September 1997.

Technical and commercial seminars are also on the anvil. It will hold a cricket match to create better bonhomie among members.

Partners in Baroda expect a GDP growth of 6.2% this year, with PCs and components growing by 24%. Notebooks are likely to grow by 120%, says Secretary Amit Shah, which heralds good business opportunities for partners. 

BITA showed a profit of Rs 9 lakh in 2003-04, which came in from membership charges as well as profits from its exhibitions and garba events. Some of the key activities undertaken by the association include an IT fund-raising show, a seminar chaired by management guru Sam Pitroda on 'Crisis in Creative Management', IT Panchayat with DQWeek and registration with National Association of Channel in IT
(NACIT).

Its sixth annual IT exhibition saw over 1-lakh visitors in three days and resulted in good business for partners. The association had also organized a blood donation drive besides cleaning and repairing police stations. 

Though these initiatives did not directly help partners, ex-President Dinesh Patel notes that these went a long way in creating goodwill for partners. 

"There were at least 12 cases where partners managed to get free blood for their relatives in emergencies and also issues regarding thefts and payment defaults were taken by the police immediately, as a token of appreciation of our services to them," he adds.

VINITA BHATIA