Connect 2007 on September 15th

Sethuraman N.R

Chennai

September 13th, 2007

India's premier ICT event Connect 2007 will take place on 15th of this month
at Chennai. The event would include technical sessions and seminars where CEO's
from IT enabling industries would speak on the measures taken to develop the
industry in the state. Connect is an event conducted by the Confederation of
India Industry (CII) in association with the Government of Tamilnadu and
ministry of Communication and Information Technology to bring together members
of the ICT industry both international and domestic; academia, industry,
government, bio-network facilitators and patrons on one single platform.

"Connect is entering into the seventh year after successfully completing
six years. In this time, Tamilnadu has emerged as the destination of choice for
knowledge-based industries and established itself as the leading electronics
manufacturing hub in Asia. With 15 percent of total software revenue coming from
Chennai we see greater growth here," said Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman CII.

"We have observed that investments from abroad and MNC's increase after
every Connect programme. More and more IT firms are looking for investment and
these include both software and hardware industries. The hope is also that more
entrepreneurs get into the business", said S.Mahalingam Chairman, Connect
2007. "Many IT concerns have been targeting tier two cities like Madurai,
Coimbatore, and Trichy. We are also focused in developing the tier two and tier
three cities and the fourth coming event would help us to that", he added.

According to C.Chandramouli, Secretary- Information Technology Department
Government of Tamil Nadu, said, "While increasing It investment in the
state, the government is also planning to open seven special economic zones (SEZ's)
out of Chennai city very soon. There are also plans to develop the tier two and
three cities, where IT parks would be set up. We would announce these
initiatives very shortly."