The ninth edition of the Karnataka government's annual IT event, Bangalore IT.in 2006, came to an end on Tuesday with a promise that it will act as a platform to propel 'Brand Bangalore' to the next orbit of growth.
Positioned on a tagline of 'Brand Bangalore is the Best', this year's event attracted over 250 companies, including 160 international companies from 16 countries.
"The flow of investments into Bangalore from global corporations has been unabated and we continue to take the pole position year-after-year in terms of software exports growth. A $4 billion US retail giant is setting up their BPO centre in Bangalore and this is expected to grow to 5,000 seats in due course," said M N Vidyashankar, Karnataka IT&BT Secretary.
He further added that in addition to Bangalore, the state government is going all out to promote Tier II cities.
"In fact, we plan to hold an IT Investors Meet in Belgaum by the end of this year. There is immense interest in Belgaum to attract IT investment and this will act as a launch pad for that district," he highlighted.
Giving details of this year's event, STPI-Karnataka director B V Naidu said: "About 14 state governments from across the country and around 16
countries took a keen interest in this year's edition and contributed to the success of the event."
He further added that sub-events like SME Forum, Rural IT Quiz, Student Internet World for Tier-II cities were the other highlights which added lustre to the event.
While this is the picture the state government machinery is projecting to rev up the flagging interest in the annual event, critics argue that events of such nature serve no real purpose to the industry.
"Global IT events are used to herald new products and trends, and setting standards in the technology industry. The Bangalore IT.in series is more of a lead-generating event, which is not how global IT events should be positioned," an industry player argued.
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