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Intel chief to visit Bangalore for pep talk on e-biz

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

Intel Corporation president & CEO Craig R Barrett is visiting Bangalore, the technology hub of India, on August 2-3, 2001, to tell its high-skilled techies the need to invest in e-business infrastructure today so that they will be poised for success when the economic cycle improves.

Barrett will also provide guidance on business strategy during times of economic uncertainty.

"He will assert Intel's vision of being a technology leader and its commitment to drive technology development on a global level through partnerships, alliances, and strategic investments," said a statement issued by the Indian subsidiary of the world's largest chipmaker.

The 62-year-old Barrett's pep talk on August 3rd at Tech Forum, organized by Intel, is likely to be attended by CEOs from top Indian IT and software services companies.

At a media briefing following the keynote address, Barret is expected to unveil Intel's expansion and development plans in India and Bangalore, where it has a technology solutions center, and the Indian wing of Intel Capital, the technology investment arm of the parent company, which has already made 25 strategic investments in the domestic market across the country.

During his two-day hectic trip to Bangalore, second in the last three years, Barrett will also be calling on Karnataka's pro-IT chief minister S M Krishna, state IT secretary Vivek Kulkarni, and other top state government officials, besides city-based IT czars, including Infosys CEO N R Narayana Murthy, and India's richest billionaire and Wipro chairman Azim Premji.

Owing to the slow down in the US economy and overall slump in the semi-conductor market worldwide, Intel's operations had been severely hit during the current fiscal (2001-02) along with other peer players like IBM, Motorola, Texas Instruments, and Samsung.

Keeping in step with the prevailing situation, Intel's sales had not only been on the decline, but it had also posted profit-warnings for the subsequent quarters.

Undeterred by the cyclical downturn, Barrett is upbeat about a revival in the sale of PCs as well as computer chips in the second half of this year, though he is not sure of the same in the communications segment of the business.

Coinciding Barrett's visit, Nasscom is organizing a two-day national conference, 'E-biz 2001' around the same time in the Garden City to focus on the prospects of e-commerce and e-business, and demystify the current skepticism clouding them in the wake of the global technology meltdown.

Aimed at providing an insight into the emerging industry's trends, technologies, and strategies for effectively conducting e-business, the third annual conference is likely to be attended by about 400 CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, and entrepreneurs from the IT Indian industry, including software companies.

In the run-up to the conference, Nasscom commissioned The Boston Consulting Group to conduct a comprehensive study on the e-commerce scenario in India.

The findings of the study, which focus on the impact, threats, and opportunities generated by e-commerce for India Inc, the IT industry, as well as the government, will be released at the session.

According to Nasscom chairman Phiroz Vandrevala, while the hype generated by dot.com valuations resulted in the widespread awareness of the power of the Internet, the subsequent collapse has resulted in a degree of skepticism on the Internet's potential for value creation.

"What you do on the Internet will be more important than how you get onto the Internet, because the Web will continue to be the driving force in creating new opportunities in the years to come," Vandrevala said in a statement.

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