India's premier IT event was launched today. Did you hear of it? If not, you are in good company.
India's premier IT event was launched today. Did you hear of it? If not, you are in good company.
The three-day Bangalore IT.biz 2012 - inaugurated with the theme 'Future of ICT: India's big shift to innovation' - began with a function at 10am, 35 minutes late. The small hall, with a capacity of accommodating a few hundred people, was not brimming with people either.
If the few hundred people and stalls put up by various companies are anything to go by, it seems the Bangalore IT.biz, the state government-sponsored event, has been losing its sheen gradually year by year.
Thousands of people used to vie among themselves to get entry into Palace Grounds, where Bangalore IT.com used to be held. After a few years, the event was shifted to Hotel Ashok. There was no problem for people to visit the event by paying entry fee since the venue was within the city. Though the ongoing event is meant for business-to-business visitors, there were not many people at the event and most of the stalls wore a deserted look.
Chief minister R Jagadish Shettar lackluster speech only added to the gloom. Shettar's speech was full of announcements that were made at events held during his tenure or DV Sadananda Gowda's tenure. During his speech, the chief minister mentioned Karnataka's contribution to IT exports and the job opportunities for engineers in Bangalore.
As if it is not enough, the chief minister allocated most of his time repeating the number of memorandum of understandings (MoUs) signed during the Global Investor Meet 2010 and 2012. He had also repeated state government's policies for promoting semiconductor and electronic hardware manufacturing.
He has also mentioned the state government's policy on animation and gaming and how animation and gaming sectors will further strengthen the IT prowess of the state.
On the much-publicised and hyped Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) to be established between Devanahalli and Chikkaballapur, the chief minister did not make any announcement on its progress, except indicating that the Union government had given 'in principle' clearance to the project. However, he told media on the sidelines that work on the ITIR will commence before the assembly elections.
Then the chief minister gave out figures. He narrated how the state government had constituted Karnataka ICT Group under the leadership of Mohandas Pai during the Global Investors Meet 2012 to increase the ICT export revenues to Rs 4 lakh crores by 2020 and 20 lakh jobs in ICT segment and help to incubate 1,000 entrepreneur-driven companies by 2020. Chief secretary S V Ranganath was conspicuous with his absence, while Aravind Limbavali, minister for health, was seen leaving the dais much before the chief minister has delivered his speech. That summed up the importance the event had for the Shettar government.
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