Govt cajoles IT companies into skipping boycott

Don’t worry, govt tells IT industry again
Times of India

Bangalore: The state government has promised action once again, but industry said it has to see it to believe it.

Top state government officials led by state IT and BT secretary Shankaralinge Gowda and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) director B.V. Naidu met 51 senior IT officials at a breakfast meeting here on Thursday to convince them that the state government had been responding to their concerns over lack of infrastructure.

The officials promised industry that the government would do whatever possible to ease infrastructure bottlenecks. “In turn, all these companies, except Philips Software, have agreed to participate in the IT show (November 1-5),’’ Shankaralinge Gowda said at a media conference held later in the day.

He said the chief minister’s second meeting with industry captains scheduled for October 18 would bring more clarity to issues related to infrastructure and the future of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF).

Commenting on the breakfast meeting, the managing director of an MNC IT firm who attended the meeting said, “The two government representatives indeed gave us a patient hearing. But we are still not aware of what concrete steps the government is going to take.’’ The 45-minute meeting discussed several issues, but it lacked “intense treatment,’’ he said. He said his company had no plans to participate in the IT show as of now.

Gowda said the level of participation in IT.com this year, in terms of number of companies and number of countries, would be larger than ever. Anything between 280 to 300 companies from 15 countries are expected to participate in the event. “This is the first time we have participants from Australia and Belgium. In fact, Australia is bringing a large delegation,” he said.

Other reports

Cyber India Online
New Indian Express
The Hindu Business Line
The Economic Times