Dharam to meet tech czars today

Dharam to meet tech czars today
The Times of India

Bangalore: It is expected to be a meeting of the minds. Chief minister N Dharam Singh on Thursday will hear woes and suggestions from IT captains, industrialists and trade bodies on infrastructure in Bangalore.

IT honchos such as N R Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, Bob Hoekstra, Ananth Koppar and others have been invited. The nearly twohour closed-door meeting will be held at Vidhana Soudha from 9.30 am.

Others present will be ministers P G R Sindhia, M P Prakash, H D Revanna, apart from civic stake-holders of Bangalore.

The meeting was in response to the IT sector’s threat to boycott the government’s showcase event, BangaloreIT.in, scheduled from October 26-29. The industry’s grouse was: Bangalore’s crumbling infrastructure.

The IT firms are prepared for a full-fledged discussion with the government. The group is likely to push for reforms in urban governance. The key demands could be: setting up a central coordination agency for Bangalore urban and metropolitan regions; a commitment on speed and quality of execution of projects.

Industry sources said the meeting should ideally yield concrete plans on overall development of civic infrastructure, be it on SP Road, KH Road or any other industrial corridor. The group is likely to quiz the CM on the delay in implementing the National Urban Renewable Mission (NURM), a central government proposal for all metros.