Under the aegis of the IT Secretariat, the IT industry leaders held a meeting with the Honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr. H D Kumaraswamy. The meeting was a forum for industry leaders to discuss various aspects concerning the state like the industry's focus on tier II cities, public transport system, completion of the International Airport and Bangalore's woes on infrastructure and traffic management. 

There were suggestions from the industry that the domestic airport should be retained, as most of the IT companies were located close it.  The idea of a Private-Public-Partnership model for the fields of Education and Health was mooted by the Chief Minister, which was well received by the industry. He also stated that there was a proposal to recruit 500 more constables to ensure security for people working in the IT and BPO industry. Said Mr. M N Vidyashankar, Secretary IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka "We are committed to doing everything necessary to see that the IT sector reaches 100,000 crore of exports and 10 lakh of employment by 2010 in Karnataka."   

Mr. J. Parthasarathy, Director, STPI said "We had a very fruitful meeting with the CM.  I am excited about the specific focus Tier 2 cities like Hubli, Belgaum, Mangalore and Mysore will be given by the State Government going forward.  We are also very keen to see that the Electronic Hardware Park near the new international airport will come up on schedule.  Though software exports will continue to grow, and be the growth engine for India, special focus on hardware exports will be advantageous for the State." 

Ms. Revathi Kasturi, Managing Director, West Asia, Novell said, "This forum was an excellent initiative from the Government of Karnataka. It helped both the government as well as the industry to air their concerns openly and discuss ways to tackle the issues.  Meetings held on a regular basis will help the industry and the city in retaining its edge in the world map of Information Technology."
 
"The receptiveness of the government to the industry's persuasion in developing the infrastructure, not only in the city, but also the state will definitely give Karnataka the advantage to make it an investor friendly state in the country," said Mr. S. Devarajan, Managing Director,  Cisco Systems (India).

Industry big wigs including S Gopalakrishnan (Kris) - President, Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Board, Infosys, S Devarajan, Managing Director,  Cisco Systems (India), Pradeep Kar, Chairman of Microland, Revathi Kasturi, MD - West Asia, Novell, Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM , T.V. Mohandas Pai - Member of the Board and Director-Human Resources, Krishnakumar, President & CEO, Mindtree, Viswanathan, Chief Executive - India Geography, Wipro, Laxman Badiga, Vice President, Wipro, Meena Ganesh, CEO, TESCO, Neeraj Sharma, Managing Director - South Asia, Lenovo, Chandrasekaran, President & MD, Cognizant, Alok Ohrie, Managing Director, AMD, Rajiv Mody, Chairman & CEO, Sasken, Piyush Dixit, Bangalore Design Center Head, Freescale, Friedpickhard, Managing Director, Robert Bosch India Ltd., Sashi Kumar, General Manager, Microsoft India, Amitabh Chaudary, CEO & MD, Infosys BPO and Mr. Nanda Kumar, CFO, Honeywell Technology attended the meeting.

With Bangalore all set to host Asia's biggest IT event, Bangalore IT.in 2007, the industry captains felt the need to bridge the growing gap between the government and the IT industry. 

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