While most Indian exhibitions and trade shows in the IT space have dropped into obscurity or have merged to save face, Bangalore IT.com appears to be holding its own. Prashant L Rao finds the Karnataka government optimistic this year too

When IT Asia/Comdex was held in Delhi in 1996, all the bigwigs of the IT industry were in attendance. In later years the MNCs began to drop out, one by one. Companies have started putting their marketing expenditure under the microscope, and exhibitions, being at the bottom of the priority list, have suffered. So how is Bangalore IT.com still holding its head high while other big shows have bitten the dust or merged? The answer lies, perhaps, in the fact that despite all its shortcomings with respect to infrastructure, Bangalore is still the IT hub of the country. The city has the best pool of IT manpower and the climate is superior to that of any Indian metro. That said, there’s more to Bangalore IT.com’s continuing saga than the city’s appeal. The government of Karnataka has put its weight solidly behind the show year after year. Governments can afford to look at the long-term and take slumps in their stride when private exhibitors are bailing out.

This year’s focus
The government of Karnataka has picked IT-enabled services, e-governance and banking & finance as the three themes for this year’s event.

IT-enabled services
Vivek Kulkarni, the Information Technology secretary in the government of Karnataka says, “Of late we have seen a lot of investments in BPO.” The IT secretary rattles off a long list of BPO players, including the likes of GE Capital that has a seven-storey centre in Bangalore. HSBC has set up its largest captive centre in the world, sprawling across 1,60,000 sq ft. Dell is expanding into a third building, it already has 1,800 seats in the city. AOL is setting up shop in the new ITPL. Ernst & Young does corporate tax accounts of American companies in Bangalore capitalising on the GAAP aware accounting talent in the city. Kulkarni explains, “Some of these corporate tax returns take 300 hours of work, this is high-end BPO.” The IT secretary is happy about the fact that Bangalore is attracting ITES companies of all types—pure play, IT services and captive centres.

IT.com will be ground zero for BPO companies conducting tests that will give would-be entrants in this field an idea of their aptitude for a career in this segment. “Companies will be testing communications skills in a short five-to-seven minute test,” says Kulkarni. The idea is that this will give BPO companies initial leads that could later lead to recruitment.

E-governance
The Karnataka government has been aggressively implementing e-governance schemes. The state will shortly be coming out with a strategy paper on e-governance. Several projects have already been implemented, including Bhoomi (land records) and Khajane (Treasuries). Perhaps one of the most innovative projects to be taken up by the state government has been its system for nabbing transport vehicles trying to evade commercial taxes. Transport vehicles on the Mumbai-Chennai route generally come into Karnataka through Nippani and exit at Hosur. Vehicles that do not unload goods in Karnataka are exempt from paying commercial taxes in the state. Dishonest dealers tend to claim that they are transporting goods to Chennai while they offload their goods in Karnataka in-between the border checkpoints. The state government has set up a VSAT link between these two points so that every invoice created at the entry point is sent immediately to the checkpoint in Hosur. Now when the goods vehicle turns up at Hosur without the items that were invoiced at Nippani, the vehicle is seized. Thanks to this scheme, “KCT’s efficiency is among the highest in the country,” states Kulkarni. The average tax/GDP ratio in India is 7 percent—Karnataka’s is 11 percent. Furthermore, the above-mentioned invoices are collected in a dealer database. At the end of the year, income tax returns filed by dealer are randomly cross-checked with this database and those caught under-invoicing have to face the music.

Banking and finance
The banking and finance seminar is expected to attract banks, financial institutions, and insurance companies. Mahesh B, joint director at STPI, says, “BFSI is the largest IT spender. Even small co-operative banks are now planning to invest seriously in IT. Several members of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) will also be participating in the seminar.” Solution providers for the BFSI vertical such as i-flex and Infosys, and insurance players like MetLife and Phoenix will be showcasing their banking and insurance solutions.

Better than last year?
At Bangalore IT.com this year, the Karnataka government expects 45,000 business visitors, which is business as usual. 250 to 300 foreign delegates are expected. The IT Nations pavilion will play host to foreign governments and associations—the UK, Germany, Denmark, Russia, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Mauritius, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore will be present. Several Indian states will be participating, including Pondicherry, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

Last year there were there were 65 foreign companies at IT.com. These were companies that don’t have registered offices in the country. Kulkarni expects the same or better turnout this year. Eight Indian states are participating and the e-governance conference will be a forum for these states to share their experiences in bringing IT to the masses. Kulkarni says, “The aim of IT.com is not only to boost Karnataka, but also to make it a successful national and international event.”

Earlier the event was slated to run till November 5. However, following feedback from the industry these dates were brought forward to October 28. Last year’s show was marred by the fallout of September 11, which led to a lot of cancellations.

For students, TCS is organising a Rural Quiz for forty-eight thousand students across the state. “The quiz will be strictly for rural students and not those from the big five cities,” says Kulkarni.

All this is no doubt laudable, but what does the industry feel about the show? We talked to several companies listed in the event brochure to get their feedback on IT.com and whether or not they were participating this year. Read on to find out what they had to say.

Industry feedback and expectations
How do IT vendors feel about Bangalore IT.com 2002? Akhtar Pasha finds MNCs undecided on whether or not to participate. Many IT vendors have opted out, stating that the exhibition has failed to generate business for them in the past. However, there are still companies that believe in IT.com’s power to help create brand awareness.

Mahesh B, the joint director of STPI, says, “We are expecting the same number of participants this year too. The focus on ITES will help us get 30 percent more revenues than last year when we generated $200-300 million worth of business.”

Going by the number of companies opting out of this year’s show, it looks as if the exhibition is slowly losing its charm. Several IT majors including HP, IBM, Microsoft and SAP are still undecided on whether they will participate this year [at the time of going to press]. The IT slowdown is keeping many vendors away. Some say that they do not get the right kind of business crowd at the exhibition.

Texas Instruments has been showcasing its semiconductor chip design and products at the Bangalore IT.com for over three years. Says TI’s business development manager Hari M, “This year we are planning to showcase the solutions developed by TI’s R&D centre in the last one year along with some products that have market potential in India. These products include audio, imaging, and wireless solutions.”

i-flex solutions will not be directly participating in the show. Makarand Padalkar who is the head for products marketing at i-flex solutions says, “We are Platinum sponsors for the Banking and Finance track. Our focus will be on i-flex’s banking product Flexcube and Prime Sourcing services. It will provide a direct connection to the user community. 230 senior bankers will attend this track. Our objective is to build our brand, showcase our success stories in recent times such as HDFC, Karur Vysaya Bank, Syndicate and Bharath Overseas banks. We would like to popularise the solution we have been providing to banks.”

M A Deviah, a consultant at Network Solutions, concurs. He believes that IT.com helps in building a strong brand. NetSol does not expect any direct business to result from its participation. Jessie Paul, brand manager at Infy says, “Since this year’s show is focused on BPO, Banking and Finance and e-governance, it makes perfect sense to be there. It is mostly an opportunity to exchange views. We have taken up a stall to showcase our products and solutions.”

Cerebra Integrated Technologies, which participated in the last two years’ events showcasing its desktops, workstations, high-end servers, palmtops and services, has decided to keep out of the event this year. Gururaja K Upadhya, director for technical support at Cerebra says, “In the last two years we did not get the kind of response we were looking for, as no business deals were finalised. Even business leads failed to materialise. Since we are focusing on government projects and DoT we do not see any value in participating in IT.com 2002.”

Sun Microsystems will not be participating. Officials at Sun say it makes sense for them to participate through their channel partners. Intel on the other hand is not participating because its Intel Development Forum in Mumbai clashes with the IT.com dates.

Pure services companies like Microland have decided not to participate in IT.com 2002. According to Microland group chairman Pradeep Kar, “The Microland Group has consolidated itself into a leading technology services company catering purely to overseas customers. Therefore we do not see any synergy with IT.com 2002.”