India's annual IT event draws 290 firms

A young Indian woman checks out the performance of an AMD Athlon 64-bit processor based PC at the AMD stall at the 7th Edition of the Annual 'Bangalore IT.Com 2004', on the inaugural day in Bangalore on November 1. The Bangalore IT.Com, promoted as Asia's largest Information Technology (IT) event, deliberate on future trends, innovative technologies and market dynamics has over 290 companies and deleoations from about 11 countries and 13 Indian states participating in the 5-day event. PHOTO: AFP

Britain, China, Germany, and Russia are among 15 countries represented at the five-day event, Shankarlinge Gowda, Karnataka state government secretary said Friday.

"The objective is to promote and provide a platform for industry to interact. The other aim is also to attract investment into the state," Gowda told reporters.

It is the seventh edition of IT.com in the state capital Bangalore, home to more than 1,400 technology companies.

Karnataka exported 600 million dollars of software in 1999 and 4.2 billion dollars last year, Gowda said.

"Since April more than 100 companies have set up base in Bangalore. Out of them 56 have a foreign equity component," he said.

More than 2,000 Indian and foreign delegates are taking part in the event.