Bangalore Oct 18 2011: Stop thinking of yourselves as just another industry: transform yourself into a knowledge system powerhouse, suggested former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam to the assembled IT honchos at the kickoff event of Bangalore IT.biz, the biggest annual technology show in the state of Karnataka. And in his characteristic ‘ guru’ style, Kalam had the audience mouth an oath: I will work with integrity and succeed with integrity – a canny sentiment in a week when the newspaper headlines and TV images all tell of a global repulsion to the ways of big business, triggered by the demo in Wall St., New York.
In other remarks, Kalam suggested a coming together of nano, bio and info technologies with ecologically sane practices.
Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said that the IT industry had created 15,00,000 jobs in India since 2008, even as the rest of the world dealt with recession in this sector. State IT Secretary R Chandrasekhar, said the government in Karnataka ‘ knew when to step in and when to step out of the way’ to let the tech-industry flourish.
Karnataka state Minister for medium and large industry Murugesh Nirani, pointed at the upcoming 40 sq. km. IT Investment Region near the Bangalore international airport as the most promising of the new mega IT initiatives.
Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda was expected to announce the long awaited state policy for the Animation and Gaming industry but it didn’t happen. Those in the know said the state cabinet had not yet cleared the provisions in the policy, some of them still being finalised with the help of industry reps.