IT investors' meet

The much-awaited IT Investors' meet will be held at Hubli in the third week of April. The meet scheduled in January this year had been postponed due to the political developments in Karnataka. The precise date will be announced soon.

The department of information and technology, Government of Karnataka, district administration, Software Technology Park, KEONICS, Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and BIC Society will jointly organise the meet at Hotel Naveen.

Dharwad deputy commissioner M S Srikar said here on Wednesday that around 200 IT companies from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune were expected to participate in the meet. Nasscom chief Kiran Karnik and Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy will be the chief guests. After the inaugural session and presentations, the participants will visit the IT Park in Hubli.

Srikar said that the state IT department had contacted many IT companies requesting them to participate in the meet and that the response has been encouraging. He said, there has been considerable improvement in the infrastructure in Hubli-Dharwad and McKinsey report had categorised Hubli as a satisfactory city for IT and IT-enabled services activities.

The Cities Alliance, a global coalition of cities and their development partners for city development strategy had also approved Hubli Dharwad. Srikar said that 200 acres of land had been identified and marked for the purpose of IT.

Chief minister Kumaraswamy is likely to announce special packages to IToITES companies investing in Hubli during the meet.

Meanwhile the BIC (BPO-ITES-CRM) Society has come forward to market the IT park and help conduct training programmes at the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Hubli-Dharwad. Former chief secretary and president of BIC Society B S Patil said that the society's executive committee at its meeting on Sunday had suggested that the IT Park should be upgraded and space be made available at lower rentals to facilitate easy investments.