BEFORE DELIBERATIONS: Shankarlinge Gowda (left), Secretary IT and BT, and B.K. Das (right), Chief Secretary, and representatives of IT companies before the meeting, in Bangalore on Thursday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: Pressured by the industry captains, particularly from the information technology (IT) sector, the Government has agreed to address the infrastructure issues post-haste and has come out with three packages on a short-term basis and also promised to work towards a long-term strategy.

The assurance was held out at a meeting here on Thursday of IT chiefs and government representatives, headed by Chief Secretary B.K. Das. The IT companies had threatened to boycott Bangalore IT.in, an event showcasing the IT sector in the State.

After a two-hour meeting, the industry and Government representatives came to a consensus that infrastructure issues should be addressed jointly. The short-term projects will be taken up on a fast-track basis and will be completed before January 2006.

Briefing presspersons, Mr. Das said 19 roads will be taken up for upgrading on priority. The Government has approved the three packages submitted by Sahyog, a public-private partnership initiative. The packages are for the Central Business District (CBD) or the older and central parts of the city; Airport Road-Indiranagar corridor; and Hosur Road-Sarjapur Road-Koramangala-Madivala corridor.

The meeting also decided to work out medium and long-term plans. The industry expressed willingness to fund a few projects. These projects, Mr. Das said, will be identified and taken up separately. The design for the peripheral Ring Road is under way . The industry representatives seemed to have taken note of the "adverse image" of the city and decided to work together to ensure that it remains a favoured destination for investments.

The IT industry stung by adverse criticism by politicians, however, had its take on the issue, particularly on employing local people. The chief financial officer of Infosys, Mohandas Pai, said, "The IT industry welcomes everybody and it adopts a non-discriminatory policy in employment." He said the industry has over 2.5 lakh employees. Som Mittal, chief executive officer of Global Solutions, said, "The industry has made significant investments and will continue to do so."

The IT industry contributes 25 per cent to the State's gross domestic product and is exporting goods and services worth Rs. 40,000 crores every year. A substantial portion of the 26 per cent increase in the State's collection of value added tax is due to the contribution from the IT sector.

The President of Bangalore Chamber of Industries and Commerce (BCIC) Ananth Koppar said there were positive developments at the meeting and that efforts will be made to put in place time-bound projects. He said he will go back to the BCIC executive committee with these positive developments and drop the boycott call.

B.V. Naidu of Software Technology Parks of India; Bob Hoekstra of Philips Software; Raghunandan of Wipro Technologies; R.K. Mishra of Flextronics; Deepak Sood of Confederation of Indian Industry; S. Babu, president of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry; C.N. Kumar of Bangalore Foundation for IT; Ravi Venkatesh of Microsoft; and Devarajan, chief executive officer of CISCO, attended the meeting.

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