CII-2005: Destination Gujarat

CIT 2005, an initiative of CII Gujarat chapter opened on 4 February 2005 with
more than 1000 participants consisting of industry heads, government officials,
academicians and students rubbing shoulders with each other. Inaugurating the
event, Narendra Modi, CM of Gujarat said, "Gujarat has the best
infrastructure for IT not only in India, but in the whole of Asia. Gujarat
boasts of 50,000 Rkm of optical fiber network, the benefits of which are just
beginning to show." He assured the student community, present in large
numbers, that if IT were their preferred career choice, Gujarat would not
disappoint them in terms of opportunities and favorable atmosphere. This was
exemplified by the announcement of the Emerging ICT Enterprise Award, which was
given away to e-Infochips, based in Ahmedabad.

Giving the welcome address, Piruz Khambatta, chairman CII Gujarat Council,
lauded the Indian IT professionals for their outstanding contribution to the
industry across the globe.

JN Singh, secretary, department of science and technology, Gujarat, announced
that this was for the first time that the event is being telecast live to 40
engineering colleges, 1400 government offices and 12,000 nodes across Gujarat.
He said that Gujarat holds promise for firms like TCS, which are setting up
their base in Gujarat and Microsoft, which are expanding their presence here. He
also shared the e-gram model of e-governance.

A parallel session on e-governance was also held at the NID auditorium
exclusively for government officials on 4 February 2005. In the session, they
got the opportunity to interact with IT experts and industry heads about
e-governance, its advantages and problems and solutions, and also chart a
roadmap for the future. The Chief Minister also inaugurated the three-day
exhibition on 4 February 2005 where more than 70 exhibitors across the country
marketed their products, services, and expertise.

Mohan
Mirwani from IDA Singapore shared the Singaporean experience of its journey to
becoming the most e-ready country in Asia. He shared with the participants the
key features and results of the e-governance National Plan of Singapore. The
Director-Public Sector of Microsoft Corp (India) Ltd, Mr Nandu Pradhan said that
in order to broaden the outreach of the IT industry, we need to work on the
issues of access in terms of good road connectivity, uninterrupted quality power
supply, and an affordable telecommunications infrastructure. On behalf of
Microsoft, he expressed continued commitment to investing in Gujarat.

Mr Kishore Chaukar, MD Tata Industries also stressed that in the present
scenario, IT coupled with telecommunications can deliver a substantial
improvement in the quality of life in India. IT is today's flow-systems
facilitator and we need trained manpower to cash in on its advantages. He also
said that the mindset of the people needs to change; entrepreneurship and
economy will prosper only when the system of endless permits goes.

Over the two days of conference a number of topics were discussed viz Trends
in Communication Technologies, Emerging Technologies fore Enterprise, Emerging
ICT Enterprises of Gujarat, ICT in Bio-informatics & Healthcare and
Technologies Beyond Tomorrow.