Bangaloreit.in – 2006

Last weekend I got a chance to visit bangaloreit.com-2006, an annual IT tradeshow promoted by Government of Karnataka along with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

Following are some of the stuff which I liked this time:

IP Zone

This stall was dedicated for ‘Intellectual property development in India’ and it was really amazing. This had about 11 participants who demonstrated their products (Completely developed out of India) and felt ‘special’ when I saw the ‘Made in India’ logo in some of these products. Yes! It’s happening! Products can be completely developed out of India. Following are some of the companies and their products:

a. SemIndia: This Company deserves a special note because it is promoted as a public-private partnership, supported by Government of Andra Pradesh. I was able to see their Broadband routers (One with single Ethernet-DSL and another with multiple Ethernet ports with Wireless) and it was simply amazing. This organization is setting up their hardware manufacturing facility in Hyderabad which is really interesting. Currently lots of embedded product companies are relying on countries like Taiwan, China and Korea for hardware manufacturing. By having this facility in India not only reduces the turn-around time, but also helps to achieve 100% ‘Made in India’ products.

b. Video on Demand: I was also able to see products many products having Video-On-Demand (VOD) support. This seems to be the next big thing where the media is delivered over the any form network like Internet, Cable television. The satellite based delivery of video (as a digital media) would bring in significant changes in India because of the following reasons:

i. Laying cables throughout India is a difficult task as it involves huge amount of investment and regulatory issues. Also satellite network can even penetrate the smallest village without running any cable.

ii. The cable TV network (which is maintained by local goons) will proceed towards consolidation and get organized. When professional players like Tata (who are providing this service via their latest ‘Tata Sky’ product) enter into this segment, it will become better.

c. Others: I could see Video phone platform which is licensed to Original Equipment Manufactures (OEMs). Encore has got their Mobile computing devices with customized Linux. These devices are being used for computer education in countries like Africa. I was also able to see Enterprise routers with integrated data, voice and security.

States and IT:

Various states have put up their stalls about how they are promoting IT by various ways. Following are some of the interesting points:

a. In spite of all problems the ‘Brand Bangalore’ is ruling this industry. Bangalore is the second hottest city in the world (Next to Tokyo) for setting up new shop. This also explains why the city is getting costlier day by day.

b. It’s very clear now! My ‘Sambar state’ (Tamil Nadu) is where the future action is going to be. I got a chance to interact with some of the officials from Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) and they have clearly laid out plans to promote IT in Tamil Nadu. Next to Chennai they are setting up IT parks in Coimbatore, Trichy, Thirunelveli, Salem, Madurai and Hosur. Lands for IT Park are already allotted in Coimbatore and other places the land is almost finalized. They even had maps where these lands are going to be.

c. Gujarat, Kerala, West Bengal and Orissa gave their attendance just by having their stalls. I couldn’t find anything interesting. This time I couldn’t see Andra Pradesh. May be because Mr. Naidu, CEO of AP is not in power?

Other than the above mentioned points, remaining stalls were normal ones. The disappointing point was we couldn’t find any place to sit and have tea. Only grand Asoka has their stall and we ended up paying 20 bucks for a tea.