Gujarat envisions being the next IT hub of India. 40% of Indian IT services to happen from outside of the 6 major IT cities of India- Som Mittal, President, Nasscom

1. MEDIA RELEASE <br />Gujarat envisions being the next IT hub of India <br />40% of Indian IT services to happen from outside of the 6 major IT cities of India- Som Mittal, President, Nasscom<br /> <br />Ahmedabad, 20 December 2010: The Government of Gujarat today held the IT summit 2010 in Ahmedabad today as a part of the Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit. Organised by Gujarat Informatics Limited, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat and national trade association NASSCOM with the support of Industrial Extension Bureau (iNDEXTb), the summit brought together relevant government agencies, private sector players, external consultants and advisors to explore investment opportunities in Gujarat’s ICT sector.<br /> <br />At the inauguration ceremony, Shri Ravi Saxena, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat said, “Gujarat has been one of the frontline states in the implementation of key e-governance infrastructure, policies and projects. The government of Gujarat in partnership with NASSCOM and the ICT industry has been working towards creating an enabling environment for IT-BPO companies to setup operations in the state. An integrated IT policy, state-of-the-art infrastructure development and a strong focus towards developing human capital development are some of the major steps taken by the government. The IT summit 2010 is held with an objective to address some of the issues, identify new opportunities in the IT sector and provide a suitable networking platform for various stakeholders to interact various aspects associated with the industry’.”<br /> <br />Addressing the gathering at the summit, Mr Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM interestingly shared that, “Today, 90% of IT services work in India happen from the major six IT destinations – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune. In the coming years, I clearly envision 40% of IT services work happening from outside of these six cities. This opportunity gives way to Ahmedabad as a major IT destination in future in the ICT space. With an integrated IT policy, initiatives like GSWAN, e-governance and GIFT, Gujarat has immense potential to become the next IT hub.”<br /> <br />The summit focused on ICT adoption in education, e-governance which has been the major focus of Gujarat till now. It also deliberated on possibilities of exploring opportunities to capitalize on, in the context of BPO, KPO, Semiconductor sectors etc.<br /> <br />The highlights of the summit were the panel discussions and a CEO Power Panel discussion which saw eminent speakers addressing the audience. The speaker list included Mr. Som Mittal from NASSCOM; Mr. C.P. Gurnani from Mahindra Satyam; Mr Harsh Chitale from HCL Infosystems Ltd, Mr. Krishna Kumar Natarajan from Mindtree; Mr. K S Raghunandan from IBM, Mr. Sundar Ram from Oracle; Ms. Pratima Amonkar from Microsoft along with others.<br />The Government of Gujarat will be organising seminars on Biotechnology on 22nd December 2010. In December, the Government has already conducted seminars on pharma, textiles, tourism, agriculture, healthcare, mining, chemical and petrochemical sectors.<br /> <br />About Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit<br />Vibrant Gujarat is a biennial global Summit held by the Government of Gujarat. The event is aimed at bringing together business leaders, investors, corporations, thought leaders, policy and opinion makers; the summit serves as a perfect platform to understand and explore business opportunities in the State of Gujarat. The Summit provides an excellent platform for showcasing products and services on one hand and one-to-one meetings, roundtable conferences, B2B meets, etc. on the other between the prospective investors and government officials.<br />The last four summits have been a major success and there has been a phenomenal increase in the investments that have come through. The last summit that took place on January 12-13, 2009 attracted investment commitments of over INR 12 lac crore (USD 243bn) by the way of 8663 MoUs and with employment generation potential of 26.2 lacs. A total of 600 international delegates from 45 countries participated in the last summit while 21 countries were showcased in the mega exhibition. The Summit has had a resounding successes in the past attracting many companies from Asia and Europe to establish their presence in Gujarat.<br />This year, Vibrant Gujarat 2011 to held on 12-13 January aims to facilitate investment alliances for participating countries and will be the premier platform in India to identify and leverage business opportunities in this key global market.<br />For more information, please contact:<br />Ajit Pai /Princy Mehta<br />APCO Worldwide<br />+91 98332 54405 / +91-98256 11662 <br />apai@apcoworldwide.com / pmehta@apcoworldwide.com <br />