Bangalore IT.com to gain from BPO growth

Bangalore: With the business process outsourcing (BPO) segment showing bright prospects for Indian IT companies, organisers of Bangalore IT.com have decided to take advantage of the situation.

The 5^th Bangalore IT.com, to be held between 28 October and 1 November 2002, will have a BPO summit, highlighting the prospects this segment holds for entrepreneurs.

"For arts and science graduates it is the BPO segment that is going to offer them jobs. So there will be a pavilion to conduct a short test for graduates and final-year students to see whether they have the aptitude to get into the BPO sector," says Vivek Kulkarni, IT secretary, Karnataka state government.

Similarly, with the financial sector banks, insurers and others embracing IT in large numbers, the exhibition will have a separate pavilion for IT companies that cater to the financial sector to showcase their wares. "Discussion rooms for select companies to present their financial products will also be available at this pavilion," he adds.

The technology exhibits within the tradeshow will have several special pavilions such as country pavilions, bio-informatics, software, hardware, telecom, networking and infrastructure.

According to Kulkarni, several Chinese companies are showing interest in participating in the trade fair. Governments of Germany, Singapore, the UK, Sri Lanka, Korea, Japan, Mauritius and Bangladesh have already confirmed participation and Indian states that have signed up include Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Delhi and Haryana.

"Last year the exhibition attracted 65 foreign companies and we expect to equal that number this year too," says Kulkarni. The fourth edition of Bangalore IT.com attracted 252 exhibitors and 15 countries. The event billed Rs 6 crore as revenue.

To be held at the Palace Grounds, the exhibition till date has bookings for 12,000 sq ft out of a total exhibition space of 80,000 sq ft. Kulkarni says the IT slowdown has forced the event managers to peg the stall rentals at last years level.