Date:10/10/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/10/10/stories/2004101001850300.htm

Back IT cos' boycott threat — Karnataka to improve infrastructure

Our Bureau

Bangalore , Oct. 9

FOLLOWING the threat by some information technology companies to boycott BangaloreIT.com 2004, the Karnataka IT secretary, Mr M.K. Shankar Linge Gowda, said on Saturday that steps were being taken by the Government on a war footing to improve the city infrastructure and the roads would be repaired and decongested by the month-end.

Several IT firms, including Philips Software, Texas Instruments, Synopsys, vMoksha and Sasken, had decided on Friday not to support BangaloreIT.com, in protest against the Government's apathy towards maintaining and improving the city infrastructure.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Gowda said that the IT Department was in consultation with the police to ease the traffic by restricting the movement of trucks during peak hours in the morning and evening. Appealing to the IT companies to make BangaloreIT.com a big success, Mr Gowda said the civic agencies have begun work on a fast pace to carry out certain improvements.

Mr Gowda said that the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr N. Dharam Singh, would meet the IT captains immediately after the by-elections in the Bidar Lok Sabha constituency and attend to their grievances. However, Mr Gowda also mentioned that there would not be any impact on the event due to the threat by some IT companies, adding that Bangalore had over 1,300 software firms and it continued to attract more firms.

The Director, Software Technology Parks of India (Bangalore), Mr B. V. Naidu, said more than 250 companies have evinced interest in participating in the event.