IT Asia--Dream 2000

The Information Technology (IT) Asia 2000 had everything a complete exhibition cum conference on IT should. But it lacked the audience, which the show deserved.

"IT Asia 2000 will provide the largest forum for matching IT users with products and service providers," claimed Pran Talwar, chairman CII Trade Fairs and Shows on the eve of the exposition.

Organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the Manufacture Association of Information Technology (MAIT), IT Asia was planned as an IT investment planning event for the Indian corporates and was inaugurated by the Minister of Information Technology, Pramod Mahajan.

"My dream is to take the growth rate of IT from a US$ 5 billion to US$ 100 billion by 2010," said the excited minister. He further announced that the government has allocated an extra Rs 100 crore in the North Eastern States to build community computerization in 486 blocks in the state. The project is expected to take off in the next two months. 

The exhibition showcased the latest and many of the best from the world of technology and service providers as well. In the big names were MTNL, VSNL, Siemens, Ericsson, Nokia, Compaq, NIIT, Tata Technologies, SGI and Hewlett-Packard.

For MTNL, it was a ground where it could show its keenness in becoming an IT company, as announced by the chairman and managing director, S Rajagopalan recently. The telecom giant was also offering a Virtual Card Calling (VCC) worth Rs 500 with STD facility with every 100 hours of Internet connection. It seems, it will leave no stone unturned to grab a major chunk of 'Net subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai.

While, its competitor VSNL stayed there exhibiting the various options available for a 'Net surfer. Among the new launches, Sampark Online promoted by the Internet Promoters India Limited unveiled the Internet services. The stalwarts like Ericsson, Siemens and Compaq launched a host of new products to suit the Internet market.

Spread over 9000 sqms, the exhibition comprised 92 participants including the Partner State, Kerala. The state government has plans to connect all 990 panchayats in the state through a dedicated network. Internationally, the participation came from nine countries--Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Singapore, Turkey, Sweden, Ireland and USA.

The organizers had set up four niche pavilions namely Future@Access focussing on Internet; Telenet India, focussing on telecom and its role in network applications; AIDC India 2000 on automatic identification and data capture technologies; and Solutions with hardware and software solutions.

The conference part of the exhibition had people like Prof Michael Dertouzos, director, Laboratory for Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He spoke on the future of India in the arena of Internet and convergence. The conferences were on various subjects like Internet and e-business; Technology overview and future decision, Value added through IT; Mastering the digital marketplace, and the Telecom Summit

While the first two were attended by people like Arun Pande, vice president--IT, Colgate Palmolive Ltd, Rahul Prakash, CEO, Telecom Ventures LLC, USA who shared strategies they used to tap into the global information technology market. The telecom summit featured, Shyamal Ghosh, chairman, Telecom Commission, Tapan Sikdar, minister of state of communications, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Bharti Enterprises, Tony Setchell, Global Telecom Head, and Jorma Ollila, chairman, Nokia, Finland.

The sessions held featured almost 25 corporates and large IT users.

In keeping with the changing technological and regulatory environment in this sector, plenary sessions were held on the Indian role in the international telecom environment'; private and government initiatives, regulatory challenges in telecom sector, and the investment opportunities in the Indian telecom sector.

During the e-conferences, the lack of local language software initiatives was discussed. The conference unraveled some of the factors that have inhibited the development of vernacular software.

"The entire exhibition has everything possible under one roof for a show based on IT. Still, it seems flat," said a software engineer visiting the show. The first day of the show hardly had any visitors. Even the cyber cafe sponsored by the Sampark Online and the stalls with free Internet connectivity failed to attract audience. The Small and Medium Entrepreneurs were disappointed as many of them could not get back the money invested on the jazzy stalls. A large number of audiences, seen in the last two days of the show, were mainly the spillovers of the Book Fair. 

The organizers may have to go for a more focussed theme from next time. IT Asia 2000 had everything to talk about--telecom, IT, Internet, E-commerce, E-security. In an era of convergence, it is definitely wise to talk about everything. However, rather than clustering everything under one roof, it would be wiser to focus on one or two subjects and dwell upon them thoroughly.

Last modified on 26 February 2000