While the industry has been growing at above average growth rates, software development activity is not confined to a few cities in India. Software development hotspots, such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Calcutta, Delhi-Noida-Gurgaon belt, Vadodara, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Goa, Chandigarh, Trivandrum are all developing quickly. They boast state-of-the-art software facilities and the presence of a large number of overseas vendors. A large part of India’s success in the software sector is due to the crucial role played by the State of Karnataka in promoting and providing a boost to IT. Karnataka has emerged as the computer capital and center of high-tech industries, especially software. Bangalore has for long been known as India’s answer to Silicon Valley, and this is the city where most large software companies have set up shop and operate out of state-of-the-art facilities. The Government of Karnataka has also been extremely positive about the software
and services marketplace and has helped create the relevant telecom and policy infrastructure conducive to the growth of this sector.

The dynamic industrial policy declared in 1996, with comprehensive packages of incentives and concessions, has ensured a productive ground for various industries. The hardware and software industries have now brought about a revolution of sorts under these schemes. Various institutions and computer training centers have contributed to the large number of trained and talented professionals.

The City of Bangalore has positioned itself to help market the software industry. This is also why Bangalore has been playing host to international-class conferences, workshops and exhibitions devoted to the software cause.

In fact, the “Technopolis” of India will be holding one of the largest IT events this
year, for the fourth consecutive time — Bangalore IT.COM 2001, Conference and Tradeshow.

Under one sprawling banner, over a short but intensive span of five days, Bangalore will see over 500 IT and Telecom giants from all over the world. There will be over 75,000 business visitors, plus corporate buyers, decision
makers, visionaries and technology gurus converging from key international markets across the U.S., Europe, India and Southeast Asia. This year’s Bangalore IT.COM will also feature a unique “Global Buyer-Seller Meet”, a forum for generating business leads, structured networking and pre-fixed meetings for international and domestic outsourcing partners.

In addition, the visitors can experience Bangalore’s hi-tech climate. The city has the highest number of engineering colleges in the world, almost 50 percent of the world’s SEI CMM Level 5 companies, COPC/ISO recognized Customer Interaction Centers, and over 103 R&D Institutions. It is, in fact, home to GE’s biggest R&D Center outside the U.S.—the Jack Welch Technology Center, which hires over 200 PhDs/scientists every month! To top it all, Bangalore has just been ranked the fourth best “Global hub of technological innovation” by none other than the United Nations.