The Hindu Business Line : IT majors likely to pull out of BangaloreIT.com

PEEVED over the Karnataka Government's lackadaisical attitude towards maintaining and improving the technology capital infrastructure, IT firms, especially some multinationals decided on Friday to withhold support for the forthcoming BangaloreIT.com 2004.

Companies such as Philips Software, which earlier confirmed its participation in the annual event, have pulled out of the annual technology event, said Mr Bob Hoekstra, CEO, Philips Software Centre. Industry sources said many more firms, including the domestic companies, which have been complaining about poor infrastructure for quite some time, were likely to follow suit in the coming days.

Billed as the largest tech event in Asia Pacific, BangaloreIT.com showcases the IT industry in Karnataka and is also a vehicle to attract investments into the State. Companies including Texas Instruments, SAP, Siemens, HP, Sasken, vMoksha, IBM, Motorola among others would not be supporting the event, Mr Hoekstra said.

"We have been complaining about the poor infrastructure for some time now and the State Government seem to be least bothered about attending to our problem. We came to Bangalore mainly because of the availability of talent and have been here for the past 10-20 years. For R&D firms like us there is no other alternative to go, unlike BPOs that can move out to secondary cities. Our employees have been suffering due to poor roads and traffic congestions on a daily basis. The Government seems to be least interested in solving the problems of existing companies. Why would we support the Government to host such an event which tries to attract more companies to Bangalore," said Mr Hoekstra.

When asked to comment on Philips' move, Mr M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda, IT Secretary, Karnataka Government, said he was not aware of such a development. "If there is any such development, we will try to assuage the feelings of these firms and try to convince them," Mr Gowda said adding that he was confident of over 300 companies participating in the five-day event, that is expected to start from November 1.