At the sixth edition of Bangalore IT.COM 2003 the spotlight was firmly was infrastructure.

In the last few years, Bangalore has emerged as the Silicon Valley of India but its infrastructure has not kept pace.

According to the Karnataka State Department of Information Technology, foreign investment in the first six months of this year was up by 44 per cent at Rs 42 crores (Rs 420 million), compared to the same period previous year. Seventy new companies have come up this year, of which 34 are multinationals.

Yet the city lacks an international airport and its woefully inadequate roads infrastructure has been criticised by IT czars like Wipro chairman Azim Premji.

"We understand that infrastructure is the backbone of the industry. The state Government is fully committed to its role as a catalyst in building the right investment climate. In the nineties we failed to realise the potential of the state when we were planning the infrastructure but now we are making provisions for the requirements of the industry," said Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna.

Krishna announced that the work on Bangalore's proposed international airport to come up at Devanahalli would begin in December and the airport would be completed in 33 months.

He also said that the state is planning new flyovers in the city to ease the traffic on its roads.

Bangalore has grown 42 per cent in the last five years. It has become the preferred destination for software companies and today contributes over 30 per cent of the total software exports from the country. It has over 1,60,000 professionals employed in the IT sector -- of which 1,10,000 are in software services and about 50,000 are employed in the BPO sector.

In the first six months of 2003, software exports from the state have touched Rs 7,200 crores (Rs 72 billion), a 65 per cent rise over last year.

Bangalore has also emerged as a hub for Research and Development. According to a study quoted by Krishna, 100 R&D centres have come up in the city of which 77 are global firms that have established direct subsidiaries.

Multinationals like GE, Oracle, IBM, SAP and Philips have set up their development centres in the city and are rapidly expanding here. Oracle has grown from 529 people in 1999 to over 2500 today. GE's Jack Welch Technology centre has grown to 2000 professionals in just over two years.

But this success has been lopsided. There has been hardly any growth in the hardware sector and the focus has always been on software development.

That is, however, changing, says Krishna.

The state has set up a hardware taskforce that will soon submit its recommendations on how to propel growth of the hardware sector in the state.

Krishna also announced that the state will build a hardware technology park to encourage hardware companies to come to the city.

"The electronics and the hardware industry has emerged as the fastest growing segment in Indian industry both in terms of production and export. The industry provides employment to more than 500,000 professionals. Perceiving the future that the hardware segment offers and recognising the necessity of having a strong and vibrant industry we have set up a task force," said Krishna.

The state is also wooing AMD, also the platinum sponsor for the event, to set up a development centre in Bangalore.

"If you choose to have a centre here we can assure you that you will not regret it," declared D B Inamdar, Minister for IT and Tourism at the inaugural function.

Admitting that the BPO story in Bangalore has just begun, Krishna said that with the growth rate of 275 per cent that the state has shown in the sector, Bangalore will emerge as India's number one BPO player by 2006.

"The opportunity lies in convincing existing and expanding call centre players who are looking at other destinations to make their foray in Bangalore itself," said Krishna.