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Former state IT secretary Satendra Singh at INFOCOM in Calcutta last year
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Jharkhand is ready to plug in and go places.
INFOCOM, India’s largest information and communication technology conference and exhibition, will for the first time bring leaders, investors, policy-makers, IT professionals and academics together under “Advantage Jharkhand” — a Businessworld and The Telegraph venture — to showcase the state as one of India’s most attractive e-destinations.
“Being enabled is being IT-enabled in today’s world, and Jharkhand is no different. Jharkhand is a modern state, mineral-rich, with cutting-edge educational hubs and an abundant young population that is a minefield of talent. We believe that IT will be a leading growth engine for the state’s economy, a prime mover of the sweeping change for the better that Jharkhand is witnessing now, and INFOCOM the catalyst,” said D.D. Purkayastha, managing director & CEO, ABP Pvt Ltd and chairman, INFOCOM.
The daylong event on July 25 will project before big-ticket investors Jharkhand’s undeniable edge — a receptive government, reputable technological cradles, low-cost intellectual capital compared to say, Bangalore or Mumbai, an unsaturated market that offers unlimited growth potential and growing Internet penetration.
While chief minister Arjun Munda will inaugurate the conference-cum-exhibition, his deputies Hemant Soren and Sudesh Mahto, information technology (IT) department principal secretary N.N. Sinha, principal secretary to the chief minister D.K. Tiwari and chief secretary S.K. Choudhary will grace the occasion as guests of honour.
INFOCOM started in 2002 as a forum to help India’s quest towards being an IT superpower. It is a name to reckon with in eastern India — Calcutta, Northeast, Patna in Bihar and now Ranchi in Jharkhand.
As it completes a decade, it is more relevant than ever as the contours of the e-industry and its influence change beyond recognition.
Making its Jharkhand debut, INFOCOM — riding on economic platforms for IT — brings potential partners together and helps industries network with consumers, doing justice to its billing as India’s largest congregation of ICT professionals, buyers and sellers, corporate leaders and policy-makers.
“We are showcasing e-Jharkhand before the world. INFOCOM is a strategic and tactical alignment of information and communication technologies with Jharkhand’s growth priorities, which is why we have invited 300 delegates, which include 30 industry leaders and 45 potential investors from top companies across India,” said K.K. Mahapatra, associate vice-president IT infrastructure (business) and INFOCOM organising secretary.
Networking apart, the conference will see a number of ‘IT-enabling’ events.
The first issue of the INFOCOM Quarterly, an IT magazine initiated under the banner of Businessworld, will be launched with a detailed look on cloud computing in India.
Sessions include promoting young and emerging entrepreneurs, driving sustainable growth for organisations through IT, building an investor-friendly ‘ecosystem’, exploring collaborations between industry and academia to extract the maximum mileage for the region’s youth and charting out a vision for Digital Jharkhand-2020.
Participants include industry, government and knowledge leaders Wipro, Sify Technologies, Microsoft Corporation India, Capgemini India, Accenture, IIM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lenovo India, TCS, AEGIS Ltd, Tata Steel, NIIT Technologies, SAP India Pvt. Ltd, Cisco Systems, Infosys Technologies Ltd, State Bank of India, SESA Goa Ltd, Heritage Institute of Technology, Ericsson Global Services India, Unique Identification Authority of India, National Internet Exchange of India and Infinity Knowledge Ventures.
Sponsors comprise Jharkhand as partner state; EMTA as principal associate; SBI and Tata Steel as gold sponsors; associate sponsors such as SAP, Usha Martin Group, Jindal Steel & Power, Jharkhand State Electricity Board, SESA Goa, Adhunik Group, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Macaws Infotech. A 30-member delegation from TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Calcutta and Patna, is also participating at the conference to explore business opportunities in Jharkhand.
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