Bangalore: Nearly 110 companies from 10 countries of the expected 350 firms have confirmed participation in the sixth edition of the Bangalore IT.COM 2003 beginning on November 1, Karnataka IT Minister D B Inamdar said on August 26.

"We are expecting over 350 companies for the exhibition. We have already sold 33 per cent of the exhibition space, as compared to the 10 per cent sold during the corresponding period in 2002," Inamdar told reporters in Bangalore.

He said companies from Germany, UK, China and Japan would participate in the event.

Billed as Asia's largest IT event, the theme for this year's edition of Bangalore IT.COM is "The power of Bangalore Make IT Yours!"

IT Secretary Vivek Kulkarni said that several IT majors, including Tata Consultancy Services, Chip maker AMD, Intel, IBM and Ramco Systems are sponsoring several events during the five-day exhibition cum seminar.

A series of conferences would be held parallel to the exhibition, whose topics include Open Source software, regulators summit, global outsourcing forum, Knowledge summit, e-governance summit and mentoring clinic.

"This year, we have identified several relevant topics like outsourcing, open source, e-governance and entrepreneurship among others," he said.

The seminar will also have a panel of participating bodies that would discuss issues like tax and IT infrastructure and human resource development.

PTI