Bangalore: The Power of Bangalore—Make it yours, is the watchword for the sixth edition of Bangalore IT.COM 2003, which is to be held between November 1 and 5.

The organisers of this annual 5-day IT extravaganza, however, term it as coinciding with the "second IT wave".

Karnataka IT and Biotechnology Minister D B Inamdar while talking to reporters during the "Curtin Raiser" of the event said, "It is a bigger, better and stronger event with participation of about 285 companies from both India and abroad."

Billed as Asia's largest IT event, the current edition will be inaugurated by Karnataka Governor T N Chaturvedi and Chief Minister S M Krishna.

Inamdar said Union IT Minister Arun Shourie was invited but had expressed his inability for the inaugural due to some personal commitments.

The newly appointed Karnataka IT Secretary K M Shivakumar said there was more space booked for this year at 20,000 sq mts as against 15,000 sq mtrs last year.

Billing on the theme, "The Power of Bangalore, Make it Yours", the event and the city is being positioned as the right destination for global organisations who are witnessing a recovery path, Software Technologies Parks of India Director B V Naidu said.

Naidu said about 15,000 business delegates including 500 foreign visitors from 14 delegations would visit the exhibition, divided into 11 pavilions at the event.

Naidu said there would be special pavilions dedicated to BPO, Knowledge and R&D, communications, software solutions, STPI, IT nations, Spectrum and IT states.

He said this would be the first major event in the country, which would be wireless internet enabled.

Naidu said renowned management thinker C K Prahalad would inaugurate the TiE conference, which will have among other speakers Raman Roy from Wipro Spectramind, TiE Bangalore President Sridhar Mitta and Infosys President, CEO and Managing Director Nandan M Nilekani.

The IT for Common Man: Open Source Summit would have speakers including IIT Madras professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala and Netcore Solutions MD Rajesh Jain.

Shivkumar said the list of firms participating include AMD, Intel, IBM, TCS, Infosys, Subex Systems and C- DAC.

"There are 35 big IT companies who did not participate last year and have come back for the event," Naidu said.

Inamdar said the Jurongton Corporation had submitted its plan for the IT corridor in the city and the work on the project would begin soon after the IT corridor act is passed in the legislature.

IT Director Jawaid Akhtar said the students' Internet pavilion and the IT rural quiz was being organised to attract larger student participation in the event.

Our Correspondent