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Despite a packed agenda of 24 hours, which included luncheon meetings with chief
ministers of 10 states, tete-a-tetes with the IT industry and customers and press
conferences galore, Mr. Gates managed to communicate his appreciation of the
Indian IT industry in no uncertain terms.
Mr. Gates, a true believer in India’s potential as a major software
development destination, has been declaring quite openly that the country is already
a software superpower.
Microsoft, like a large number of MBCs, employs a significant
number of software programming talent and specialists. The
company also boasts a software development facility in the hi-tech
city of Hyderabad.
With major endorsements from the two big wigs of the Western world, one
would have thought the Indian market had seen it all, done it all. However, more
excitement was in the pipeline for the Indian IT industry. The CEO of Samsung
Electronics (the leading name in the consumer electronics, and IT business) came
to town with a strong set of initiatives for the Indian market.
Mr. Charles Wang, yet another lover of Indian software talent and Chairman of
Computer Associates, the world’s Number Three software company and creator of
enterprise level network management solutions, also came to India, even though
the visit was extremely brief. Mr. Wang has shown his appreciation for Indian
software talent by virtually surrounding himself with a strong Indian second and
third line of managers. CA in fact has a major software development center in
Calcutta where cutting edge technologies that go into CA products are being
developed. Apart from the heads of software companies, India also
played host to the heads of leading hardware and semiconductor
companies. Mr. Michael Dell, the Chief of Dell Computers,
Mr. Craig Barett, CEO of Intel and Mr. John Sculley all put in an
appearance on Indian shores.
The arrival of John Chambers the global head of Cisco on January 15 this year, will
add yet another feather in the august cap of India’s IT visitor log book. Cisco, a
leading networking company and the communications infrastructure supplier is
yet another organization that has great faith in the potential of the Indian market.
Global visitors then are coming to town, giving out clear signals of the fact that
India is coming of age in the IT segment.
n
The media is going crazy
trailing after these international
IT gurus and keeping a track of
their whereabouts.
