Emphasising on the need for immediate action, Gupta said that whatever activity was happening was taking place in Delhi and its satellite towns. "This scenario will change only if the political bosses display will and take steps to infotech companies to their states, he observed, calling upon CII to organise IT-related events in other northern states as well.

The DoE secretary appreciated the plans drawn up by the Electronics Corporation of Punjab to develop a hi-tech software technology park, Softop, in Mohali, advising them to set up liasion offices in the Silicon Valley, London and other cities to tap the NRIs. "The NRIs had established a brand equity for themselves in the world. There is no reason why we should not make good use of that and invite them to tap the enormous potential in infotech in the country," he emphasised.

Highlighting the problems faced by entrepreneurs, Gupta said the state authorities must take steps to create a venture capital funds for infotech. He described venture capital fund as a "trigger for growth", adding that the Central government was in the process of setting up a National Venture Capital Fund and creating intermediaries to bring together people looking for venture capital and those providing it. "This would solve the entrepreneurs' complaints regarding non-availability of funds.

Earlier, Rakesh Singh, managing director, Electronic Corporation of Punjab, said the government had decided to spend Rs 100 crore in the next three years to introduce the concept of electronic governance in the state. It has already created Department of Information Systems and Reforms and finalised framework for procurement of infotech products and services to facilitate e-governance in transport and excise and taxation departments.

He said the corporation would also focus on creation of research and development clusters, attracting world class technology-driven companies to Punjab and increasing the share of software and hardware in the state gross domestic product. The government has already decided to allocate one per cent of its total budget to the IT sector. "For the society at large, the mission would be to develop an IT policy that enables an intelligent society through smart governance," he pointed out.

Shekhar Dasgupta, country manager, Oracle Software India Ltd, said the internet had provided a great opportunity to businesses to reduce costs to become globally competitive. India can really take the lead by using the emerging technologies in e-commerce, IT-related services and e-governance, he observed. IT can bring about a major shake-up and increase market growth in the service industry. "In fact, India could be the hub for Asia," he added.

Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman of CII (northern region) said that IT had gained the status of the fastest grwing industry all over the world, growing at an annual rate of 30 per cnet across the board. "With the proliferation of internet all over the globe, IT industry has been growing at a rate of 50 per cent a year for the past few years," he observed, adding that the common European currency presented a mega opportunity for the Indian companies.

Later, Ravindra Gupta inaugurated the IT exhibition being held here from May 7-9. Hewlett Packar, Alfa Netcom, Oracle Software India Ltd, VSNL, Ramco Systems, HCL, Zenith Computers and TVS Electronics are among the exhibitors participating in the three-day exposition.