Murthy, Premji join Kumaraswamy to promote Brand Bangalore

Sharing a platform for the first time with Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayan Murthy, Wipro chairman Azim Premji and finance minister P. Chidambaram, Karnataka's new chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy renewed his promise to ensure the continued growth of 'brand Bangalore' and the IT industry. The occasion was the inauguration of a World Customs Organisation IT conference here on Thursday.

''Over the last one year there has been a lot of talk about the state of infrastructure in Bangalore, the future of the City, the future of IT in Bangalore and so on. Let me assure you that our government is very clear in its agenda. We want the IT industry and brand Bangalore to grow, develop and flourish,'' Kumaraswamy said at the conference.

''Bangalore's infrastructure has come to be equated with the roads and traffic whereas the infrastructure in areas like electricity and water supply are of the highest quality in the country,'' he said. The theme of the three day customs conference featuring delegates from over 70 countries is 'Outsourcing and offshoring of IT - a challenge for customs?'

Both the Infosys and Wipro chiefs stuck to the theme of the conference and emphasised that only IT is often associated with outsourcing and off shoring, while the country needs to also focus on sectors like manufacturing.

Narayan Murthy stated that the nearly 65 per cent population in the rural agriculture sector is contributing to only 26 per cent of the GDP of the country. A per person, per capita GDP of $ 320 means 65 per cent of the population get only a dollar a day, he said.

''If we have to make life better for rural people and give them reasonable standards of living, disposable incomes, healthcare and nutrition and education, I personally believe we have to look at low-tech manufacturing to start with and then high-tech manufacturing, just as China has done because most of these people are semi-literate,'' Murthy said.

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