The ICT EXPO was organized at SKICC on 8-9 October 2009. ICT Expo, a trade show cum conference, was intended to kick-start work on the Association’s roadmap. The event was organised in a trade show cum conference format and discussions were held about the role of ICTA, private ICT businesses, ICT consultants, and that of the government in promoting the ICT sector in the state. There were a good mix of people from (1) ICT Entrepreneurs From the State, (2) Government Officials, and (4) ICT Consultants from the State.
The event was attended by Hon’ble Chief Minister of the State, Mr. Omar Abdullah and Hon’ble Minister for IT, Mr. Aga Rohullah Mehdi. Speaking on the event, the Hon’ble Chief Minister said that an integrated IT park will be setup in the valley. The CM said the government had received “expressions of interest” from a number of non-resident Kashmiris who wanted to come back and take part in infrastructure development projects. The CM said there were plenty of projects in the pipeline and ample investments coming into this area. “There is an investment of roughly Rs 150 crores in three projects, viz. SWAN, Data Centre and Common Service Centre.”
The chairman of ICTA, Jahangir Raina said there was lack of awareness about the Information and Communications Technology in J&K and “addressing it is the basic reason behind forming this association.”
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister for IT, Aga Ruhullah Mehdi said that IT projects worth Rs 150 crores are being implemented in the state with main focus to give priority to the local entrepreneurs. He minister said the idea behind implementing these projects is to provide better linkage between the offices. “These projects will enable the common people to have access to any information related to the government or non governmental organizations or about the private sectors like airlines, tour operators etc,” he said. “I invite locals to take up all the projects available with our department. I believe that once the local people are encouraged then the employment will naturally be followed,” he added.
This was followed by a Q&A session where visitors asked questions to the Hon’ble Chief Minister and other panelists about the ICT issues.
Post lunch, BizComp 2009 – an event to promote youth entrepreneurs in the state, was held. This included presentations from the five finalists for this competition, followed by voting by the audience as well as judges. Five cool concepts were presented by the presenters.
- Book Me a Room – an idea to provide complete room booking system to the valley which will cover all hotels, houseboats, guest houses etc.
- Gepouch – a business idea to use GPS for flight scheduling, weather monitoring etc
- JASI – an idea to provide customized accounting systems to micro businesses.
- Grid Computing – an idea to provide cost effective grid computing services to valleyites.
- Publicist – an idea to promote brands and provide PR services using PR.20 medium.
Out of these five finalists, Book Me a Room was declared winner and a cash prize of Rs 1,00,000 was awarded to him for put his idea on work alongwith 6 months mentoring for the product by ICTA as well as Mercy Corps.
Overall the experience at the Expo was good. They were able to fetch a good number of quality visitors including professionals, govt officials, students and budding entrepreneurs.
One Response to ICT Expo Srinagar 2009
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shuja Says:November 10th, 2009
Thanx a ton bro…highlighting us…….appreciate the same
