Goingtomeet.com Press

India, the largest democratic state, has the fifth largest electricity grid and third largest Transmission & Distribution network respectively in the world. However, due to the dramatically increasing economic activities and rising electricity consumption, there has been a significant challenge to face for Indian government. Origins of India’s smart grid efforts are multi-factorial in nature but primarily concern three main issues which are the subject of current or planned government backed initiatives: 1) Balance the supply and demand of the power market; 2) Electrify a large segment of its rural population to receive electrical services; 3) Optimize electrical usage by being able to manage loads and mitigate operating inefficiencies. Furthermore, central government involvement in the smart grid has expanded beyond the confines of Ministry of Power into an inter-department task force known as India Smart Grid Task Force.

“Under my stewardship, we wish to evolve a future roadmap for development of Smart Grid in India aided by the most modern and latest technologies in the field.” said by Shri Sam Pitroda, the Chairman of India Smart Grid Task Force who is confirmed to be the opening keynote speaker of World Smart Gird Conference Series India Week. He is planning to present the role of India Smart Grid Task Force, national smart grid initiatives, and India’s smart grid roadmap and strategy in the environment of emerging economic.

Meantime, Dr. Pramod Deo, Chairman of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission which takes responsible of tariff, legal and regulatory issues, will present the regulatory challenges and opportunities for India Smart Grid.

Not only two senior speakers above, but also some main local utilities, such as Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM), Reliance Infrastructure, NDPL, APCPDCL, and BSES have also be arranged to speak in this event for their own perspectives towards smart grid.

World Smart Grid Conference Series-India Week 2011, to be held on September 13th to 16th in Mumbai, is a unique event for you to attain deep understandings on India’s smart grid initiatives, roadmap, regulatory environment, ongoing pilots of local utilities, network local and international smart grid industry executives and share insights on the future market developments.

The conference is vendor-neutral, product-neutral, and platform-neutral with highly intense interaction between delegates, and allows for real discussion and debate, not simply a series of “product presentations”.

Eminent Speakers Confirmed:
? Sam Pitroda, Chair, India Smart Grid Task Force
? Pramod Deo, Chairman, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
? V. K. Shah, Executive Director (APDRP), Power Finance Corporation
? Narendra Singh Sodha, Executive Director, Power Grid Corporation of India
? Ramesh Narayanan, CEO, BSES Yamuna Power Limited
? Sunil Wadhwa, Managing Director, NDPL
? Ajoy Rajani, Vice President, Reliance Infrastructure
? Abhijit Roy, Head – New Technology Initiatives, Reliance Infrastructure
? Jacob Joseph, Deputy General Manager, TATA Power
? Amit Prasad, Director of Smart Grid, New Delhi Municipal Counci
? Jayant Deo, CEO and Managing Director, India Energy Exchange
? Claudio Lima, Vice Chair, IEEE P2030 Smart Grid Architecture
? Ashish Khanna, Senior Energy Specialist, South Asia Sustainable Development, World Bank
? Monali Zeya Hazra, Program Management Specialist, USAID
? Norbert Karl, Global Sales & Business Development Smart Grid, Siemens
? Larry Kraft, Senior Vice President, Digi International
? Manu Rishi Puri, Sr Managing Consultant?IBM – Global Business Services
? Somnath Chatterjee, Head – Energy, Utilities and Chemicals CoE, Capgemini
? Senior Executive, Schneider Electric
? Senior Executive, National Instruments

Organizing Committee of World Smart Grid Conference Series India Week 2011
Media contact person: Miss Viola Yan
Tel: +86 21 5830 0710
Fax: +86 21 5831 1668
E-mail: info@szwgroup.com
Website: www.szwgroup.com/2011/sgindia

“It’s bright and sunny in the cloud front”. Lux Rao, National Manager –Cloud Consulting Services, HP, quipped, starting the proceedings of 2nd Annual Cloud Computing Summit with a bang, bringing out the beautiful oxymoron which describes the present state of the cloud. While Cloud Computing has gone far beyond being a fad, the picture is still cloudy if we bring in the challenges involved in implementation. Lux pointed out that while what of cloud computing has been settled, the question of when and how still remains.

Narsipur Amarnath, Senior Architect, Yahoo addressed the first morning session on how Cloud Computing can be used to address Internet scale computing needs. He pointed at the inevitable fixed budget trade-off essential in balancing Agility and Stability. With more than 38,000 servers and 170 peta bytes of storage, he walked the audience through Yahoo’s Cloud Architecture with Hadoop Clusters. Internet Scale encompassed handling asymptotic behavior for corner cases & boundary conditions to cope with the increasing complexity of the systems.

Social Enterprise

The energy levels surged as Steve McWhirter, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Sales, Asia Pacific, Salesforce took over the podium in front of a visibly excited audience to deliver his keynote on “Cloud 2- The Next Generation of Cloud Computing”. Steve pointed out how cloud computing represented the natural progression from Mainframe to Client-server. He pointed out its cost advantages, as companies are able to reduce their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by 54%. He also highlighted the impending shift from Waterfall to Agile development.

“In a social enterprise, you can become a friend of documents”, Steve teased amusingly, showcasing the amazing possibilities that emerge from harnessing social technologies within enterprises. He also brought to light Cloud’s greener side as it is 95 % more energy efficient than on-premise systems. “We are entering the Post-PC apps era”, Steve declared, with the growth of next generation devices. He pointed out to a Salesforce study titled, Post PC revolutions – Is India Inc ready? which stated that India would have 205 million mobile workers by 2015.

Telcos hovering around the Cloud

This was followed by a panel discussion on Driving telcos in the cloud-space, moderated by Sridhar T Pai, CEO, Tonse Telecom. Sethu Madhavan Srinivasan, Director Marketing and Strategy, Huawei Telecommuncation addressed the need to bridge the Web 2.0 world with the Telecom world, who are no longer satisfied with the traditional plumbing role, through a social Community Map layer. With live examples, he talked about Huawei’s Single Cloud, which unifies the Service Cloud with the Enterprise Cloud. He used the metaphor of a digital shopping mall to explain the nature of Single Cloud. He pointed out that the transformation of IP based networks to Cloud remained one of the big challenges. Lux Rao corroborated the evolution of telecom, which once used to run last mile operations, has shifted towards distribution of IT services. He advised the telcos to invest ahead of the curve.

“The journey to the cloud has to be a holistic journey involving the transformation of the organization”, Lux Rao shared from his personal experience over the challenges involved in adopting the Cloud. The discussion veered towards the standardization, which went together with openness, as the panelists enthused about DMTF and SNIA’s cloud efforts. The panelists voiced their support towards an Open Cloud Architecture based on X86 hardware. To an audience comment about the organic evolution of technology, the panelists opined that the regulatory environment also played a major role in deciding the course of evolution.

ERP on Cloud

Shyaam Sunder, Chief Knowledge Officer, Ramco Systems addressed the drivers behind the shift to the cloud. In response to the debate on standardization, he averred that markets often do not wait for standards in perfecting the solutions offered. He recollected the pioneering efforts of IONA towards standardization of the erstwhile CORBA architecture. He highlighted the transition from time dependency to time sensitivity, approaching towards Time Criticality. He showcased Ramco’s gateway products such as Zero Touch and Switch-on Analytics which enable enterprises to take baby steps towards the cloud world. He contrasted the ERPimplementation of the yesteryears with the Cloud, where firms, which previously had to implement ERP first in order to install Analytics, now could switch on Analytics as they proceeded with the implementation.

While integration is implemented today through EDI and Web-services, Cloud ERP integration would be WSO2 compliant in the future. He averred that Cloud would be able to bring down the implementation time. He corroborated the benefits of multi-tenancy, through standardization and economics of scale, which has been the fundamental compulsion for an organization to move over to the Cloud. Every time the finance minister announces the budget change, the change can be modeled into the application through one central activity for the benefit of the subscribers. Every firm has a distinctive approach to the Cloud. Private Cloud would be preferred when business model is unique and does not lend itself to easy productization with standard ERP delivery. Business data is not contained in the metadata of the application and products that are available. Vendor is unable to provide resources time-critically. Financial impact of time criticality is cost-structure elasticity, being able to pull and push the components into it.

He also introduced Community Cloud, where any group of people can be grouped into a Community Cloud. It is presently used in the Aviation industry to subscribe to the industry specific templates through the Cloud. He advised the need to take baby steps as and when one is comfortable so that one becomes proficient with using Cloud based solution, either through a general ledger or inventory of purchase applications and then move bigger. One doesn’t have to take the great leap like Lord Hanuman did when he saw the sun up there and thought it to be a big orange.

To an audience question about metadata conceptualization challenge in Cloud, he pointed out such a challenge exists as there is ambiguity about developing use-cases. The four modes of intermediation-disintermediation, new intermediation and re-intermediation and intermediation constantly evolve as an account of new technology development shifting technologies of today to oblivion. As long as this happens, metadata conceptualization would remain a challenge. It is impossible to completely simulate every use-case that is going to happen in the next ten years. If one could do that, quarter and quarter predictability of profits should also be possible. Businesses cannot be run like a metronome. The principal dependency is the ability to articulate the metadata, which is application independent.

Ashish Varlekar, Head of Microsoft Practice & Alliance Manager, L&T Infotech walked the audience through a case study which involved a succes sful implementation of a performance management system built over Azure platform. He highlighted the Load Balancing features of PaaS and L&T’s Silver Line application to control and manage PaaS Apps.

Subu Iyer, Section Manager, IPG R&D Hub, HP presented his session on the future of printing in cloud. By 2012, Internet will be the biggest driver of pages, with 35 % of the pages being printed from the Web. He talked at length about Web connected printers which possessed email addresses for printing, and Driverless printers which can print documents anywhere, anytime.

The Afternoon session began with a panel discussion on Evaluating key emerging markets for improved strategy, moderated by Mani Doraisamy, Co-Founder & CTO, Orange Scape. Jyotish Kumar Ghosh, Sr. VP & Head IT Services, Sify presented an interesting case study on the deployment of cloud at Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority. Mandar Naik, Director, Platform Strategy, Microsoft talked about cloud’s eventual development defined in terms of one- size-fits-all approach. Mani Doraisamy brilliantly brought the necessary business shift, which is all inclusive, to bring Cloud Computing to the fore with an analogy recollecting Steve Jobs famous words, “We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to live, Microsoft has to die”.

Sudhakar S Marthi, Vice President Sales & Marketing – APAC, Zoho Corporation presented his session on “Cloud Computing for SMEs”. With 14% of SMBs already on cloud and another 10% expected by 2012, cloud is becoming more of a reality for SMBs. He also highlighted few interesting features in ZOHO where mail threads are converted to forum threads and wiki articles.

Pavan Yara, Consultant, Eucalyptus Systems talked about the unique features of Eucalyptus systems and its hypervisor Independence. The ensuing Panel discussion on Infrastructure, Deployment, Integration & Security Strategies focused on the unique challenges in deploying the cloud. Integration has to be upfront activity rather than an afterthought after installation. Mathan Kasilingam, Regional Manager, Systems Engineering, Symantec highlighted the initiatives taken at his firm to provide confidence about the security to the clients. The panelists agreed on the need for federated clouds to talk to each other.

In response to an audience question on security strategies in VoIP space, Bikram Barman, Senior Engineering Manager at RSA, Security Division, EMC talked of possibilities of extending private cloud to a public cloud in a secure way. Girish Dave, Head of Core Network Solutions presented interesting case studies in Cloud deployment, ranging from Pudong’s Health Cloud to China Mobile. He stated that deploying cloud required higher operational skill sets. He also highlighted at the different standards existing at telcos at UNI and subscriber levels. The final panel discussion on Sharing resources in the cloud value chain brought the legal perspective in the purview of the Cloud. Anu Vaidyanathan, CEO, PatNMarks urged the audience to look at Intellectual Property as a defense card rather than an offense card. She highlighted various examples where big companies have used patents as weapons against the competitors. Mani Doraisamy concluded the session eloquently showcasing the innovator’s dilemma in offering services that have never been offered and the incredible opportunity that lies in providing these services.

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

STRONG SMART GRID SUMMIT 2011

Smart Grid, Strong Priority

Renaissance® Beijing Capital Hotel

­­­­­­­­­­­­Shanghai, China, 12 April 2011- China is the front runner in terms of Smart Grid technology based on the breakthroughs achieved through the developmental progress in strong Smart Grid construction and R&D. With that in mind, the JFPS Group together with the power grid and power corporations present the Strong Smart Grid Summit 2011 which will discuss the Smart Grid development and policy trends on a global scale.

Key issues that will be addressed during the summit are the deep insight into the whole value chain of Strong Smart Grid industry in China, the development path of the 12^th five-year plan of Smart Grid, strong Smart Grid industries with Chinese characteristics, key problems and technologies involved in the construction and R&D of Strong Smart Grid, Smart Grid in the globe: now and future and standards introduced in the Smart Grid pilots. Taking into account the level of infancy of Smart Grid, it relies heavily on multiple factors. Therefore a more unified approach and technical standard is needed.

The event will feature a total of 31 distinguished speakers who are experts in the Smart Grid industry. Some of which include the Director of Center for Resource Solutions from National Development and Reform Commission, Deputy Director of the Department of Industrial Economy under the Development Research Center of State Council, Head of State Grid’s Smart Grid Department and a host of others.

The summit will be held over a span of two days beginning on the 15^th of June 2011 until the 16^th at Beijing, China with a total of eight sessions per day. For a more in depth look into the Smart Grid industry, there will be two track discussions-Power Transmission and Power Distribution on the first day of the summit.

For more information on the event, log on to www.ssgschina.com/index.html or contact Ms. Lena Wang at +86 21 5172 0111 or e-mail us at lena.wang@jfpsgroup.com.cn

-END-

Media Contact:

Aliyyah Nuha Faiqah

Executive, PR & Digital Marketing

Tel: +603 2600 6190

HP: +6012 318 5807

E-mail: aliyyah.n@jfpsgroup.com

About JFPS Group

JFPS Group is the leading business performance enhancement company with affiliate partners across the globe. As a world-class business intelligence provider, JFPS Group provides business executives with knowledge and skills through conferences, professional training, in-house training and consulting.

China has surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest energy user, according to Paris-based International Energy Agency. As a rapid growing China’s GDP, it will continue to drive up the domestic energy consumption. The renewables, such as nuclear, wind and solar energy are no doubt seen as the favorable means to complement the energy shortage. A Stronger and Smarter Grid in China will pave the road of the renewables utilization and raise energy efficiency to cut emissions.

Grid is the world’s most complex man-made systems, information, mass, control complex, which also determines the different national conditions, the country’s development direction and focus of the smart grid are also different. In China, strong smart grid is primarily a strong grid, whose extra-high voltage technology has core characteristics including long distance, high capacity and low loss efficiency. But “should be ’strong’ and ’smart’ the advantages of a collection in one person.” This view is being more recognized and accepted. UHV grid as the backbone, with coordinated development of subordinate grids at all levels and support of IT & telecommunication platform, featured by IT-based, interactive and automated. Strong and Smart are two basic requirements for modern power grid development. Strong is the basis and smart is the key. Combination of strong grid structure and grid smartness is the feature of describing modern power grid development by integral and systematic means. Furthermore, the end-users and distribution networks in China are not as mature as most developed countries, and the penetration rate of small-scale renewables are relatively low at the moment. In fact, growth of renewable energy in the country is primarily driven by large-scale projects that do not directly connected to end-users. Given these conditions, it is expected that initial stages of the Chinese smart grid plan will focus on the ability of controlling bulk electricity transfer efficiently, and then moves towards end-users and services integration in the next stages when the users are becoming more ready.

At the same time, the second stage of China’s Smart Grid plan, from 2011 to 2015, not only focus on accelerating UHV, urban and rural grids construction, but also establishing the basic framework for smart grid operation control and interaction, achieving the projected advancements in technology and equipment production, mass deployment. For example, in China ‘smart grid’, are estimated to be a nearly $100 billion opportunity over the next five years. With total power capacity set to reach 1,430 gigawatt by 2015 from 874 gigawatt at the start of 2010, China has to figure out how to bring trillions of kilowatt hours of power to more than a billion customers, sometimes over very long distances.

Smart-grid technology brings power grids into the telecommunications age, connecting “smart meters” in households and businesses to central monitoring systems capable of detecting and redressing outages or overloads in an instant.

The installation of smart meters alone will be worth $3.1 billion in 2011, up from $2.4 billion this year, according to estimates by the China Electricity Council — and foreign firms are already looking to supply components, control and automation systems, and know-how. (from Reuters)

With this mind, the CDMC Smart Grid Series Forum, as a professional and unparallel communication platform, concentrates on supporting an intelligent network and a global vision to our high-level worldwide industrial partners for three year. The 3rd Annual Smart Grid Forum China Focus 2011 (Sep. 15th -17th 2011) will bring industry thought leaders and a focused group of audience together to discuss the policy & the regulatory landscape, smart grid standardization, customer-side issues (billing, metering & CRM), ICT, smart distribution and smart integration of renewables.

The Organizing Committee of the 3rd Annual China Smart Grid Forum 2011 is looking forward your participation in Shanghai.

For Sponsorship & Registration please contact
Elsa Shi at elsash@chinadecisionmakers.com.
For speaking opportunity, please contact Han Lee at leel@chinadecisionmakers.com.

Contact Information:

Tel: +86 21 68407631
Fax:+86 21 68407632
www.cdmc.org.cn/smartgrid

Expo Summit 2010 is all set to scale new heights this year around. After receiving an overwhelming response and 224 participants last year, Expo Summit 2010 is back with a bang. Scheduled to be held from June 4-5 at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi, this two- day conference intends to bring in more representation of the International stakeholders from the world exhibition fraternity. The highlight of the event is its encouraging number of participants. We are pleased to reveal that more than 300 participants ranging from exhibition organizers, booth fabricators, logistics companies and service providers from across the globe would be present at the Expo Summit 2010. What is most heartening is the fact that international associations from world over have expressed their keenness to be associated with this high profile event. Expo Summit 2010 is perhaps the only medium through which service providers are able to tap the entire Indian Exhibition Industry extensively that is growing at a very encouraging rate.

Undoubtedly, India holds a commanding position in the list of big and influential international organisers across the world. However, there are quite a few issues that need to be addressed in order to make India the next launch pad for Asia. While, the exhibition trade, globally had advanced to a larger extent, India continues to deal with issues related to stiff government policies and inappropriate venues. In order to ensure that India is indeed the potential hub of exhibitions across the world, it’s very important to adopt a unified stand over various issues of concern and match up the difference that the West has laid for us.

With Expo Summit’ 09, a foundation stone was laid for the Indian Exhibition Industry to build a strong ground that is recognised as an industry. The need to take a forward step in unifying the entire sector and to adopt a unified stand before the policy makers was felt. When Expo Summit’ 09 was taking shape, the industry felt that it would represent its strength and challenges before the policy makers sitting on the other side of the table. However, by the end of the summit, all the industry stake holders, including the policy makers and autonomous bodies came to the consensus that none of them were actually on the other side. Rather, they all were a part of a unique cycle and agreed to adopt a collective approach in the right direction to maintain the graph of augmentation, moving upwards! It was very heartening to witness the formal ‘discussion’ being transformed into a healthy ‘dialogue’! The challenge before Expo Summit, 2010 now is to start the second chapter of this dialogue!

Expo Summit 2010 will reinstate its objective to provide the required platform to the exhibition fraternity to stand together. To strengthen this pledge, Indian Exhibition Industry Association (IEIA) has also extended its unconditional support to the event. “The Indian exhibition industry has surely benefitted from the platform of Expo Summit being offered by Manch Communications. The association finds a definite synergy with the objective behind this event and will extend all possible support to the organizers to make it a grand success� says Anil Arora, Hon’ Secretary, IEIA.

“We have started promoting the event in all possible ways to attract more international speakers and organizers who are eyeing on India to enter and set up their shops. We got an excellent response at UFI Asia Open seminar at Taipei with confirmations from industry stalwarts like Paul Woodward, Michael Duck and Mark Cochrane to speak at the summit. We would also attend UFI Middle East Open Seminar in Bahrain later this month to attract more delegates from that part of the world. We are committed to deliver a prolific experience to all Indian delegates in the summit� says Anuj Mathur, Director, Manch Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Since its formal launch, Expo Summit, 2010 is drawing overwhelming response from various segments of exhibition industry. Some of the international organizations have begun to show keen interest in the event and have also expressed their willingness to be part of it! Litmus Meroform and RE Rogers India have extended their support in the capacity of Foundation Partners of the event. Roder HTS Hocker, the world leader in the tensile structures and Siddhartha Logistics, the new age logistics solution provider have come forward in the support of the event as Associate Sponsors. The event is well promoted by several online and print media covering the trade. Indiamart.com, goingtomeet.com, Events Venues and Avenues are contributing towards the event’s promotional activities.

“We invite all industry stakeholders to come and attend the two day conference and go back with a motivational approach towards their businesses. Indian companies will surely get a chance to boost their business by venturing with their international counterparts� concluded Anuj Mathur.

Opening Ceremony, IT Show 2010

Kuala Lumpur, May 18, 2010 “ The information technology sector never knew the meaning of fatigue. And today, they are caught in dilemma with the question “Save or Spend” in shaping the framework of 2010 – 2011 budget.

All these will be sorted out in the IT Showcase Asia 2010 opens today to Wednesday at Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur. The 2^nd annual conference powered by JFPS Group Malaysia managed to draw a total number of 120 attendees from public and corporate sectors throughout the region.

Wong Mee lee, Project Manager

Project Manager, Wong Mee Lee insisted, “The theme of this conference is very timely and in motion. It is important to explain to players the current situation of information technology sector and what should and can be done to ensure efficiency of information technology systems of their companies“.

“We are confident that our list of speakers and panelists able to resolve questions garbled in the minds of delegates,” said Wong.

The conference highlights some leading speakers from the industry, including Eric Lauzon, Chief Information Officer of the International

Baccalaureate (IB) who is widely lauded as an industry visionary for his thought leadership and speaks frequently and passionately at key international events, especially about empowering young people and alleviating poverty through strategic use of technology, as well as greening of IT.

The presence of Eric and other regional information technology experts would keep the conference lively. Among other speakers including Rajesh Saini (Chief Information Officer, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd), Thillai Raj T. Ramanathan (Chief Technology Officer, MIMOS Bhd), Dr. S Dharmavasan (Managing Director, Kingslake), Zeck Lim (Head of Services Division (SEA), Akamai Technologies), Dato’ Razali bin Awang (Chief Information Officer (ICT), Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB)), Jimmy Yeoh (Chief Information Officer, MAA), Andy Khoo (Product Manager, EMC Corporation), Andy Tan Eng Teik (Chief Information Officer, Employee Provident Fund (EPF)), James Loo (Chief Information Officer, YCH Group), Thong Chee Wai (Head of Operational Support Services (OSS), TIME dotcom Bhd), Andrew Friar (former Head of Technology, Westpac Banking Corporation), Arun Gupta (Group Chief Technology Officer, Shoppers Stop), Shamsul Baharin Deraman (CISSP, CISA Head, IT Security Dept., IT Division, RHB Banking Group), Haji Daud Collet Abdullah (Asst. Vice President – Information Technology, KIC Oil & Gas), and Assoc Prof Dr. Suhaimi Napis (CTO and Director, InfoComm Development Centre (iDEC), UPM).

They will be speaking on topics to include data protection, cloud computing, virtualization, mobile applications, portfolio management, IT governance, risk and compliance, and many others.

Wong added, “We know the event is the right platform for them to exchange ideas and network. As a flagship event for JFPS Group Malaysia, you can look forward to the 3rd annual IT Showcase Asia coming to you real soon“.

Keynote address for IT Showcase Asia 2010 delivered by Y. Bhg. Prof. Datin Paduka Dr. Khatijah Mohd Yusoff, Deputy Secretary General (Science), who also officiating the event on behalf of Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia (MOSTI).

- – -

About JFPS Group Malaysia

JFPS Group Malaysia is the leading business performance enhancement company with affiliated partners across the globe. As a world-class business intelligence provider, JFPS Group Malaysia provides business executives with knowledge and skills through conferences, professional training, in-house training and consulting.

Every year JFPS Group Malaysia organizes a series of functional and industrial events and works with thousands of senior executives from leading companies to improve their strategic decision-making process.

New Delhi, 23^rd March 2010: The nation’s capital is the centre of ICT innovation as the 18^th Convergence India 2010 opens today at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Hailed as South Asia’s largest event on information and communications technology, the Convergence India series is organized by the Exhibitions India Group.

Over 450 participants representing the Telecom, IT, Broadcast, Media & Entertainment, Green IT, Security & Surveillance, Cable, Satellite, IP Surveillance and Information Security sectors of 20 countries have gathered on this international platform to showcase cutting edge technologies, products & services.

The event is supported by the union ministries of Communications & IT and Information & Broadcasting along with a host of other national and international associations ensuring a continuous flow of high-profile visitors at the event.

The Indian telecom industry has achieved tremendous growth consolidating a subscriber base of 560 million by end 2009 By end 2010 we are hopeful of crossing our 11^th Five Year Plan target of 600 million connections – two years ahead of schedule, declared Shri Gurudas Kamat, Honorable Minister of State for Communications & IT, presiding over the event’s Opening Ceremony as Chief Guest. “Telecommunications have emerged as a springboard of ICT applications with economy-wide impact. A whole range of information based industry applications have come up creating new sources of employment and earning he added.

Endorsing these views, Shri R. Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & IT, said “There has been a huge surge of innovation in services riding on the wave of convergence and the mobile revolution.� Shri Chandrashekhar was present as Guest of Honor at the event.

Indeed, the ICT industry has been moving towards a whole new phase of growth with the focus on customized Value Added Services to serve the 1 billion plus Indian population. It is the acceleration of providing services like e-health, mobile commerce, mobile gaming, e-education etc. to the country’s rural hinterland that is telecom’s next big challenge.

Positive trends are being noticed in this direction. Handsets are becoming more affordable, there are different capabilities and services bundled at every price point. Shri Kamat emphasized the need of the hour as enabling the mobile device to empower the masses through customized value added services for rural applications.

Positing ICT as a tool to bridge the urban rural divide and create the spread of equitable economic development was the inaugural conference session – a round table discussion based on the theme ‘Digital Convergence.. Empowering a billion lives’. Communications companies are exploring the rural markets like never before in a bid to access 2/3^rdof the country’s population and maximize on the opportunities in this underpenetrated market.

Animated panel discussions deliberated the issues of tariff wars and declining ARPUs in a multi operator environment and the timing for the emergence of a National Media Policy. Other conference sessions of the day focused on the future of the wireless business for GSM and CDMA operators and the digitization of broadcast technologies in India.

Leading companies such as Ericsson, NDS India, Advance Digital Broadcast participated in an animated panel discussion exploring the emerging issues in a multi-operator environment such as the consequent tariff wars and declining ARPU in the competitive scenario. A successive conference session on “GSM & CDMA “The future of wireless business brings spokespersons from Bharti Airtel, Telcordia Technologies, Centre for Development of Telematics (C-Dot) and the Cellular Operators” Association of India together to discuss issues of network transformation and emerging applications against the spread of wireless networks.

Fulfilling its long-standing mandate as a premier knowledge sharing forum, the 18^thConvergence India 2010 was also a launching pad for the event’s Knowledge Partner OVUM to release an industry white paper entitled Telecoms 2020.

The Exhibitions India Group, established in 1987, is a trade promotion group focused on organizing international exhibitions and seminars and attracting investments in India, as well as, promoting participation of Indian companies at leading tradeshows worldwide.

Exhibitions India is the only trade fair and conference organizer in India with ISO 9001:2000 & ISO 14001:2004 Certification. The Group is a member of UFI (The Global Association of Exhibitions Industry); IAEE-USA (International Association of Exhibitions and Events) and IEIA (Indian Exhibition Industry Association). The expos organized by the Group conform to the Trade Fair Certification Program of the International Administration of the US commercial Service.

With its headquarters in New Delhi, the Group has branches in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and, Mumbai and an international office in California, USA

For more information, please contact Corporate Communications Department :

Ms. Hena Ahmad

T: 91 11 42795168

M: +91 9999 600622

Email: henaa@eigroup.in

Mr. Sachin Nagpal

T: 91 11 42795071

M: + 91 99108 59933

Email:sachinn@eigroup.in