Dear GESIA Members;

Thank you very much for your positive response to various recent initiatives to increase the visibility, credibility and momentum of GESIA. We appreciate the recommendations and suggestions sent by some of you. We will try to act upon as many of them as possible in coming months. We welcome your active participation thru attendance at events, sponsorships of Newsline /Programs, suggestions for policy decisions / activities, etc. Let me give you a quick overview of some of the upcoming initiatives of GESIA.

Our updated website will be uploaded in the early part of February. We are planning two programs each in February and March 2008. Our focus in many of these programs will continue on providing a platform to various companies who offer useful products and services to our industry. These companies may belong to sectors like Banking, Insurance, Education, Security, etc. Since the National Budget 2008 is coming up at the end of February, we are also working on a program to discuss its impact on the ICT Industry, especially in the areas of Service Tax, FBT and IT. We believe that the growth of our industry in Gujarat will require a better eco system and we hope that various programs organised by GESIA will help in building a better eco system for ICT Industry in Gujarat.

We are also in the process of launching the First ever survey of ICT Industry of Gujarat. With the help of GIL, we hope to cover a majority of companies operating in Gujarat in the areas of Software, BPO / KPO, Electronics and Telecom / ISP Technologies. Such a survey will provide much needed information about the Status of our industry in Gujarat. We will compile and present the findings of this survey at an appropriate later date. I welcome your wholehearted participation in this survey. It will be very helpful if you inform and encourage other companies operating in these sectors to participate in the GESIA - GIL Survey of ICT Industry of Gujarat.

As a growing industry association, GESIA is working on a major event, GESIA Awards 2008, which we expect will become an annual event of GESIA. GESIA Awards 2008 will recognise the achievement by Gujarat based companies in ICT Industry. We will also recognise the contributions made by non-Gujarat based ICT companies operating in Gujarat.

These awards will certainly bring more awareness about ICT Industry within Gujarat as well as on all-India basis. We hope that such an initiative will encourage the ICT industry to achieve new heights in coming years. More information about this event is available inside this issue of Newsline. We will look forward to your participation in terms of nominations, sponsorships of the Awards function, presence at the Annual Awards function, etc.

There are many factors contributing to the growth of ICT Industry in Gujarat, including, the lower cost of real estate compared to bigger cities; good quality infrastructure like power/telecom/datacom; growing number of national level schools, institutes and hospitals; lower cost of human resources; availability of a large number of graduates; large upcoming investments in special zones like GIFT, SEZs, etc. Thru various initiatives of GESIA, let us all work towards accelerating this growth so that very soon the ICT Industry of Gujarat is put on the map of India followed by the map of the world.

I look forward to your continued support and encouragement.

Rajan Vasa
President