'B'lore must have more IT product companies'

In order to secure its position as the hub of IT industry, Bangalore must have more IT product companies, said Managing Director of SAP Labs India V R Ferose.

Delivering a special address during a seminar on “The Opportunities and Challenges in IT and ITeS in Karnataka,” held as part of GIM 2012 on Friday, he said product companies can emerge only when there are a  large number of start-up companies.

“We need to have at least 10,000 start-ups. The general theory is that only one per cent of start-ups will finally survive, to emerge as product companies like Apple, Twitter and Facebook,” he said.

Though Bangalore is called a Silicon Valley, it was no match to the Silicon Valley of the US which has witnessed development not only in IT and ITeS sector, but also in arts and humanities.

In order to ensure that Bangalore became a Silicon Valley, multiple areas should flourish. For this, there was a need for collaboration between the companies and universities. “Nothing can happen in isolation. Collaboration is everything,” he said.

Vice-Chairman and CEO of ZenSar Technologies Ganesh Natarajan, who spoke on ‘Innovation in IT Services and Opportunities in and for Karnataka,’ said Indian IT companies have become tactical producers of good things.