Bangalore: A Rs 390 crore hi-tech city would be built in Bangalore for information and biotechnology companies by the Bangalore Development Authority, Chief Minister N Dharam Singh said today (Nov 1, 2004).

Work on it would start after November 15, Singh told reporters.

Earlier, inaugurating Bangalore IT.COM 2004, he said the Government would soon unveil a hardware policy.

Referring to infrastructural bottlenecks in Bangalore that the IT industry has raised with the Government, the Chief Minister admitted that more needs to be done on the road and public transport fronts.

Government is fully committed to the orderly growth of the city in tune with the requirements of the IT sector, he added.

According to organisers, Karnataka Government and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Bangalore IT.COM, an ICT event, which is into its seventh year, has attracted 290 companies, 14 countries and 13 Indian States.

In his address, British High Commissioner to India Sir Michael Arthur expressed delight that India is now eighth largest investor in Britain today, with IT and BT companies accounting for two-thirds of the total Indian firms operating there.

Trade between India and Britain is healthy and it has reached a cumulative figure of $10 billion, he said.

Seeking to woo Indian companies looking for listing overseas, Arthur said floatation of Indian companies in London Stock Exchange is more than the one in NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchanges combined.

So, those who are intending IPO in the coming years, they know that (Indian) heavyweights have already come there (LSE), he said.

Arthur said more than 100 Indian companies have made London their European headquarters. Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Government of Victoria, Australia, Marsha Thomson, sought partnership between her State and India in the areas of ICT.

She said Victoria accounts for 30 per cent of Australia's IT industry and 50 per cent of private sector R & D in ICT of that country.