D. K. Sahu, President, Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd., welcomed the guests and introduced the theme and outline of the Forum.

The seminar started with an opening address by Shri Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India and a keynote address by Shri Surjya Narayan Patro, Minister of Energy, IT & Culture, Government of Orissa followed by presentations by the representatives of different states, organizations and companies on various aspects and activities related to e-governance.

Speaking at the occasion, Shri Chandra Sekhar Sahu highlighted on rural development in India using IT as a tool. He proposed Rural India as destination for BPOs, which will substantially reduce the IT congestion in cities and, on the other hand, will help rural villages to develop. Speaking on Correct governance and opportunity of investment in Orissa, Shri Surjya Narayan Patro commended the role of IT for the identity makeover of the Indians. Emphasising on the opportunities in Odisa, he said that Odisa is at the verge of software exports to the tune of 1,000 crores. As part of State's E-governance programme, tendering process for SWAN projects has already been over.

On the one side, the top decision makers of various State Governments including Shri Arun Kumar Rath, IAS, Secretary, School education & Literacy, Government of India; Shri Siddharth, IAS, Secretary (IT), Kolkata; Shri Deepak Virmani, Deputy Secretary IT, Government of India spoke about their states' IT policy framework, resources, present projects and bottlenecks. On the other side, the IT companies including Intel, IBM, Polycom, Canon and Symantec gave presentations on their competencies and advantages as to how they can be the preferred partners in various e-governance projects.

Major industry players like Intel, IBM, SAP, TVSE, Zyxel, Polycom, and Canon sponsored the event. Three State governments viz. Government of Odisa, Bengal and Punjab Infotech participated as Partner Organizations of the event.

Besides this, the annual prestigious VARIndia Awards for Most Trusted Company and Brand of Excellence were also presented. The VARIndia Most Trusted Company Awards (Five Awards) went to: - (i) Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd.; (ii) Hewlett-Packard India Sales Pvt. Ltd.; (iii) UTStarcom Inc., South Asia; (iv) Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd., (v) Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd.

The VARIndia Brand of Excellence Award (Five Awards) was given to: - (i) LG Electronics India Ltd. (ii) Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd., (iii) IBM India Pvt. Ltd., (iv) Avaya Global Connect Ltd., (v) Polycom (UK) Ltd.-India Branch Shri Chandra Sekhar Sahu and Shri Surjya Narayan Patro gave the awards away.

The programme finally wrapped up with thought provoking panel discussion on "Business Profitability through Correct Governance" moderated by Debashish Choudhury, CTO & Customer Solutions, Telinovation India.