Connect2010 has come to an end. Hundreds of people have worked behind the scenes to make this event a grand success.

Though we may not be able to name each one of them, we would like to thank each of them for their help and involvement.

We also thank all delegates, sponsors and government agencies for their inputs.

The social media team, which handles this blog, has put in lots of efforts during past 2 days. Excerpts from the talk of almost every speaker has been captured and published as a blog post. Though the event is over, you can still read all the notes/summary right here on the blog, at your convenient time and location.

If you’ve been following our updates on the blog/facebook or twitter, do let us know how was it. Any suggestions to improve and mistakes if any. We’re waiting to hear from you.

We’ve also recorded numerous podcasts, which will be made live asap (videos are being edited as I write this)

Instant updates were also shared on facebook and twitter, reaching out to virtually unlimited number of users..

We took numerous photos and have made them available online live within a few minutes. View CII Connect Photos on flickr Some of these photos may not be as good as a professional click, but they serve the purpose of capturing and conveying a moment instantly. Once we get the photos taken by official photographer, they’ll be shared too…

We’ll continue to bring the post event coverage. Do stay tuned.

Thanks

Here’re a few key points from the speech given by Mr MK Stalin, Deputy CM, Govt of Tamil Nadu

• This 10th edition is jointly organized by CII, Govt of TN and Govt of India. Looking at the objectives of Connect,
• I’m quite impressed with the sessions and would like to call all of them as High Octane. I’d like to specially thank S Mahalingam
• India is fastest growing and 4th largest IT market as per recent McKenzie study. It’ll be many years before China can overtake India
• Indian IT industry has played a key role in putting India on the global map. Revenues have increased to 73.1 billion US$ from 69.8 in 2008-09
• Not long ago, Chennai was perceived as conservative city, Chennai has transformed as San Jose of India
• With one new company is coming to Chennai in every 2 days
• IT export from Chennai was 161 crore in 1996-97 and has increased to 36000 crores in 2009-10
• IT export from Coimbatore was 50 crore in 2004-05, last year it was 370 crores
• Worldbank’s only back office outside US is in Chennai
• TN was first to form IT policy. Siruseri and Tidel IT parks were vision of Chief Minister Karunanidhi
• TN CM spoke to Govt of India because of which SEZ concession has been extended…

Whats better way to culminate an electric day charged with high voltage panel discussions than by awarding the achievers.

Mr. Goapal Srinivasan, Chairman and MD, TVS Capital Funds ltd started the valedictory ceremony by quoting father of BOP model Dr. C.K.Prahlad -

“‘In 1947, we got our independence, but when will we get the freedom, freedom which spans our spiritual & intellectual dimensions ?”

Dy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin who graced the occasion gave CII-ICICI Venture Connect awards to the achievers who removed the safety lines, took risks, dreamt and discovered. First award went to Madhava Reddy of HTC Global Services. Madhava, a native of Andhra Pradesh studied at University of Michigan, came to Tamil Nadu and started off. He founded HTC global which has become a force to reckon with as it proudly boasts of a large clientele base including FORTUNE 500 companies. He is rightly the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’.

CII-ICICI Venture Connect award for Lifetime Achievement went to Mr. R Ramraj, Founder and CEO, Sify.com. A familiar face in India and one of the pioneers of e-revolution in India, Ramraj founded the first internet protocol system in India and has been instrumental in revolutionizing the internet surfing in India through Sify i-Way, a chain of internet cafes across the country. Mr. Ramraj, graduate in Chemical engineering from University of Madras & MBA from IIM-Calcutta serves on the board of Sequoia Capital and TiE Global advisors board.

Surely, we gratefully acknowledge ICICI contribution in fostering entrepreneurship through the coveted awards, as it would have surely given an ‘I can do it’ feeling to the students and budding entrepreneurs.

Here’re the details of 2 awards given away at the awards ceremony.

Madhava Reddy of HTC Global Services bags first award at CII ICICI Venture Connect Awards 2010 (Madhava Reddy)

CII ICICI Venture Connect Award 2010 Entrepreneur of the year goes to Mr Madhava Reddy

CII ICICI Venture Connect Award 2010 Lifetime achievement award goes to Mr R Ramaraj of Sify

Standby for more details and photos

Chennai was obvious choice. Govt is very supportive. We’ve 2 facilities here and we’re looking for 3rd one

– S Gopalakrishan, Infosys

S Gopalakrishan was asked why Infosys Chose Chennai as a hub…

Here’s what Kris replied…

One of the reasons why Infosys selected Chennai as a hub was they wanted to start a hub where rapid growth could be achieved as IT industry as such was growing rapidly and Infosys as a company wanted to keep pace with the Industry.

Tamil Nadu Government was very supportive.

Tier II and III cities are also important in taking the indutry to the interior of country, but the growth level is less compared to cities

Gopalakrishnan on Chennai

• Chennai can be a place that can has rapid growth, as a knowledge city, existing companies and employees should become a magnet
• Challenge is how can we make Land at an affordable rate
• Chennai can take up new innovation and  new business like cloud computing and mobile computing
• Best way to continue interaction is to create clusters
• Why not create an eco system for IT and Automobile sector?

S Gopalakrishnan is also the chairman of CII southern region