Modi to address global IT congress in Hyderabad tomorrow

Hyderabad, Feb 18: The city is set to host two mega technology events--Nasscom India Leadership Forum (ILF) and the 22nd edition of the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT)--concurrently from tomorrow.

The WCIT is being organized for the time in the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver inaugurate the summit through a video conference, which will have the who's who of the global IT industry in attendance, according to senior official of the state IT department. Since Nasscom is the host of the of WCIT, the 26th edition of ILF is a limited edition.

Telangana is the state partner for both the events, the official added. Both the summit will be held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre from Monday through Thursday. The WCIT's official page on Nasscom website indicates that Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and state chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao are expected to address the three-day event. That apart, Sophia the humanoid, who is a Saudi citizen, will also be a key attraction. This will be her second sojourn in the country, having attended the TechFest at the IIT Bombay late last year.

Navdeep Bains, the Indian-origin Canadian minister for innovation, science and economic development, Hans-Paul Bürkner, BCG chairman, national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, Adobe chairman Shantanu Narayen, leading Hindi actress Deepika Padukone and Sadhguru of Isha Foundation are among the speakers. At least 20 CEOs from Fortune 500 companies and 100 other top executives besides over 5,000 delegates are expected to attend the conference.

PTI