Blair to start India visit with Bangalore

bangalore: it's a reassertion of bangalore's credentials. the uk prime minister, tony charles lynton blair, will stopover in bangalore first during his three-day sojourn in india. he will then proceed to hyderabad and new delhi. it may be recalled that the then japanese prime minister, yoshiro mori had started his indian tour in 2000 from bangalore.the 49-year-old blair is landing in the silicon valley of india on january 4 to inaugurate the 8th cii partnership summit 2002 at infosys city in electronics city, the next day. scheduled to be held between january 5 and 11, the cii partnership summit, cii flagship international event, will see participation from seventeen countries, including usa, uk, eu, egypt, oman, kuwait, malaysia among others. the theme of the international event for this year is local boundaries: global frontiers. speaking to the times of india, b. s. patil, principal secretary of industries, government of karnataka, said: ``cii is inviting world leaders to participate in the grand summit. the state has also taken initiatives to invite key personalities and this is an attempt to place karnataka in a mode of global publicity. a mega event like this will place karnataka on the world map and help us to receive more investments.'' according to him, it offers an opportunity to project karnataka as a state where tomorrow's things happen today in terms of technology and knowledge creation. expected to be attened by over 800 delegates from india and abroad, the partnership summit promises to be an outstanding policy briefing and interaction of business strategy, competition, trade, technology and management of people. it is expected to create a high-level business forum that allows developing strategic business alliances __ across functional areas __ business, economic and social. the key speakers in the mega summit include rahul bajaj, md of bajaj auto, shelley berkley, memeber of congress, usa, k. v. kamath, md of icici ltd, nandan nilekani, md of infosys, roni milo, minister of regional co-operation of israel, c. k. prahlad, managment guru and chirman of praja inc, jairam ramesh, secretary (economic affairs), all indian congress committee, karnataka chief minister, s. m. krishna, chandrababu naidu, andhra pradesh cm, and infosys chirman, narayana murthy among others. to commemorate the uk prime minister's visit to bangalore, karnataka governor rama devi is hotsing a gala dinner part at raj bhawan on january 4. blair will be staying at raj bhawan during the tour.