By Habib Beary BBC reporter in Bangalore

A prestigious Information Technology meeting has opened in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, a city often described as the country's hi-tech capital.

The fifth Bangalore.IT.Com, one of Asia's largest IT events, was inaugurated by scientist-turned-president Abdul Kalam and is being attended by 250 delegates from all over the world.

Relying only on software may not be the best strategy for the future

Indian President Abdul Kalam

President Kalam said information technology should be used for providing tele-education and tele-medicine in the remotest parts of India.

And he said India could emerge as a developed country only if its rural economy improved.

Besides software, where India's expertise is acknowleged, India should also try to emerge as a world leader in hardware, Dr Kalam said.

"Relying only on software may not be the best strategy for the future."

E-governance

The president participated in a panel discussion on e-governance, attended by UK e-commerce minister Stephen Tims and Mauritius IT & telecom minister Dheelchand Jeeha,

"The e-governance conference will discuss the role of the private sector and case studies from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, the UK and Singapore," Information Technology Secretary Vivek Kulkarni said ahead of the event.

The president will also open the Student's Internet World, held as part of the IT.Com event, and hold an interactive session with about 600 students on exploring the resources of the internet.

Mr Kulkarni said the IT summit would focus on the emerging sectors of business process outsourcing, e-governance and banking and finance.

Deals

As part of the event, entrepreneurs from the Silicon Valley will also hold a conclave to discuss the role of venture capital funds and the potential of the IT-enabled services from a global perspective.

The conclave is being organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs, a global forum of IT business professionals from South Asia.

"The conference will also deliberate on the advantage of outsourcing by global IT companies from India," said government-run Software Technology Park of India Director BV Naidu.

Officials expect deals worth about $200m to be clinched at the IT meet.