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CIT 2005, an initiative of CII Gujarat chapter opened on 4 February 2005 with more than 1000 participants consisting of industry heads, government officials, academicians and students rubbing shoulders with each other. Inaugurating the event, Narendra Modi, CM of Gujarat said, "Gujarat has the best infrastructure for IT not only in India, but in the whole of Asia. Gujarat boasts of 50,000 Rkm of optical fiber network, the benefits of which are just beginning to show." He assured the student community, present in large numbers, that if IT were their preferred career choice, Gujarat would not disappoint them in terms of opportunities and favorable atmosphere. This was exemplified by the announcement of the Emerging ICT Enterprise Award, which was given away to e-Infochips, based in Ahmedabad.

Giving the welcome address, Piruz Khambatta, chairman CII Gujarat Council, lauded the Indian IT professionals for their outstanding contribution to the industry across the globe.

JN Singh, secretary, department of science and technology, Gujarat, announced that this was for the first time that the event is being telecast live to 40 engineering colleges, 1400 government offices and 12,000 nodes across Gujarat. He said that Gujarat holds promise for firms like TCS, which are setting up their base in Gujarat and Microsoft, which are expanding their presence here. He also shared the e-gram model of e-governance.

A parallel session on e-governance was also held at the NID auditorium exclusively for government officials on 4 February 2005. In the session, they got the opportunity to interact with IT experts and industry heads about e-governance, its advantages and problems and solutions, and also chart a roadmap for the future. The Chief Minister also inaugurated the three-day exhibition on 4 February 2005 where more than 70 exhibitors across the country marketed their products, services, and expertise.

Mohan Mirwani from IDA Singapore shared the Singaporean experience of its journey to becoming the most e-ready country in Asia. He shared with the participants the key features and results of the e-governance National Plan of Singapore. The Director-Public Sector of Microsoft Corp (India) Ltd, Mr Nandu Pradhan said that in order to broaden the outreach of the IT industry, we need to work on the issues of access in terms of good road connectivity, uninterrupted quality power supply, and an affordable telecommunications infrastructure. On behalf of Microsoft, he expressed continued commitment to investing in Gujarat.

Mr Kishore Chaukar, MD Tata Industries also stressed that in the present scenario, IT coupled with telecommunications can deliver a substantial improvement in the quality of life in India. IT is today's flow-systems facilitator and we need trained manpower to cash in on its advantages. He also said that the mindset of the people needs to change; entrepreneurship and economy will prosper only when the system of endless permits goes.

Over the two days of conference a number of topics were discussed viz Trends in Communication Technologies, Emerging Technologies fore Enterprise, Emerging ICT Enterprises of Gujarat, ICT in Bio-informatics & Healthcare and Technologies Beyond Tomorrow.