Inaugurating the first electronic international exhibition and conference "Nepcon India '98" organised by the Confederation of India Industry (CII) and Elecronic Components Industries Association (Elcina) here, Kumar said the centre had decided to allow consortiums to invest fully as against the earlier 74 per cent.

Kumar said his ministry will also clear the international airport project at Devanahalli within a week if the Tata consortium approached them. During his recent meeting with the Tata group chairman Ratan Tata, the latter had promised to come back to him after revaluating the project with the consortium partners--Raytheon and Singapore consortium, besides consulting Karnataka chief minister JH Patel.

Kumar said the review of the project was not put forth by his ministry but wassuggested by Tata himself during the meeting.

He said he had agreed to release the excess land held by the airport authorities near the Bangalore airport for construction of a four-way freeway to develop the whitefield IT Corridore. If the four-lane highway was completed, the proposed Pragati Maidan-like exhibition complex and international technology park, besides the airport, would stand to gain, he said.

On the exhibition, Kumar said the centre was committed to make the country a global IT destination and urged the sector and the state government to integrate technology as it would be more relevant in the 21st century.

The four-day exhibition will have exhibits from Germany, Italy, Japan Switzerland, Taiwan and Singapore.

Electronic component is one of the fastest growing sector with the estimated demand-supply gap expected to increase from $1.14 billion in 1997-98 to $2.94 billion by 2001-2002.

While 18 companies under the banner of Udyog Mitra are participating from Maharashtra, tenmanufacturers from Andhra Pradesh have put their products on display.