The Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot called upon IT companies and IT enabled service providers to break the barriers of digital divide and work to improve the life of common man. He emphasised that apart from earning all important foreign exchange, the IT companies should innovate IT tools for reaching out government programmes to the villages. He was speaking at the inauguration of Karnataka’s flagship IT event called IT. Biz, in Bangalore today. He said 1, 86,000 Common Service Centres have been set up in the Country to provide various services to the common man. He further informed that all the Panchayats in the country will be connected by high speed broadband by 2012 to enable delivery of services under e-governance programme. He also referred to the 5990 crore rupees government programme to connect 20,000 Universities, Research Institutions, Laboratories and other colleges in the country with National Knowledge Network to promote innovation and improve the quality of education. The Chief Minister of Karnataka B S Yeddyurappa, who spoke on the occasion, said that a IT infrastructure hub is created near Bangaluru International Airport over 40 square kilometer, expecting an investment of one Lakh crore with the potential of creating four million jobs over the years.