This is a new kind of Singapore sling — not the bubbly variety with its trademark kick — but a sling-shot rather, its target: the huge market opportunity for high technology solutions and services in the booming market economies of the Asia Pacific region.

Emerging desi information technology and media players looking for new customers beyond Indian shores are increasingly using the highly regarded trade shows in Singapore to showcase their offerings — and net new customers.

The weeklong combo of technology events — CommunicAsia, BroadcastAsia, EnterpriseIT and the newest CG (for Computer Graphics) Overdrive — that ended on June 23, saw more Indian participation than ever before.

The Indian Government's Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) supported by the Central Ministry of Commerce and Industry has been helping emerging and medium-sized Indian players to participate, by organising an Indian pavilion at CommunicASia. This year it showcased the technology offerings of 11 Indian companies.

The Ahmedabad-based Elitecore Technologies, well known for its identity-based Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions, used the Singapore show to unveil their latest product — the Cyberoam CR25i — for the small and home office (SOHO) as well as the remote office operations. The product range was recently certified for stringent US firewall specifications. From Delhi, Lepton Software Export and Research, known in India for its MapInfo products, offered its 3-D maps technology and solutions — and found a lot of interest in wireless providers and other planning and telecom service sector players.

For the Chennai-based Midas Communication Technologies, the June event has been an annual launching pad for its back-end, wireless access solutions.

Another Chennai player, Congruent Solutions has also found steady value in finding new customers at CommunicAsia.

This year, the company showcased products flowing from its partnership with the US-based Content Server provider, FatWire, in addition to its own R&D services.

Acme Telepower from Gurgaon (telecom shelters, heat exchangers); Aithent Technologies from Delhi (software development services); Coral Telecom from Noida (telecom solutions and project implementation; the Pune-based M-Tech Innovations (smart card technology); Svarn Telecom, Faridabad (RF products) and Delhi-based Toshniwal Enterprises (test and measurement) were the other players in the India pavilion, kept busy throughout the 4-day event.