Special IT regions on the anvil

Hyderabad: With infrastructure in metro cities already overloaded, the central government proposes to develop new information technology investment regions with world-class infrastructure.

With the same benefits as special economic zones (SEZs), these regions will offer the best infrastructure to IT companies outside the tier-I cities.

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Jainder Singh, secretary, department of information technology in the central government, said the central and the state governments would jointly developed infrastructure in the proposed IT investment regions.

He was addressing the Hyderabad IT Summit 2008, which began at the International Convention Centre here Thursday.

Underlining the need for a movement to tier-II and tier-III cities, he said cities like Coimbatore, Mysore, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh and Visakhapatnam were already moving ahead. Cities like Kakinada, Vijayawada, Warangal and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh were also growing.

"The movement to tier-II and tier-III cities is necessary as the infrastructure in metro cities is overloaded. This is also necessary for cost competitiveness, attracting human resources and for spreading benefits of IT to rural areas for balanced regional development in the country," he said.

Jainder Singh said the IT exports from the country were $31 billion in the last financial year and the figure was expected to reach $40 billion during 2007-08 and $60 billion by 2010.

The IT industry is contributing 5.4 percent of the country's GDP and 25 percent of total exports.

Sanjiv Narayan, chairman, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, said the world economic scenario especially the depreciation of dollar and perceived recession in the US economy pose challenges to the world IT industry. He, however, said the Indian IT industry was moving ahead with continuous growth in exports.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy invited IT companies to invest in the state saying it was the best destination to invest in. He pointed out that for the last four years the state was registering 42-45 percent growth IT against the country's average growth rate of 25-30 percent.

The chief minister said the state with world-class infrastructure and better law and order situation offered the congenial atmosphere for industry. He listed out the steps taken to improve the infrastructure in and around Hyderabad and to improve the human resources development.

The two-day Hyderabad IT Summit, which replaces the annual GITEX of Dubai World Trade Centre, is being attended by delegates from 40 countries. They include a galaxy of national and international visionaries from IT and ITeS industry, infrastructure providers, banking and financial institutions, consultants, venture capitalists, academia and experts representing top institutions.

Organised by the state government jointly with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the objective of this summit is to focus on Hyderabad as the most preferred destination for the growth of the IT industry in India.

The summit coincided with the eighth edition of Indiasoft, the annual IT exhibition. More than 800 exhibitors are displaying their products in the exhibition.
Source: IANS