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Gujarat misses the IT bus
Monday, 07 July 2003, 19:30 IST
GANDHINAGAR: Industrial powerhouse Gujarat appears to have missed the IT bus despite claims of achievements being made since the mid-1990s.
Data available with trade and industry bodies indicates that Gujarat lags behind other industrialised states like Maharashtra as also smaller and less industrialised states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh as far as IT is concerned.
So far as software development is concerned, the four southern states have left Gujarat far behind.
Karnataka exported 
105 billion worth of software last year, Andhra Pradesh's share stood at 29.25 billion, Tamil Nadu's at 58.75 billion and Kerala's 2.01 billion.
Even Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which were at one time clubbed together under the unflattering term acronym "BIMARU" (sick) for their economic backwardness, have performed better than Gujarat in IT. They had 110.48 billion worth of software exports.
Exports from the western states amounted to 89.16 billion while those in the east exported software worth 10.29 billion.
Gujarat exported software worth just 1.34 billion in 2001-02 as compared to neighbouring Maharashtra's 65.56 billion. Even a small state like Haryana accounted for exports of 7.5 billion.
Similarly, computer hardware export from Gujarat is virtually non-existent.
The only area in which the state has made strides is in using IT for better governance. The offices of the chief minister and top bureaucrats in capital Gandhinagar are networked and linked to district headquarters. But that's about it.
"What is lacking in Gujarat is investment in higher education and development of human resources. Of course, lack of a political leadership with vision is now an accepted fact. English language proficiency is also a big weakness of Gujarat," C.N. Parikh, an Ahmedabad-based IT expert, told IANS.
The Infocity project begun amid huge fanfare four years ago when Keshubhai Patel was chief minister has attracted little investment. It stands as an isolated pocket in the capital with only a handful of companies setting up shop there.
Given the galloping developments in the IT arena worldwide, Gujarat has much to lose if it doesn't pull up its socks now.
Christian Science Monitor, a daily from the U.S., has projected that as many as 3.3 million American jobs will be outsourced to low wage countries like India by the year 2015.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) says the Indian back office sector will grow by 65 percent this year to $2.3 billion.
"But in all this, the name that rings and comes out loud is that of Bangalore and nowhere is heard the name of any city of Gujarat," Parikh rues.
"We really do not know how many of the coming 167 million jobs in IT by 2010 will be grabbed by Gujarat despite a rising graph of educated unemployment in this state," he adds.
Source: IANS
105 billion worth of software last year, Andhra Pradesh's share stood at 29.25 billion, Tamil Nadu's at 58.75 billion and Kerala's 2.01 billion.
Even Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which were at one time clubbed together under the unflattering term acronym "BIMARU" (sick) for their economic backwardness, have performed better than Gujarat in IT. They had 110.48 billion worth of software exports.
Exports from the western states amounted to 89.16 billion while those in the east exported software worth 10.29 billion.
Gujarat exported software worth just 1.34 billion in 2001-02 as compared to neighbouring Maharashtra's 65.56 billion. Even a small state like Haryana accounted for exports of 7.5 billion.
Similarly, computer hardware export from Gujarat is virtually non-existent.
The only area in which the state has made strides is in using IT for better governance. The offices of the chief minister and top bureaucrats in capital Gandhinagar are networked and linked to district headquarters. But that's about it.
"What is lacking in Gujarat is investment in higher education and development of human resources. Of course, lack of a political leadership with vision is now an accepted fact. English language proficiency is also a big weakness of Gujarat," C.N. Parikh, an Ahmedabad-based IT expert, told IANS.
The Infocity project begun amid huge fanfare four years ago when Keshubhai Patel was chief minister has attracted little investment. It stands as an isolated pocket in the capital with only a handful of companies setting up shop there.
Given the galloping developments in the IT arena worldwide, Gujarat has much to lose if it doesn't pull up its socks now.
Christian Science Monitor, a daily from the U.S., has projected that as many as 3.3 million American jobs will be outsourced to low wage countries like India by the year 2015.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) says the Indian back office sector will grow by 65 percent this year to $2.3 billion.
"But in all this, the name that rings and comes out loud is that of Bangalore and nowhere is heard the name of any city of Gujarat," Parikh rues.
"We really do not know how many of the coming 167 million jobs in IT by 2010 will be grabbed by Gujarat despite a rising graph of educated unemployment in this state," he adds.
Source: IANS