Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Nov 09, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Nov 09, 2004 |
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Info-Tech
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Outsourcing Kerala aiming for an IT revolution Our Bureau
Bangalore , Nov. 8 LIKE it powered the tourism industry with its own native genius to position itself as the most preferred destination, Kerala is making a bid in the field of information technology (IT). As yet, it has to catch up with Karnataka or the emerging competitor, Tamil Nadu. But with the frenetic pace at which it has braced itself up in the past two to three years, Kerala is already nursing itself to be a serious contender to earn the top slot in business process outsourcing (BPO) and the IT-enabled services (ITES) segment. "We are a serious contender for BPO and ITES investment," said Ms Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Information Technology, adding that expansion plans to add IT infrastructure were in an advanced stage. Though Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram have emerged as the key centres for ITES, BPO, software and services , the Government is already planning to promote a new centre in Kozhikode to spread the base. Investments are flowing from big players like Infosys and Wipro, who are looking for expansion with an aggregate investment of about Rs 400 crore to set up their IT parks. TCS itself is planning to set up a software development centre. Some of the multi-national companies like Ernst &Young have already set shop in the State.With competition growing, Kerala is faced with the challenge of scaling up trained manpower. The State hopes to meet the needs with investments in training and plans to draw funds from Keralite NRIs returning to India. Its high literacy rate, training in ITES, particularly for call centre jobs, should give a fillip to Kochi, which has emerged as the BPO and ITES centre, while Thiruvananthapuram is consolidating itself in the software and services sector, Ms Sundararajan said. The Kerala IT Secretary was here for the Bangalore IT.com. The UDF Government's policy to permit private investment in education has also helped in capacity building for trained manpower with an addition of 60 engineering colleges in the last three years from 12 colleges earlier. The colleges will produce 2.5 lakh engineers every year. Mrs Sundararajan said that with good infrastructure and increased opportunities in IT sector, trained manpower pool should go up considerably.
More Stories on : Outsourcing | IT-enabled Services | Kerala
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