The Hindu Business Line : AP Govt seeks industry support to set up hardware park

THE Andhra Pradesh Government has sought industry support in its quest to establish a hardware park near Hyderabad, for which 1,200 acres of land has been identified.

Addressing a meeting hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the State Finance Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, said the project would further strengthen and build on the gains the State has made in the IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO) areas.

The State Secretary for Information Technology and Communication, Ms. K. Ratna Prabha, said the Government would ensure that the hardware sector players get all the support necessary for locating their units in the State.

The Chairman of CII, Andhra Pradesh, Mr M.K. Patodia, said the State has emerged as an IT hub and the hardware sector would complement the growth through the promotional incentives offered.

The State Government has set itself an ambitious target of creating three lakh IT jobs and has created Jawahar Knowledge Centres and is also pursuing its plan to attract companies to locate centres in Tier-II cities. These centres are aimed at building human resource base.

The Managing Director of Infotech Enterprises, Mr B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, said the State was uniquely placed as it brings out some 80,000 engineers every year, which is a prerequisite for the IT sector. However, the industry is faced with the challenges such as quality human resources, retaining talent pool, pricing pressures, cost of quality certification, among others. India should strive to capture the niche market that is evolving in the form of the hardware and ITES sectors.

The Chief Operating Officer of Wipro BPO, Mr Devashish Ghosh, said "In future there will be a day when we will have large BPO factories. Security and privacy have emerged as major concerns for the industry."