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Our Bureau

Chennai , Feb. 11

SOFTWARE Technology Parks of India (STPI) is expanding into the tier-II cities in Tamil Nadu, as these are emerging as hubs for information technology-enabled services and business process outsourcing. The Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, said that IT companies should think of broad-basing their operations into secondary cities such as Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Tirunelveli and Salem to provide employment opportunities there.

In Coimbatore, STPI set up its first satellite gateway in 1999. Today, there are about 70 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in this area. STPI plans to set up more IT infrastructure in the near future in Coimbatore under the public private partnership mode, if appropriate land is made available to STPI, Mr Maran said.

Mr Maran was speaking at the foundation stone laying function of the one-lakh sq. ft. STPI facility at Taramani in Chennai. This facility would also facilitate various promotional activities of STPI such as seminars, workshops and quality enhancement programmes, he said.

The new facility will provide infrastructure for SMEs to set up incubation facilities at a reasonable cost. Mr Maran said that STPI-Chennai is working jointly with the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute, Chennai to train engineers. STPI-Chennai is also encouraging women IT entrepreneurs.

Mr Maran has asked STPI to relax its site norms (of five acres) in Tamil Nadu. The facility in Taramani is being constructed on 1.5 acres of land. He said that the facility would be completed by December 2006.

Mr Maran has also asked STPI to start looking at leasing space to host incubation units and other start-ups. He pointed out that the Indian software and service industry is just two per cent of the global market. However, the industry has set an ambitious goal of $60 billion by 2010. The IT Minister said that ITES must move up the value chain and stop depending on labour rate arbitrage.

Tamil Nadu ranks third, after Karnataka and Maharashtra, in software exports. The Government must provide the required infrastructure to facilitate entrepreneurs so that Tamil Nadu moves up in ranking, Mr Maran said.

IT corridor: The deadline for the completion of the four-lane highway or the IT Corridor project in Chennai is May 2006, but he doubted whether the project would be completed by then.

Mr S. Ramadorai, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, said that of the Rs 11,000 crore of total exports from Tamil Nadu, Rs 10,000 crore was from STPI-approved units. SMEs, which contribute to over 40 per cent of the GDP, require more Government support.

SemIndia: Mr Maran told newspersons that Tamil Nadu lost the SemIndia project because the Tamil Nadu Government did not treat the promoters well. On February 9, SemIndia and the Andhra Pradesh Government had announced that the Rs 13,500-crore project to manufacture semiconductors would be located near the new Hyderabad airport. Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad had pitched for this project.

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