The Hindu Business Line : Hubli hosts IT, BPO investors' meet

Close to 90 IT and BPO firms participated in the investors meet at Hubli on Saturday. The event was part of the Karnataka Government's efforts to attract IT investors to Tier II cities such as Hubli and decongest Bangalore, which is grappling with infrastructure issues.

Terming the response as quite overwhelming, Mr M.S. Srikar, Deputy Commissioner, Dharwar, said representatives from leading firms such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies and 24/7 Customer among others participated in the event.

"We have showed them the IT Park and about 250 acres at three different locations to set up their operations," Mr Srikar told Business Line adding the Government would be providing all sort of assistance for companies willing to invest in the region. Hubli already has a 2.5-lakh sq feet IT park built at a cost of Rs 43 crore.

Hubli-Dharwar is the second largest city in Karnataka after Bangalore and had a literacy rate of over 72 per cent accounting for a large pool of educated youth who can be fruitfully employed by the IT industry, especially in the ITeS and BPO sectors.

Addressing the investors meet, the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr H.D. Kumaraswamy, said that his Government was planning to set up an integrated IT city in Hubli depending on the response of entrepreneurs.

Further, Mr Kumaraswamy said it was projected that the IT industry in Karnataka would provide employment to about one million professionals by 2010. "It is my strong desire that at least 30 per cent of this should be located in north Karnataka."

Meanwhile, Pune-based engineering services firm, Neilsoft has set up an engineering centre at Hubli. The centre will start with 20 engineers and is expected to grow to 100 people over 18 months, said Mr Prashant Chunduri, corporate marketing manager, Neilsoft.