The Hindu Business Line : ESC plans incubators in tier II US cities for SMEs

It may no longer be the prerogative of IT majors to tap the US and UK outsourcing markets; mid-sized Indian companies too will be able to avail of the same opportunity.

Under a programme initiated by the Electronics and Software Export Promotion Council of India (ESC), mid-sized Indian software companies will be able to market their companies for the outsourcing business through numerous incubation centres.

This would be mainly in tier II and tier III cities of the US, which offer huge potential to mid-sized companies.

"We have identified Chicago, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, Houston and Los Angeles among other locations for Indian software companies. We are establishing about 60 centres in the US. Japan has 18 such centres, which reflects the diversity offered by US markets. We have completed all formalities to launch the initiative very shortly," said Mr D.K. Sareen, Executive Director of ESC.

According to him, 34 companies have already registered for the programme.

While work would be carried out offshore, the centres would serve as subsidised locations for marketing the companies.

ESC also plans to rotate the programme, so that after 2-3 years a new set of companies could stand to benefit.

For the initiative, 50 per cent of costs would be subsidised by the Government; the remaining amount would be borne by individual companies.

Depending on the success of the US programme, ESC would consider extending the scheme to tier II and tier III cities of the UK market as well, Mr Sareen said.