The Hindu Business Line : IT’s happening in Kerala also

Five years ago, Mr Koshy John, an IT engineer in Thiruvalla, Kerala, wanted to move to Bangalore for better career prospects. However, family compulsions held him back. A project manager today, he is happy to have stayed back as over 40 IT companies have set shop in Kerala in the last four years.

Industry majors such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys, besides BPOs such as Sutherland and RR Donnelley (formerly Office Tiger) have anchored in Kerala. The latest to join the bandwagon is Oracle Inc.

The State Government too, appears to be keeping pace with the development. Its IT department has received an expression of interest to set up IT parks in the districts of Kozhikode, Alleppey, Kollam and Pallakad. “Our vision is that every district should have an IT park. For this, the government intends to set up an apex company to purchase land and lease it out to technology partners to develop it as IT hubs. The government will hold 51 per cent stake in the venture,” said a senior State Government official.

There are about five major IT parks in Kochi and Thiruvanathapuram as of now and efforts are on to establish finishing schools for bettering English accent and building domain skills with private partnerships.

Cost benefit

Reduced cost of building a base, lower attrition (less than 5 per cent in Kerala) and ready available pool of professionals had encouraged companies to move into Kerala. The supply chain in the State is intact with over 25,000 graduates passing out each year, said the official.

“Apart from the cost advantage, Kerala has a large talent pool which is critical for the growth of the people-intensive software industry,” said Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies, which has facilities in Technopark, Thiruvanathapuram.

“Cost of doing business in terms of infrastructure and other expenses in Thiruvananthapuram works out to 60 per cent of that in Bangalore,” says Mr N. Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO, Technopark, the oldest IT park in the country.

A recent Nasscom study on nine Indian ITES destinations, covering parameters including land cost, power, communication infrastructure and manpower, ranked Kochi the second best above metros such as Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Job growth

Looking ahead, more IT companies are likely to go in for large-scale recruitment. Infosys plans to invest Rs 306 crore to build its own campus in Thiruvanathapuram, which will further create 8,000 jobs. It now operates from a leased premises.

Wipro, which has three centres in Kochi, is to increase its headcount to 3,000 by 2010 from 600, according to Mr Laxman Badiga, Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, Wipro Technologies. The company is also thinking of setting up a transaction process based BPO in Kochi.

The Regional Sales Director of Oracle, Mr Anup Varma, says the company intends to expand its presence in the State through resellers.

More Stories on : Infrastructure | Software | Kerala | Infosys Technologies Ltd

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