Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
ePaper
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Oct 06, 2007 ePaper |
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Info-Tech
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Events States - Andhra Pradesh CII for promoting IT in smaller cities ‘The impression that IT sector is for the bigger companies alone should be given up.’ Our Bureau Visakhapatnam, Oct. 5 The smaller cities such as Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada have many advantages for setting up IT and ITES companies in spite of certain constraints, as the costs are less and the attrition rates are not so high as in bigger cities, said Dr B.V.R Mohan Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director of Infotech Enterprises Ltd, and Deputy Chairman of CII, southern region. He was delivering the keynote address at a one-day seminar on promoting IT in Visakhapatnam by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Friday. He said the impression that IT sector is for the bigger companies alone should be given up, as SMEs would have to play a crucial role in the sector, especially in the smaller cities. Citing his own example, he said he had started with a capital of Rs 25 lakh and four software engineers 16 years ago and now the market capitalisation of his company was around Rs 4,000 crore. He said Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Warangal, Tirupati and Kakinada had been identified by the Nasscom in Andhra Pradesh as potential centres for IT development. “Vizag, in particular, is set to mark in the next few years. At present, the software exports amount to Rs 110 crore or so. It would double or treble in the next two or three years,” he added. Mr G. Venkatarama Reddy, Vice-chairman of the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA), explained the steps being taken to promote IT in the city. “Work on two IT special economic zones at Rushikonda is going on and we have allotted sites to several smaller IT companies. Besides, two big companies – Satyam and Wipro – have arrived here. Satyam has already started functioning and Wipro is constructing the building,” he said. He said 1,300 acres was in the possession of the VUDA at the beautiful Yarada hill and “we want to develop it and allot it to IT companies and others, but certain misguided environmental groups are coming in the way. They accuse us of plundering the hills.” He said a new runway had been constructed at the existing airport and night landing would be possible soon at the airport. Besides, the Airports Authority of India had identified two sites for construction of an international airport. “I am sure that at one of the sites the international airport would come up. All this augurs well for promoting IT in the city,” he said. Mr Pradeep Dhobale, Chairman of CII, AP chapter, Mr Shakti Sagar, Convener, and Dr Varma Vegesna, Chairman of CII Vizag zonal council, and others spoke. More Stories on : Events | Andhra Pradesh
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