The Hindu Business Line : Pune logs into IT revolution

"Pune is fast emerging as an infotech hub, with the big giants in the software industry setting up their development centres here. The IT industry in India contributes to exports of over $40 billion and employs nearly two million people. Pune has been a significant contributor to the Indian IT industry, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the exports with more than 2,00,000 employees in the sector.

The IT industry is expected to continue to grow at a rate of about 30 per cent for the next five years and Nasscom estimates this to be $80 billion by 2012.

Pune today is a base for top IT companies in the area of business process outsourcing, engineering technology and IT products companies and this combination of products and services is going to continue in the near future.

The companies that are coming to Pune include those wanting to set up back-office operations, call centres, companies managing insurance, infrastructure management, research and development operations etc. In short, Pune has become the IT hub for developing innovative applications and products, says Dr Anand Deshpande, Chairman and Managing Director, Persistent Systems.

The city has a burgeoning software industry, thanks to the presence of IT parks like Rajiv Gandhi IT Park at Hinjewadi, Magarpatta Cybercity, MIDC Software Technology Park at Talawade, Marisoft IT Park at Kalyaninagar, International Convention Centre (ICC), Weikfield IT Park etc.

HOME TO MAJOR PLAYERS

A file photo of Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, with Mr Vineet Nayyar (left), CEO and MD of Mahindra-British Telecom and Mr V. K. Jairath, Secretary of Industries, after signing an MoU for a software development campus at Hinjewadi in Pune.

Many of India's major software players such as Fiserv, Amdocs, Infosys, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Sasken, CalSoft, Cybage, Cognizant, Tata Elxsi, Fluent, Xansa, John Deere Technology Center, Patni, Satyam, KPIT Cummins, Aztecsoft (Disha), Persistent Systems, Pyxis Systems Pvt Ltd, Geometric Software Solutions Ltd, Neilsoft , Nihilent Technologies, Encodex Technologies and Kanbay Software have a major presence in Pune.

Global majors like Accenture, BMC Software, NVIDIA, HSBC Global Technology, TIBCO, IBM, Dell, Red Hat, Siemens, EDS, Amdocs, UGS, i-Flex, Symantec, Sun- Gard Data Systems, Global Graphics Software, Versant Inc, Zensar Technologies, eGain Corp, Syntel Ltd, T-Systems and SAS Research and Development India Pvt Ltd have a major presence in Pune. Pune is also emerging as a destination for BPOs due to the availability of skilled English speaking manpower.

BPO companies such as WNS, Convergys, Infosys BPO, EXL, Wipro BPO, vCustomer and MphasiS have started operations in Pune. Several hardware and VLSI companies like Ingot Systems are also located in the city. Several HR consultants have their operations here to meet the growing demand for a highly specialised workforce.

SOFTWARE PARKS

According to Mr P. Venugopal, Director, Software Technology Park of India (Maharashtra), Pune registered software exports of Rs 15,150 crore for the year ended March 2007. The IT exports for 2005-06 were Rs 9,423 crore.

The State Government has also given Letter of Intent to many private players for developing IT parks in the city and fiscal and non-fiscal benefits have been promised to those players.

More than 100 companies had registered for space in the Software Technology Park and a majority of them are involved in research and development, engineering services and embedded technology.

Besides the highest number of IT parks in the State, about a 100, Pune boasts hosting 11 IT service companies out of the top 20 in the country. The ITeS (IT-enabled services) sector is also set to expand in the knowledge process outsourcing and legal process outsourcing areas. But industry experts are worried about the talent crunch that is expected with the boom in the sector.

CONSTRAINTS

Pune, which is known as the `Oxford of the East', churns out 80,000 engineering graduates each year. There are specialised education institutes here and a large base of scientists working on research and development. While Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad suffer from the accent factor, the BPO industry has Pune to look to, for a large English speaking public. Another worry is that the phenomenal growth of the infotech industry in Pune over the last 10 years could suffer serious constraints due to inadequate infrastructure in the city.

Rising traffic congestion, poor transportation and the absence of a full-fledged international air connectivity could arrest this growth, say industry leaders.

High expectations are being placed on future areas of growth in engineering, animation and gaming sectors.

In addition to the presence of reputed software companies like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, TCS, Cognizant and IBM Global, more are planning to set up shop, the most conspicuous among them being global giant Microsoft, which intends to establish a Rs 700 crore facility at Hinjewadi.

According to Nasscom, Pune is numero uno in terms of growth percentage. It has witnessed a near 40 per cent growth this year, when the industry average is just about 30 per cent to 35 per cent.

Pune's story of technological achievements is a beacon for several other small tier II and tier III cities in the country.

It's an inspiration for them to expand and grow. Now, after IT, ITES and the BPO revolution, knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) is being touted as the next big thing to hit India.

With its immense talent pool, Pune is also poised to be the next KPO hub of India.

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