The Hindu Business Line : Drive growth of IT, industry told

Passing information: The Tamil Nadu Information and Technology Secretary, Mr C. Chandramouli (second left); with (from left) the Chairman of CII, Coimbatore, Mr K. Thangaraj; the Chairman and CEO of Encore Software Ltd, Mr Vinay L. Deshpande; and the Managing Director of ELCOT, Mr C. Uma Shankar, at a meeting in Coimbatore on Friday. —

Our Bureau

Coimbatore, March 14 “While the State Government is set to make information and communications technology (ICT) an engine of growth to uplift the State economy and is willing to extend all support, industry stakeholders, instead of remaining mere spectators, should participate and drive growth,” the IT Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, Dr C. Chandramouli, has said.

He was here to inaugurate the 8th edition of the annual IT event – ‘Connect Coimbatore 2008’.

Calling upon industrialists here to participate in the ICT ride, he said that investment in hard core IT business by local entrepreneurs was still missing in Coimbatore.

“While you were willing to ride the waves with the textiles, pump and textile machinery manufacture, why do you hesitate to take the risk by joining the IT wave? Why wait for the likes of TCS or Wipro to come and set up their presence here?” he asked and said “your vision should be to emerge as the embedded systems capital considering the expertise available here.’

Dr Chandramouli said the State Government is in the process of bringing a legislation in the forthcoming Assembly session to remove the hurdles faced by business houses. “This industry-friendly initiative would make the industrial and investment climate conducive across different departments and agencies”.

Unrealistic prices

The Managing Director of ELCOT, Mr C. Uma Shankar, said the government-mooted Tidel Park would be ready by December 2008. “While Coimbatore has emerged as the best possible investment destination, next only to Chennai, the paucity of land and the unrealistic rates have compelled investors to look at other locations such as Salem, Madurai, Tiruchi and Tirunelveli. People do not understand that the best business climate will not last forever,” he said and warned that Coimbatore could lose out to such destinations if it did not provide the land.

“ELCOT is looking at another 1000 acres but without success,” he added.

Besides handholding and promoting IT parks, ELCOT is also setting up a 300-seater IT training centre.

“We are also proposing to supply high-end desktops at around Rs 18,000 to IT companies.”

Next plan

“Our next plan is to supply high end notebook computers to students. These would be priced less than Rs 20,000 and we intend to supply 1-lakh pieces,” Mr Uma Shankar said.

Delivering the key note address, Mr Vinay L Deshpande, Chairman and CEO, Encore Software Ltd, stressed the need to leverage on the tradition of innovation and capability that existed by looking at IT and ITES services, textile and engineering processing services, audit and legal processing and embedded solutions.