The Hindu : Karnataka News : IT exports likely to touch Rs. 28,000 crores this year

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 22, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

IT exports likely to touch Rs. 28,000 crores this year

Special Correspondent

Next to Bangalore, Mangalore registers fastest growth in IT

BANGALORE: Information technology (IT) exports from the State are expected to touch Rs. 28,000 crores by the end of this fiscal. M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science and Technology, said here on Thursday that IT exports from the State will increase by Rs. 6,000 crores, from Rs. 22,000 crores in 2004-05 to Rs. 28,000 crores in 2005-06.

Mr. Shankaralinge Gowda, who inaugurated a seminar on "World Bank project for financing and development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)", said there are 1,490 IT companies in the State. There were 15 in 1991. There are 128 biotechnology firms. Last year, 198 IT and 18 BT firms were set up in the State. Software companies provided jobs to over 2.5 lakh engineers, he said.

Mangalore has registered the fastest growth in the IT sector, next only to Bangalore. IT companies from Mangalore have placed before themselves an export target of Rs. 1,000 crores (goods and services) as against Rs. 600 crores last year, he said.

The Government has decided to set up Software Technology Parks (STP) in Gulbarga and Belgaum this year to provide infrastructure and incentives to IT companies to set up their offices. The IT firms are slowly diversifying their areas of operation and have shown interest in Mangalore, Mysore, Hubli and Belgaum, he said.

Under the World Bank's project, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has decided to invest Rs. 1,000 croes in IT, IT-enabled services (ITES) and biotechnology clusters in Bangalore in the next few years.

SIDBI, which signed an agreement with the World Bank for implementation of the project in January, is in the process of identifying clusters for credit concentration with focus on activities such as IT, BT and engineering.

"The IT, ITES, biotech sectors in Bangalore have been identified for special attention," he said.

He suggested that entrepreneurs and banks work hand in-hand for utilising the potential in IT and BT sectors.

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