The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Chief Minister promises incubation for IT companies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 29, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Chief Minister promises incubation for IT companies

Special Correspondent

YSR asks captains of IT industry to expand into smaller cities and towns

HI-TECH CONNECTION: The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, explains a point to J.A. Choudhury, president of TiE- ISB Connect 2005 in Hyderabad on Thursday.

HYDERABAD: The Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has announced that incubation and other infrastructural facilities will be provided to start-up IT companies. He has said the Government is aiming at reducing power tariff for industries by a substantial margin shortly.

Inaugurating TiE-ISB Connect 2005, a forum connecting entrepreneurs with investors and mentors, he declared on Thursday that Andhra Pradesh would be developed into a model State, and appealed to captains of the IT industry to expand into the tier-II cities and towns like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati. He said power tariff had already been reduced by 4 per cent from April this year.

He said that a 20,000-acre knowledge corridor was being created in Hyderabad with the knowledge sector industry like IT, ITES, R&D, science and technology, health, finance, insurance and other emerging sectors. "Our approach is far-sighted with holistic development of the State," he added.

Listing out various initiatives taken by his Government, he said that the Government was keen on rapid growth of the industry and new ICT policy was a clear reflection of its vision to achieve it. "I want this ICT growth spread across 2.75 lakh sq. km of the State."

Keynote address

In his keynote address, the Chairman of Satyam Computers, B. Ramalinga Raju, said that along with the emergence of knowledge industry, the companies were looking at new ways towards value creation. There was also the trend of many entities collaborating and creating larger value than operating a large organisation as a monolithic. He said that 44 per cent of global outsourcing was represented by Indian IT companies.

He said that while market capitalisation was around $ 50,000 per person in the USA, it was one-fifth less in India. In other words, five times more value was assigned to Indian companies.

Centres of excellence

M. Rammohan Rao, Dean, Indian School of Business (ISB), urged the industry to participate in the centres of excellence proposed to be set up in the ISB.

J.A. Chowdary, president, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), stressed the need for creating an eco-system which would enable the start-up companies to flourish. He said that as many as 56 business proposals which needed funding to the tune of Rs.200 crores were received.

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