BANGALORE: Under attack from the industry for its lackadaisical approach to improving Bangalore's worsening infrastructure woes, a beleaguered State Government on Monday dished out statistics to drive home the point that Bangalore continued to be the preferred investment destination for information technology and biotechnology companies despite claims made by the industry that poor infrastructure had affected the flow of investments.

New firms

During the first four months of the current fiscal, 64 new firms had opened offices in Bangalore, including 43 with foreign equity, which is roughly about four new companies registering every week, State Government officials said.

The Government has contested claims made by the Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCIC) that inadequate infrastructure had slowed down investment flow into Bangalore with only 30 companies registering last year as compared to 52 the previous year.

According to the Information Technology and Biotechnology Department, software exports between April and July this year touched Rs. 6,800 crores as against Rs. 5,700 crores during the corresponding period last fiscal, which saw a total export of Rs. 27,600 crores.

Investments

The investment flow has not been affected at all.

On the contrary, it has seen a steady growth, the Government said revealing numbers to back its claims.

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) Bangalore said that 64 new companies had started operations in Bangalore with total investments of Rs. 1,181 crores, a growth of 10 per cent over the Rs. 1,073 crores invested during the same period last year. Bangalore had attracted investments worth Rs. 2,288 crores during 2004-05.

Out of the 64 new companies, 43 were started with foreign equity amounting to Rs. 734 crores, a 26 per cent jump over the foreign investment of Rs. 581 crores made during April-July 2004-05.

Small firms' share

Further, 19 small and medium companies invested Rs. 170 crores, a growth of 48 per cent over Rs. 87 crores invested by 17 firms during the same period last year.

During 2004-05, the sector had attracted an investment of Rs. 219 crores. Out of the total of 1,584 IT companies operating from Bangalore, 512 were multinationals, with 66 of them being Global Fortune 500 companies.

The total number of IT professionals working in Bangalore currently stood at 2,85,000.

Exports

IT exports from Bangalore has grown phenomenally since 1999-2000.

From Rs. 4,400-crore exports in fiscal 2000, the exports have topped Rs. 27,600 crores last year.

The investments have also gone up from Rs. 589 crores in 1999-2000 to Rs. 2,783 crores last year and the number of companies had almost doubled to touch 1,520 last year as against 782 in 1999-2000.

Boycott

The BCIC had decided to boycott Bangalore IT.in, the IT trade show beginning October 26, citing poor infrastructure in the city.

The BCIC boycott followed the Bangalore Forum of IT Companies (BFIT) comprising prominent firms such as Philips, MphasiS, Oracle and Texas Instruments raising a banner of revolt against what they called inadequate infrastructure in the State capital.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail