IT Giants to Pump Rs. 6,010 Cr Into State at GIM.

For Tamil Nadu, the IT sector has always been a goldmine - ever since the IT boom in the early 2000s saw top IT majors making their homes in the state.

The Global Investment Meet is likely to see this goldmine burgeoning. Sources in the Government say that Rs 6,010 crore of investment commitments in the sector are to be signed come September 9.

While the exact number of companies and names have not been shared yet, sources say several of the giants in the IT/ITES sector in the country are set to sign MoUs. A large majority of these projects are likely to be expansions on existing facilities. But the Rs. 6,010 crore figure is more than viable, said K Purushothaman, regional director, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM).

'Most of these investments are likely to involve land acquisitions, and land that software companies prefer is close to cities and quite expensive. So a Rs 6,000 crore investment figure is not only viable, the actuals might be even be larger,' he said.

Tamil Nadu has always been a rather attractive location for IT majors to set up facilities because of available space close to cities, high talent retention and high connectivity that the cities provide. The only minus point that experts say the state faces is weather, which some find uncomfortable.

The IT sector has also been one of the largest contributors to the State’s GDP and share of exports for a while. In the fiscal year 2014-15, the estimated software exports from the state reached Rs. 75,000 crore, out of the Rs. 2.15 lakh crore that formed the state’s cumulative exports for the year.

Many of world’s largest IT majors have a large presence in the state including TCS, HCL, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant and IBM. HCL and Cognizant for example have some of their largest facilities in the world located in Tamil Nadu.

In the last few years there has been a large increase in the number of IT companies registering units in the state. According to the latest offical data available, it saw a jump of 59.7 per cent in registration of software units in the last eight years, with 1,780 units registered in 2012-13.

The sector also provided jobs to over 3.75 lakh persons.


THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS