Big boost to IT in 4 Telangana dists

Karimnagar, Warangal, Nizamabad and Khammam likely to turn into software hotspots

Hyderabad: If the Telangana government has its way, information technology (IT) sector that put Hyderabad on global map is set to bloom across four district headquarters with the newly-created state firming up plans to develop software industry in Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Khammam.

Plans for achieving this goal will be a prominent part of the new IT policy the State government is going to unveil soon. Telangana will also leverage Hyderabad’s position as global IT hub as it looks to take software sector to more tier 2 and 3 cities and towns.

“Now, we want to take software sector to tier 2 and 3 cities in the State. The new IT policy which will be unveiled will focus on this,” Jayesh Ranjan, IT Secretary, Telangana, said here on Friday at a press conference organised by the Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (Hysea) to announce its silver jubilee celebrations.

He further said that the government had identified four district headquarters where IT industry would be developed in the first phase. “We have identified Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Khammam for this purpose,” he said.

To encourage IT companies to set up operations in tier 2 cities, the government will offer additional benefits and incentives. “We know there will be some hardships if companies go to such cities. But government will compensate and offer additional incentives to mitigate such hardships,” the IT Secretary explained.

Besides, the TS government will also develop infrastructure with its own funds as it plays key role in attracting companies. “We will invest in infrastructure in each of these cities and also initiate measures to see that enough talent pool is available for the companies,” he said. Referring to unsuccessful attempts in the past to take the IT sector to smaller cities, the IT Secretary said that new technologies like data analytics could now be effectively executed even in the tier 2 cities as skill-sets and social infrastructure had significantly improved there.

“In the past companies were reluctant to go there, fearing lack of manpower. But there are new technological opportunities including data analytics which will generate largest number of jobs for IT professionals in the future.

But data analytics will not require high-level qualification and any graduate can do it. So, the likelihood that we will succeed this time is much higher,” Ranjan said, adding that Hysea had come forward to help the government in this endeavour

Replying to a query on investments, Ranjan said the government had held discussions with 15 to 20 domestic and global IT giants so far and the companies themselves would make announcements on their investment plans. He further said that software exports from Telangana would clock 13 per cent growth this fiscal.

The exports were $10.2 billion last fiscal and the government has set a target to take the exports to Rs 1 lakh crore by 2020. Meanwhile, the Hysea which represents over 300 IT companies from the city and other locations has lined up a series of events to celebrate its 25 years of existence.