IT exports from Karnataka cross Rs 50k cr

IT exports from Karnataka cross Rs 50k cr
Financial Express

BANGALORE, MAY 21 : Karnataka's software exports went up by 30% to touch Rs 48,700 crore for the financial year 2006-07. According to provisional estimates, hardware exports also went up from Rs 2,480 crore to Rs 2,950 crore, taking the overall export figure to Rs 51,650 crore.

While exports from Mysore went up from Rs 392 crore to Rs 760 crore, Mangalore went up from Rs 570 crore to Rs 681.5 crore and Hubli from Rs 5 crore to Rs 8.5 crore.

"The total investments were to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore in the state, with investments in Tier-II cities touching Rs 500 crore," STPI-Bangalore director J Parthasarathy said. He said of the 173 new companies that set up base in the state, 10 were billion dollar companies. "The total number of IT companies operating in Karnataka is 1,973," he said.

He said the highlight of the last financial year was that there were 7 Japanese companies in the areas of semi-conductor, telecom and research and development who had set up base in the state.

Karnataka IT & BT secretary M N Vidyashankar said the state would be developing an IT Park at Belgaum. "We have acquired 167 acre and the IT Park will be developed in a public-private partnership model. We have also requested the revenue department to acquire another 250 acre in Mangalore (currently it has 130-odd acre) for expansion," he said.

He said BPO firm Jsoft Solutions, a Jindal Group company, has expressed its desire to set up five more BPO centres in the state by this year-end. "We have given them options in Shimoga, Kolar, Hassan and Raichur," he said. Jsoft will be starting its BPO operations from Bellary and Hubli with 1,500 seats each, from next month.

Earlier, Vidyashankar announced that Bangalore IT.in with the theme 'Fostering Innovation' would be held from October 29 to November 1. Later in the evening, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy formally launched the tenth edition of the event.