TamilNadu IT exports zip past Rs.10000 Cr mark
Growth Doubles To 40% Chennai Still Hot Location
Tamil Nadu crossed the Rs. 10,000 cr-milestone in software exports, by almost doubling its growth to 40.50% in 2004-05 from the 20% growth achieved in the last couple of years.
Total number of IT and IT enabled services (ITES) companies operating in the state also crossed 1,000 last year. Exports peaked Rs.10,703cr in 2004-05 from Rs.7,621.50cr in 2003-04. “The ramp up of operations (in Chennai) by most of the software companies is the reason for the almost 100% leap in the growth rate during the last year”,said Ms.R.Rajalakshmi, Director,STPI-Chennai.
Particularly, the top 10 players like TCS,Cognizant,Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Satyam Computer, EDS and scope have driven the substantial jump in the growth rate, by contributing over 50% of the total software exports. Though a late bloomer in the IT revolution, the state has accelerated exports from a mere Rs.2 cr in 1993-94 with 10 companies.
The break-up of figures for last year showed that Chennai continues to be a preferred destination for application software & system s/w as it accounts for 73% (Rs.7,821cr) of the total software exports.The contribution from ITES was at 13-15% while web application touched 9% (up from 0.5%).The product / packages sector has grown from less than 1% to 3%. Under STPI–Chennai, about 100 companies were approved during the last year taking the total number of IT / ITES companies in the state to 1095. Of this, about 750 companies are operating and chipping in to total exports. While there are 5 companies that contributed have raked in exports of Rs.100–Rs.500 cr. Coimbatore, the second most preferred destination for IT / ITES in the state, has chipped in Rs. 49 cr of the exports. While other secondary cities like Salem, Sivakasi, Madurai & Ranipet have shown results at their initial stages. The total hardware exports was Rs.358 cr last year. With about 15 companies, Pondicherry – which also falls under STPI – Chennai – has registered exports to the tune of Rs.27.20 cr against Rs. 21.10 cr in the previous year.
