The Hindu : One lakh IT jobs likely in 4 years

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 13, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

One lakh IT jobs likely in 4 years

By Shanthi Kannan

CHENNAI, MARCH 12. About one lakh jobs in information technology are likely to be created over the next three-four years in Chennai, with the setting up of new development centres by three major players, Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services.

Each of them is planning to recruit 20,000-25,000 people over this period, Vivek Harinarain, Information Technology Secretary, said yesterday.

Cognizant had already set up a major development centre on a nine-acre land here to accommodate nearly 3,000 software professionals. The company planned to recruit 4,000 employees this year, 2,000 of them for the Chennai development centre. Verizon also set up its new centre here, which could accommodate more than 1,000 people. Chennai had the potential to overtake Bangalore in IT revenue over the next five years.

Mr. Harinarain was addressing a seminar organised here by the Indo-Amercian Chamber of Commerce and the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council on "Operating a BPO Outfit - The Inside Story".

Only recently did Infosys announce that it proposed to establish the world's biggest development centre in the Mahindra Industrial Park here. The centre, with an investment of Rs.1,400 crores, would come up on a 130-acre land. Construction in the park has already begun. Wipro has also planned a centre on an 80-acre land at a cost of Rs. 1,100 crores. The Tamil Nadu Government has allotted to Wipro land closer to its existing facility on Old Mahabalipuram Road. TCS is setting up a larger centre at Siruseri.

With all these companies setting up development centres in and around Chennai, industry watchers predict a boom time for the software industry in Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Harinarain felt that the IT hardware sector would be the next major sector offering enormous opportunities to Chennaiites. It was time the government and the industry focussed on the hardware sector, after information technology, ITES (information technology-enabled services) and business process outsourcing.

Of the total expected IT exports of Rs.8000 crores from Tamil Nadu this year, at least Rs. 1,000 crores would come from hardware segment, he expected. The presence of two major ports — Chennai Port Trust and Ennore Port Trust — was an added advantage to the city over others. A quick turnaround of vessels would go a long way in helping hardware exporters.

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