Ahmedabad: After lull of six months, the Information and Technology (IT) sector in Gujarat is regaining momentum, creating more jobs for the youths, especially in the BPO segment, industry experts said.
"BPOs are doing extremely well in Gujarat since they are largely focussed on telecom sector. A sector that is doing very well presently," president Gujarat Electronics and Software Industries Association (GESIA) Nirav Shah said.
BPOs here are expected to hire around 1500 to 2000 people during this financial year, over and above recruitment of over 1000 individuals in past few months, Shah said.
"Established IT giants are now looking for expansion in Gujarat. Oil and Petroleum sector companies from Middle East are planning to open their back office processing units by September this year in the upcoming SEZs here," a top IT official said.
There are over a dozen IT/ITES Special Economic Zones
(SEZ) sanctioned in Gujarat, of which K Raheja Corp SEZ
at Koba near Gandhinagar is expected to begin operations from
first quater of 2010, to be followed by DLF SEZ, industry
sources said.
"IT companies have already started coming to us, and
shortly they shall be shortlisting the floor space. We are
expected to begin operations from the first quater of 2010," K
Raheja Corp region head Kotak said.
"Over 6 to 7 companies who visited us recently including few from the Middle East have already applied for approval to IT/ITES SEZ Development Commissioner and are expected to open BPO's here," Kotak said.
"Software exports of IT/IT enabled services(ITES) from units registered under STPI scheme in Gujarat last fiscal stood at Rs 1,063 crores, showing a jump of 48.05 percent as compared to exports in 2007-08," Director Software Technology Parks of India Ajay Sharma told PTI.
Sub-sector of IT/ITES like BPOs, KPOs and embedded software have contributed to the growth in exports from the state, he added.
"As per estimates the growth trend in IT exports this fiscal shall remain the same as in the past. We expect the exports of IT enabled services from the state to cross Rs 1200 crore mark this fiscal," Sharma said.
However, last fiscal 38 units got registered under the STPI scheme as compared to registration of 45 units in 2007-08,in the state.
"The registration went down in 2008-09 due to lack of
clarity on extension of STPI scheme," a top IT official said.
Meanwhile, first BPO company at Creative Infocity in
Gandhinagar, Etech Inc., recently announced to increase the
employee headcount at it's two centres in Gujarat.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, August 22, 2009, 18:33