Silicon Nadu

Software exports from Tamil Nadu have zoomed by 63 percent to reach Rs 3,116 crore in the year ending 31 March. In fiscal 1999-00, the software exports from the state was Rs 1,914 crore. Tamil Nadu's contribution to the national software exports has been increasing steadily and the state is No 2 in this segment after Karnataka in South India.

The remarkable transformation in Tamil Nadu IT industry has happened in the last five years. In 1993-94, the software exports from the state was just Rs 2 crore, contributed by 10 companies. On March 31, 2001, there are 674 companies registered with the government's coordinator for the software export segment. The profiles of exporters too have changed. It is a mix of both Indian software giants such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Cognizant, HCL Technologies, Polaris, Pentasoft and Mascon, through their development centers in and around Chennai. Foreign companies such as EDS and eFunds too have made significant exports from their

Chennai-based units.

Availability of a large talent pool of software programmers and a forward-looking, reform minded, business-friendly

government in the state has been the key attractions for software companies to move into Chennai primarily in the last few years. The infrastructure bottlenecks and saturation of HR supply in Bangalore has added to the attraction of Chennai in recent years. While Andhra Pradesh was wooing IT companies with high-pitched campaigns, Tamil Nadu's understated but confident approach seems to have paid off. Removal of process bottlenecks in land use and zoning laws and the vibrant real estate market in Chennai too have played a significant role in attracting software exporters as it helped shorten the 'ready-to-market' time significantly.

Unlike Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu has another advantage in evenly spread urban centers, which can offer facilities on par with Chennai. Cities such as Coimbatore (Rs 21 crore in exports), Tirunelveli (Rs 1.68 crore), Thanjavur, Vellor and Madurai are the emerging centers for software development. Today there are 170 engineering colleges offering IT courses in the State and are evenly spread out. These colleges are the catchment areas for human resources. Many leading industrial groups in the state have invested in these colleges to provide state-of-the art computer facilities to provide cutting-edge skills to the students. Tamil Nadu was one of the first to increase the number of seats for IT courses in engineering colleges last year to cater to the emerging demand.

S Rajalakshmi, Chief, STPI, Chennai who has been one of the years too deserves praise for her invaluable contribution. She is confident that the industry will notch up 65 percent growth in exports in 2001-02. Her confidence is based on the fact that at least 24 MNCs have set up shop in Chennai in the past 15 months. Companies in the showpiece Tidel Park too will get into full gear this year. The only thing that can stand between booming software exports from the state is that B2B (back to Berlin) and B2C (back to Copenhagen) slogans do not take away too many programmers to the foreign shores.