Telangana agitation paralyses IT business

The IT hardware industry in Andhra Pradesh has been paralyzed by the agitation for a separate Telangana state. When TheDQWeek contacted many partners in the state, they echoed their voice on the issue on the condition of anonymity, "I have been in this hardware business for the past 20 years. Believe me or not, I have never faced such a worse situation in the state," said a Hyderabad based dealer. He further said that many partners who own shops in the critical places have to close them while only a few partners in non-critical areas managed to open their shops.

TRANSPORTATION CRAMMED
Almost every dealer depends on transport like trucks, buses, and other public transport to send their material. Since there have been continuous road blockages, the partners could not commute from one place to other. Also, as many trains from other states have been cancelled, partners are having tough time to make business trips. The situation is described worse in the Telangana districts. Sources say that there is no bus facility as well as other modes of transport. For any dealer in major cities of Andhra Pradesh, the major business comes from the 100 km radius around their town. Since there is no means of transportation, customers are afraid to come out and buy the products. As schools and colleges-one of the main revenue generators for the channel community-have been closed or not functioning properly, there is a huge drop in the sales.

GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS STAGNATED
Like schools and colleges, government sector is another sector which is regular income generator. Since the government employees are not working, we do not get any government related orders. Besides, another major problem the channel community is facing is the delay in payment. "Generally it takes a lot of time to get money from the government related orders. Since the treasury is closed indefinitely, what can we channel partners do?" asked a Secunderabad based dealer. He also said that some of his earlier payments which the government has to give are yet to come. "Whatsoever, either the new region is going to be carved out or not, it is sure that we will be sent from pillar to post to collect our payments," he concluded.

INTERNATIONAL VENDORS TROUBLED
 The media reports on the agitations have created great impact among the vendor community. Many partners felt that there has been a communication gap between them and the vendors, which is not a healthy trend for the business. If the sources from the IT community are to be believed, many representatives from MNC companies have postponed their business plans due to the agitation. In spite of several attempts, no representative from any vendor company was available for comments.