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TN registers software exports of Rs 3116 crore

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DQW Bureau
New Update



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Tamil Nadu (TN) has registered software exports to the tune of Rs 3,116 crore for the fiscal year 2000-2001, turning the spotlight away from the slowdown in US to better things back home. It is a 63 percent increase from Rs 1,914 crore during the last fiscal. 

Out of total Rs 3,116 crore registered, Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Chennai has logged Rs 2,956 crore, with its 350 exporting units and 90 other exporting units. Seven companies in Madras Export Processing Zone contribute the remaining Rs 160 crore. Hardware exports have also grown to Rs 576 crore this fiscal taking the total software and hardware export from the state to Rs 3,692
crore.

Application Software, which had accounted for Rs 1,222 crore last fiscal, was the only segment that did not witness growth this year. The segment clocked only Rs 1,162 crore this fiscal. Consultancy services leaped to Rs 739 crore from Rs 470 crore while System Software jumped from Rs 139 crore to Rs 626 crore. Under IT enabled services, call centers made its presence felt for the first time by registering Rs 5 crore while Medical Transcription continued its growth clocking Rs 21 crore this fiscal.

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Data Entry and data processing still dominated the IT enabled services with it contributing the chunk, Rs 203 crore of the total Rs 265 crore. Web applications rose steadily to Rs 121 crore from a mere Rs 9.26 crore last year. Software products and packets accounted for Rs 43 crore this fiscal.

Pondicherry, which had come under Chennai STPI's jurisdiction in August 2000, accounted for Rs 2.15 crore with four of its nine software units exporting. Coimbatore, another emerging hub of software activity in Tamil Nadu, has clocked Rs 20.47 crore with its 66 exporting units. Thirunelveli has touched the crore mark with Rs 1.28 crore from two export units.

So it seems the downturn in US has not affected the state as yet. But will the figures creep up the next fiscal also? Rajalakshmi, Director, STPI, Chennai, is realistically optimistic about the future. "I am expecting a growth of 60-65 percent next fiscal also. Well, the economic slowdown in US might affect the high-end technology companies, but not software companies engaged in service activities. Moreover, the slowdown has forced companies to look at new markets in Europe."

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Recently, 225 CIOs of companies in US in a survey by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter had identified five priority areas such as consulting services, wireless initiatives, Windows 2000 upgrade, new customized software development and Microsoft Office upgrade where they would most probably cut costs. The bad news for Indian companies in the survey was that CIOs were not too keen on developing customized applications.

Year

No
of companies
Software
exports 

(in Rs crore)

1993-1994

10 2

1994-1995

23 12

1995-1996

34 37

1996-1997      

69 161

1997-1998      

108 393

1998-1999      

166 1246

1999-2000      

601 1914

2000-2001

757 3116

The MSDW survey has good news for the Indian companies also. The CIOs were none too eager to stop the transfer of legacy applications also, which form a major source of revenue for Indian companies after maintenance projects. Areas that were mentioned as not likely to face cuts were investment in customer application network equipment, e-commerce initiatives, database software and security software.

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