Varanasi: Silk, temples and more...

Be it for silk, temples, ghaats or paan, Benaras (Varanasi) has given innumerable reasons for people to love the place. Situated on the banks of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi is regarded as a holy city by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the oldest in India. The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of two rivers-Varuna and Assi. The city has several small cottage industries, including production of Banarasi saris, which are made from silk. The city can boast of a notable number of famous temples and the prominent educational institution-Benares Hindu University.

By taking a look at the Varanasi information technology market, one can find that although the IT scenario in the city is not very vibrant, dealers of the city manage to churn out sufficient amount of business. The city operates with a decent number of approximately 350 registered dealers. The market situation from the past few months has remained average in the city. Udit Vasudeva, director, Life Computers said, "The market remained dull for the last two months, with no new activity happening in the market." Rajnikant of Friends Computers said, "The market is just going average. In Hindu religion, last one month was considered as 'mal-mas' (inauspicious month); owing to that the sales were low." While Sanjay Srivastava, CEO, Age Computers gave a positive response and said, "For me the market was good. I did good business."

According to the partners, the most contributing sectors of the region were education and SOHO, while laptops were voted as the top-sold product. Vasudeva said, "Among the brands, HP, Dell and Lenovo sells the most in the region; while people often go for laptops while choosing their machine." Ankit Agarwal from The Innovator also said in concurrence, "Laptops are favored more in the city and people usually go for Lenovo and Dell." As claimed by the partners, approximately 2,500 laptops are sold per month in Varanasi. Talking about the IT association of the city Eastern UP Information Technology Dealers Association (EUPITDA), Vasudeva said, "Our computer association is very less active in the region. You can say that it is just 25% functional." Srivastava also added in concurrence, "EUPITDA is not at all active in the region. We would of course love it to become active in the future."

Sharing their future predictions for the Varanasi IT market Agarwal said, "Market predictions are high. I predict the market to flourish above average." Srivastava added, "The coming time seems better as we have a host of festivities lined up. We are currently pinning hopes on Diwali."

Market Name: Varanasi

Market Location: Uttar Pradesh

Surrounding Markets: Lucknow, Kolkata, Kanpur, Jabalpur, Nagpur

Computer Association: Eastern UP Information Technology Dealers Association (EUPITDA)

Prominent Dealers: Age Computers, B2C, Chetna Computer, Computer Shoppe, Creative Computer, Enbee Computer, Friends Comp, Life Computers, Maa Sankatha Computer Gallery

Business Verticals: Education, SOHO

Number of Registered Dealers: 350 (approx)