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After recording an impressive export last year, a second wave of Information Technology development is set to hit Andhra Pradesh. The strategy adopted during the last decade from 1992-93 in particular for promoting Andhra Pradesh as a IT hub bore fruits in attracting many IT majors to come to Hyderabad. "Now we are trying to replicate this success by adopting an all together different strategy," B V Naidu, STPI Hyderabad, director told PTI. "STPI is working jointly with the government of Andhra Pradesh to set in motion the development. We are developing four incubation centres for IT development in Vizag, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Kakinada. The incubation centre at Tirupati is likely to be operational by the end of January, 2006," he said. While the earlier strategy was to attract investment and professionals from abroad to the state, the current strategy is to motivate them to go and get settled near their native towns, Naidu said. "This can be achieved by creating the right infrastructure and showcasing it. Our incubation centres will help in this regard," he added. The IT sector in Andhra Pradesh is likely to touch 50 per cent growth rate in the current year going by the present pace of development, according to sources in the industry and government. After hitting an all-India high growth rate of 64.5 per cent against the national average of 35 per cent during last year, IT industry is now growing at 40 per cent. It may not be possible to achieve over 60 per cent every year. But as it is the current growth is higher than last year's national average, a source in IT department said. According to STPI data, from January to end of November, there was 18 per cent growth in the number of IT firms in the state. There were about 80 new companies established in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and other cities. "I am sure next year this figure is set to go up, the STPI Hyderabad chief said. What is on the cards is a cluster-based development strategy, a top official in the IT department said, adding, "By the middle of 2006, we are confident that IT sector would be scaled up further as many projects and promises would be in implementation stage." According to a Nasscom -KPMG report, India's software exports in IT&ITeS sector would touch $49 billion by 2009. AP targets to reach a turnover of Rs 69,000 crore (Rs 690 billion) in IT exports by that time.
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