Coimbatore software exports contributed very low
The Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, and the Nasscom President, Mr Kiran Karnik, at the Nasscom executive board meeting in the Capital on Wednesday. The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, has expressed his concern over the uneven spread of IT industry in generating employment and revenues across different states.Addressing the executive board meeting of Nasscom on Wednesday, he said of the total exports of about $32 billion last year, seven cities namely Bangalore, National Capital Region, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Navi Mumbai and Kolkata accounted for 95 per cent. Whereas another seven cities including Mysore, Bhubaneswar, Mangalore, Jaipur, Gandhinagar, and Thiruvananthapuram, totally contributed 3 per cent. While certain cities such as Indore, Kochi, Vishakhapatnam and Coimbatore contributed to about 0.6 per cent of software exports, certain cities did not contribute at all to the country’s overall exports.He citied that the Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Bangalore centre, with Rs 47,250 crore continued to lead in exports, followed by NCR at Rs 22,357 crore and Chennai and Hyderbad at Rs 19,867 crore and 18,294 crore, respectively, adding that wide disparities in terms of contribution from various STPIs across the country continued to exist.Although he acknowledged that infrastructure and education were the various factors that governed business decisions, he urged the industry to spread out in under-served regions and areas.Address by Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh to NASSCOM Executive Board.
