Information
Technology in Tamil Nadu
Information technology is set to sweep every non-metropolis now. While
the five metropolitan cities have already come under its spell, non-metropolises took a longer time to come in the map, for certain key reasons – infrastructural facilities such as power, transport, land and above all local market potential.
Right now, Coimbatore is set to become a hi-tech hub, after Chennai, with land earmarked for it. The region is blessed with a string of engineering and fabricating units besides being known as a textile centre. Tirupur is just an hour’s drive away and its knitwear sector has a strong bearing on exports, (it is estimated at over Rs. 5000 crores) so popular in the West, south-east Asian countries and even the U.S. This precludes exports to non-quota countries which could be estimated at over Rs. 1000 crores. The European Union had been pressing for reduction in export tariffs because of the product's popularity and sizeable demand there.
Tiruchengode has a established niche for engineering and fabricating units. Salem, Tiruchengode and other business centers are well within negotiable distance and transport facilities are adequate.
A number of loaning
companies have already come up and extending their arm to investors at attractive interest rates. Though Coimbatore’s limits extend to only 12 km on all sides the proliferation of residential areas is amazing and the land price is steadily going up. Commuting a distance of over 10 km in buses is hardly a problem as it takes just 45 minutes to an hour given the state of traffic on a day. And traffic bottlenecks are rare unless of course a VIP pops in or a political party organizes a public meeting. But these are existential hazards and hardly would emerge as a thorn in the flesh of an emerging IT sector.
Its biggest strength of course is the academic area where several institutions of unquestioned repute churn out scores of talents in various fields. In fact new courses in multi-trade are a recent phenomenon, including textiles. With abundance of talents available IT has just to come, see and conquer. Now job melas have part of life, held even in drought-prone and neglected districts like Dharmapuri and Hosur on the border with Karnataka. Sponsors are ready to put up their stalls advertising specific areas of product marketing and scout for talents. Print media too is active in the area, because of the profit hidden in the event by way of rentals from the companies putting up the stalls. It serves twin purpose – jobs on hand, advertising mileage. Two days back job fairs were held in Salem and Erode.
Many companies will be looking for tie-ups with the IT sector in regard to software packages for use in their offices and speedier processing of export orders at lesser cost. A bio-
technology park is slated to come in Hosur, after having established itself in Bangalore.
The Government of India has been enthusiastic about concessions in the export front and cushioning the spread of information technology to the non-metropolises. The scenario is, as a result, very bright for IT.