IT sector: Rs. 2,240 cr. investment deals finalised

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV. 25. Fresh investments to the tune of Rs. 2,240 crores will flow into the Information Technology (IT) and Telecom sectors in the State through some major deals finalised at an Investors' Meet here today.

Announcing the achievement at the culmination of the meet, the Chief Minister, Mr. E.K. Nayanar, said he did not want to describe it as the opening of the floodgates. But it definitely indicated that investors from within and outside the country were waking up to the big possibilities in Kerala.

The companies which announced their investment plans in the State include the Reliance Industries Ltd. ( which is setting up a wholly owned company), the Kerala Telecommunication Networks (Rs. 700 cr.), Asianet (Rs. 500 cr.), Zee Interactive (Rs. 250 cr.), Dishnet (Rs. 250 cr.), Escotel (Rs. 250 cr.), BPL Broadband Networks (Rs. 150 cr.), Bharati Telesonics (Rs. 65 cr.) and Exatt Communications.

The Chief Minister said these investments would make Kerala the best networked State in the country. He said he was confident that the availability of widespread connectivity would spur economic and social prosperity in the State. The announced investments would generate employment opportunities for over 6,000 people directly, in addition to thousands more indirectly, he said.

The Reliance and Asianet would be setting up Statewide Optic Fibre (OF) networks. The Reliance network is part of the group's countrywide OF backbone and it is expected to be completed within 15 months. The Asianet's investment would be for setting up OF cables, international satellite gateways in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi and an internet data centre. This project will take 30 months for completion. The Asianet backbone will also facilitate internet access for educational institutions spread across the State.

The networks planned by the Zee and Dishnet will cover major urban centres in the State in the first phase. The BPL's network will link district headquarters and important towns and then go into its national network, planned from Kannur to Mangalore.

The investment by the Escotel, which, along with the BPL are the cellular service providers in the State, will also be for laying OF connecting all major towns and cities. Bharati Telesonics, a subsidiary of Bharati Tel, will be investing in OF networks linking Mumbai, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Palakkad and Coimbatore, in addition to a data centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

Exatt Communications, which is set to become India's first full service provider, will be setting up a high capacity data centre in Kochi.

Other IT companies like the Case Consult (India) Ltd., Softlution India, a joint-venture of ADA Software and a German company, International Business Services, and Terumo Penpol also utilised the Investors' Meet to announce their fresh investment plans in the State.

The meet was attended by delegations from Sharjah, Germany and Korea, in addition to investors from within the country. The Chief Minister said 2 MBPS of the high bandwidth the State would receive from the emerging projects should be earmarked for the State Government's use. This is meant to be reserved exclusively for the use of educational institutions and for e-governance.

The Industries Minister, Mrs. Suseela Gopalan, who too attended the meet, assured the IT investors that the Government would give them all the support they need to set up shop in the State.

Meanwhile, the `IT Kerala 2000' expo (as part of which this Investors' Meet was organised) is drawing big crowds at the Technopark. With students and the general public turning out in very large numbers to see the expo, the response has surprised the participants and even the organisers.

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Section  : Southern States
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