The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : US-based consortium to set up IT campus

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Thursday, Aug 30, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

US-based consortium to set up IT campus

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: US-based Small and Medium Enterprises Consortium (SMEC) will invest Rs. 2,500 crore to Rs. 3,000 crore in the first phase of its proposed information technology cluster and create 25,000 jobs in the State.

Disclosing this at a news conference here late on Tuesday, Minister for Information Technology R. Damodar Reddy said that about 300 SMEs (turnover ranging from Rs. 20 crore to Rs. 400 crore) in the IT sector had come forward to form into a consortium.

The Government would facilitate creation of infrastructure at a place which had air, rail and road connectivity. This campus type of facility would have offices of the companies, housing and other facilities for the staff. Initially, a liaison officer would be appointed to coordinate the work. Deputy Speaker of New Jersey Assembly Upendra Chivukula said that the SMEC could help provide leadership qualities and soft skills to students and groom them into global citizens in the concept schools. The SMEC had proposed to invest in incubators, provide intellectual property licensing, tie-up with universities in training the youth and participate in the venture. Secretary of the SMEC M. Mahender Reddy said that the consortium was not asking the Government any land free of cost, but it wanted the Government to participate in the venture by providing infrastructure. Venkatesh Tadinada, who runs an IT company in California and also here, said the 60 SMEs, which became partners of the SMEC, already had their offshore development centres in the city and the same would be expanded by setting up offices at one place.

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