IT growth unaffected by protests: Ponnala

The industry registered higher growth rate than national average in 2012-13: Ponnala

Ponnala Lakshmaiah

Agitations for and against State bifurcation and political uncertainty have not hampered the growth of the information technology sector in the State, said IT Minister Ponnala Laxmaiah here on Saturday. Though the State had been witnessing agitations in the last three years, it did not impact the growth rate of the sector. The IT industry in the State clocked better export performance by registering a higher growth rate than the national average during 2012-13, he said. While the IT sector registered a turnover of Rs. 64,354 crore during the year in the State, exports alone were to the tune of Rs.51,285 crore with a growth rate of 26.2 per cent as against the national growth rate of 23.5 per cent. During 2011-12, the IT exports from the State were Rs.40,646 crore. The US continued to be the major market for the IT exports from the State accounting for 73.75 per cent followed by the Europe (16.63 per cent) and others (8.83 per cent). The exports to Middle East and Africa accounted for less than one per cent of the total exports, he said. The share of IT/ITES exports from the State in national exports, however, more or less remained static at 12.5 per cent last fiscal. The domestic turnover from the IT sector during last year was Rs.13, 069 crore. The IT sector continued to be the major employment generator with 13.78 lakh. Mr. Ponnala said among tier II cities, Visakhapatnam was far ahead with a turnover of Rs.1,445 crore during 2012-13 with an IT workforce of 16,988 followed by Vijayawada with Rs.115 crore turnover with a manpower of 2,898 and Kakinada – Rs.61.5 crore and 1,921 IT personnel.