Andhra Pradesh ups the ante to woo ICT sector

India's southeastern state Andhra Pradesh is gearing to attract burgeoning ICT sector with a series of policy initiatives. The state government targets 17 per cent annual growth in IT/ITes domain and aims at $1.5 billion worth revenue from electronic hardware.

Hyderabad is the second-highest contributor to IP creation and chip design as well as software development. "1.35 million people are directly employed in hardware and IT/ITes sector," said Sanjay Jaju, secretary at the department of IT and Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

The share of IT in Andhra Pradesh economy is phenomenal, he said while adding that half of the export revenue of AP comes from hardware. "We are giving exemption from the purview of AP Pollution Control Board; flexible labor laws and single-window clearance system to IT companies," Jaju said.

Andhra Pradesh is eyeing at R&D activities of the ICT sector. Jaju also informed that they have created three Greenfield and six Brownfield electronic manufacturing clusters with the help of Union Government. "The state government is developing 202 square kilometer area around Hyderabad that will drive the state's economy in next 30 years," he added.

The state government is focusing on Fab city (E-city)- a proposed hardware manufacturing clusters in AP; 310-acre Maheshwaram to be developed by state agency with an outlay of Rs 360 crore; and 100-acre Parawada (Vishakapatnam) project at an estimated cost of Rs 290 crore.