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Gujarat bids to re-project itself as IT friendly

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Binu Alex



AHMEDABAD: Inspite of being in the new for all the wrong reasons, Gujarat is gearing up to re-project itself as IT friendly destination and efforts are on to grasp a share of billion-dollar BPO market. But where do they stand? Ask Gujarat Informatics Ltd (GIL) and they will swear that Gujarat is going to get a lion's share if this scenario develops but IT experts and analysts are skeptical. However everyone is unanimous that Gujarat needs investment in the IT sector.



In a recent study by NASSCOM, Gujarat's commercial capital, Ahmedabad was voted in fifth position, in terms of IT investor friendly cities much ahead of cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. It was placed fourth in power availability and skilled labor.



"Gujarat badly needs investment in IT sector. Its poor growth in IT is detrimental to other investments as well. This inspite of the best infrastructural backbone that the state possesses," said Chirag Patel, one of the IT investors in the state. CII's Gujarat IT Council Chairman, however differed with the NASSCOM findings and said that IT cannot function in isolation.



"You need much more than what Ahmedabad is having today. It is really no comparison to cities like Delhi, Pune or Mumbai," he added.



But Government of Gujarat and its nodal agency to promote and develop IT related industry and services in the state, GIL said that the state has much more than what it is perceived to be. It is with this vision that Gujarat has partnered with Assocham to hold a national seminar on BOP in Delhi on August 27, 2002.



GIL knows very well the importance of BPO, a $ 400 billion global market with a potential to double in the year 2005 and it has jumped to the bandwagon of a huge market. But Gujarat's attitude of sectarian violence and the continuous justification of what the majority of victims describe as the state sponsored carnage, has put the state into backburner, though state government denies this.



The agenda is to project the state as the right place for IT ambience and the potentialities for a fast growth with a series of sops to the IT investors. While the government is making all attempts to woo the global investors, its Chief Minister has been making statements on religious lines and taking a public stand against all non-Hindus. "This is what worries the global investor who may be a Christian or a Muslim. What is the guarantee that tomorrow the same party will turn against the investors on religious lines?" asked one of the political scientists, Sukhdev Patel.



BPO or transfer of operational responsibilities of business practice or functions to an external service provider has grown leaps and bounds globally and India and China are perceived to be two major players in grabbing the BPO market. BPO services include call centers, medical transcription and a host of IT enabled services which have no geographical boundaries as barriers.



BPO has grown because the companies have failed to make headway into their non-core operations and thereby incurring heavy costs. Outsourcing not only reduced the costs but also increased efficiency as the companies that take up each work outsourced have core competency in each field and at considerably reduced costs.



The seminar will highlight case studies of outsourcing IT, human resource, finance, manufacturing, sales and marketing and a host of other services with each speaker taking up sectors like telecom, IT, insurance, banks, financial institutions, venture capital, advertising, HR firms and consultancy.

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