Gujarat sets up IT Park

BANGALORE: A joint venture between the Gujarat Informatics Limited (GIL), the nodal agency for IT development in the State of Gujarat and Creative IT Inc., Florida, USA, a subsidiary of Creative Choice Group has led to the setting up of Infocity, the IT Enabled Service Hub in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

With Nasscom ranking Ahmedabad as one of the top five centers ideally suited for ITES business in the country, Gujarat has certainly taken a leap into the field of IT and ITES. Infocity is the perfect blend of business with lifestyle, as such it is reckoned as a "City within a city". Infocity is a one of its kind hub for business services like call centers, broad-band, Data centers, GIS mapping, WAP applications, Content Research, Back-office operations, E-commerce & M-commerce, Animation & Digital Processing.

Explaining on why Gujarat is the next IT destination, Rajesh Kishore, Secretary of the State, Science and Technology, said, "We have cheap manpower available here, which is ideal for business process outsourcing initiatives." Also the Gujarat Government is planning to come out with a "comprehensive" renewed IT policy as soon as a new government takes over."

Also he added, that Gujarat has one of the biggest IT-based networks in the Asia Pacific region, connecting all 25 districts and 225 blocks of the state and mobile V-Sat facilities all over. The western state has a share of 6.21 percent in India's gross domestic product (GDP), contributes 35 percent to its exports and has a 30 percent share in its stock market capitalization.

Anupam Saxena, General Manager-Marketing, Creative Info City, says, "Whether it is connectivity or incubation options, custom designed spaces or marketing support, recreation for employees or living spaces for their families, Team Infocity quickly aligns to the requirements and offers rapid implementation of solutions that enables one to gain a unique competitive advantage."

Setting up an ITES business involves various services from setting up of Infrastructure, Technology, Training, Telecommunications, HR hiring/recruitment, Marketing, Government compliances, Funding and Operation. In order to facilitate new entrepreneurs to set up ITES units on a start-up basis and without incurring any substantial capital investment, the company has introduced a novel service concept- Kickstart.

Kickstart is a Network based contact center/BPO service concept specially designed for New Entrepreneurs and Start-ups in Contact Center Segment. Kickstart proposes to provide all contact center/BPO services under one roof and the clients may not have to scout for a different company to look after each piece of technology for the contact center.

With the Gujarat Government’s IT Policy and Incentives boasting of a capital subsidy of 25% on total eligible capital investment, special incentives in the form of capital subsidy to large units, sales tax holiday on all IT software in the next 5 years Stamp Duty Exemption and electricity duty exemption, to name a few. Some of the reputed companies that have taken space in Infocity are VSNL, BSNL, STPI, iServe , Business Data Soft, Maxima Infoway, Panamax and Global Response.