New Year to find PCS in Goa

GOA: Goa’s IT sector finally had something to cheer about. After an exceptionally long gap since hardware giants like D-Link and Zenith set up their plants on the Goan soil, Patni Computers Systems (PCS) will set up its facility in Goa.

PCS is in the process of setting up a plant in the Mapusa town in North Goa which is expected to go into production by February next year to roll out PCs as well as other products like servers, etc. According to the company, the Goa plant will manufacture all the products of PCS including desktop computers and servers and is expected to employ between 25 to 100 diploma and degree holders.

With over $188 million turnover, Mumbai headquartered PCS is into the exports of hardware and software. The company had explored the possibility of locating to Pondicherry, Noida and Silvassa before zeroing down on Goa for its strategic location.

Giving the rationale behind choosing Goa for setting up its facility, PCS Industries Ltd executive VP, Ganesh Iyer said, "besides the central location, Goa weighed high in terms of connectivity, logistics, electricity and even man power".

The 25-year old company, which is mainly into PCs and desktop computers, also selected Goa for the 'Cyberage' scheme floated by the state government to provide free computers to 10,000 students during this academic year. PCS expects to grab about 10 percent share of the 'Cyberage' scheme.

The company has also been participating in the e-governance process in the state and was at L1 during the rate contract declared by Goa government for September and October this year. It is also handling the IT facility management of Goa (Dabolim) airport together with the other 30 airports managed by Airport Authority of India. Current installation of PCS computers in the state is to the tune of 1,000 and the launching of manufacturing facility in the state is likely to increase this number substantially.

The company having core competency in PC manufacturing has over 150 service centers in the country. Financial institutions are the mainstay for PCS with as much as Rs 1,000 crore worth equipment supplied to 23 nationalized banks alone during last year. PCS also has a manufacturing facility at Jabalali in Dubai to cater to the international market.

(CyberMedia News Service)