Orissa new destination for IT / ITES sector: Naveen

New Delhi, Sep 22 (UNI) Orissa has emerged as a leading destination for foreign as well as domestic investment in recent years, attracting about Rs 400,000 crore in investment proposals including from the IT sector, state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said today.

Apart from Information Technology, the sectors for which investments have been received were metals, power, infrastructure, and hospitality, he told participants at a conference here.

Elaborating on the efforts to support the growth of the IT and ITES industries in terms of better infrastructure, connectivity and a healthy business climate, Mr Patnaik said this included upgradation of Bhubaneswar Airport, development of state and national highways and better health care infrastructure.

Major IT players such as Infosys, Satyam and Wipro have already set up base in the state and many others including MindTress Consulting, Hexaware Technologies and GenPact are due to start operations in Bhubaneswar.

He said this was due to setting up of the present infrastructure of engineering/MCA colleges in the state and the setting up of additional centres of excellence such as IIIT, Bhubaneswar, the IIT Kharagpur Campus in the state capital and the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER).

Mr Patnaik was addressing a conference on 'Investment Opportunities in IT and IT enabled Services sectors in Orissa' organised by the state government in association with NASSCOM.

Besides the Chief Minister, NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik, CEOs and officials of prominent IT and ITES companies, Orissa IT, Energy and Culture Minister Surjya Narayan Patro, state Chief Secretary Dr Subas Pani were among those present.

On the occasion, Genpact announced that it would be setting up an ITES SEZ for 6,000 employees which would be expanded to 10,000 over the next few years.

Leading infrastructure company DLF, which has recently been awarded the Info Park project in Bhubaneswar, also announced that it would set up a 4 million square feet of built-up area exclusively for IT and ITES sector, in phases.

Earlier, Mr Patnaik met Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and discussed with him the possibility of setting up a branch of the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad in the state capital.

Mr Nath assured the Chief Minister that due consideration would be given to the latter's request for the SEZ proposals.

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