TN's IT companies outperform despite recession

Chennai, Jul 9: Despite recession, Tamil Nadu's IT companies made a good progress in their software exports by rising 29 pc growth in 2008-09 which peaked at Rs 36,680.40 crore against Rs 28,462 crore in 2007-08.

On Wednesday, Jul 8, the Software and Technology Parks of India (STPI), made an official announcement that the rate of growth of software exports in the state is nearly double than that of the Karnataka larger software exporter which witnessed a growth of 15 pc rise.

IT secretary, PWC Davidar said, "We are doing very well. This shows that we have got a strong base as far as the IT industry is concerned. We are being proactive and on Jul 13 when the state assembly discusses the IT ministry's demands, we hope it will provide more impetus."

STPI director J Parthasarathy said, "Even as companies struggled with the slowdown, there was a huge positive. None of the companies closed down operations."

IT exports from Puducherry for the year stood at Rs 78.65 crore as against Rs 63.98 crore in 2007-08 and Madurai recorded Rs 27.09 crore, a growth of 88% over the Rs 14.36 crore. While, Coimbatore's exports stood at Rs 373.76 crore, up from Rs 367.26 crore and Tiruchi recorded Rs 24.03 crore as against Rs 23.84 in 2007-08

"Despite the slowdown, such an impressive performance can be attributed to the strategy of the large and emerging companies focusing on innovation, new geographies and new verticals. The government should now capitalise on this and handhold the industry by getting approvals in time and create the right kind of infrastructure for the industry," said Nasscom regional director K Purushothaman

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