This will represent a 45 percent growth over the software exports in the 2005-06 fiscal year ended on March 31.
STPI Hyderabad director B V Naidu said the state has achieved the highest growth rate in IT exports among the states in the country, notching up growth of 51 percent over the previous year, against the national average growth rate of 36 percent.
The software exports from the state touched Rs 12,521 crore (Rs 125.21 billion) in 2005-06 compared to previous year's tally of Rs 8,270 crore (Rs 82.70 billion). This was possible mainly due to organic growth of major IT companies in addition to exports from the newly-added companies.
Naidu said that as many as 173 new software units, including 69 foreign companies and 104 Indian companies, were added during the year, enhancing the investor's confidence to invest in the state.
The investments during the year totalled Rs 1,760 crore (Rs 17.60 billion), including Rs 768 crore (Rs 7.68 billion) in foreign companies, Rs 147 crore (Rs 1.47 billion) in Indian companies and Rs 845 crore (Rs 8.45 billion) in IT parks. The IT sector added 40,975 jobs during the year, taking the total manpower strength to 1.51 lakh by March 31, 2006.
"AP is emerging as one of the most sought-after investment destination by multi-faceted national and international business houses. The IT industry is on top of all with most significant contribution in terms of investment and growth coming from this sector," he
added.
The year has witnessed major MNCs such as Amazon, Verizon, Progress Software, TNS, UBS Service, Gameloft, Birlasoft, MOL, IKANOS, CFC India Services, HCL Technologies, Microsoft Global Services, Excellence Data Research, GE Motors India, Hewlett Packard, MAQ India, Mindgrid Technologies, Aztec Software, Austria Microsystems and Sitel commencing their operations in Hyderabad. Also, 135 existing companies expanded their operations in Hyderabad .
During the year, five IT parks were added to meet the growing infrastructure requirements of the industry, he pointed out.
"With the declarations made by major IT companies like Infosys, Wipro and TCS to further expand on an exponential scale in the state, the IT scenario in Hyderabad is much buoyant. Another major company-Honeywell-is starting its activities and many more major companies are also looking at starting operations in the state," Naidu said.
"Upcoming FAB industry is spurring up more ancillary companies in semiconductor manufacturing sector to start their operations here. The trends are clearly indicating that AP is leading towards excellent growth in the coming years," the STPI director said," he added.
As much as 61 percent of the software exports went to the United States and Canada, followed by Europe with 20 percent, Middle East, Asia and Japan with 16 percent and other countries-three percent. Application and technology software accounted for 68 percent of the exports, followed by BPO and ITES with 32 percent.
IT secretary (AP) K Ratna Prabha said that though AP stood first in growth rate in IT exports during 2005-06, it ranked fourth among all the states, after Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in IT exports. "Karnataka's IT exports are three times more than ours but the gap between AP and Maharashtra on the one hand and AP and Tamil Nadu on the other is narrowing faster," she observed.
Prabha said that the state sanctioned 14 special economic zones in the IT sector during 2005-06, including six in government sector and eight in private sector. The first hardware SEZ in AP would come up on a 300-acre site near SEM India's FAB City and NTSI's FAB project close to international airport at Shamshabad. In all, 36 IT companies were allotted 353 acres of land at Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Warangal.
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