Having a good business environment, abundant availability of skilled manpower and quality educational institutions, Madurai and other southern districts of Tamil Nadu, had a potential to create 50,000 jobs in the information and communication technology sector over next five years.
Addressing Connect Madurai 2006, organised as part of Speed 2006, Gopal Srinivasan, chairman, Connect 2006, said the ICT sector could generate a revenue of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) to Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) to the local economy, thus triggering the overall growth of the region.
Madurai and other southern districts including Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Sivaganga, Virudhunagar, Ramanathanpuram and Kanniyakumari, could be key contributors to the state in achieving the envisaged target of $25 billion ICT revenue, contributing 25 per cent to the country's IT exports, over the next five years.
At present, the state's ICT revenue is $4 billion, which is 14 per cent of the country's ICT revenue.
Madurai and southern districts produce over 15,000 engineering graduates annually, 6,000 of whom are being hired by companies in Chennai and Bangalore. These districts contribute around 19 per cent of the state's GDP (2003-04).