Seemandhra heat: Kruparani asks babus to speed up ITIR sanction process in Vizag

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Aug 7, 2013: At a time when protests for Samaikyandhra had reached its peaks and union ministers from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra Pradesh are facing the wrath of the agitators for Hyderabad centred development. The ministers now seem to have shifted their focus on development of the regions probably to placate the forces of Samaikyandhra.

In one such development, Union minister of state for IT and communications, Killi Kruparani who represents neighbouring Srikakulam loksabha constituency and was busy meeting Congress bosses all these days on the Telanagana declaration had on Wednesday held a high level review meeting with the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY)  officials to discuss the IT Investment Region (ITIR) proposed in Vizag.

Killi Kruparani, held a meeting with the secretary and senior officers of the DeitY at Electronics Niketan in New Delhi.

Inadequate infrastructure has been identified as one of the constraining factors being faced by the IT industry and in order to address the same, the DeitY has notified the policy for setting up of ITIRs in the country.  ITIR would be endowed with excellent infrastructure and would reap the benefits of costing, networking and greater efficiency through use of common infrastructure and support services. Under this, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Industrial Parks, Free Trade Zones, Warehousing Zones and Export-oriented Units will come up. ITIR will attract more investment in the IT and ITeS sectors and will provide more direct employment to the people.  The exports in IT sector will also increase. 

After Hyderabad from a humble beginning where software exports registered only Rs 15 crore in 2003-04 Vizag’s IT companies has crossed Rs 1,000 cr mark and done a business of Rs 1,200 cr in 2011-12 fiscal. Besides, major players like IBM, HSBC, and Mahindra Satyam there are around 100 small, medium and big IT, ITEs companies operating in two IT SEZs in Rushikonda and in VSEZ.

As per the policy, in each state one ITIR is being sanctioned. Accordingly, an ITIR for Hyderabad has already been approved.  As several small and medium IT companies and the IT exports in and around Visakhapatnam are increasingly coming up every year, the minister felt the need for setting up of ITIR in Visakhapatnam and has been consistently pursuing the matter. The same has been agreed in principle.

During the meeting, Kruparani directed the officers of the department to speed up the process of sanctioning of ITIR for Visakhapatnam. She believes that setting up of ITIR in Visakhapatnam will be beneficial for the IT & ITeS companies in the region and in turn will attract more investments in the sectors, increase in IT exports and create more direct, indirect employment to the people of this region.