Hyd vs B'lore: Who will make IT?

Hyderabad: While Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business is giving stiff competition to the IIM grads by bagging astronomical pay packets, the city, too, is emerging as a potential threat to the Silicon Valley of India - Bangalore.

The neck-and-neck competition between Hyderabad and Bangalore goes back several years and now, after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy's potent campaign to attract IT investments, industry bigwigs are on record saying that Pearl City is emerging as a threat to the Garden City.

The trend began in 1999, when the former Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu started promoting the IT industry in a big way.

The progress path was paved further by his successor YSR, who made the city vsisble on India's IT map by giving it South Asia's largest convention center, the upcoming international airport, the Fab City, the largest flyover under construction and an investment-friendly IT policy.

"The recent statistics show that software exports from the state are about 65 per cent as against the country's average of 35 per cent. Even the investments are more than Rs 75,000 crore and more and more companies are coming forward. About two lakh techies will get employment after an year," Principal Secretary, Information Technology and Communications, K Ratnaprabha, says.

After infotech giant Infosys signed a Memorandum of Understanidng (MoU) with the state government to set up its sprawling new campus, many other companies are also making a beeline fo rthe city. There are speculation that Wipro chairman Azim Premji, too, is keen on starting campuses both at Hyderabad and Visakhapatanam.

"Wipro already started their campuses at Hyderabad and Visakhaapatnam too, but when the Chief Minister went to Bangalore, Azim Premji expressed his keen interest in getting more place to come up in a big way in the state," Ratnaprabha, informs.

With big players of the industry asking for more, it sure looks that Hyderabad is well on its way to becoming the next IT hub on international map.

(With inputs from Revathy)

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