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Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. 

With top software companies chalking out their strategies for growth, the top administrators in the Information Technology (IT) sector in Odisha say that by 2013 the state will have more than 10,000 seats for software professionals.

TCS, Infosys, Wipro and above all MindTree have started their plans for expansion in Odisha in a big way, said an official in the Department of IT(DoIT).

MindTree, a global IT and Product engineering services company, is starting work on its 20-acre campus from Thursday, said sources.Though MindTree wanted to open its campus way back in 2004, bureaucratic wrangles forced the IT major to wind up its plan. However, with the intervention of the top officials in the DoIT, it has once again taking up the job to set up 2,000-seater campus by 2013, which will ultimately a 10,000-seater campus in future.DoIT Secretary and IDCO CMD Pradeep Jena played a crucial role in roping in the Global IT company to Odisha by providing 20-acres of land in Infocity I.

… Wipro has also started construction of its campus in Infocity I, said an offcial.

This will be a 3,000-seater campus with the latest facilities for software development.Similarly, Infosys has decided to be co-developer of a 50-acre zone in Info Valley SEZ coming up near Khurda.

DoIT sources said 5,000 seats would be developed in next two years.TCS has also started adding its second campus with 3,500 seats in Infocity I.All these companies would be adding 10,000 seats by 2013 …

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Mid-sized IT solution provider MindTree Ltd has plans to complete its Orissa project by 2017 and the first phase by June 2013 …

… MindTree will invest Rs 250 crore in a span of five years to build the facility, which can employ 5,000 persons and can train 1,000 freshers, he informed while saying that the entire campus will have the touch of Puri temple along with modern architecture.

In its Bhubaneswar campus, the company will provide all its services including specialised Product Engineering Services that accounts for a third of its revenue. After its completion, it will also look for universities which can make changes in their curriculum to suit the business requirement, he said.

For the last couple of years the IT industry growth in Bhubaneswar had slowed down. With the economic mood of the country back in the positive direction projects put in the backburner are now getting to the forefront. Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… The proposed IT-SEZ will come up near the Infocity-II at Godakashipur, 15 km from the city. The project that included an integrated township would require 613 acres of land, IT minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi said.

“While the proposed IT-SEZ would be set up in an area of 320 acres of land, an integrated township would be developed in the remaining 180 acres of the total area. The rest would be kept in store to meet the future needs of the department," Majhi said.

As per the proposed plan, schools, colleges, hospitals, hotels and amusement parks would be developed. …

… the proposed SEZ would provide jobs to more than one lakh IT professionals. Another four lakh people would gain suitable employment opportunities in the project, which was scheduled to start its operation during 2011-2012 financial year.

“The Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) will set up a seven-storied incubation tower. All small and medium scale entrepreneurs, engaged in the IT business, would be provided space at the centre at an affordable price. The centre would come near Acharya Bihar,’’ he said.

Construction of the incubation centre has already started.

So far, two IT parks are operational in the city. The government has already signed MoUs with DLF and Raheja groups to set up two more parks in the city. The fifth park will be set up by the government’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDCO).

Raheja group is planning to set up the IT park with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in an area of 100 acres. The group has opted for a site near the Infocity of Bhubaneswar.

Real estate giant DLF is setting up another park with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. The foundation stone has already been laid for the DLF Infopark, which would come up in phases on 25 acres of land and is expected to generate about 40,000 direct and indirect employment.

The minister claimed that the IT firms operating from the state had exported software worth Rs 1,198 crore during 2009-10 as against Rs 1,171 crore in 2008-2009.

Officials from the IT department said it was one of the few cities in the country that boasts of the presence of the big four of Indian software exports. While Infosys and Satyam have been in the city for quite some time, TCS has already recruited about 500 people after starting its operation in 2007.

Wipro, too, has started building its campus.

Nearly 12,000 people are directly engaged in the various IT industries.

… Moreover, along with the SEZ and IT parks, the state government is also planning to set up an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in the capital city. It would come up near Jatni, about 25 km from here. If things go right, it can attract an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, official sources said.

This is all good. The government should start steering away some of the IT firms to Berhampur, Rourkela, Balasore, and Sambalpur.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

… the proposed software development centre of IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will be inaugurated on January 5 next year. The first tower of TCS which will be inaugurated in the city’s Infocity campus will have a capacity to accommodate around 1,500 employees.

“… Wipro’s second campus in the city is also scheduled to be inaugurated within a month”, said Vishal Dev, director, IT department of the Orissa government at an International Conference on IT, held at the Xavier Institute of Management.

TCS is developing its software centre in the city on a 54-acre plot in the Infocity campus. While the first tower of TCS is scheduled to be inaugurated early next month, the company is expected to add two to three towers within three months.

Following are excerpts from a report in Business Standard.

The Orissa information technology department (IT) expects the construction work of the approach road for the proposed Infocity-II project to kick off by January next year. Infocity-II is being developed on an area of over 600 acres at Janla, on the outskirts of the city by January next year.

“The state government is committed to provide external infrastructure like approach road, electricity and power for the proposed Infocity-II project. This external infrastructure will be developed at an investment of about Rs 150 crore and a provision has already been made in the state government’s budget for this investment”, Pradipta K Mohapatra, the state IT secretary told Business Standard.

He said that the state IT department was now on the look-out for anchor tenants for the Infocity-II project and software major Wipro Technologies had evinced interest in taking possession of 100 acres of land at the site. Official sources, however said that the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) may delay the process of floating advertisements for the Infocity-II project in the wake of economic downturn.

“Due to the global financial meltdown, IT majors like MindTree and Genpact are likely to defer construction work of their proposed development centres in Orissa by at least three months. The state government is also unlikely to receive fresh investment proposals from the IT and ITes (information technology services) players in the remaining months of this fiscal”, sources added.

MindTree Consulting Limited, a global IT and R&D services company had announced to resume construction of its proposed software development centre, over an area of 30 acres at Infocity in Bhubaneswar by September this year.

The company, co-headquartered in Bangalore and Somerset in New Jersey (US), is investing around Rs 200 crore for the development centre. MindTree was planning to recruit about 1,000 software professionals for the centre and eventually ramp up its headcount to 5,000.

On the other hand, the proposed global delivery centre of Genpact, the BPO (business process outsourcing) arm of US-based General Electric was scheduled to be operational by the third or fourth quarter of 2009. The BPO firm had plans to hire around 500 professionals initially for this centre and later scale up its headcount to 3,000 in the long run.

… The software exports from the state stood at about Rs 850 crore in 2007-08 and the state IT department had set a target of software exports worth Rs 5,000 crore by the end of 2011-12.

…With a headcount of around 3,000 in its Bhubaneswar centre, Infosys has targeted software exports of around Rs 800 crore from the city.

While Infosys recruited 700 people from Orissa in 2007-08, Wipro Technologies added 400 to its workforce from the state in the same period.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

IT consulting firm MindTree Consulting Ltd would the start construction of its proposed development centre here from April, official sources said.

MindTree Consulting is one of the four major firms which had proposed investment in Orissa’s IT sector, the others being Genpact Limited, ICICI Eastern Regional Hub and Wipro Limited.

According to Orissa’s Information Technology Minister S N Patro, MindTree Consulting Limited had proposed to invest nearly Rs 200 crore in its project here.

"While Wipro will invest Rs 100 crore in its project, ICICI Eastern Regional Hub proposes to spend Rs 500 crore here," the Minister said, adding that Genpact had proposed to invest Rs 200 crore.

Following are excerpts from the Kalinga Times report.

… The Chief Minister said his government was focussing on growth of agriculture, irrigation, infrastructure development, rural roads, drinking water, and growth in the IT sector, education and healthcare. Improvement in the people’s quality of life was the main objective of his government, Patnaik observed.He said that a special package, comprising a series of schemes, had been finalised by the State government for ensuring development of agriculture.

While a target had been fixed to bring 35 per cent of cultivable area in all the 314 blocks under irrigation cover, contract farming had been introduced in several areas for the benefit of the farmers, Patnaik said.

Stating that rural development was also a priority area for his government, Patnaik said efforts were on to improve rural road connectivity and ensure availability of safe drinking water in villages. The Jaldhara scheme was being implemented to provide piped water facility to 1000 villages in the first phase.

The government had also launched new schemes such as the Biju KBK Yojana, Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana and Biju Gramjyoti Yojana for rural development.

Mentioning about the excellent performance of tribal schools in this year’s High School Certificate examination, Patnaik said that priority was being accorded to education of tribal children. A total of 1000 hostels for tribal girls were being established in the State, he added.

As regards growth in the information technology sector, the Chief Minister said Bhubaneswar was fast growing as a major IT hub in the country. Companies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Genpact and Satyam had already started their operation and very soon many companies were going to begin BPO business, he said.

The State’s software export was likely to cross Rs 700 crore during the current financial year, the Chief Minister said.

Patnaik said the government was also taking measures for proper utilisation of the rich mineral resources for the development of the State and its people. A total of 25 steel industries had already started production, he added. …

Following is Pioneer’s short report on this.

Wipro will give employment to 15,000 in its Bhubanewar centre. In this connection, CIO of Wipro met the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat.

Wipro also agreed to set up a Global Training Centre here. Wipro will set up its second campus in Infocity II.

New Indian Express has a slightly more elaborate report. Following are excerpts from that.

… Wipro has decided to open a global training centre in Orissa.

The issue was discussed at a meeting between Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Chief Information Officer (CIO) Laxman Badiga …

Badiga informed that about 15,000 IT specialists would be recruited in the development centre of Wipro to be set up here.

Besides, the company would also open its second campus in Infocity II near Janla.

Smart city concept of Infocity II was also discussed. Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Bijay Kumar Patnaik, Secretary in the Information and Technology Department Surendranath Tripathy, Director, Information and Technology Vishal Dev, Chief Technology Officer of Wipro Rajesh Ram Mishra and Bhubaneswar chief of Wipro Surjya Mohanty also attended.

Telegraph’s report on this has some more information. Following are some excerpts.

Information and technology giant Wipro will soon set up the state’s biggest software development centre, where 15,000 IT engineers would be employed.

Chief information officer of Wipro … said the company would open a global training centre, too, in Orissa.

… The proposed hub, to be constructed on the Puri-Konark Marine Drive, would have facilities to train about 3,000 persons, said the state’s information and technology director Vishal Dev.

Wipro, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, had signed a MoU with the state government in 2004 to set up its software development centre with a proposed investment of about Rs 200 crore. It was allotted 27 acres of land in Infocity, opposite to the Infosys centre. The construction work has begun and the work is expected to be complete by 2008.

Wipro is among the four major IT firms for whom a 130-acre special economic zone is being carved out of the 350-acre Infocity-I. The other three companies are Hexaware, MindTree and TCS.

Significantly, Orissa has witnessed a spurt in its export earnings from the information technology sector in 2006-07. In 2005-06, the earnings were Rs 465 crore but it shot up to Rs 732 crore in the next fiscal.

Following are excerpts from televisionpoint.com’s report.

 Mumbai based Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS) is looking at its child care division, Kidzcare, as a major growth-driver in the years to come. …

Arun Khetan, CEO, ZILS said, “The franchised childcare centres, Kidzcare, are geared to meet the gap in proper existing childcare programmes. We will be setting up a total of 35 Kidzcare centres in this financial year.”

According to Khetan, the demand for these centres is mostly from the IT and BPO crowd. “Thus, the Kidzcare centres will mostly come up in places like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai.”

ZILS has plans to add another 70-75 centres in the next fiscal, while the target by 2011-12 has been set at 500 centres. The company expects Kidzcare to contribute about 25% to its turnover within the next five years. The Kidzcare concept operates on the franchisee model. The cost of setting up each centre ranges between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 45 lakh, not including the premises.