By IANS,
Hyderabad: The situation in Andhra Pradesh following the movement for Telangana has not hit the growth of IT sector in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the state, IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah said Sunday.
Talking after inaugurating a research and development centre of Honeywell Technology Solutions here, he tried to allay the apprehensions in some quarters about the growth of the IT sector in Hyderabad.
Claiming that several IT majors continued to look at Hyderabad to expand their operations, the minister said the state was expected to achieve IT exports of Rs.36,000 crore during the current financial year.
Information and Communication Technology Secretary Ratna Prabha said the exports might well cross Rs.40,000 crore if the industry as a whole does well.
IT exports from Andhra Pradesh in 2008-09 were Rs.33,000 crore.
“I would like to dispel doubts that IT is not happening. I don’t know why such apprehensions get propagated,” said Lakshmaiah after Krishna Mikkilineni, senior vice president of Honeywell, said that the situation in the state was normal but a different picture existed elsewhere.
“No matter what the people’s demands and aspirations are, no political group will come in the way of development and benefits for its own people,” said Lakshmaiah.
He pointed out that in 2010, 4.3 million square feet of IT office space in the state was sold or leased against 8.4 million square feet from 2002 to 2009.
Another 9.3 million square feet was either available or was being developed, he added.
Ratna Prabha said several giants like Facebook, J.P. Morgan and UnitedHealth Group had set up shop in Hyderabad while a Fortune 500 company from the Netherlands has evinced interest in setting up back office operations and an IT support services centre.
The minister said the state would discuss with the central government Monday the proposals for setting up two greenfield IT centres at Maheswaram and Uppal on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Lakshamaiah said the work to develop tier-II IT towers in Visakhapatnam, Warangal and Tirupati would begin in a couple of weeks.