Karnataka tops IT export charts

BANGALORE: Karnataka extended its lead as the country’s top destination for software exports by registering around 23% annual growth and achieving Rs 74,929 crore worth of IT and ITES exports during year ended March 2009.

“We have not fallen behind... and we are expecting exports of Rs 100,000 crore by the end of this fiscal,” said, state IT & BT minister Katta Subramanya Naidu. On a comparative basis, IT and BPO exports from the country for FY09 stood at Rs 2,22,360 crore recording a Yo-Y growth of 21%. Though, other competing states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have recorded marginally higher growth rates than Karnataka, their base have been comparatively smaller.

The share of Karnataka in the national exports stood at 34%. The FY09 fiscal also saw 84 new units registering with the STPI. “There is enough interest in the new units locating in the designated zones with many of them opting for the special economic zone (SEZ) scheme,” said R Rajalakshmi, director, STPI.

The exports from the SEZ have also seen a very rapid growth touching Rs 4,554 crore for FY09, reflecting a Y-o-Y growth of 250%. The number of people employed by the industry in Karnataka stood at 5.54 lakh in FY09 as against 5.2 lakh in FY08.

However, the hardware exports from Karnataka dipped by 6.8% on a Y-o-Y basis to touch revenue of Rs 2,889 crore for FY09. The performance of the tier-II cities namely Mysore, Mangalore and Hubli on a combined basis has been 45% with revenue touching Rs 2,423 crore.