Hyderabad, June 15 (IANS) Hyderabad achieved IT exports of Rs 75,070 crore in 2015-16, a growth of 13.26 per cent over the previous year, the Telangana government announced on Wednesday.
IT Minister K. Tarakarama Rao told reporters that Hyderabad's growth in IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES) exports was higher than the national average of 12.3 per cent.
The city also created nearly 35,611 new jobs in the sector during the year, taking the total workforce to 407,385.
"Our pro-business policy, high quality infrastructure, cost-effectiveness, cosmopolitanism, presence of institutions like TASK and T-Hub along with an overall pro-active approach has made the state among the top IT destinations in the country," he said releasing the annual report of the state IT, Electronics and Communications Department.
The growth in IT/ITES exports during 2014-15 was 15.7 percent with the minister noting the sector's growth came down across the globe. "We are still above the national average and on course to double the exports to Rs.1.20 lakh crore and jobs to one million in three years," he said.
KTR, as the minister is popularly known, said since the formation of Telangana state in 2014, the IT exports have grown significantly.
"This will happen sooner than later," he said when asked about the time-frame to achieve the goal of making Hyderabad the number one IT destination in the country.
To another query, he said Hyderabad was not competing with Bengaluru. "We are not competing with Bengaluru, we are competing with the world," he said while pointing out that tech giant Apple looked at 26 cities across the world before choosing Hyderabad to set up its development centre.
The minister said Hyderabad is home to four out of world's five most valued tech companies. Three of them - Apple, Google and Amazon - took the decision during last one year.
Salesforce, Uber, DBS, Security and Flydubai are the other major companies which have decided to set up or expand operations in Hyderabad. He claimed that many other global and national companies were planning significant expansion.
KTR said the state was also focusing on electronics manufacturing. Handset manufacturers Micromax and Celkon have already set up their facilities and commenced operations in Hyderabad while Datawind is expected to set up its plant soon.
He said Celkon, Carbon and Lava have also decided to set up their research and development centres in Hyderabad
The state, which has signed MoUs with electronic manufacturers' associations of Shenzhen (China) and Taiwan, expects to attract more investment.
The minister announced that three IT parks in public private partnership mode will be launched in Hyderabad this year to meet the growing needs of the sector. He said six locations outside the existing clusters in Kondapur and Gachibowli, were identified.
Referring to T-Hub, the largest technology incubator opened here last year, he said foundation stone for the second phase of the facility with an expenditure outlay of Rs 175 crore will be laid in two to three months.
The minister, who visited United States this month, announced that an outpost of T-Hub will be opened soon in Silicon Valley to enable startups at T-Hubs get international exposure.
About 200 startups are currently incubating at T-Hub and they are getting technological mentorship and access to venture funds. Microsoft, Google, HP, Cisco, Yes Bank, IBM and AAmazon have entered into partnership with T Hub.
The minister said a hardware incubator T-Works would also be launched. A prototyping lab will use the innovations coming out of T-Hub.
