16 November 2013
Hyderabad
“IT means not Information Technology but ‘Indian Talent’.. You people made this Bay Area into a Silicon city.. Now you come to Andhra Pradesh and make it another Silicon city” said Sri Ponnala Lakshmayya, Minister for IT &C to the group of IT Entrepreneurs and on 13 Nov 13 in a joint meet organized by FIEG (Federation of Indus Entrepreneurs Group) and CEO Club in Hotel Hilton in Fremont, CA on Wednesday.
Sri Ponnala said that Govt of India has sanctioned ITIR ( Information Technology Investment Region) for Hyderabad for an estimated 202 Sq. kilo meters land as the Investment zone, the first and large one in the country. Govt of India as well as Govt of AP have taken all the steps to implement the Phase I of ITIR from 2013- 2018 and invited Entrepreneurs to come to Hyderabad
Explaining the advantages of Andhra Pradesh, Sri Ponnala said that Andhra Pradesh is the first State in the country implementing Mee Seva in a big way with 180 services, handling 30 million transactions, around 150,000 tasks per day. Similarly Andhra Pradesh is one of the fast growing internet connected States in the country with already over Rs 4000 crores spent on 4G Services, and coverage of more and more towns and villages with broadband connectivity. Andhra Pradesh Govt has also started Animation , Gaming & Media Center with Rs 300 crore investment developing animation & gaming industry quoting that large part of popular English film ‘Life of Pie’ was made in Hyderabad. He said that Andhra Pradesh is producing 30% of country’s Engineers and Govt of Andhra Pradesh has been working on Jawahar Knowledge Centers covering 400 Engineering colleges out of 700 Engineering colleges for imparting employable skills and functioning as inter phase between Colleges and IT companies. The IT Minister assured all the support and guidance from his Ministry claiming that they are a ‘click’ away.
Sri Ponnala also explained that the status or growth rate of IT business or turn over or exports have not come down at all during the last 3 years through AP is witnessing agitations & disturbances quoting that in this period only IT giants Google, Infosys etc. have increased their presence in Hyderabad, Amazon is setting up the biggest office outside USA in Hyderabad, so is Google.
Earlier to Minister, Sri Sanjay Jaju, IAS, Secretary to IT dept. has made a power point presentation explaining in detail on how Hyderabad got ITIR sanction, what are the benefits and advantages, what are the growth para meters etc. Mr. Jayaram Komati, Past President, TANA advised the Entrepreneurs to make use of the visit of IT Minister & Officials to Bay Area.
Dr Sam, Hari Gakkani and Rahul Kuruvilla, Directors from FIEG, Sri Subba Yantra, thanked the members who came to the meeting on a short notice and thanked Sri Ponnala, Minister for IT &C, Sri Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, IT &C, Sri Amarnath Reddy, CEO, Center for Knowledge Networks who came to Bay Area, and then came to Federation of Indus Entrepreneur Group (FIEG) and CEO Club’s Meeting. Sri Hari Gakkani, Director FIEG welcomed the Guests on to stage with flowers. The meeting ended with several members participating in the Q & A session and later followed by dinner.
