Hyderabad takes on Bengaluru in IT exports joust

Telangana govt in talks with global cos for investments

The race to emerge as the top IT exporter city in India is likely to get hotter with Hyderabad likely to give tough competition to Bengaluru in the future.

“We want Hyderabad to be the number one in terms of information technology, ahead of Bengaluru, in the next few years,” Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao said, adding that IT exports from Hyderabad are at around $11 billion currently, and we plan to double that in the next five years.

Bengaluru currently accounts for around 31 per cent of the IT exports from the country, while Hyderabad accounts only for around 13 per cent.

According to Rama Rao, Telangana, which attracted some of the biggest names in information technology over the last one year including Google, Facebook, Amazon and Uber, is stepping up its efforts to increase investments into the state by taking more steps which is pro-industry.

“By 2019, we plan to add 22,000 mW of electricity, and in two years, we will be a power-surplus state. We are talking to Citibank to come out with a special scheme to promote small and medium enterprises. Besides, we are in talks with South Korea for a cluster and with Taiwan for a similar kind of arrangement,” Rama Rao said.

“Our government will soon be launching the country’s largest technology incubator for startups called the T Hub, and we have already signed up with reputed law schools and technology institutes in the city,” Rao said.

“We are talking to cellphone manufacturers including Karbon, Lava, Foxcon and Samsung to set up units in the state and want to be among the top states in terms of attracting investments in the country,” Rao added.

It can be noted that Bengaluru boasts of names like Infosys and Wipro, while Hyderabad has Satyam and Sify. The scandal at Satyam led to Bangalore to emerge as undisputed leader. Bengaluru also lapped up start-ups, hosting the likes of Flipkart and RedBus.