IT exports pegged at ₹93,000 cr.

Telangana’s IT exports stand at ₹ 93,422 crore, said Minister for Information Technology, Electronics and Communications K. T. Rama Rao, adding that the State was ‘on course’ for a two-fold increase as compared to the numbers four years ago.

Mr. Rao was addressing the media during at the IT, E&C Department’s annual report presentation on Friday. “Telangana IT exports have been growing at a cumulative growth rate of 15.6% since its formation. This is roughly 51% above the national average. The national average for the same period from 2014 onwards has been growing at 10.3%,” he said.

The Minister said the growth rate has resulted in the creation of 1.5 lakh new, direct IT and ITeS jobs and between 3.8 lakh and 4.5 lakh indirect jobs in past four years. Job creation, he said, has been possible on account of “strong and stable policy ecosystem in the State”.

“IT exports then (in 2014-15) were about ₹ 55,000 crore or ₹ 56,000 crore. Today, we are on course. By the completion of the fifth year, I am very confident that we will doubling our IT exports, with the support of the industry and stakeholders,” he said.

Taking questions from the media, Mr. Rao said that irrespective of the Centre’s Information Technology Investment Region being scrapped, the State would continue to grow. He underscored the ‘Look East’ initiative and form IT clusters in areas such as Uppal.

Touching upon the efforts of forums’ bid to form an IT employee’s union, Mr. Rao said the attrition rate in the IT industry is high and there is a need for professionals to re-skill themselves. “This is an industry which has service level agreements across the world. They will only get business if they are able to perform,” he said.

The event saw the launch of of TSTS ABAS, an Aadhaar-linked attendance system. While a pilot project was implemented in January, the system is expected to be rolled out in 10,000 schools in 12 districts. It also expected to be implemented in other departments. It also saw the launch of T-SOC, a threat detection and response centre with an event detection capacity of 20,000 events per day.

An electronic service delivery MoU between MeeSeva and IFFCO Bazar, an e-commerce portal for agricultural inputs, was to purchase and get delivered inputs at no cost.