IT majors to invest Rs 10,950 crore in Tamil Nadu

State govt to launch new policy to help the IT/ITeS industry

IT majors including Wipro, Cognizant, Sutherland, HCL, Zoho and others have said they will invest Rs 10,950 crore in Tamil Nadu, providing employment to over two lakh people.

The state government has also said it will launch a new policy to help the IT/ITeS industry. 

Zoho Group has said it will invest around Rs 3,000 crore and employ around 10,000 people in the state. IT major Cognizant will invest Rs 1,000 crore, Wipro (Rs 600 crore), W S Electronics (Rs 1,062 crore), W S Industries (Rs 1,517 crore), DLF Infocity Developers (Rs 1,500 crore) and HCL Corporation (Rs 500 crore) among others.

Investments will be used to set up development centres, IT parks, research parks and others. 

Lakshmi Narayanan, vice chairman, Cognizant said that the company's investment will be spread over five years. It will expand its delivery infrastructure in Chennai and Coimbatore and will accommodate around 17,000-20,000 professionals.

Cognizant employs over 70,000 professionals in Tamil Nadu and has invested over $1 billion in real estate and IT-related infrastructure across 16 delivery and operations centers.

"I can proudly say that we are what we are today mainly because of what the state had to offer for our growth in all these 21 years," said R Chandrasekaran, executive vice chairman, Cognizant India and former Chairman Naasscom.

Uber, Microsoft Corporation, Hewlett Packard India and Intel have also signed MoUs with the state government but the investment details have not been disclosed.

Number of IT units in Tamil Nadu have increased by around 6% to 1,780 in 2012-13 from 1,114 units in 2004-05. Of the total cumulative FDI flow in Tamil Nadu for 2000-2012 of $13.6 billion, IT & ITeS sector was third, accounting for around 11% of the total investment. 

Exports of computer software and electronic goods from Tamil Nadu grew by 18% over the last three years to $12,380 million in 2013-14 from $8,870 million in 2011-12.

The state accounts for more than 10% of the total IT exports carried out from India and is the fourth largest software exporter in India. Software services are the highest contributor to the exports, accounting more than 40%.