Wipro to expand IT operations in Vizag

Mulls setting up soap manufacturing plant at Hindupur with an outlay of Rs 500 crore

Wipro Limited chairman Azim Premji on Sunday called on Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and discussed the information technology services and consulting major’s expansion plans in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam.

Premji, accompanied by his team comprising Shireesh Sahai, director (government business – south Asian), Wipro GE Healthcare, SN Prakash, regional business head (government business – Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh), and Hari Prasad Hegde, senior vice-president and global head of operations (IT business), sought an NOC (no-objection certificate) to develop a special economic zone to which Naidu agreed.

Wipro has presence in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. Its export turnover from Hyderabad is pegged at Rs 3,500 crore and has an employee base of over 1,000. The company was given 7.14 acre at Rs 80 lakh each on an outright sale basis in 2004-05. The company has already constructed 200,000 sft on four acre and at present employs around 650 professionals.

With Naidu agreeing to Wipro’s request for according the NOC, the company would develop the SEZ on the remaining three acre, creating employment for 6,400 professionals over the next five years, said IT minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy.

The chief minister requested Premji to expand Wipro’s operations to other locations like Tirupati, Vijayawada and Kakinada, offer graduate and postgraduate programmes through Azim Premji Foundation and subsequently absorb the AP students into their organisation, besides developing new fonts in Telugu language for localisation and content development.

Reacting to Naidu’s request, Premji assured to further expand their operations in the new state in a big way, besides starting a training institute for training technicians in healthcare on medical devices such as CT scan, MRI and ultrasound.

Premji also evinced interest in setting up a soap manufacturing and fatty acids manufacturing plant at Hindupur in Anantapur district with an investment of Rs 500 crore and requested for allotment of 50 acre for the purpose.

The Wipro chairman and his team also met K Chandrasekhara Rao, chief minister of Telangana, and discussed the scope for the development of the IT industry here. "We will further expand our group operations in the Telangana state," Premji told KCR.

Reiterating that his government was in the process of bringing out a transparent, corruption-free, single-window industrial policy shortly, KCR said they were actively working towards making Hyderabad a Wi-Fi city.

"We will develop the IT and industrial sectors for the overall economic development of Telangana and provide employment opportunities to the youth here," he said, adding that they would take a decision on the various issues that his government and Wipro could work together after another round of discussions.