Headcount of STPI registered IT firms at 8600

The headcount in the IT units registered with the city centre of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has gone up to 8600 by the end of 2010-11.

The manpower pool in such IT units has grown progressively from 5760 in 2008-09 to 7148 in 2009-10 and to 8600 in 2010-11, minister for IT Ramesh Majhi informed the state assembly.

The minister said, the state through Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Idco) has allotted 45.9 acres to Infosys Technologies, 45.04 acres to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), 25 acres to Wipro Technologies, 20 acres to MindTree Consulting and 12.05 acres of ICICI Bank.

While the three major IT vendors- Infosys, TCS and Wipro were already running their development centres for the past few years, MindTree Consulting and ICICI Bank were yet to start operations.

In response to a separate query, Majhi said the IT sector logged exports of Rs 1253.08 crore in 2010-11 which marked a tremendous growth over Rs 177.4 crore registered in 2000-01.

MindTree is understood to have agreed to revive its Orissa project following a very recent meeting of the company's co-founder, vice-chairman and gardener Subroto Bagchi's meeting with top officials of the state government.

MindTree will build a 10,000-seater software development centre in the city with a total built-up area of 1.5 million sq ft. The company co-headquartered in Bangalore and Somerset in New Jersey (US) had announced an investment of around Rs 200 crore for the development centre in Bhubaneswar. The company had signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on August 29, 2006.

ICICI bank which had announced to set up its eastern regional hub in the city in May 2007 had submitted a fresh building plan to the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA).

With a built-up area of 1.5 million sq ft, the eastern regional hub of ICICI bank will have a pool of 15,000 employees in the long-run. The project is to be developed in phases over a period of six to seven years at an estimated investment of Rs 600 crore.