ANSR Consulting to bring GICs to Vizag, gets 10 acres from AP govt

Move by Lalit Ahuja-founded firm comes as big boost for ongoing efforts of state govt at making this port city

Bangalore-based ANSR Consulting, which has brought at least 20 global in-house or captive units (GICs) to India so far, has announced Visakhapatnam as its next big base to locate the in-house technology development operations of global companies.

The Andhra Pradesh cabinet at its meeting late Tuesday evening approved the allotment of 10 acres of land at the government SEZ at Madhuravada to the company, which has promised to invest as much as Rs 1,000 crore and create 10,000 jobs over a course of 6 years.

The decision by Lalit Ahuja-founded company comes as a big boost for the ongoing efforts of the state government at making this port city an alternative technology services hub in South India. This is also the first major response to AP government's separate policy formulated in June for attracting the GIC operations to the state.

The state cabinet has approved the allotment land while relaxing the policy conditions. As per the new condition, the project proponent will have to construct a minimum of 5 lakh square feet of office space and bring Rs 500 crore investment.

The concept of GICs, an alternative model to the third party outsourcing, has been gaining ground with global companies setting up their own subsidiaries to handle business process management(BPM) work, which is otherwise being outsourced to offshore firms in India and elsewhere.

As GIC model was adopted across a wide range of industry verticals, including manufacturing, healthcare, financial technologies and R&D services, AP government had set a target of creating 50,000 jobs by attracting Rs 2,500 crore investment into GIC-related activities under this policy. The policy also provides scope for government equity in the projects.

More than 1000 GICs have been operating in India and most of their activities are concentrated in Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad among other cities. According to J A Chowdary, IT advisor to chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, ANSR Consulting's presence will help in their efforts to make Vizag a global fintech hub.