Global Investors’ Meet promises 2.81 lakh jobs in IT sector

The tone for a new world and new method of computing was set on Friday. And the government was willing to travel the extra mile to make it a reality.

Commitments to the tune of Rs45,500 crore was made at a session on the IT sector at the GIM.

Ashok Kumar Manoli, principal secretary, department of IT, BT, Science and Technology, said that the Centre had approved the ITIR (information Technology Investment Region) near the Bengaluru International Airport in Devanahali.

“ITIR will be an integrated township with walk to work facilities and will be only 12km from the airport,” he said, while calling the project a “magnet of attraction”.

Minister for IT & BT Katta Subramanya Naidu assured improved infrastructure in the city. Addressing the session, he revealed his dream: “Bangalore should be able to capture one fifth of all IT-related work globally in a few years.”

The new world was the theme of the many speakers. Delivering the keynote, Kris S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and managing director of Infosys Technologies, said Bangalore needed to be part of a new world of computing – pervasive computing (a system where almost every device has computational capabilities).

Harsh Manglik, chairman and geography managing director for Accenture India, and chairman of Nassco,m termed Bangalore as a talent magnet. He said that there were about 2,000 technology-related companies in the city.

Infosys would investment Rs710  crore in the ITIR, creating 12,000 jobs, while Manyata Developers Limited would build service apartments and an IT&BT Park with an investment of Rs1,880 crore. The park was likely to generate more than a lakh jobs.

Other companies which signed MoUs on Friday included Wipro (Rs477  crore), Larsen & Toubro (Rs650 crore) and Chandra Developers Pvt Ltd (Rs459.98  crore).

Keonix, along with Abu Dhabi-based NMC specialty, signed an MoU for an IT Park and convention centre in Mysore with an investment of Rs50 crore and  another Rs30 crore in Mangalore.

Manoli said the commitments made at the GIM would help create 2.81 lakh jobs in the IT sector alone in 37 companies, which had signed 68 MoUs apart from two letters of intent.

He added that the state would come up with the first Information and Communication Technology (ICT) report in the country in a few months.