In IT exports, Mohali beats rest of Punjab

CHANDIGARH: Few Tier-II cities in India can boast of having 1,700 acres earmarked just for IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) industries like

Mohali

.

Mohali actually has an IT City within it. The Punjab government had enough reasons to carve out a whole IT City as was proposed in the vision plan of the largest planned metropolis in India, now notified as the Greater Mohali Region. Here is a look at what prompted TOI to run a campaign to make Mohali the tech capital of Punjab: Units registered with the Union government agency, the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) under its Mohali centre managed exports of Rs 3,876 crore in the last fiscal. This was more than all the export from Punjab put together, which included garment export from Ludhiana, in the same period.

Similarly, when under its India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS), the STPI sought application for 1,200 seats in Mohali in October 2017, it got petitions for 1,700 seats. The STPI allocated 1,700 seats in November-end to seven different companies, giving the city more than its pre-decided quota.

There are 125 units registered under the STPI Mohali, which in total employs around 30,000 professionals in the Tricity. Cumulative growth of almost 14% in IT/ITeS exports over a period of five years in the

Mohali-Chandigarh

region is at par with the national growth rate.

In addition, there are hundreds of other units, mostly catering to domestic market and startups that are not registered with the STPI so this set of data does not show the jobs generated by them or their contribution to the local economy.

Yet there are success stories galore. The only IT-specific special economic zone (SEZ) that came up recently, Quark City SEZ, already has 80% occupancy.

IT behemoth

Infosys Ltd

is also functioning from the Quark City. In addition, the company has already taken approvals from the Union and the state governments to build its own SEZ and acquired a plot of around 50 acres in Mohali.

The efforts of the Punjab government are not limited to offering empty land plots in the area marked for IT City. It is also providing 23 types of regulatory clearances online through a dedicated online portal,

Invest

Punjab. There are also incentives adding up to more than Rs 1 crore a year for new incubators to set shop in Mohali. In addition, the draft for ‘Startup Policy’ is ready and is likely to be released by the state soon, Punjab industries secretary

Rakesh Verma

told TOI.

Realising that smaller companies might find even low rents in Mohali a hindrance, the industrial policy, released last year by the Punjab government, has even promised partial reimbursements for applicants.

The region has the potential to develop into a product development hub as around 20 SMEs are into the product development and their products are acceptable worldwide, says STPI director Ajay Srivastav.