Villages of TN will now spearhead growth of IT

After riding the wave in the cities of Tamil Nadu, the

information technology sector

is looking to diversify into rural parts of the state. It will be a fresh territory that promises a boost for the industry and more employment for the people.

Since the state has the highest urban dispersal with 50% of the IT employees coming from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, it’s time to look beyond, said

Hans Raj Verma

, additional chief secretary to the TN government, IT department. “The focus will shift to villages and the rural economy will get a leg up. Improvement in

telecom infrastructure

will be the engine of growth,” he said.

The IT sector has been proactive when Covid-19 brought to a halt other industries. The sector also has had the most seamless transition, with more than 8 lakh employees in TN adapting to working from home in a span of just four weeks. But representatives of the IT industry in the state are asking for improved telecom bandwidth at homes to match corporate levels and waiver/reduction in rents at state owned IT parks.

Experts agree that cities like Coimbatore are a success story. “Over 14,000 of our workforce are in Coimbatore,” said Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, President of MCCI and also the CMD of IT major, Cognizant India. But low bandwidth is a hitch, he said. To which, NASSCOM senior VP Sangeeta Gupta assured the government is planning to improve the existing telecom bandwidth as the industry body was in dialogue with the government and telecom operators.

The coronavirus has pushed for

digital alternatives

, especially for sectors and businesses that had been largely rooted to brick-and-mortar structures. This has opened up a web of opportunities for the IT industry, believes Ramamoorthy. “Opportunities lie at the intersection of IT and other sectors such as fintech, manutech and healthtech,” he said.

The need to look beyond China has also spurred a positive change. Despite concerns for job losses, Gupta said, there are areas where opportunities are opening up. “Among considerations of a China+1 model now, the state stands to gain. After manufacturing, engineering research will be the way forward for the industry and this has higher scope and opportunities for Tamil Nadu,” she said, adding, “The right digital skills will be of high demand.”

Stressing on the need to market Tamil Nadu better, experts said, the state is a talent hotbed which is undergoing a ‘silent revolution’. “TN has a bigger market share than mind share. We don’t market enough and lack ambition. For instance, our aim must be to feature among the top 5 states in ease of doing business,” said Ramamoorthy, while Gupta said SAAS unicorns emerging from the state are a testament to the potential of the state.

Change in labour laws and an increase in liquidity, announced by the finance minister, will help the industry achieve its potential. “IOT and artificial intelligence have a potential of a billion dollars in terms of market opportunity,” said Ramamoorthy.