An article in today’s Economic Times informs us that the state’s IT exports zoomed past the Rs 20,000 crore mark according to the Software Technology Parks of India’s Director Ms R Rajalakshmi. Of this Chennai contributed a whopping Rs 19,867.31 crore with the rest coming from other cities such as Coimbatore and Trichy. Of this applications and systems software contributed 68% or Rs 14,077 crore while IT enabled services accounted for 17% at Rs 3,519.28 crore.

Chennai continues to attract investments from all the large IT players and grew at 46.6% in 2006-07, fulfilling the Harvard University Study that forecast that the city would grow faster than Bangalore for a number of years in total IT exports. The state is counting on high growth levels in 2007 as well with companies like TCS, Infosys, Satyam and Wipro all ramping up their Chennai operations with campus style facilities. Infosys, in fact, has set up the world’s largest off shore software development centre at Mahindra City with a capacity of 25,000 developers when fully complete.

IT and IT services exports have the potential to employ thousands of professionals, and also have a multiplier effect of at least ten to one from the allied services that are developed to support the industry such as security, housekeeping, catering, transportation and maintenance services. Chennai and the state continue to offer advantages in terms of low cost office space, land for construction, lower salary costs, a plentiful supply of engineering and other graduates and a population with an aptitude for software development.

The industry has contributed to the enhancement of infrastructure, air traffic in and out of Chennai, the construction industry for both residential apartments and office space and the rising consumer demand for services and consumer goods with an upwardly mobile work force. This indeed augurs well for Chennai and the state, and will contribute to the GDP growth of the state, and the well being of the citizens of TN over time