11-05-2003, 11:44 PM
[url="http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7131514.htm"]Bangalore software exports rise by 65 percent[/url]
Quote:BANGALORE, India (AP) - Software exports from India's technology hub Bangalore shot up by 65 percent to 72 billion rupees (US$1.59 billion) during the first half of the fiscal year, local government officials said Wednesday.
``We are surprised with this growth,'' said B.V. Naidu, who heads the Bangalore office of Software Technology Parks of India, a government body that provides office infrastructure for technology firms.
Local government officials expected export growth of only about 35 percent for the April to September period, Naidu said.
A surge in outsourcing of software and back office work, especially by firms in the United States, helped growth, he said.
During the same period last year, software exports were around US$950 million.
The state's information technology minister, D.B. Inamdar, said the mood in the city's software industry was upbeat. ``The attraction is the good human resources we have. Also, the success of the companies already here is attracting more,'' he said.
During the six months ended September, 66 new software and back office service companies started operations in Bangalore, and 44 of them were foreign, Inamdar said.
He said foreign firms were starting to move more sophisticated work to India.
``We have the likes of General Motors and Yahoo which recently started research and development in Bangalore,'' he said.
However, the state government is cautious about the prospects for the second half of the fiscal year ending March 31, sticking to its initial target of 35 percent growth for the year.
Inamdar said full year exports will exceed 160 billion rupees (US$3.52 billion), compared to 123 billion rupees (US$2.71 billion) in 2002-03.
Top U.S. companies including Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines Corp., Lucent Technologies, Texas Instruments and Dell have software centers in Bangalore.
India's second and third largest software exporters, Infosys Technologies and Wipro respectively, have their head offices here. Earlier this month, both companies reported better-than-expected results for their fiscal second quarter, ended Sept. 30.
Indian companies export software worth US$10 billion annually. This is expected to grow by about 30 percent for the fiscal year ending in March.