Kerala set to open first phase of Rs.600-cr IT park

July 27th, 2009 CHENNAI - The second phase of softyware park Infopark in Kochi, which may be developed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, will come up over 160 acres, said a top company official here Monday. "We are getting into the second phase of Infopark's expansion.

October 10th, 2009 THRISSUR - Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Saturday inaugurated the third IT park in the state - Phase 1 of Infopark Koratty - and said that nearly 200,000 jobs in information technology sector would be created in the next two years.

September 24th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - City-based information technology park Technopark has signed a cooperation agreement with China's Dalian Hi-tech Zone, it was announced here Thursday. Dalian Hi-tech is a mixed industry zone in China's Dalian city, where pharmaceutical and IT services majors have units.

September 10th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Kerala's IT sector will generate as many as 200,000 jobs in the next five years, state Chief Secretary Neela Gangadharan said Thursday. Inaugurating a conference on IT in Kerala - Challenges and Opportunities, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, she said over 200 rural IT Parks (Techno Lodges) are expected to come up in the state in the next two to three years.

May 14th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Companies based in the Technopark IT industrial park here will join hands with the Kerala government to strengthen the AIDS awareness campaign in the state, an industry official said here Thursday. The Group of Technopark Companies (GTECH), a body representing the chief executives of the Technopark firms, has adopted a corporate policy on HIV/AIDS that calls for strengthening the awareness campaign among among the member companies and employees, the group secretary, Satish Babu, said.

September 18th, 2009 SHIMLA - Himachal Pradesh is developing its first information technology park near here, a senior government official said Friday. "We are developing an IT park over 63 acres near Waknaghat in PPP (public-private partnership) mode.

April 21st, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - The proposed Rs.15-billion Smart City Kochi IT park Tuesday suffered a setback after Smart City Dubai, which has signed a pact with the state government to develop the project, said it wanted the freehold land issue resolved. This was informed in a press release, issued Tuesday by Smart City Dubai chief executive Fareed Abdulrahman, who said they were assigned to Smart City Kochi and still heavily involved in the development of the project and had not pulled back from their roles and responsibilities.

March 27th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - While India's overall software exports have slowed down on account of the global slowdown, those from Kerala grew 43.41 percent till February-end, fetching a revenue of Rs.2,300 crore. 'While the STPI (Software Technology Parks India) figures for the country show a growth of 17.62 percent till February-end this fiscal, software exports from Kerala have grown at 43.41 percent,' said an IT department official who did not wish to be identified.

June 23rd, 2009 MUMBAI - Telecom major Idea Cellular Tuesday signed a Rs.145-crore agreement with Firstsource Solutions, a business process outsourcing (BPO) service provider. As part of the agreement, Firstsource will provide for five years a suite of customer management interaction services, including customer service, billing, new product information and plan details to Idea from its centre in Coimbatore, the companies said in a statement.

August 14th, 2009 KANNUR - The cyber cell of the Kerala Police has traced down an e-mail threat from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) warning of serial bomb blasts in the state, if a separate Muslim state, comprising districts of north Kerala, is not created. Inspector General of Police Tomin Thachenkery said on Friday that a few media offices in the state had received the e-mail threat on Thursday.

June 11th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Software exports from Chandigarh and its adjoining towns of Panchkula and Mohali grew 31 percent to cross Rs.1,050 crore in 2008-09, compared to Rs.800 crore the year before. Growth results released by officials here said that software exports in the union territory, particularly from the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park here, rose from Rs.504 crore in 2007-08 to Rs.750 crore last year.

July 9th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - Despite the global economic slowdown, software exports from Orissa grew by 39.05 percent in 2008-09 over the year before, officials said Thursday. The total IT exports of the state stood at Rs.1,168 crore last fiscal as against Rs.840 crore the year before, said Manas Panda, officer in charge of the Bhubaneswar unit of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI).

June 15th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Cooperation in the IT sector between Singapore and industry majors in Kerala has received a major boost after a delegation from the Group of Technopark Companies (GTech) visited the city-state for talks with senior government officials and business lobbies. GTech represents the heads of all major IT companies in Technopark, which is home to more than 120 companies and employ close to 18,000 people.

April 18th, 2009 IT major Tech Mahindra, which needs to pay Rs.1,756 crore for acquiring 31 percent stake in the troubled IT firm Satyam Computer Services, Saturday said it has raised Rs.600 crore through debt instrument.The government-appointed board of Satyam Monday named Venturbay - a subsidiary of Tech Mahindra - as the winner of the auction to sell a majority stake in the fraud-hit IT giant.Under the share subscription agreement signed by the winning bidder and the board, Tech Mahindra will have to deposit the bid amount in an escrow account by April 21. Tech Mahindra will also make an open offer for another 20 percent stake in Satyam at Rs.58 per share for controlling stake (51 percent).

January 10th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - It is advantage time for IT companies in Kerala. With Satyam under a cloud, the software companies in the state are busy trying to win over clients of the tainted IT bellwether even as they are flooded with job applications from Satyam employees.