West Bengal
Not a laggard anymore
The vision of the state government of West Bengal’s is to make the state worthy of being among the top three states of India in the IT sector by 2010, contributing 15-20 percent of the country’s IT revenues. And to make this dream a reality the state government has pledged whole-hearted support to IT companies willing to invest in West Bengal. Joy Roy Choudhury reports

Karnataka
IT companies demand better infrastructure
IT in Karnataka used to be all about Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley. Of late, STPI has been working to change that by setting up technology parks in places like Mangalore and Mysore. Karnataka offers a striking contrast—India’s finest base of engineering talent also suffers from bad roads and inadequate power, says Akhtar Pasha

Maharashtra
Is Maharashtra still numero uno?
A few years back, Maharashtra was the leading industrial state in the country. In IT too, it was no different with software behemoths such as TCS headquartered in Mumbai. But in the face of acute competition and demand, the state has been seeing business gradually shift to progressive states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Srikanth R P & Stanley Glancy analyse Maharashtra’s endeavours to regain the top slot

Jharkhand
New state, new commitments
When Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar as a new state two years ago, critics were skeptical about the fortunes of India’s 28th state. But the indomitable spirit of the people of the state and a proactive state administration have helped it to jump on to the fast-track of industrial development and growth, proving the skeptics wrong, says Joy Roy Choudhury

Kerala
From backwaters to back-office
‘God’s own country’, Kerala, is better known for its backwaters, beaches, ayurveda, rubber, cocoa and cashew nuts. Today the state is in the midst of an IT revolution thanks to the new IT policy. With Kerala Technopark, the state is on the road to competing with other states in the IT field, says Abhinav Singh

Goa
Goan IT has a sunny outlook
Goa reminds you of white beaches coupled with friendly people and an extremely good climate that can rejuvenate you. After attracting tourists from all over the world, Goa wants to do the same with IT and has set a refreshingly different IT policy for achieving the same. Srikanth R P has the details

D-Link’s vision, Goa’s gain
Infrastructure is by no means the only factor that determines the success of a company. Nonetheless it is one of most crucial factors on the back of the management’s mind—be it access to highly skilled people or advanced telecommunications capacity or something as banal as power availability. We take a look at D-Link India’s experience in establishing its manufacturing plant in Goa

National Capital Region (NCR)
NCR: Still a paper tiger?
Budgetary constraints have caused the supply of infrastructure to fall short of demand and this is true of every state in the country, including the National Capital Region (NCR), comprising Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida. Yet Gaurav Patra & Rahul Neel Mani are hopeful that with the number of infrastructure projects being launched the future holds promise

Andhra Pradesh
Front door to back-office IT services
After largely sitting out the software exports boom, Andhra Pradesh has decided to rectify its past mistakes and ramped up its infrastructure to lure ITES business to the state. It has also set itself the ambitious target of accounting for 50 percent of all the backoffice business flowing into India, by 2008. Venkat Pulapaka has the details

Gujarat
Can Gujarat bounce back on the IT scene?
Gujarat, the cradle of entrepreneurship, is sadly lagging behind when it comes to development of information technology. Stanley Glancy reports

Broadband
Is there a market for broadband in India?
Few IT sectors are as challenging as the Indian broadband market. This market is perhaps the only one in India where telecom giants, ISPs, cable operators, and even the Indian Railways are fighting for the spoils amidst a bloodbath in the market. Srikanth R P tells you where the Indian broadband market is headed

Opinion
Empowering India — A business perspective
India Inc. suffers direct tangible and quantifiable losses of up to 20,000 crore per annum (approx $4.6 billion) due to power outages and poor quality of power. The key to being a player in a fast-paced, competitive, globally interconnected economy is to configure network uptime solutions that allow businesses to run independent of the prevalent geographical power conditions, says Shrikant Bapat

The infrastructure myth
Are Indian IT companies really infrastructure-independent? Sameer Kochhar clarifies this myth and describes the different types of infrastructure relevant for an IT company

ITES
ITES-BPO industry needs to reach out to new destinations
India scores well in the ITES with its unbeatable people, skills and cost advantage mix. But growth thus far has been restricted to the metros and this has to change. A Nasscom report on the state of infrastructure for ITES companies has clearly brought out the need to evenly distribute this growth engine across the country