SPEC-India

Located on the banks of river Sabarmati, Ahmedabad is the largest city in the whole state of Gujarat. From the year 1960 to 1970, it served as the capital city of Gujarat. However, later on, the capital was shifted to the Gandhinagar city. It was founded in the year 1411 by Sultan Ahmed Shah. It is owing to this reason that, sometimes, it is also referred to as the city of Ahmed Shah and hence the name Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad was incorporated into the Bombay Presidency during the British rule but remained the most important city in the Gujarat region. Over a period of time, Ahmedabad established itself as the home of textile industry and earned the nickname of “The Manchester of the East.”
 
Ahmedabad is the hub of trade and commerce in Gujarat. The commercial importance of Ahmedabad makes the city an important travel destination in India, besides being home to a number of important industries. Ahmedabad also has a number of majestic monuments, world class institutes of learning to name a few- IIM, PRL, ISRO, NID, and many more that remind us of the great historical and cultural past of the city.

A rising centre of higher education, information technology and scientific industries, Ahmedabad continues to remain one of the important cultural and commercial centers of western India. With one of the best power supply in the country and the cheapest real estate Ahmedabad is the bus to ride for setting up of any IT related industry. Well connected nationally and internationally Ahmedabad poses to be the next generation mega city of India.

During the last quarter of this century Information Technology (IT) has transformed the way of human life as no other technology has. IT has potential of converting our society into a truly knowledge based society. IT also gives us a chance in ensuring that such an evolution leads to an equitable society. Now, there is no area of human life, which is not affected by information technology in one way or the other. To ensure that people of the State of Gujarat reap the benefits of this epoch making development, it is imperative that the State Government evolves a coordinated strategy which could affect all the facets of life of citizens of the State.

It is very clearly understood that IT is not an end in itself but means to provide better quality of life to the citizens of the State. It does not aim at merely automating existing process but the target is to use IT to improve overall organizational efficiency and pass the benefits to the citizens of the State. The GoG has initiated several measures to boost IT in Gujarat which has been stated below:

Overall Growth of IT Sector in Gujarat
* Creating enormous employment opportunities by training and developing skilled manpower
* Facilitating information outlets at the doorstep of a common man
* Making government - citizen interface more effective, efficient and transparent
* For imparting education, Gujarat Institute of Information Technology being set up at Gandhinagar
* Setting high-tech Infocity with facilities of satellite earth station in Gandhinagar with hubs at Ahmedabad and Baroda 

Over all IT growth in the state of Gujarat
To create enormous new employment opportunities in the state; train and develop skilled manpower in IT; facilitate information outlets at the doorstep of the common man the Government has set up IT Department for implementation of IT Policy.

* Information strategy development
* IT architecture design including network and communication
* Program and project management
* Contract support system
* Internet/intranet services
* Computer and communication security
* Systems audit
* Disaster recovery
* Outsourcing including actual running of system
* Training
* Testing

Private sector participation
As information technology is likely to emerge as a major infrastructure for the State, participation of private sector is extremely important, both from the point view of attracting additional resources and introducing sufficient competition so that the focus on customer is not missed out in any case. Private sector would participate in (1) creation of ‘information corridor’ (2) in setting up of information kiosks (3) provision of services for creating of database oriented services.

Gujarat government has initiated several steps to enable private participation under state IT policy, to set up of high-tech cities, IT training and educational institutions which, in turn, will create enormous job opportunities and economic development of the state. IT thrust in the public service would essentially assume existence of a very strong IT industry in the State. It is the endeavor of the Government to help create new job opportunities for the youth of the State in this sunrise industry. It would only be possible when there is extensive use of computer for the public services, in businesses and in homes. Location of strong IT industry in the State would also give a fillip to export of IT related services and products.  GOG has introduced multiple Fiscal Incentives for IT products, services and software products where the state would give a special concessional sales tax treatment. To boost investment a State venture capital for development of IT services, IT software and IT products has also been set up. As State Government wishes that the IT industry takes lead in the area of IT products i.e. hardware as well, therefore, it is important that these products are globally competitive. In order to achieve this, dedicated air cargo terminal would be essential for swift movement of goods both for export and import.

Outsourcing of Information Technology Projects to Ahmedabad, India

Indian software services firms have been thriving on a worldwide outsourcing boom as international companies try to cut costs at home.

A large pool of English-speaking engineers and low wages have helped them attract outsourcing deals over the past decade in India, which churns out about 350,000 graduate engineers and 2.3 million other graduates every year.

But wage inflation and high attrition rates are a concern for services firms in India, where specialists demand for programmers and IT is fast outstripping supply.

Amidst ongoing apprehension on security and data safeguard that have surfaced in the business procedure outsourcing space, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Ahmedabad have emerged as “no-risk” locations in some surveys. These are also better in terms of the cost needed to alleviate risks. In simple terms, a company sets a better chance to take the edge off risk in a cost-effective manner if it is located in these cities.

The globe is discovering the fact that India is a super power when it comes to developing IT solutions. Swept by the current and the latest trend of outsourcing to India, we find that with a large no of CMM Level 5 companies and outsourcing centers of fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Morgan Stanley, Wal-Mart, AT&T, General Motors, Sony, Swissair, United Airlines, Philips, IBM, Lucas India, PepsiCo, Schneider Electric is a logical choice for outsourcing with the world’s largest pool of scientific and technical talent.

India is now a reputable IT Outsourcing Destination. The country, which has received the distinction of being the world’s most preferred software-outsourcing destination, sketches its strengths from the following:

• Established Offshore outsourcing Model
• Reliable and most advanced source of software expertise
• More than 5 million technical workers
• Software Industry worth $9 Billion
• Second Largest English speaking Community
• Supportive Government Policy for IT and Communication Industry

Reasons for outsourcing to Ahmedabad, India:

* Caliber Of The Computer Engineers

The main reason behind the glittering success of Indian IT market in the world is the unyielding and continuous force of computer engineers from highly professional universities and colleges.

* Hard Working, Intelligent Human Resource

With the second largest population, India has easy availability of highly qualified and technically skilled English speaking computer professionals who play a key part in the field of Information technology

* Convincing Cost Efficiency Of IT Outsourcing In India

Extensive gap between the personal cost in India and developed countries, India offers convincing economical benefits to the persons who want to exploit the advantage of offshore outsourcing.

* Guaranteed International Quality

With large number of the world’s CMM/ ISO Level having one of the world’s largest and best pools of scientific and technical talent, India can offer standard international quality.

* Stable Government Support And Easy Legal Proceeding

Indian government keeps stable policies, economy, taxation, telecom, industrial development for Information Technologies. The government provides evidence to be a grand support for software firms by further presenting all the basic facilities necessary for an outsourcing company to prosper Information Technology.

* Effective Telecommunication, Power & Real Estate Infrastructure

One of the cheapest real estate globally with continuous feed of electricity, excellent telecom network facility, ISP, and cellular networks are available all over the country. India delights in the steadfast satellite and submarine communication links that facilitate good band connectivity with the rest of the world. Thus companies engaged in IT outsourcing to India, can be in continuous touch with the vendors without any connection impediments.
 

Tags: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, IT Industry, SPEC, SPEC India, System plus

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 7:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.