Nagpur, March 31: 78 percent of the operational and exporting units under the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) STPI Nagpur Scheme are considering moving out from the Nagpur IT Park to the Special Economic Zone(SEZ), which is located close to 10 Kms away from the STPI Units at MADC MIHAN in the near future, reveals a study undertaken by Dr.Ulhas Prabhakar Chandekar, one of the IT veterans of Nagpur, as part of his PhD thesis.
The report is titled, “Evaluation of Role and Contribution of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) in the Development of Software Export Oriented Units in Nagpur.”
The report elaborates that the movement of such STPI units is going to have impact on the logistics of IT distributors and other channel partners in a given distribution area. “Any such movement has the potential to significantly alter the demographic distribution of Micro and Small enterprises within Nagpur and may require IT distributors and resellers to realign their logistics,” Dr. Ulhas Prabhakar Chandekar, Director at Unilogic Systems said.
Speaking to ChannelTimes, Dr Chandekar pointed out, “Currently there are 100 such units which have their base in STPI. Among the early movers could be at least 20 big units that have high revenues and employee strengthens. Many more would leave the STPI campus in next two years.”
“The attractiveness of the Nagpur STPI Scheme has severely gone down since the withdrawal of income tax exemption benefit in April 2011, and only 6.45 percent units under the STPI found the Scheme to be useful after withdrawal of the exemption benefit,” Dr. Chandekar added.
The study found that 79 percent units of STPI Nagpur expected Special Packages to Micro & Small enterprises and 69 percent expected reintroduction of 100 percent Income Tax Exemption benefit.
On the positive side, however, 50 percent units of STPI Nagpur rated STPI as “Far Superior”, 34 percent as “Superior” and 16 percent as “At Par”, when compared with other government establishments, with which they were dealing.
Dr. Chandekar also mentioned, “I chose the topic on STPI because IT industry is an extremely important pillar of Indian Economy. The state of Maharashtra is a preferred IT destination because of its industry friendly IT/ITES policy.About 79 percent, STPI centres are set up in tier- II and tier- III cities and Nagpur, the second capital of Maharashtra, happens to be one of them.”
Among the companies planning to move are prominent IT/ITES Companies like Persistent Systems, Ebex Group, Zeon Solutions and Infosys.
In fact, STPI Nagpur has been operational since 1999 and has catalyzed the growth of Software Export Oriented units. It has arrested brain drain, created many entrepreneurs in a small city and put Nagpur on the global IT map.
The city of Nagpur is a strategic educational centre of Central India, with close to 60 Engineering Colleges in and around Nagpur. These institutions are a ready source of English-speaking technically qualified manpower, required by various STPI units. Moreover, Nagpur is an ideal location for Software Export oriented units.
Meanwhile, the local IT association of Nagpur,(VCMDWA) President, Prashant Ugemuge and Secretary, Vinod Verma congratulated Chandekar on his achievement and felicitated him recently.