Just an inch forward, still miles to go

Warangal: The much-awaited IT incubation centre phase-II that is  expected to give more fillip to the growth of IT industry in Warangal city, touted as the next destination after Hyderabad, is yet to get off the blocks, much to the disappointment of the local pool of engineering talent.

Since the inauguration of the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC)’s 15,000-sq.ft incubation centre at the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) near Madikonda village, 12 kms from the city, in February 2016, enabling startups, small and medium IT companies to operate in a 'plug-and-play' and hassle-free environment, only three companies - Kakatiya IT Solutions, Ventois Software Solutions and Cyient , a global engineering and digital solutions provider, - have come up in the facility.

In what is termed as a major boost for Warangal’s dreams of emerging as an IT centre, the Cyient (formerly Infotech Enterprises Limited) then also announced to establish a 70,000 square feet state-of-the-art technology development centre, known as Centre of Excellence (CoE), in a sprawling five-acre campus at the SEZ. The company also assured to employ 1,000 professionals from the region.

As of now, work on Cyient’s own facility is progressing at a reasonable pace. By February, the Cyient is expected to move to its new facility, according sources.  On the other hand, the government also promised to construct phase-II of the incubation centre adjacent to the existing one with an outlay of Rs 6 crore. The phase-II expansion would pave way for more number of IT companies to come up and absorb the local pool of engineering talent, according to Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari and IT Minister KT Rama Rao.

Although Cyient’s Executive Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy had announced that his company would recruit 200 software professionals in six months and 1,000 in two years, the number of employees is just around 80, it’s learnt. Together, the number of software professionals working from the IT incubation centre (including three companies) is just around 150.

Speaking to The Hans India, the TSIIC Warangal Zonal Manager Ratan Rathod said: “We have already called for tenders for the construction of phase-II IT incubation centre which would have an occupancy space of 10,000 sq ft. Most probably, work on new plug and play facility will begin in 
this month.”

On the other hand, SR Group launched SRiX (SR Innovation Exchange), a Technology Business Incubator (TBI), touted as the largest incubation centre in a tier 2 town, on its SR Engineering College campus in Warangal in March. 

Supported by a grant of Rs 9 crore from the Department of Science & Technology (DST) and Government of India, the SRiX is open to 
start-ups with focus on agriculture, clean tech and other cutting-edge technologies.