IT's still happening in Andhra

Brand Hyderabad finally arrived in style on the IT map of the country in 2004. Three big ticket happenings towards the end of the year confirmed the credentials that the city had slowly been building up as a preferred destination for IT investments, software and hardware, in the country.

In November mid-week the world's largest software company Microsoft announced the setting up of its largest campus outside the US in the city.

In the first week of December the state government entered into an MoU with Korea-based Intellect Inc to set up the country's first chip facility, at a cost of about $3.1 billion, in the city.

A week later the icing on the cake followed when Connecticut-based Gartner Inc, a $858 million research and consulting services provider to the global information technology industry, predicted that Hyderabad would steal the thunder from Bangalore and Mumbai as an IT destination by 2010.

The irony of these events though was hard to miss. It came during the political stewardship of a chief minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, whose march to power was because of his avowed priority for the farming sector.

The man who actually helped build brand Hyderabad as an IT destination in the country and abroad, N Chandrababu Naidu, had been handed one of the worst electoral defeats in his party's history.

Microsoft's choice of Hyderabad to set up its biggest campus outside the US, as compared to a city like Bangalore, is significant because at one level it affirms what is probably the worst kept secret in the IT world.

Hyderabad's physical infrastructure "� roads, power, water "� is far better than that of Bangalore, where infrastructural issues are forcing companies to look at other investment destinations.

That apart, Steve Ballmer, the chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation, pointed out that while Microsoft would conservatively ramp up its employee numbers at Hyderabad, about half of Microsoft's global applications will be developed at the centre.

The facility, which is spread over 28 acres, will be working on core products of the company like MSN, Windows, Longhorn, and others.

The second major announcement came soon after when Hyderabad was the destination of choice for Korea's Intellect Inc for the setting up of a chip facility.

Intellect Inc, a Seoul-based company had set up eight major chip centres across the globe and now it wanted to do the same in Hyderabad. Of the total investment in the facility, expected to be close to $3.1 billion, $600 million would be invested in the first phase and the remaining $2.5 billion in the second phase (two years after the first facility is set-up).

The MoU for the facility, to be named India Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ISMC), was signed on December 7 and commercial production is expected to commence towards the end of 2006 or early 2007.

The first phase of the ISMC is expected to provide employment to 2,500 people and by the time the second phase is ready around 10,000 people are expected to get employment. The fab facility is also expected to spawn the creation of 250 ancillary industries.

And then, at the fag end of the year, the finale came in the form of Gartner's latest India report that gave a thumbs up to Hyderabad and Chennai as favoured Indian destinations for IT outsourcing by 2010.

The reason for the Gartner assessment was simple "� "good quality educational institutions, good quality physical infrastructure and active political support".

Also Qualcomm, the CDMA technology major, and Cypress Semiconductor have set up their research and development centres in the city.

Events that finally helped seal the international branding quest of Hyderabad as a global IT destination.