Posco ICT Company Ltd, an IT firm which was registered with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)-Bhubaneswar, has decided to wind up its operations in the city and relocate to the Delhi-NCR region.
“Posco ICT Company Ltd has applied for winding up of their operations in Bhubaneswar in January 2011. The board of directors of the company based out of Korea has decided to close the Bhubaneswar office and relocate the team and operations to Delhi-NCR region”, state IT minister Ramesh Majhi said in the state Assembly.
It may be noted that Posco ICT is the IT arm of South Korean steel giant Posco, which proposed to set up a 12 million-tonne steel plant near Paradip. However, the company is unable to make any progress on its steel project even after six years of signing of MoU due to stiff resistance of the locals.
The exit of Posco ICT also highlights the fading interest of IT firms in Bhubaneswar as an investment destination.
The city was poised to drive the next phase of IT growth with the presence of the four IT bigwigs — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro and Mahindra Satyam, which had also announced plans to expand their operations further.
There were a rush of investment proposals from the other prominent IT investors including MindTree Consulting, Genpact, DLF, Raheja Corporation, Zensar Technologies, ICICI Bank and the Kolkata-based Apeejay Surrendra Group.
However, lack of resolve by developers as well as the state IT department in expediting these projects seems to have put those on the backburner.