IT revolution limited to a few cities

Union Minister of State for Power and Commerce Jairam Ramesh on Friday expressed concern over the IT revolution remaining confined to six major cities.

Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune accounted for 95 per cent of the exports in the information technology sector which touched $40 billion during 2007-08.

The “concern is how to spread the benefits of the IT revolution to other parts of country,” he said on the occasion of signing of a memorandum of understanding between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Jammu and Kashmir Bank here.

There were certain hurdles to achieving the goal, one of them being non-availability of broadband Internet services. “Kolkata accounts for two per cent of the IT exports but that was possible only after TCS made an entry into West Bengal a few years ago.”

Likewise, its entry into Assam was another major step in spite of the situation there.

“We are looking forward to seeing J&K as a major destination for investment and this has to be something beyond recruitment,” Mr. Ramesh said.