Madurai, Sept 30 (KNN) Madurai stands 20th in the list of most attractive IT destination in India, said Sanjay Tyagi, Director, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) on Friday.

A recent Deloitte report has identified Madurai as the 20th most attractive IT destination in the country, said Sanjay Tyagi, Director, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) on Friday.

He was speaking at the sixth edition of Connect Madurai 2023, a one-day conference-cum-exposition organised by Confederation of Indian Industry.

The event was on the theme, ‘ IT’s from Madurai to the Globe.” Quoting the Deloitte report, he said the city had exported software worth Rs 200 crore while it had the potential to do Rs 20,000 crore. It also has a huge potential for a large electronic manufacturing cluster.

Of the more than 5,000 software companies in the country registered with STPI, 1,000 are from Tamil Nadu. The State also accounts for about 60 per cent of India’s electronics manufacturing. 

“With exports worth Rs 2 lakh crore, Tamil Nadu is the third largest software exporter in India. But it can become the second most happening IT destination next to Karnataka,” Tyagi added.

CII convener of IT/ITeS Taskforce Thirumurugan Subbaraj said Madurai had over 190 companies employing 19,000 professionals. The total revenue of the industry stood at USD 225 million USD. 

Madurai Connect 2023 had sessions for participants to deliberate on key factors such as strengths of Madurai, Large Language Models, and industry-institute partnership.

Delivering the keynote address, IT and Digital Services Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said the State government would step up data driven, global marketing of its IT and ITeS sector, which has a huge role to play in making Tamil Nadu a USD 1 trillion economy by 2030 a reality.

The government is also keen to scale up its skill development programmes at least by two to three times to equip students to be employable in emerging technologies such as fintech, artificial intelligence, cyber security, and deep tech. 

“We are confident of producing tangible results on these fronts in the next six months to one year,’’ he added.  (KNN Bureau)