Bangalore: Tamil Nadu is emerging as a key hub for Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in the country, particularly in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector, a top State Government official said today (Nov 5).

It is becoming the "BFSI capital" of the country, with institutions like World Bank, ABN AMRO, Standard Chartered Bank and Citi Bank increasing their operations from Chennai, Vivek Harinarain, IT secretary, Tamil Nadu, told reporters.

World Bank, which already has its accounting back office in Chennai, is soon going to have a "permanent presence" there, he said.

Top five financial institutions of the world will have their presence in Chennai in about five to six years, he said.

As far as IT is concerned, it rates second only to Bangalore. The growth of the software industry in Tamil Nadu has been spectacular, with software export of Rs 3,116 crore in 2001 to Rs 7,000 crore this year, he said.

The state has more than 900 software companies with a workforce of over 50,000 IT professionals, Harinarain said.

"Over 250 companies have been added last year. The going rate has been one company in every three days. We want to make it one company in every two days," he said.

Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT), a State Government enterprise, has over the years re-engineered itself as the IT enabling company and has been instrumental in promoting and assisting IT industries in the state, he said.

"With the help of ELCOT, Knowledge Industrial Township in Sholinganur called ELCOT city and also an IT tower at Perugudi and BU ELCOT city at Coimbatore will be coming up shortly," Sudeep Jain, managing director ELCOT said.

Small Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) has also developed a 1,000 acre IT park at Siruseri, While Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has recently taken 125 acres of land for their development offices here, Singapore Consortium is also developing an IT residential township in Siruseri complex to attract IT and ITES companies, he said.

"About 300 foreign companies have shown interest in SIPCOT," he said.

There is also the 1,700-acre IT park by the Mahindras with Tamil Nadu Industrial Corporation (TIDCO) as joint venture partner, where Infosys has taken about 130 acres of land for setting up their campus type development centre, Jain said.

ELCOT also has plans to develop 2,50,000 sq ft IT park in Coimbatore during the next 18 months, in which "TCS, Wipro, Polaris and three other MNCs have shown interest," Harinarain said.

Tamil Nadu also has made rapid strides in implementing e-governance initiatives in the registration department, land administration and management system in revenue department and computerisation of transport department among others, he said.

PTI