HITEC city areas to be named 'Cyberabad'

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JAN. 19. The State Government proposes to call the areas around HITEC City, Infocity, the Indian School of Business, the Indian Institute of Information Technology, and the Sports City ``Cyberabad''. Within one month the areas meant for IT development in this zone will be earmarked, according to the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the new facility of Infotech Enterprises at Infocity (adjacent to HITEC City), here, on Wednesday, he said the issue of Cyberabad and earmarking of areas for IT- focussed development was also discussed at the recent meeting of the State Investment Promotion Board.

The recently promoted State level board for IT promotion will be called ``Andhra First''. This board comprises among others representatives (promoters) of Satyam, Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), he said.

Mr. Naidu said even 50 years after independence, India was suffering because the ``mindset'' was proving to be the main hurdle for development. The country had missed other opportunities (industrial revolution etc), but ``India cannot afford to miss the IT Revolution. IT is knowledge, wealth, everything. Those who adopt it will prosper,'' he said adding ``we must have a mega dream and mega vision.''Stressing the need to develop world-class infrastructure to support the IT industry in India, he said unless high speed digital networks were developed and the required bandwidth provided to IT companies, the sector would not be able to benefit from the immense opportunities.``The monopoly of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) was a big hurdle to IT development and I have been requesting the Government of India to remove the monopoly,'' he said. Mr. Naidu, who returned from a visit to Dubai, pointed out that cell-to-cell and local calls were free there. Voice on Internet was free in China.

Mr. B. V. R. Mohan Reddy, Chief Executive Officer of Infotech Enterprises, said the company's endeavour was to become a global IT company.

Mr. Randal Sage, Chief Operational Officer of Analytical Surveys Inc (U.S.), Mr. R. Chandrasekhar, Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), and Mr. Rajiv Lal, head of Infotech's Development Centre, spoke.

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