New Delhi (PTI): The northern states of the country lag behind the southern and western region in terms developing softwares meant for exports as well as domestic consumption, a study says.

While the southern states contributed nearly 61.54 per cent towards development of software followed by the western states at 19.4 per cent, the northern states contributed only 16 per cent to the total software development, industry body PHD chamber said.

The total worth of softwares developed in the country during 2006-07 was around Rs 1,83,151 crore, out of which the share of the northern states was Rs 28,936 crore.

For increasing the share of northern region to the total production of software, the chamber suggested that the tier-II and tier-III cities in Uttranchal and Punjab should be developed as software development centres.

The chamber also called for increasing the share of domestic consumption of software.

In 2006-07, the percentage of software exports to the total software development in the country was 79 per cent.

"The domestic consumption of software should be the driving force to gauge the buoyancy in the sector since increasing number of cliffhangers are developed in the export market," PHD Chamber President L K Malhotra said.

"Against the backdrop of increasing hardships of the software developers on account of the hardening rupee and increasing resistance from the software and ITeS importing countries, it is necessary that domestic opportunities are opened up for software firms, which will help them to the hedge the risk in the export market," he added.

Software exports for the year 2006-07 worked out to be Rs 1,44,214 crore while domestic consumption stood at Rs 38,937 crore.