ABSTRACT
Nurturing a Software Industry in Kerala N. Dayasindhu, Pradeep G.
1. Introduction
India has established its presence as a global center for the software services industry. 185 of the Fortune 500 firms source software from India. The exports of software from India have been growing at a CAGR of over 60% to touch US$ 6.2 billion for 2000-2001. The biggest chunk of India’s software exports in 2001, about US$ 1.6 billion,1 originates from the southern Indian state of Karnataka (state capital: Bangalore). The other southern states; Tamil Nadu (state capital: Chennai) accounted for about US$ 0.7 billion,2 and Andhra Pradesh (state capital: Hyderabad) about US$ 0.4 billion3 of India’s exports in 2000-2001. Kerala (state capital: Thiruvananthapuram) another southern Indian state that does not boast of a metropolis like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh has registered software exports of about US$ 32 million in 2000-2001.4 The challenge of nurturing a software industry in Kerala is the agenda of this paper.
