India Post News Service

NEW JERSEY: In a bid to garner support for its efforts to create an IT/BPO Park exclusively for small and medium IT enterprises in Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh, India, the Small & Medium Enterprises Consortium (SMEC) held a business meet at the Royal Albert Palace in New Jersey on Nov 3.

The meet attended by more than 150 IT entrepreneurs from New Jersey and across the nation, was primarily aimed at forming a united front to lobby with lawmakers in both countries, and safeguard the interests of the small and medium IT businesses through the Consortium.

The SMEC, a non-profit registered in New Jersey, comprises mainly small and medium size companies that are willing to provide employment and investment in Andhra Pradesh, India.Formed with an initial membership of 20 like-minded entrepreneurs, the SMEC recently presented the Government of Andhra Pradesh with a proposal to put up the Small Medium Enterprise Park to which the state government has agreed in principle with a commitment to allot land for the purpose.

The SMEC aims to invest Rs. 2,500-3,000 crore to create the SME Park and in the process generate 25,000 jobs in the Andhra Pradesh alone.In order to achieve its ambitious goals, the already 150-member strong SMEC is in the process of convincing more SMEs to become members and pool in their strengths and resources.

Welcoming the participating delegates, Mahender Musuku, Chairman, SMEC, said the Consortium was an initiative formed with the objective of creating a world class IT/BPO facility exclusively for SMEs in Software Industry who have been facing competition and not getting the competitive edge for lack of enough support services. "SMEs face a number of common issues, both here and in India," said Musuku.

"The biggest problem SMEs face is of retaining employees. Immigration is another major issue and then there is the problem of finding good infrastructure for back office operations in India."Musuku pointed out that although the AP government has given huge concessions and benefits to IT giants like Microsoft and Infosys, these companies have not generated as much employment as was expected.

"Together the SMEs generate more employment through back offices in India than Microsoft or Infosys with their established offices in Hyderabad. So we want the AP government to provide us with proper infrastructure for back offices while we commit to generate more employment and contribute to improving the social infrastructure of the state.

"Pointing to the benefits of joining the Consortium, Musuku told the delegates that SMEC will bring in other advantages like land at a low cost; tax reliefs; uninterrupted broadband connectivity; strong R&D facilities and capabilities; on-shore vendor ship to various MNCs in the US and in India; and representation to American lawmakers on issues of immigration.

"We are making efforts to meet with Consular officers in Chennai and Hyderabad with regard to visas for our recruits," Musuku said. "And in the US, we hope to form a caucus with Congressmen and Senators so that our voice is heard whenever the government takes up immigration issues.

"Introducing the SMEC Board members, Mohan Patalolla, President, SMEC, said the Consortium is formed by a team of successful entrepreneurs who have hands on experience with managerial, technical and entrepreneurial skills and expressed his confidence that the team would execute the project as planned.Ram Vedantham, Treasurer of SMEC said many of the US-based small and medium IT companies were already spending close to Rs. 1 crore per annum for their operations in Hyderabad.

"The combined budget of these companies can potentially become a huge investment to create the world class IT Park," he said."All of us have some operations in India and are dealing with the challenges there. If we combine our resources, we can have better infrastructure and achieve a lot more with unity like getting fair treatment both in the US and in India," Vedantham continued.

"With 300-400 member companies in the Consortium having close to half-a-billion dollars in investments, we can counter giants like Infosys and Accenture and get into the big game."Srikanth Gudipaati, SMEC Executive Director said the Government of AP has agreed in principle to support SMEC by offering infrastructure and other facilities.

"We are in the process of developing a detailed project report to build a campus-style environment that includes a business zone of 4 million sq ft, residential zone of 12 million sq ft, shopping zone and educational zone with world-class conference facilities apart from recreational areas."In a detailed presentation, Gudipaati said with a dedicated SME Park, members would be able to lower start-up costs, have easy access to office space and infrastructure, access to market research, and compete with major players for skilled workers.

A critical issue the SMEs face on the US end is that of accommodation for their new recruits coming from India. In many cases, employees put up in company guest houses are facing eviction from local authorities for sharing what are technically, single family houses.

Gudipaati emphasized the need for an exclusive support service cell for SMEs in IT industry and explained how the SMEC would meet that need.Detailing the SMEC's visit to Andhra Pradesh in August where members met with Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and State IT Minister Damodar Reddy, Kishore Ganji said the SMEC was now busy preparing the project report on one hand and actively involved in enrolling members on the other hand.

He informed that the SMEC has opened offices in the US and India.Subbarow V. Chennuri, Director-India Operations, explained that the SMEC India office in Hyderabad was fully functional with Project Consultants, lawyers and customer service staff.

The SMEC is also appointing office bearers in different regions within the US and in Europe, Australia and Singapore. Announcing that the next SMEC business meet would be in San Jose to reach the Bay Area IT community, Musuku urged the participating delegates to become members, which involves an initial fee of $2500.

The presentations were followed by a question & answer session, where participants came up with a number of pertinent questions with regard to the logistics of the proposed IT/BPO Park in Hyderabad.