Before proclaiming Pune as the new IT Eden, there are some hiccups. Transport is one. Pune’s airport is still controlled by the Indian Air Force, and there is no sign that Pune will get an airport of its own. But a proposed international airport in the vicinity of Navi Mumbai and the much talked-about expressway should make life easy for frequent travelers. And the city itself does not have much of a public transport system to talk about. You need to depend on your own private vehicle or the ubiquitous three-wheelers.

Arora feels lack of planned development may inhibit growth. He says, "As the infrastructural needs build up, there is a necessity of commensurate planned initiatives ahead of time to cater to the developing needs of roads, housing, recreational facilities, commercial plazas, water, electricity and civic amenities. The city administration needs to be alive of this situation and take adequate measures to prevent opportunities from becoming bottlenecks."

Murali Santhanam, MD, Jobcurry.com, feels the state government is positively oriented towards growth of IT. "However, it needs to concentrate on upgrading core infrastructure sectors like public transport, roads, traffic regulation, water and more importantly, power supply."

Anupam Bhide, CEO, Indra Networks—which is developing a product that should make web access faster—says "Companies in the Silicon Valley have done well because you’ll find any skill you need among them, people with esoteric skills."

"The Maharashtra government should lay more emphasis on marketing Mumbai and Pune effectively. Though Maharashtra accounts for most of the country’s software exports, it hardly gets credit for it. This is largely the result of some unimaginative marketing of the state’s trump cards. The need of the hour is to bring about fundamental changes in infrastructure and e-governance to market the state within and outside India. I believe things are now moving in the right direction," says Achyut Godbole, MD, Concio Technologies. Ashutosh Parasnis, director, PTC, says, "It’s a chicken-and-egg story: to build the infrastructure first and attract the investors or vice-versa." He feels the government should invest in top-level infrastructure for better connectivity, travel and also in making the procedural aspects simpler.

Surendra N Agarwal, president and COO, Neilsoft, feels Pune is well positioned to emerge as the country’s IT hub and lists the following issues in his preferred order of importance: technical competence, education, labor supply, government incentives, telecom infrastructure, productivity and cost and venture capital.

Bhide agrees. "Pune needs a more focussed assistance from the state government. It needs to invite a lot of dignitaries. Any PR exercise from the government is not apparent and is not happening adequately." Natarajan assures of making Zensar Pune’s best employer, providing ample job challenges in a range of technologies and domains. He adds confidently, "We aim to change the geography and history of Pune in IT in the next few years."

Existing industry

Pune, the home to a strong automobile and engineering industry, promises to provide a fertile ground for IT organizations too. Some world-class facilities have already been set up by companies specializing in software development and test automation for the engineering and manufacturing industries. And opportunities in Pune are immense in IT-enabled services for engineering process automation and IT infrastructure automation. The city is all set to emerge as a much sought-after IT hub of India.

• Nasscom, Nasdaq Coming to Pune
• IT Companies in Pune

Bijesh Kamath in Pune with inputs from Nanda Kasabe