Mohali, Jan. 27 : The northern State of Punjab promises a huge business potential for those willing to invest in the Information Technology (IT) sector.

The State is fast emerging as an information technology destination.

Thanks to pro-IT policies of the State government, Punjab is globally competitive and a leading State in the field of information technology. Availability of needed infrastructure and skilled manpower has attracted multinationals to invest in Punjab.

Chandigarh-based Seasia Consulting is an ISO-Certified premier software development company, providing its customers with the most modern and competitive IT solutions.

Established in 1997, Seasia Consulting has annual sales around one million dollars and caters to clients in USA, Europe and Africa.

Col.(Retd.) Anil Khanna, the Chief Executive Officer of the Seasia Consulting, said: "PTU (Punjab Technical University) at Jalandhar has about 142 colleges under it. These colleges are producing enough technical manpower to work in these companies. So the smallest amount required for a particular area to develop is already there.

"Previously, individuals used to go to south India--Hyderabad, Bangalore--to find jobs. Now they don''t have to go. So that the critical mass has already been achieved now if anybody (businessman) is willing to come here, he has ready manpower. In about six months time, Chandigarh is going to have an international airport. All the customers from around the globe can land directly at Chandigarh and do business," Khanna added.

Ajay Tewari, the Chief Executive Officer, Smart Data, says: " We don''t belong to this region originally. We are not from Punjab or Chandigarh area. We came here for the reason, we picked up strictly due to the similarity between Chandigarh region with, to large extent with what we see in the Silicon Valley--in open mindedness high network income people, a very strong focus on education exposure, and, I would say, a very good support from the Govt. agencies."

Already 260 companies have registered with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and 135 out of these are exporting their services actively.

In fact, in 2007-08, the software exports from Chandigarh and Mohali region were a staggering 117 million USD.

Ajay Srivastava, Asst. Director, STPI in Mohali, says: "We already have big investments like INFOSYS, DHEL, QUARK. An echo system has been developed so, there is always a good road map for new bigger investment to come into this region. The best thing that I can see is, presently, if you see there is a slowdown in a economy, so it''s a very good time for us to gear up for attracting the next investment in this region."

Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula have been able to attract IT bigwigs like Infosys and Dell. And, the opportunities are there for others as well.

Challenger cities like Ahmedabad and Chandigarh have done well to become a part of the challengers' list according to a recent survey by AT Kearney. (ANI)