Software professionals at work at the Nath Corp office in Ranchi on Wednesday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Dec. 10: A US-based software company, whose founders have their roots in Ranchi, is setting up a development centre here, making it the first IT firm to repose its faith in Jharkhand at a time when the state is already feeling the pinch of a global economic meltdown.

The Jharkhand IT department feels the arrival of Nath Corp — a 100 per cent export- oriented company — would trigger a revival of sorts for the state’s fledgling IT sector that saw a downturn even before the economic slowdown kicked in.

Nath Corp is setting up its development centre at the capital’s posh Ashok Nagar area. It is scheduled to be formally inaugurated on Saturday by state science and technology minister Aparna Sengupta.

Nath Corp has also applied for incubation facilities at the Namkom industrial area-based Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) where it plans to house its administrative wing as of now.

Nath Corp founders, Rajivendra Nath (CEO) and Sanjivendra Nath (MD), are based in California. Both are IIT, Kanpur, alumnus who have worked in companies like Microsoft and Oracle. Rajivendra is also an alumnus of IIM, Bangalore, while Sanjivendra got his management degree from Berkeley University, US.

The Ranchi operations would be headed by their mother Usha, a renowned gynaecologist of the city.

In fact, the 3,100sqft development centre at Ashok Nagar is on the second floor of their own house — No. 214 on Road No. 1.

Nath Corp has already employed 15 engineering graduates from BIT, Mesra and other institutions in Chennai, Chandigarh and Jaipur.

“We are providing services to the US-based, 3M, to develop software for its electronic devices. We are working in the field of file-tracking systems and aspire to do more in our Ranchi-based facilities both at Ashok Nagar and STPI,” said V. K. Sinha, the company’s administrative officer.

Siddharth Rai, assistant director at STPI, was ecstatic. “This will be a big step for Ranchi and now, more software development companies would look here,” he said. “More so in the wake of the economic downturn whose impact is being felt domestically too.”