Bhubaneswar, May 28: The state government today claimed that Odisha's IT export had increased around 35 fold in the last 17 years.

"The IT export from the state was valued at only Rs 91 crore in 2000. It has increased to Rs 3,400 crore in 2016-17," said electronics and information technology minister Chandrasarathi Behera while briefing newspersons about the achievements of his department.

"A higher-than-national IT growth has placed the state in a commendable position in the IT map of the country," said Behera.

While the number of companies exporting IT goods was only 35 in 2000, it has gone up to 88 in 2014 and further up to 115 in 2017. Similarly, only 1,500 persons had got employment in IT sector in 2000. The number of IT personnel increased to 9,800 in 2014 and further to 17,000 in 2017.

Speaking about the achievements made in the last three years in the IT sector, Behera said four major IT companies - Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) - had made significant expansion of their development centres in Bhubaneswar. While Infosys has started its second development centre in 2015, TCS has made its second phase expansion with its second software development block in December, 2014. Similarly, Wipro has expanded with the establishment of an additional software development block. These three IT majors have created an additional employment of 4,700 IT professionals in the last three years.

IT major MindTree has started its operation from Bhubaneswar with establishment of its Global Learning Centre from September 2015, with a manpower of 900. Its expansion will be completed in the next six months which will have additional employment of 1,400 IT professionals, said the minister.

Two BPO companies - Convergence and Rural Shore - have also started their operations from Bhubaneswar and Jaleswar, respectively. A new BPO policy is likely to be announced in December to promote the sector to create more employment opportunities both in rural and urban areas, he informed newspersons.

The state government has set up two IT special economic zones - Infocity and InfoValley. Infocity, set up over 247 acres of land in 2000, houses 16 IT companies, while InfoValley is being developed on 262 acres on the city outskirts. Infosys has already started operating its second development centre InfoValley.