As corporates enter the third quarter, Information Technology (IT) and IT-Enabled Services industry is hoping for an early solution to the Telangana crisis .

“The way we hold meetings with our clients is completely changed. Earlier, we used to talk to them directly. Chances of muffling news of disturbances were very high then. Now they have started sending people of Indian origin to talk to us. You cannot hide anything now,” a top executive of ITsAP (Information Technology Industry Association of Andhra Pradesh), told Business Line .

This reflects a general worry among the IT entrepreneurs — small and big — in the State Capital. “Big companies with multiple locations can always tell their clients that they have alternative sites to carry on projects. But small and tiny firms that generally depend on one or two companies do not have that luxury,” Mr Ravi S. Rao, who heads the SME (small and medium enterprises) forum of ITsAP and Managing Director of Value Momentum Software Services, said.

Almost all IT firms, irrespective of their size, are getting embarrassing queries from clients. Cost of production of some companies has gone up as they have to provide transport and virtual private networks to connect with teams working on critical jobs.

Power relief

With a view to improve the situation from worsening further, a Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) team met the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, last week to seek Government help. Led by Mr B. V. R. Mohan Reddy, who is a Nasscom executive committee member and the head of its Engineering Services team, and Mr J. A. Chowdary, who represents The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

It seemed to have an immediate effect. The IT industry was spared from the three-day power holiday declared by the Government to tide over the power crisis following severe fall in coal production as Singareni Collieries employees joined the general strike in the Telangana region.

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