IT SEZ from realty firm in Ahmedabad

A city based realty developer Calica Construction and Impex pvt Ltd laid the foundation stone for an It and ITeS Special Economic Zone here on Sunday.

The SEZ will be spread over 20 acres of land on the outskirts of the city and would house small and medium sized information technology companies.

The developers have planned to complete the first phase of the project in two years with initial investment of Rs 300 crore while total estimated cost of the project is Rs 650 crore.

Union minister of state for small and medium enterprises Dinsha Patel and Gujarat minister of state for industry and energy Saurabh Patel were among those present at the foundation stone lying ceremony.

According to Bipin Shah, one of the developers of the new venture, the company has already got the notification from the Board of Approval (BoA) for SEZ and other clearances are in the process.

He said that over 30,000 square feet space will be created for the It and ITeS companies.

He added that they are also in the process of tying up with major IT firms to set up their centres in the SEZ which would offer world class infrastructural facilities.

Agencies

Indian firms to shift to Cloud services, says IDC report

Around 40 percent of Indian enterprises are considering the adoption of cloud services to save costs and compete in the challenging market environment reveals, an IDC report. Currently only five percent of the Indian enterprises have adopted cloud technology. "The main reason in India that is driving the interest towards cloud technologies, is its cost-cutting potential," says Surajit Sen, Director Channels, Marketing and Alliances at NetApp India, a storage and data management solutions provider.

Looking at the growing demand for cloud computing, NetApp has unveiled certain enhancements to its storage line. The company is particularly bullish on the Indian market, which is showing more interest to adopt cloud technologies.

"As the technologies supporting cloud computing have improved, the adoption is also set to grow now," said Alok Bardiya, Vice President, Managed Services and Marketing at Tata Communications, which is a cloud computing service provider in India. NetApp is the technology partner for Tata Communications, which has over a million square feet of datacenters around the globe including six datacenters in India.

NetApp unveiled the latest version of its Data ONTAP cloud platform called Data ONTAP 8. According to Sen, the Data ONTAP 8 is a combination of the earlier platforms Data ONTAP 7G and Data ONTAP GX. With this product offering, the company aims to increase the demand for cloud technologies in markets like India.

The Data ONTAP 8 comes with enhancements such as a new technology for seamlessly moving complete data volumes across multiple storage systems called Data Motion. Other enhancements include a new version of its add-on modules for increasing storage performance, an improved end to end multi-tenancy for better security and a new high-density capacity expansion device for its storage appliances.

Agencies

UK firms eye India to beat recession

India is top on the priority list of many British corporate houses as many companies having business in India have been able to survive the economic slowdown. Now over 500 UK firms want to expand in India.

"We are no more just talking about India, we are here in India," said Sharon Bamford, chief executive officer of UK-India Business Council. The council opened its office in Mumbai on Thursday.

"India is in a better position than most other nations to face recession," Bamford said."Our survey shows that over 500 UK firms want to expand in India.

" Three companies, incuding architectural firms Benoy, Sturgis and service office provider Avanta have already opened their offices in India this month. Nuclear power generating and ancillary firms from UK want to be part of the nuclear power opportunity in India.

Seventeen such companies, including Rolls Royce, have met Indian government officials.
Agencies

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