These states have already set up task forces to work out strategies to get maximum investments in the sector.F Taking a cue from the Central government, states have started extending sops like tax holiday, land at concessional rates, exemption from sales tax and so on. Gujarat, which announced the IT policy three days ago, is the latest to come out with incentives for IT companies.F For the first time the need to get state-wise export figures is also being felt. The Maharashtra Government has asked the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) for such a list to salvage its badly bruised image as a laggard in IT.

It is also publicising the fact that 115 of the 430 top software houses are headquartered inMumbai as against 87 in Bangalore and 37 in Hyderabad, to counter the negative image.F Until now, software industry associations did not deem it necessary to compile state-wise export figures. Doing such a study is also error-prone because nearly every major software company has development centres in more than one state. "We are trying to get something done on this front but the companies themselves do not have ready figures on the exact amount of work done in each centre," explains Lalit Kanodia, chairman (western region), Electronic and Software Promotion Council (ESP).

Kanodia's own company, Datamatics Ltd, has development centres in all metros. Others like Tata Consultancy Services have centres in almost every state.F An attempt to collate export figures by ESP, however, yielded Karnataka the top position followed by Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh bringing up the rear for 1999-98. Andhra Pradesh recently shot into prominence when Microsoft chose Hyderabad over Bangalore to house itsdevelopment centre. The billion-dollar software goliath has only two other development facilities in the world.