Similarly, RK Agarwal's Alliance Computer in Bhadrak, has earned Rs 1 crorefrom software export during the year. Agarwal's father has a rice mill inthe town. Now the younger Agarwal has diversified and has set up softwaredevelopment centre Alliance Computer employing 50 professionals. "Looking atthe success of Trinath Rao and RK Agarwal, we are proposing to set upSoftware Technology Parks at small towns like Balasore, Baripada,Bhawanipatna and Sambalpur," director of Bhubaneswar-based SoftwareTechnology Park of India Manas Ranjan Patnaik told The Financial Express.

Stating that there was a mad rush for registration of units with STPI, hesaid mostly young and second generation entrepreneurs have come up forestablishment of their software development centres in the state.

The Software Technology Park has about 139 registered units of which about45 have become operative. About 25 units have started exporting softwareprogrammes to cater to the needs of banking, insurance and port sectors.Some of the units, mostly small ones, have earned forex from e-commerceservices and IT-enabled services.

The Bhubaneswar-based park has started catching up with other such parks inthe country. Despite the setback due to the super-cyclone, it has registeredthe highest growth rate of 80 per cent in the country in software exportsduring the 1999-2000. The average growth rate of software exports at thenational level is 50 per cent during the year. The park has recorded Rs91.20 crore exports during 1999-2000 against Rs 54 crore the previous year.

While software giants like Infosys and Satyam have emerged as majorexporters with forex earning of Rs 70 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively, newunits such as Ficus, Iswar, Versatile Communications, Mindtree, CybertechSoftware & Multimedia, have done well during the year. The exports were mademostly to the US, Europe, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. On theflip side, the park has missed the export target of Rs 100 crore for theyear. "Due to the cyclone, we were not able to achieve the target set forthe year", said Patnaik. Because of networking failure and exit ofprofessionals, the units could not operate properly for about three months,he added.

Patnaik said the Software Technology Park is confident of exceeding thisyear's target of Rs 200 crore. Stating that steps are being taken to set upan earth station at Rourkela, he said if that materialised then exportsearning this year may go up to Rs 250 crore. The park's revenue generatedfrom its high-speed data communication lines has increased to Rs 1.2 crorefrom Rs 60 lakh the previous year. The park plans to convert thepoint-to-point communication facilities at its units to point-to-multiplepoint communication system with an investment of Rs 60 lakh.