Bhubaneswar, July 9 Despite the global economic slowdown, software exports from Orissa grew by 39.05 percent in 2008-09 over the year before, officials said Thursday.

The total IT exports of the state stood at Rs.1,168 crore last fiscal as against Rs.840 crore the year before, said Manas Panda, officer in charge of the Bhubaneswar unit of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI).

“The software exports from the state for the first time crossed the Rs.1,000-crore mark and achieved a gross figure of Rs.1,168 crore,” Panda told IANS.

Out of total exports, the STPI units contributed Rs.1,162 crore, while the special economic zone units contributed Rs.6 crore, he added.

Infosys Technologies is the largest exporter from the state last fiscal with exports worth Rs.810 crore, while Satyam came second with Rs.190 crore and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) third with Rs.73 crore.

There are 112 software companies in the state, of which only 40 are in exports business, the official said.

At least 70 percent of the total software exports from Orissa were to the US, Panda said.

The state had 29 IT and IT enabled service (ITeS) units registered under the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) scheme in 2001-02 and its software exports that year stood at Rs.180 crore.

The number of units rose to 54 units in 2004-05, while exports went up to Rs.382 crore.

“The growth in the IT sector has been possible on account of the expanding technical talent pool, lower operational cost, proactive ICT (information and communication technology) policy of the state government and aggressive investment promotion efforts by the IT department,” Panda said.

A state IT department official said Orissa’s performance was better than the national average of IT exports growth, which was 21 percent.

“Besides Orissa, Kerala and Gujarat are the only two states in the Rs.1,000 cores plus software exports category. They have registered a higher growth rate than Orissa last fiscal,” the official told .