A new Hitech Electronic City is on the anvil in Andhra Pradesh. It is to be located in the premises of Lepakshi Knowledge Hub (LKH) in Ananthapur. According to its managing director S Balaji, the project will come up in about 2,650 acre within the 10,000 acre of the LKH. The project will be taken up in a joint venture with the Vittal Innovation City (VIC) and Global Emerging Markets (GEM).

The Lepakshi Electronic Hub, which will put India along the select countries that have global hi-tech innovation ecosystems, is expected to attract investments of more than Rs 11,000 crore and create employment for 75,000 in five to ten years. GEM, a $3.4 billion alternative investment group headquartered in Geneva, will bring in the investments for the project while VIC, led by N Vittal, former secretary, union electronics and telecommunications ministry, has prepared the concept master plan and will develop the project along with the LKH.

When completed, LKH will make it the largest multi industry cluster system in the country. In the next years, it is expected to bring in investments to the tune of $4 billion and create employment opportunities to 1.5 lakh people directly and to another 3,00,000 indirectly. The concept proposes a green ecosystem that includes knowledge-based services, manufacturing, research and development and incubation activities inspired by technology hubs like the Silicon Valley in the US, Hsinchu in Taiwan and Tsukuba in Japan. "The Hi-tech Electronic City project will provide an opportunity for India to leapfrog in electronics and IT hardware manufacturing on the lines similar as IT sector," said Balaji adding that this would be positioned into a special category for electronics. "Various clusters are in different stages of progress and will be ready in five to ten years as projected," he said.

This would be in line with the focus of the Government of India to create electronics clusters in India for national competitiveness in this area. Apart from the Electronic City, LKH will house several industry clusters that include aerospace and defence, education and innovation, agribusiness, healthcare, science and technology, media and entertainment and logistics.