Consultancy biz to hit Rs 12,000 cr in A P

Consultancy business volume, which was Rs 9 crore (Rs 90 million) in 1993 and Rs 5,500 crore (Rs 55 billion) in 2004 in Andhra Pradesh, is expected to touch Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) by 2010, I D Prasad, chief consultant, Apitco, a premier consultancy organisation, said.

Prasad is scouting for franchisee network partnerships in coastal districts. The number of consulting firms in AP, which was 64 in 1993 and 950 in 2004, would rise to 1,500 by 2010, he said.

There were 151 individual consultants in 1993 and 350 in 2004 in the state and their number would grow to 600 by 2010. About 70 consultancy R&D institutions would be in business in 2010, whose number was 33 in 1993 and 50 in 2004.

With regard to business education institutions, he said, 130 new institutions would make their presence felt in state by 2010. There were 12 business education institutions in 1993 and 70 in 2004. About 20 financial institutions functioned in 1993 but their number crashed to 5 now.

About 10 per cent of over 1.2 crore (12 million) small-scale industries in the country, apart from numerous medium sized-units and rural industries, located in Andhra Pradesh, he added.

While 60 per cent of these industries operate at the district-level, the remaining are spread over three cities – Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada.

Prasad said all these units urgently need formation, accounting, auditing and taxation services, access to better technologies, market expansion, joint ventures, business management and capital to sustain and grow in the present day cut-throat competitive world.

AP is ranked fourth in industry, agriculture and population in the country with GSDP recorded at Rs 1,99,450 crore (2004-05) and per capita GSDP at Rs 25,218.

The industrial production (2004-05) was Rs 70,795 crore (Rs 707.95 billion) while Rs 1,71,906 crore (Rs 1719.06 billion) had been invested in 1,090 projects (2004-05) in services (26.9 per cent), manufacturing (19.5 per cent) and others (53.6 per cent).

About 70 per cent clients would come from overseas in 2010 as against the present 72 per cent. There were no overseas clients in 1993. The private sector contributed to 65 per cent of clients in 1993.

Their percentage came down to 12 per cent in 2004 and would further go down to 10 in 2010, he added.

The services clients would seek include software solutions, mergers and acquisitions, public-private partnerships, capacity building for sustainable livelihoods, HR interventions, and implementation of manufacturing projects.