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capital of
and the largest city in the state, Patna is located
on the southern banks of the river Ganga. Known as Pataliputra in the
ancient times, the city also straddles the rivers Ghaghara, Sone,
Gandak and Punpun. Patna is a major agricultural hub with its
production of foodgrain, sugarcane, rice, etc making it one of the
major exporting centers. In June 2009, the World Bank ranked Patna in
second place in India, after Delhi, in terms of the ease of starting
a business. On the basis of assumed average annual growth, Patna has
been ranked as 21st fastest growing city in the world and 5th fastest
growing city in India by City
Mayors Foundation.
from agriculture, another talked-about sector in the city which
generates a handsome amount of business is the information technology
sector. The dealers of the city claim that the IT sector has always
been productive in the region, no matter how tough the situation is
elsewhere. Naveen Gupta, MD, Krishna Agency and secretary, Bihar
Information Technology Association (BITA), said, “Last two months
were good compared to the slight slump in November 2011. December was
better and January picked up further.” The city seemingly remained
unaffected by the recent hard drive crisis plaguing most the other
regions. Jaishankar Singh of Mohini Infotech said, “Although the
consumer segment suffered, corporate continued to do a good amount of
business. Overall, the market scenario was not that bad.” However,
talking about the crisis, both Singh and Gupta said in concurrence
that the assembled market was hit hard. “Assembled market in the
region suffered due to the recent hard drive crisis, as the dealer's
funds are stuck up. Laptops and desktops
are doing good, but the assembled market has gone down by 40%,”
said Gupta. Singh added, “Assembled market is doing bad due to hard
drive crisis. The sale of printers and other peripherals have gone
down. Only branded products are doing good, as the shopkeepers bought
stocks in advance. They are selling the stocked products now.”
about the most sought-after brands and products in the region, Gupta
said, “Dell HP, Lenovo and Acer are doing good business in the
region; and laptops are as usual the most sold product.” Mahesh
Agrawal of Maahi Computers is of the opinion that although laptop
sells the most, one cannot ignore the healthy amount of desktops
being sold every month. “HP, Dell and Sony are doing good in the
region. Talking about the sought-after products, I would say that the
laptop to desktop ration would be 60:40 in the region,” said
Agrawal. Most of the partners of the region claimed to have a
balanced relationship with their vendors. However, Singh said,
“Delivery issue do crop up sometimes, and unavailability of stocks
is an issue too. Problems are everywhere, but it is important to deal
with them nicely.”
Information
Technology Association (BITA) is the only active
association functioning at the local level. Gupta said, “BITA is
very active in the region. It looks after the problems of the
dealers. The association is also planning to hold elections in
Mar-Apr, 2012.”