Ujjain: Small city; low hopes for IT Market

Ujjain, popularly known as City of Temples and also known for Kumbh Mela and Jyotirling - Mahakaleshwar Temple is one of the holy places in India. With population of not more than 8 lakh, Ujjain is still in need to be explored for the IT scenario in Madhya Pradesh.

One of the major issues of the city is the lack of Industrial area and non availability of land to build an industrial area. Hence, IT industry is also struggling to flourish. However, it is mostly famous for tourism and Poha industry in the country; IT markets and trade is running over quite a few places in the city. Freeganj is one of them. This place is which is considered as the busiest place in the city is an educational hub where IT market is also flourishing. Computer Dealers, traders and resellers mostly dealt in popular computer brands.

IT dealers here in the city have earlier formed an association to cater traders and sellers activities, issues and problems related to the business.

The association which is called Computer Traders Association of Ujjain is two decade old entity; however with the struggling scenario has lost its charm and is no longer very much active in the activities responsible for the growth of IT traders. Active member strength has been down sized to 30 to 40 members informed Shailendra Gandhi, owner of Online Computers who presently acts as the President of IT association in the city.

Asking on the activities of the CTAU he informed, “The association is not very active. We have not conducted a meeting even elections are due for a long time.” According to him the reason behind IT trader’s non activeness is the lack of IT business opportunities in the city. Also some of the business owners have shifted their trades to some other verticals.

Secretary of the association Gautam Nigam, owner of the System Control also agrees with the same. “From a long time elections has not been conducted in the association and we hope it will be conducted soon. People are also not taking interest and thus the number of members has also declined.” In their opinion IT market in small cities are suffering as there are no profits in the business because of the less industrialization.

The city also has several colleges which inculcate knowledge of science; Mahakal Institute Govt. Madhav Science PG College, Dewas Road, Ujjain of Technology, Ujjain Engineering College are some of them. While Vikram University and Maharshi Panini Sanskrit University are some of the landmark universities in the city. Despite of having so many colleges and institutes IT market is not very prominent.

Another member of the association Somvardhan Sule who owns business in Freeganj named as PC Hut advocates the scenario. According to him market condition is stagnant through out several years and association also needs some rejuvenation. We traders are connected via a WhatsApp group; whenever there is some problem; where we share our matters and issues on the platform. But this is just temporary there must be some solid ground where traders can put up their thoughts and matters.

Overall, the IT traders here are in dire need of the right platform as the IT markets here in Ujjain are scattered through out the city. Also, they seek some initiatives from the government side in the field of computer hardware and software services so that IT industry could flourish.