Raipur, being geographically located almost at the centre in the state of Chhattisgarh, holds extreme potential for technology. From virtual reality (VR), to gaming, to cloud, all of these see a good traction in the city. There are over 1,000 partners in Chhatishgarh, of which 300 are in Raipur, driving the value chain. Like every other Smart City, Raipur has its own technology demands to become a smart city itself. Also, in Raipur a hi-tech integrated command and control centre has been set-up by the Chhattisgarh government for better traffic management and surveillance in the city.
Manoj Bagdiya, Proprietor, Compute and Compile, who has seen the evolution of the Ranchi technology market for the last 25 years by virtue of being in the business for so long, informs that there is immense opportunity in the city. There are many steel and cement companies in Raipur apart from the corporates and SMBs which have huge appetite for technology implementation. Unlike other cities, Raipur has played out well in terms of IT hardware as well.
“After GST roll-out, the demand for laptops and desktops have increased. Small businesses are also procuring computers,” informs Devender Marwah, President, Chhattishgarh Computer and Media Dealers Association (CCMDA).
Marwah further says, “The demand for IT is not at par with the metros, but Raipur generates a big scale of demand. There is demand for servers. People are going for more and more gaming PCs. Computerisation in all government departments is happening rapidly. Now-a-days, the High Courts and even the smaller court judges have proper PCs in their cabins. Also, school, colleges and universities are getting technologically upgraded.”
Various vertical markets in Raipur bring in a spectrum of demand, where customers look for customised solutions.
“We do customised solutions for our customers which include software and hardware. Companies are approaching us to their offices automated, whereby apart from the general server, storage or network requirement there is requirement for video conferencing solutions, or access control for boss’ cabin. Also if a company has four or five offices in different locations they want the network and the systems to merge at one central control location,” says Bagdiya.
“There are customers who want on-site mobile billing which facilitates on-the-spot app billing and data synchronisation on a common server. There is also a lot of demand for VR, as there are big stores that want to give their customers a real-like experience. There are home décor and furnishing showrooms that want to display the furnitures and products to their customers, but may not do so as many products only come on a back-to-back order basis. VR headsets are a big hit in these cases. On the cloud front, not proper awareness is prevalent and perhaps that is why people are not ready to invest in a big way. But accounting and billing now-a-days is cloud based,” sums up Bagdiya.
