Tamil Nadu has clocked 20 per cent growth in software and hardware exports at nearly Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) for 2003-04, compared to Rs 6,316 crore (rs 63.16 crore) in the previous year, Jayakumar said at a seminar on 'The next IT Wave, Opportunities and Challenges,' organised by CII in Coimbatore.

Considering the growth, software exports were likely to touch Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) during this fiscal and at this scale, the state would become the number one exporter within two years, he claimed.

Saying that Chennai and its suburbs continued to be the major software exporting locations in the state, Jayakumar said that exports from there stood at Rs 7,557.64 crore (Rs 75.57 billion), followed by Coimbatore region at about Rs 85 crore (Rs 850 million).

Four major companies -- two each from banking and oil sectors from the Middle East, have taken space and would soon shift their operations to Chennai for their large outsourcing needs, particularly in the oil sector, Jayakumar said. The deal was struck during the visit of a state delegation led by him to Dubai recently, he said.

The minister said that Rs 7 crore (Rs 70 million) has been released to acquire land for the much awaited IT park in Coimbatore, where major companies like Wipro and TCS had already shown keen interest.