The Big Blue has proposed setting up a disaster recovery centre with a data bank at Hyderabad. This apart, India's richest man -- Azim Premji of Wipro -- has indicated to chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, that the company would start operations in the port city of Visakhapatnam.

The chief minister who returned from Bangalore after meeting several industrialists disclosed this to the media.

"While welcoming the proposal we have suggested to IBM that they set up the facility in the proposed Financial District which will come up near Hyderabad," he said.

In view of the increasing BPO activities in Hyderabad, the necessity for such a centre has increased, he felt. Being the supplier of mainframe computers to all the banking sector companies, IBM is expected to set up an alternate databank for all these institutions.

If the data at either end is destroyed in case of a fire accident or any other unforeseen eventuality, the disaster recovery centre will allow the particular company to recover the lost data from this centre.

Terming the Bangalore visit a very fruitful event, the chief minister said that Andhra Pradesh as a state was marketed to industrialists who were looking for an alternative to expand their business activities, as Bangalore was getting clogged.

Besides the IBM project, food processing major MTR has come forward to set up a Food Park in Andhra Pradesh along with a couple of their own food industries. "We offered them land and advised them to choose the place of their own choice," the chief minister said.

Disclosing the details of his interaction with the Wipro chief, Rajasekhara Reddy said that Azim Premji told him that the company was going to recruit more software professionals at its Hyderabad centre.

In the biotechnology sector, companies like Avestha Gengraine have evinced interest in setting up their seed research facilities in the state, the chief minister said.

The government was planning to start an agency headed by the chief minister to follow up on all the efforts initiated in bringing new projects into the state, he said.

He reiterated that lower industrial power tariffs would play a crucial role in attracting industrial investments to the state.

"With huge natural gas resources and coal deposits in the state, we will be able to supply power at cheaper rates in the near future. AP Genco has already been asked to enhance its installed capacity towards this goal," he explained.