Flood mars IT biz in AP and Karnataka

Chennai: Recently, heavy rains and floods have hit the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Partners across the country look forward to this time of the year as this is when they incur major profits. However, the natural calamity has dampened the festive spirit among partners in these states.

Though there has been no physical damage to goods, many partners in the region said that their business has been severely impacted. They said that it would take a few weeks for the situation to go back to normal.

Secunderabad-based Compage Computers has a branch office in Kurnool, which is one of the worst affected areas in AP. Due to the floods, the office remained closed. Sudharshan of Compage Computers said, “Our goods are thankfully safe because the office is located at a higher altitude. All our branch employees are also safe.”

Murali of Expert Systems & Software from Vizag mentioned that business has gone down by 50 percent in the past week. He too hopes that the situation will be under control by next week. Belgaum-based Compu-Aid's CEO Gururaj Kalghatgi said, “For the past 10 days business is down by 60 percent.”

Raising concerns about logistics, KRC Reddy of Secunderabad-based Rohan Peripherals said, “Business is certainly down, but with transportation severely affected due to the floods, the situation may worsen.” Concurring with his view, Kiran Karchi of Belgaum-based Syscon said, “We are concerned about the logistics and distribution issues.”

Manoj Michael of E-business System in Belgaum said, “Though there is no big damage in Belgaum like its surrounding areas, business here has stalled.”

Ajay Heda of Heda Computers & Services said, “People are not leaving their houses at all. No one can tell that Diwali is round the corner. This is one of the important seasons for the IT business but sadly, things are going from bad to worse. We will have to wait and see whether the situation returns to normal before Diwali.”