A top official of a Nasdaq-listed IT firm today said that the European debt crisis will not harm the Information Technology (IT) business in India, and the environment for IT will become much better in the coming months than what it was like in 2009.

"I don't expect it (debt crisis) to hamper..I expect the environment to be much stronger than in 2009. However, it will take some time for people to reconcile with what has happened in Europe. The crisis has, however, left some question marks," Syntel International CEO and president Prashant Ranade said.

"There are some question marks about the situation in Europe....while demand is firming up, customers are thinking about releasing the projects, and a cloud of uncertainty has got people thinking...we will just keep watching to see how it unfolds," he said.

Syntel had posted stronger growth in the first quarter of 2010, he added.

Ranade was speaking to reporters at the inauguration function of Syntel's second global development centre at SIPCOT-IT Park in Siruseri, near here.

He said that the company would invest USD 50 million to develop the Chennai facility, which has a seating capacity of 10,000.

"This will be one of the two major centres in India, after our Pune centre. The second phase of the Chennai and Pune facilities is expected to be completed in two years," Ranade said.

To a query, he said that Syntel would invest nearly the same amount in Pune. Besides these two facilities, the company has also planned to set up two facilities each in Tirunelveli and Madurai.

Syntel International general manager and administration head N Saravanan said that the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Ndau has allotted 25 acres of land for the Madurai and Tirunelveli facilities.

"It is in the initial stage.. we will be going there as a co-developer (along with ELCOT)," he said.

Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister M K Stalin, who unveiled a plaque to mark the facility's inauguration, welcomed Syntel's move to set up facilities in Madurai and Tirunelveli.

This comes at a time when Tamil Nadu is planning to expand its IT business to Tier II and III cities.

Citing a report from the Department of Information Technology, he said that the industry has grown from USD 10.2 billion in 2001-02 to USD 58.7 billion, with a CAGR of 26.9 per cent.

Stalin called upon IT companies to work with the government in implementing the recently announced e-waste policy.

Earlier this month, Tamil Nadu IT Minister Poongothai had announced the policy in the assembly. He had said that it would work towards minimising e-waste generation, utilising e-waste for beneficial purposes through reuse, and recycling to ensure the disposal of residual waste in an environmentally-sound manner.