Even as Punjab has not been able to attract big ticket projects from IT giants like Infosys, TCS,the state has been declared as the preferred investment destination in the field of IT sector by a study.

Revealing the facts of the 'Investor Perception Study', which was conducted by Punjab Infotech, state minister for Industry and Commerce Manoranjan Kalia said that seven out of every 10 organisations surveyed had expressed interest in looking at Punjab for expansion of their businesses.

Ma Foi Consulting Solutions conducted a study with an objective of understanding the existing and potential investors' perception about making investment in IT sector here. Fifty existing and 150 potential investors were covered under this study.

According to the study, 71 per cent of investor organisations felt that Punjab had good visibility amongst IT/ ITeS organisations because of number of similar organisations," he said.

"Another major factor contributing towards IT investment in the state is its clean labour history as a whopping 78 per cent of respondents felt that positive labour history is conducive for business," he said.

With respect to infrastructure, 82 per cent of organisations surveyed felt that telecom infrastructure for IT sector and other aspects such as transport infrastructure were very conducive to set up a venture, he said.

Potential investors are appreciative of power policy that exempts IT organizations from statutory power cuts and exemption from electricity duty for five years, he said.

Notably, despite the positive findings of the study, no big IT player like Infosys or TCS has set up its shop in the state primarily because of high cost of land and non-availability of big chunk of area for IT development.

The state government had been trying hard to attract investment from prominent IT player here but without much success.

"We want a big IT player like TCS, Infosys should set up a facility here which can be beneficial for the overall development of IT sector," a senior official of Punjab Infotech said.

As part of a number of steps to bring IT investments, the state government is in process of setting up a integrated industry park at Rajpura in Patiala over 1,400 acres of land, where 24 hours power supply would be provided to IT units.

It has also proposed to set up a IT park at Ropar for which it has been allotted 280 acres of land.

Punjab has attracted investment of Rs 150 in current fiscal in IT sector against Rs 500 crore in last fiscal. It has IT exports of over Rs 600 crore.