The scenario of last two decades in India has reflected that a number of cities have emerged, city centers struggled and many mid-sized metro areas have boomed. It is an accepted fact that information revolution has far reaching impact on the economic activities taking place in the society. The dynamics influence of the information revolution varies from industry to industry. The globalization of the economy and competition - enabled in large part by information technology ("IT") has brought about large-scale changes in the industrial makeup of all of the advanced industrial nations. We have witnessed the explosion of some industries (such as computers, communications, software, and financial services) by enabling new products, services, and efficiencies. However, to get a more accurate picture and to incorporate planning, we need to also look at what is going on within a given industry as a result of the information revolution. Moreover the economic well being of the advanced industrial nations relies on a continual evolution toward value-added, high-productivity, innovation and knowledge-rich activities, which could be realized by collateral researches on the potentials and trends.

Recently the smart city project, which was the realization of a long-term vision to develop a network of outsourcing center in different parts of the country by the Dubai government has eyed upon Cochin as the potential centre for the project. This proposal has brought about a lot of hopes among the IT industries in India clubbed with panic and usual protest by the government opposition. There are a lot of ambiguity on the proposal and about the end realization of this project and how it affects our IT community and economy. Hence it is quite worthy to make a study among the IT professionals regarding how they view the present situation on potentials of Cochin as an IT hub and regarding their attitude regarding the proposal. The MCA students of the Marian College Kuttikkanam, under the leadership of Dr. Mendus Jacob (Director MCA) conducted this study as a group project so as to understand the pulse of the IT professionals working in South India to scale there vision and attitude regarding the potentials of Cochin as IT hub and the current tendencies in the IT sector.

Objectives:
The major objectives of the study are stated as follows.

1. To rate the opinion of the different IT professionals regarding the future trend of various IT hub in South India.
2. To understand how the different IT professional view the possibilities of IT in Cochin with respect to various parameters.
3. To study about the attitude of the IT professionals regarding the growth of Cochin as an IT hub.
4. To study on the current trends in IT sector.
5. To study on the possibilities of Linux operating system and the job opportunities.

The hypotheses of the study are as follows:

1. There is no significant difference among the opinions of the IT professionals towards the various factors viz smart city, labour problem and government policies, availability of resources, tourist attractions etc and their influence in the development of Cochin as an IT hub.
2. There is no significant difference among the opinion of IT professionals towards their view of their company extending their branches to Cochin.
3. There is no significant difference among the opinion of IT professionals towards their view regarding professionals overseas returning back to IT industries of India.
4. There is no significant difference among the opinion of IT professionals regarding their view that Linux operating system replaces Windows operating system in future.
5. There is no significant difference in the opinion of the IT professionals regarding their view that Linux professionals do have ample job opportunities in future.
6. There is no significant positive attitude towards the development of Kochi as an IT hub among the IT professionals in South India.
7. There is no significant difference between IT professionals working in Kerala and outside Kerala regarding the possibilities of IT in Cochin.

Tools used: The tools used for investigation include a questionnaire, attitude scale and interview with the IT professionals.

Procedure: The questionnaire and attitude scale prepared for the study was administered on the sample selected. The scoring of the attitude scale and questionnaire is done in the conventional manner and the data so obtained is anlaysed using the appropriate statistical techniques.

Analysis and discussions:
The data were analysed so as to find the valid answers to the objectives specified in the study. The details of the data analysed is presented under appropriate subheads.

1. Significance of difference among the opinions of the IT professionals towards the various factors like smart city, labor problem and government policies, availability of resources, tourist attractions etc and their influence in the development of Cochin as an IT hub:

The significance of difference among the opinion of IT professionals towards the listed factors and their influence in the development of Cochin as an IT hub was done by using chi-square test and percentage is used to analyse data.

Table 1.4: The tourist attractions of Kerala do influence IT business in Cochin

Discussion:
It is observed that the obtained chi-square is 91.05 and the table value of the chi-square at df 4 at .05 level of significance is 9.488 and .01 level of significance is 13,276. The obtained value of chi-square for all the cases in the above tables is higher than the table value of chi-square at both the level of significance thus the null hypothesis is rejected. The chi-square value in table 1.1 indicates that there is a significant difference in the opinion of IT professionals and 73.3% of the professionals agree towards the possibility of the growth of Cochin on account of smart city. The table 1.2 indicates that the government policies, labour problems and strike do have a negative effect on the growth of Cochin and 68.5% of the IT professionals do agree with this opinion. The table 1.3 indicates that Cochin do have a lots of positive factors like international airport, availability of skilled manpower and suitable land for creating a better environment for the development of IT industries, 82.8% of the professionals agree with this opinion. The table 1.4 the tourist attractions of Cochin also promote the IT industries and 60.9% of the professionals do agree with this opinion.

The significance of difference among the opinion of IT professionals towards their view of extending their company to Cochin was done by using chi-square test and percentage is used to analyse data.

Table 2.1: The company plan to extend branch to Cochin

3. Significance of difference among the opinion of IT professionals towards their view regarding professionals overseas returning back to IT industries of India

The significance of difference among the opinion of IT professionals towards their view regarding Indian professionals overseas returning back to IT industries of India was done by using chi-square test and percentage is used to analyse data.

Discussion:
The obtained value of chi-square in the above table is higher than the table value of chi-square at both the level of significance thus the null hypothesis is rejected. Hence it indicates that the difference in opinion is significant. 67.6% of the professionals do agree that the Indian IT professional overseas will return back to IT industries in India for better placements.

The significance of difference among the opinion of IT professionals towards their view on the scope of Linux and job opportunities in Linux platform was done by using chi-square test and percentage is used to analyse data.

Discussion:
The above table shows that the mean score of attitude of the IT professionals of Kerala is 14.31 and that obtained for professionals outside Kerala is 12.98. The corresponding SD was 2.31 and 1.9 respectively. The t value was found to be 3.1, which is significant at both .05 and .01 level. This indicates that there is a significant difference in the attitude of the professional in Kerala and outside Kerala. Since both the group has a mean higher than the neutral score of 12, indicates both the group have a positive attitude towards the development of Cochin as a IT hub. But the attitude of the professional of Kerala is very high to that of professionals of other states.

The rating of the IT professionals regarding the leading IT hub in South India within the next 10 years is classified and tabulated below.