After languishing for many years as a state that investors avoid, Kerala has managed to convince software giant Infosys Technologies to invest in the state.

Infosys will set up a major software development centre in Kerala on 25 acres of land that the company proposes to acquire in Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram, soon.

The IT major's decision follows the meeting that Chief Minister A K Antony, along with a high-level official delegation, had with Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy and other company directors in Bangalore on Tuesday.

An official statement from Infosys said, "Kerala is fast emerging as an attractive destination for the software industry. Therefore, we have requested the Kerala government to identify the right location and assist us with all the administrative clearances to sset up a development centre in the state," Infosys chief operating officer S Gopalakrishnan said.

An excited Antony said it is for the first time that he was visiting a business campus to seek investment. "Kerala no longer keeps any distance from industrialists and entrepreneurs. That is why I am personally visiting companies like Infosys to invite them to invest in the state," he said.

Infosys's decision to set up shop in Kerala is a big moral booster for the state government which is preparing for the first-ever Global Investors' Meet from January 18 to January 19. To be inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Kochi, the investor meet will offer Kerala a good opportunity to sign some multi-million-rupee projects.

Though the Kerala government has been trying to woo investment in IT, its efforts were not very successful in the past, thanks to militant labour unions and an image that the state is anti-investor friendly. But ever since Antony came to power in 2001, he has either brought in new laws or removed archaic ones to change Kerala's image as a dogmatic state.

Last year, the Antony government also came out with a new IT policy that has classified all IT units as 'public utilities' to make them eligible for a host of incentives and trade benefits.

The Thiruvananthapuram-based Technopark campus was the first such campus set up in India. Though it is now rated as one of the best technoparks in the country with 60 companies operating, no big names -- like Infosys, Wipro or Satyam -- have units there.

The state's IT turnover last year was a mere Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) compared to the nearly Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) that the neighboring Karnataka state achieved.

Experts now say that the Infosys decision to come to Kerala will herald new era of IT progress in the state. "Look at tourism. Good marketing has made Kerala one of the finest tourist destinations in the country. Now an Infosys campus in Kerala will certain pitchfork the state to be the hottest IT destination in India," M S Vijayaraghavan, an IT consultant pointed out.

Kerala is also ambitiously trying to roll out a major initiative that will see the largest workforce being trained for IT-enabled services in India. Already, three companies led by NeST Group are in the process of setting up  call centers in the state.

"We want to position Kerala as an ideal IT hub, taking advantage of the best fibre optic connectivity of the state," Kerala IT secretary Aruna Sundararajan told rediff.com.

Kerala is one of the only two locations in India -- the other being Mumbai -- where both optic fibre submarine cables SEA-ME-WE-3 and SAT-3/WASC/SAFE converge, giving superb global connectivity.

Elated by the Infosys decision, Antony is all set to meet other IT czars in the country. He has already met with Wipro chairman Azim Premji, who has reportedly pledged a major IT initiative in Kerala soon.