Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

Govt.'s role in IT sector's growth limited: Minister

By Our Staff Reporter

N.R. Narayana Murthy (left) of Infosys Technologies, and the Minister for Large and Medium-Scale Industries, R.V. Deshpande (right), at the new building of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, on Saturday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE Oct. 11. The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B), now has a building and campus of its own.

The 75,000-sq. ft. building on 8.5 acres of land was inaugurated on Saturday by the Minister for Large and Medium-Scale Industries, R.V. Deshpande.

Mr. Deshpande said the role of the State Government had been very limited in the growth of the Information Technology (IT) sector. Still, the IT policy initiated by the Government in 1997 gave the industry a big thrust.

Even before the formulation of the policy, IT was on a growth path riding on good infrastructure, rich human resources, connectivity, and dynamic people such as N.R. Narayan Murthy of Infosys Technology and Azeem Premji of Wipro. N. Viswanathan, IIIT-B's founder Chairman, said the institute was one of the three main components of the IT policy, besides the Bangalore IT.Com and the first venture capital fund for IT started with a corpus of Rs. 30 crore.

He said the IT policy had also resulted in standardisation of the IT syllabus in the State's engineering colleges a year ago.

Karnataka became the first State in the country to have a separate syllabus for IT.

Thanks to the IT policy, Karnataka also became the first state to get its road transport corporation computerised. "The growth has been so impressive that now IT exports from the State alone accounts for over Rs.10,000 crore,'' he said.

Mr. Murthy, who is the chairman of the institute, said the State had a very high percentage of industry-friendly bureaucrats.

If India was to move forward, "take an ambitious target, work as a team, shed individual differences for the greater common cause,'' he said.

Sadagopan, IIIT-B Director, said 360 alumni of the institute were now employed in 66 corporations across 22 countries.

The institute's new building, located in Electronics City, is equipped with a large dome, two atriums, a garden, and rain harvesting and waste water treatment facilities.

"Every student here has a laptop. We are the most unwired in the country,'' Prof. Sadagopan said.

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