Bangalore: Union Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran said here on Friday that a draft policy is being prepared to offer a special package for the semiconductor industry.

Mr. Maran was inaugurating the Cyber Park and the state-of-the-art incubation centre "Orchid TechScape" at the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

Incentives

The Union Minister said that incentives would be offered for assembly and testing units, solar cells, flat panel displays and storage devices. Indicating that the software and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) sector exports from India had exceeded target and reached $24 billion in 2005-06, Mr. Maran said, it was expected to reach $60 billion by 2010. Manufacturing facilities in the telecom and hardware sectors had not only generated a large number of jobs but also helped achieve $ 340 billion potential for the electronic industry.

The Union Minister said the tier-II and tier-III cities in States would be identified to ensure equitable growth. "The quality of education should improve so that the youth in these cities get equal opportunities," he said.

To ensure that the IT sector, especially the small and medium enterprises get the maximum benefit, the Ministry had proposed that the land area stipulation for setting up product-specific Special Economic Zones should be done away with.

"This would enable the IT sector to retain its competitive edge and go a long way," he said.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said that corporates had shown interest in the new incubation centre.

He said the IT exports from the State had touched Rs. 40,000 crore.

"The infrastructure in Bangalore had been stretched beyond limits, and the State Government will address the problem expeditiously and will continue to look at infrastructure with the priority it deserves," he said.

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