Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

New IT policy soon

Special Correspondent

To exploit the sector's role in job generation and economic development

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government will come out with a new IT/ITES policy soon for exploiting the sector's critical role as an enabler of employment generation and economic development of the State.

Governor R.L. Bhatia, who announced this in his address to the Assembly on Friday, said that the previous Government failed in sustaining the tempo of investment for developing infrastructure in the information technology sector in the State.

The present Government would fill this gap by augmenting both public and private investment in the sector. The State's inherent strength of quality manpower and connectivity infrastructure would be fully leveraged to create two lakh direct jobs in the IT, ITES and BPO sectors in the next five years.

The establishment of capabilities in the production and hardware sectors would be encouraged instead of depending on the ITES sector alone.

To achieve these goals, the Government would create an investor-friendly environment and develop infrastructure. The Government was aware of the strategic importance of promoting Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). It would strive to make Kerala the FOSS industry destination of the country.

The e-governance initiatives of the Government would be given further impetus with the commissioning of the State Wide Area Network by March 2007. The Akshaya e-literacy project would be revamped to make it more effective. To ensure quality manpower for the IT industry, the Government intended to set up a certification mechanism for the various courses imparted through IT training centres in the State.

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