MUMBAI: The Prime Minister's Office has recommended an ambitious scheme to create integrated townships in dozens of second-tier towns, which will serve as hubs for the outsourced information technology industry.

Revealing this during his inaugural address at the annual summit of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), which opened here on Wednesday, the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran, suggested that the IT industry must make a concerted effort to spread its operations from major metros to secondary cities.

Infrastructure was a challenge in places like Bangalore, but improving it was "not like plugging in a server; it takes time,'' he added. The only way to exploit the huge global opportunity was to move to new towns like Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Panaji, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.

This was seen by the assembled industry heads, as a polite but firm message, that the Government could not be expected to perform miracles — or distort national priorities merely to keep the IT sector happy. However, on the imminent winding down of tax sops for the Software Technology Parks of India by 2009, Mr. Maran said, "I am with you — but the industry must stand together on this and convey its uneasiness.''

In a quick response, the Nasscom Chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, announced that, at its board meeting earlier in the day, it was decided to seek an extension for at least ten years of the STPIs — since the growth of the small and medium sector of the industry depended on such governmental hand holding.

The establishment of one lakh broadband-connected common service centres in rural areas had been approved and would be implemented in a phased manner, Mr. Maran said.

"This is the Year of Broadband — and two mega bits per second connectivity will be extended up to block level across the country,'' he said.

The conference concludes on Friday.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail