The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : India expects to attract investments in IT sector

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 24, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

India expects to attract investments in IT sector

Special Correspondent

Chief Minister chairs first meeting of IT Task Force

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

FUTURE PLANS: Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi and A. Raja, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology (extreme right), at the State level IT Task Force meeting held at the Secretariat in Chennai on Thursday.

CHENNAI: The country is expected to attract investments worth $40 billion in the information technology sector in three years, A. Raja, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, said here on Thursday.

After attending the first meeting of the State-level IT Task Force, which was chaired by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at Secretariat, Mr. Raja, who is also the vice-chairman of the Force, told reporters that the State would get $ 8 billion–10 billion. The investments would be in the area of hardware manufacturing and other components.

He handed over to the Chief Minister a cheque for Rs. 2.75 crore, representing five per cent of equity of the Coimbatore TIDEL project.

Future vision

According to an official release issued after the 90-minute-long meeting, which was attended by leaders of the IT industry, the Chief Minister reiterated his Government’s vision to forge ahead in the information communication technology (ICT) sector and become a leader in IT software as well as hardware manufacturing segments.

Noting that the software exports from the State had crossed Rs. 20,000 crore during 2006-07, he said the IBM had just announced the establishment of its global delivery centre in Chennai.

Apart from a large number of IT-ITES (information technology enabled services) special economic zones being set up in the State, no objection certificates had been given for putting up 61 million square feet of IT space in the State.

To ensure that the fruits of the IT revolution were spread to other parts of the State, the Government set up IT SEZs at Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Tiruchi and Tirunelveli. It was taking special efforts to strengthen infrastructure in all the places, Mr. Karunanidhi said.

Inviting members of the task force to give their suggestions, the Chief Minister said their inputs would be reflected in the new ICT policy of the State. Among those present at the meeting were M. Anandakrishnan, former Anna University Vice-Chancellor, Gopal Srinivasan (Confederation of Indian Industry), S. Mahalingam (Tata Consultancy Services) and M.S. Ananth (Indian Institute of Technology).

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