The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : It is advantage Kerala, says IT Secretary

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Tuesday, Jan 08, 2008
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It is advantage Kerala, says IT Secretary

Staff Reporter

Though lacking in big cities, the State as a whole has superior infrastructure,
he says

KOCHI: The tendency among the Information Technology (IT) companies to move out of metro cities to smaller towns has provided Kerala with a window of opportunity, Ajay Kumar, State IT Secretary, has said.

He was presenting the vision of the State in providing impetus to the growth of the IT industry at a meeting organised by the Kerala Information Technology Alliance (KITA), a non-profit, non-political global organisation formed to bring Malayali IT professionals across the globe on a common platform, at Infopark here on Monday.

Mr. Ajay Kumar said that IT industry in metros had hit a saturation level with infrastructure and human resource no longer available. The cost of operation had also gone up.

“We may not have big cities except for Kochi, but the State as a whole has superior facilities than other smaller towns in the country. That is where our opportunity lies,” he said.

Having quality social infrastructure like roads, educational institutions and health facilities throughout the State stood it in good stead. This enables the setting up of industry anywhere in the State and need not focus on Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram alone. This, he said, was unique to the State.

He said that the State government was in the process setting up IT Parks in districts in the hub-and-spoke model, as well as integrated knowledge cities.

Computer penetration in Kerala was double the national average and access to computers was even better. As such, Kerala was in a better position compared to other States to expand the use of IT, he said.

Akshaya project

Praising the Akshaya project, he said that the launch of the programme had transformed the way IT could be used for delivering services to the common man.

Unlike various welfare schemes of the government, the benefit of the project had reached the beneficiary and that too at his doorstep.

“The project had literally connected every person with a computer access point. It customised the service and tailored it to the needs of the targeted beneficiary,” he said.

At present, there were 1800 Akshaya kiosks, and this would increase to 3,000 within the next couple of months as the project would be rolled out in more districts. Out of the 1,800, almost 1,200 were vibrant and functioned without any government support, he said.

“We are in the process of identifying more services, which can be delivered through Akshaya,” Mr. Kumar said.

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