The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : State’s share of IT projects will be more than doubled: Karunanidhi

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Wednesday, Apr 09, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

State’s share of IT projects will be more than doubled: Karunanidhi

Special Correspondent

Chief Minister launches state-of-the-art facility in Taramani

— Photo: R. Ragu

PART OF E-GOVERNANCE: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi launching a state–of–the–art STPI Facility at Taramani in Chennai on Tuesday. Union Ministers T.R. Baalu (right) and A. Raja are in the picture.

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said on Tuesday that the Government was determined to more than double the State’s share of the country’s Information and Communication technology projects by 2011.

Launching a state-of-the-art facility of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) in Taramani, Mr. Karunanidhi said the target was to increase the State’s share from 11 per cent to 25 per cent in the next three years.

Also launched on the occasion were the core logistics for implementing e-governance at various levels, including a 5400-strong network of Common Service Centres, a telemedicine unit at the Government Royapettah Hospital and an advanced linear accelerator at the Adyar Cancer Institute.

Mr. Karunanidhi said software exports from the State were expected to total Rs. 25,000 crore in 2007-08. The exports had stood at Rs. 14,400 crores in 2005-06 and Rs. 20,700 crore the following year. The Government expected to shortly commission the IT/ITES SEZs in Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchi, Salem, Tirunelveli, Hosur and Vellore, he said.

The Chief Minister said the Government’s IT policy aimed to establish an inclusive knowledge economy and take the benefits of the technology to all parts of the State and all levels of society. As one of the earliest States to formulate an IT policy — when the industry was fledgling — Tamil Nadu had been able to lay the foundation for rapid IT/ITES expansion, he said.

Noting that the IT revolution had created economic prosperity, the Chief Minister said its true potential would be realised only when e-governance, healthcare and business transactions were taken to the doorstep of the common man. “We cannot leave the huge mass of people living in rural areas out of this revolution.”

Mr. Karunanidhi formally launched the first three rural CSCs and noted that while he was happy to do so, he would be happier if he were opening the last of the proposed 5,440 centres soon enough.

Earlier, Union IT Minister A. Raja handed over a cheque for Rs. 4 crore as first instalment for the Rs. 6 crore project to establish an ICT Academy at the STPI.

The academy is a three-way partnership among the Centre, the State Government and the Confederation of Indian Industry to customise manpower skills for the IT industry.

Mr. Raja said the three-tier logistics launched at STPI marked a first for the country in the implementation of the National e-Governance Plan. The infrastructure involves a State Data Centre (G2G), State-Wide Area Network (G2B) and the Common Service Centre Network (G2C).

The IT Minister urged the Tamil Nadu Government to become the first State to earmark a 40 sq km site for software-hardware development under the Centre’s new IT Investment Regime that had recently been cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Mr. Raja said he had discussed with the Prime Minister and Finance Minister the extension of the STPI scheme of tax exemptions for software exports and hoped for a positive response soon.

Union Shipping Minister T.R. Baalu urged Tamil Nadu to take up the challenge of scaling up software exports. S.R. Raja, Tambaram MLA, M. Madhavan Nambiar, special secretary, Department of IT, Government of India, and Bharat Bhushan, STPI director general, spoke.

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