AP lines up Rs 1785 cr to promote IT, electronics

Aims to create one IT professional and one entrepreneur in every family

The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday unveiled a ‘blueprint’ for development of information technology (IT), electronics and e-governance with an ambitious goal to create one IT professional and one entrepreneur in every family in the state.

The blueprint features three broad missions, involving IT and electronics, e-governance and innovation and capacity building with targets fixed for the next three-five years.

Speaking to reporters on this occasion, state IT minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy said the government had decided to spend Rs 1,785 crore on these initiatives. Through these, the government aims for a growth of IT industry that can achieve Rs 12,000 crore in exports in the next few years.

In the electronics hardware sector, the government aims to attract Rs 30,000 crore investments into the state.

The government wants these two sectors to generate 500,000 jobs for the aspiring engineering graduates in the state, according to him.

“We want to see one IT professional coming out of every family in our state. We also want to create one entrepreneur from every family through these and other initiatives,” Reddy said.

The minister said the government had already prepared a new IT policy with major incentives to attract software companies and it would be approved in the state Cabinet scheduled on August 1.

“Many companies told us they will take a decision (on setting up operations) once they see the new IT policy,” he said. According to him, Wipro and Tech Mahindra have already promised to set up and expand operations Visakhapatnam.

According to him, Visakhapatnam is emerging as the most attractive destination for IT companies. The state government, he said, would also try and promote other towns like Kakinada and Anantapur to develop IT clusters.