AP to come out with new IT policy

The Andhra Pradesh government is drafting a new IT policy, which would be ready in ten days, said state IT minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy.

Interacting with local IT investors here at a meeting organised by CII-Vizag, he said the new policy would focus on enhancing IT business and software exports from the state.

Comparing the state's IT sector with Telangana, he said in Telangana it employed 330,000 people whereas in AP this was only 22,000. Besides, the software business in Telangana stood at Rs 55,000 crore while this was only Rs 1,700 crore for AP.

The proposed policy would have single-window system for new units to get all necessary approvals within a month, he said. The state government had also decided to develop an Information Technology Investment Region in Visakhapatnam and IT hubs in Kakinada, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Anantapur.

The minister said Visakhapatnam, in particular, had several advantages for the development of the sector. Though the government had allotted 335 acres of land here to IT companies, including Wipro and Tech Mahindra, these companies had still not fulfilled the employment commitment due to quite a few reasons. The government had, therefore ,decided to give some more time to them.