Centre to set up four electronics clusters in AP

The Centre is planning to set up 200 electronics manufacturing clusters (EMCs) across the country over the next eight years. Of these, Andhra Pradesh is expected to get four, said Killi Kruparani, minister of state for communication and IT.

The minister was addressing a workshop organised by the Software Technology Parks of India and Visakha Information Technology Association here recently.

Speaking during the event, P Venugopal, director, STPI, said: "IT and software exports from Vizag would touch Rs 2,100 crore by 2015-16 from the existing Rs 1,200 crore due to the pro-active steps taken by the state."

Meanwhile, the AP government is looking at submitting the project details of the cluster to be set up in Vizag to the Centre, said Ponnala Lakshmaiah, minister for IT and communication. The state aims to promote IT industry by constructing incubation centres in Tier-II cities like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Kakinada, Warangal, Tirupati and Karimnagar. He said the government would allot 30 acres of land at Hyderabad to set up units to develop animation and video gaming.

India under its national electronics policy aims to achieve $36 billion in hardware and electronics exports by 2020 by promoting the proposed clusters and has announced a 50 per cent investment subsidy on setting up cluster-based hardware units, she said.

To encourage the IT industry, the Centre is planning to set up 10 STPIs in the next two years, apart from the existing 51 STPIs.

The IT industry provides direct employment to 2.2 million individuals and indirect employment to 8 million. The government expects to enhance it to 12 million and 50 million respectively by 2020, she said.