Draft ICT policy by q1

The much awaited ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) policy of the Orissa government is set to be readied by the first quarter of 2010-11.

The state IT department which had constituted a sub-committee, consisting of 12 members had a meeting recently and has agreed to come out with the draft of the proposed ICT policy by April 10 this year.

Pradipta K Mohapatra, the state IT secretary said, “The sub-committee had met recently and it has decided to come out with the draft of the new ICT policy by April 10.

Subsequently, the draft policy would be circulated to the relevant departments of the state government like finance and industries for incorporating their suggestions and inputs.”

The state IT department is studying the features of the ICT policies of states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala for framing the new policy, Mohapatra stated but refused to spell out the details of the policy.

The sub-committee formed to decide the features of the new ICT policy has members chosen from the state IT department, Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) and the Information Technology Association of Orissa (ITAO).

The state IT department is set to formulate a new ICT policy after a gap of five years.

Apart from including the best IT practices of states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and positioning Orissa as a favourable destination for IT investments, the new ICT policy also would also contain enabling measures for growth of IT SMEs (small and medium enterprises).

Earlier, the IT SMEs had demanded the formulation of a focussed ICT (information and communication technology) policy which provides an investment subsidy of 15-20 per cent on a capital cost of up to Rs 20 lakh for the upcoming IT units.

The SMEs had also sought complete exemption from VAT (value added tax) on hardware procurement by the units as well as ‘plug and play’ office space for the upcoming units.

The new ICT policy of the Orissa government assumes significance as the state had emerged as one of the attractive destinations for the IT sector.

While the big four of the IT sector including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro Technologies and Satyam Computers already have a presence in Orissa, other IT players like MindTree Consulting, Genpact, Zensar Technologies, Mumbai-based Raheja Corporation and Kolkata-based Apeejay Surrendra Group had also announced their projects in the state.