Odisha to create 1 lakh jobs in IT sector in 5 years

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said his government will spend Rs.4,000 crore in the next five years and has set a target to create one lakh jobs in the information technology (IT) sector.

"The state government is going to spend around Rs.4,000 crore from the state budget in the next five years towards IT, ITES (information technology enabled service) and ESDM (electronic system design and manufacturing)," he said.

The state government has a target to create one lakh jobs in the IT sector in the next five years, the chief minister said at a function here.

To provide employment opportunities to the youth of the state, the state government was bringing out a Rural BPO scheme with 5,000-10,000 seats in all the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) locations of the state, he said.

Patnaik said every department would spend 2 percent of their plan budget or 1 percent of their total budget for electronic enabled service delivery to citizens.

"The state government has brought out a new industry friendly ICT Policy-2014 and Industrial Policy Resolution-2015 where we strive to make Odisha the preferred IT destination for IT/ITES/ESDM companies by providing a slew of attractive fiscal incentives and concessions," he said.

Odisha was the first state in India to sign an agreement with TiE of the Silicon Valley, US, to attract foreign investment in the ESDM sector, he added.

Patnaik said his government was focusing on providing high-speed broadband internet services in the next three years time for seamless transactions of government services from the state to the gram panchayat level.