IT industry should enter Tier-II, III cities for growth

State will see Rs 90,000 cr of software exports.

The IT industry should penetrate Tier-II and Tier-III cities to provide the benefits of information technology in the rural areas across the country.

“While the Indian IT industry contributes around 6 per cent to India’s GDP, it should be a vehicle to change citizens’ lives in the rural areas,” Sachin Pilot, Union minister for IT and communication, said at the 13th edition of India’s information and communication technology event ‘Bangalore IT.biz 2010’ here.

He also said, as the level of penetration in rural areas was abysmally poor, there would be large opportunities for IT industry to tap this market.

The Centre is also planning to bring down the broadband access cost to connect every panchayat by 2012.

“The commitment of the government of India has been that by 2012 we will connect every single panchayat with high-speed broadband,” he said.

In the wake of growing protectionist measures, he appealed Indian IT industry to diversify their export basket from US and Europe to other emerging economies.

“Diversification of Indian IT exports, creating strength in niche areas will sustain growth momentum for the industry,” Pilot said.

India should also emphasise on hardware manufacturing market for furthering growth of the industry, he added. Indian hardware industry is now pegged at $45 billion which is expected to touch $125 billion in 2015 and $400 billion in 2020.

“We should cash in such emerging opportunities in the hardware industry,” he added.

Meantime, Karnataka government is planning to come up with a Hardware Policy soon. “We are working on a revised IT policy along with a Hardware policy which will be unveiled soon,” B S Yeddyurappa, chief minister, said.

He also said that telecom would be included under new IT policy in the wake up rapid growth of telecom sector.

Referring to export growth, he said that the state was hopeful of touching Rs 90,000 crore of IT exports during current financial year.

“We are confident of reaching Rs 90,000 crore IT exports in the current financial year,” Yeddyurappa said. The state had registered IT exports worth Rs 74,929 crore in the last financial year.

The state which had announced its semiconductor policy last year, has also taken a decision to extend an investment promotion subsidy to semi-conductor units in Mysore, Mangalore and Hubli-Dharwad, he added.

On the employment front, he said the proposed IT Investment Region (ITIR) project on the outskirts of Bangalore was expected to create 4 million jobs and would attract investment of about Rs 1 lakh crore.

The ITIR is proposed to be an integrated township project for the IT and ITeS sectors along with electronic hardware manufacturing industry.

“The state has already acquired 2,000 acres for the ITIR and the rest 8,000 acres would be acquired soon,” Katta Subramanya Naidu, Karnataka IT and BT minister, said.

He also said Karnataka and Israel were planning to sign an MoU in the area of semiconductors soon.

Meanwhile, Karnataka has launched ePCO programme to provide host of financial services to rural people.

“Under this programme, existing PCOs will be connected through broadband and will provide host of services like air and rail ticketing, various bills along with facility to pay insurance premium,” Naidu said.