Odisha team to visit Germany to woo IT investors

Four member delegation led by state IT secretary will go on a 5 day visit

A four-member delegation led by state IT (information technology) secretary, Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra will embark on a five day visit to Germany from March 10th to woo investors in the IT, ITes (enabled services) and Electronic System Designing and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector

Apart from Mishra, the other members of the team are Industry secretary and Chairman cum Managing Director, Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) Vishal Dev and two other officials of the IT department and Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC).

 

 

Manas Ranjan Panda,  director, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)-Bhubaneswar will also accompany the team.

The officials will attend the CeBIT, the world’s largest ‘Business IT Event’ from 10 to 14 March at Hannover in Germany.

“Last year a lot has been done to develop the ESDM sector in the state. We will show case it in Germany to attract investors to the state,” said an Idco official.

It may noted, an electronics manufacturing cluster (EMC) is being developed at the Info-valley located on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar to house the ESDM companies. Idco has submitted the detailed project report (DPR) to the Centre seeking assistance for this cluster under the latter’s EMCs scheme.

The India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA), the premier trade body representing the ESDM industry, has prepared the DPR for the EMC cluster at Info-valley. In addition, the state government has already prepared a ‘Strategic Roadmap for Development of ESDM Sector in Odisha’ in association with IESA to grab the opportunities to be thrown by the sunrise sector in India.

The sector is poised to generate cumulative revenue of Rs 18,800 crore revenue in Odisha by 2024, as per the estimates of IESA. An investment of Rs 7,340 crore needs to be pumped into the sector in three phases to realise the projected revenue. The sector is also expected to generate about 60,000 jobs in the next 10 years.

Apart from Khurda district where Info-valley is coming up, Rayagada, Sundergarh, Balasore and Ganjam districts have been  identified as the potential areas for developing the ESDM sector in the state.

To address the manpower need in the sector, the state government has approached the Union government to include the state under the newly approved ‘Scheme for financial assistance to select six states or Union territories for skill development in Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector’.

About 15,000 persons are likely to be benefited in the state as the Union government aims to train 90,000 persons in selected six states or Union territories in next four years.

The state’s new ICT (Information and Communication Technology) policy-2014, which was unveiled recently, has incentives for both the IT/ITes and ESDM companies . In its vision 2020, the policy has set a target to attract ten leading IT/ITES and five leading ESDM companies to the state and take the gross ICT turnover including (including exports of software and IT services, ESDM, domestic consumption and training) to Rs 24, 000 crore.