Silicon Valley to invest $300 mn in Info-valley

A team of global investors from Silicon Valley has assured the state government an investment of $300 million to promote Information Technology (IT) and Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) units at the proposed Info-valley IT park on the outskirts of the city.

A business delegation led by Ajit Manocha, former CEO of US-based Global Foundries, informed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik that Odisha is the first state in India to tie up with Silicon Valley. Manocha is also a member of US President Barrack Obama’s advisory committee on advanced manufacturing.

The investment would create job opportunities for about 100,000 people, read an official release. The team lauded the efforts of the state government for creating a favourable environment to attract foreign investment in the IT and ESDM sector. Patnaik promised to provide all support to materialise the investment.

Info-valley, the second IT hub in the city, is being developed by the state IT department through Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) over an area of 600 acres. The leading IT company, Infosys is the anchor tenant of the project.

This apart, there is also a proposal to set up a IT Investment Region (ITIR) on an area of 41.32 sq km (10,210 acres) between Bhubaneswar and Khurda. Recently, the Union government has accorded in principle approval for establishment of a green field electronic manufacturing cluster spreading over 215 acres of land within Info-valley complex.

To give an impetus to the ESDM sector, the state IT department has recently finalized a Strategic Road Map for Development of ESDM sector and is in the process of setting up a characterization lab for reliability testing of chips.

The ESDM sector is poised to generate cumulative revenue of Rs 18,800 crore in the state by 2024, as per an estimate. Rayagada, Sundergarh, Balasore and Ganjam districts have been identified as potential growth centres for the ESDM sector after a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threat) analysis. The ICT (information and communication technology) policy of the state government also aims to attract five ESDM companies and ten IT companies to the state by 2020 with an objective to take the total ICT turnover in the state to USD four billion.