Information Technology (IT) units operating in the state have urged the Orissa government to expedite steps to finalize the draft ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) policy.
The finalization of the draft ICT policy has been delayed and no major ground has been gained despite two rounds of meetings with the stakeholders.
"Even after two rounds of meetings with the different stakeholders, no headway has been made in the finalization of the draft ICT policy. We have urged the state IT department to take all necessary steps to finalize the new ICT policy which is pending”, said a top official of Confederation of Information Technology Enterprises (CITE), an association of IT firms operating in the state.
The state IT department had constituted a sub-committee, consisting of 12 members to prepare the draft of the new ICT policy through consultations with the necessary stakeholders.
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), CITE and the Information Technology Association of Orissa (ITAO).
The state IT department was formulating a new ICT policy after a gap of five years.
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The new ICT policy was to incorporate the best IT practices of states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala
The draft ICT policy was to be circulated to the relevant departments of the state government like finance and industries for incorporating their suggestions and inputs.
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.