Odisha to form core advisory group for IT promotion

State approaches S Ramadorai, Ex CEO of TCS, Ganesan Natarajan of Zensar Tech, Subroto Bagchi of MindTree to join group

Continuing its renewed focus on promotion of Information Technology and electronics sectors, the Odisha government has drawn up a plan to constitute a core advisory group consisting of veterans drawn from the IT industry.

"The advisory group will comprise five to six members. We are trying to rope in luminaries from IT industry who will offer suggestions and help us prpeare a detailed blueprint to bring in more investments in IT and ESDM (electronics and system design manufacturing) space", said Pranab Prakash Das, minister for IT & electronics.

He said, the state government has approached doyens of IT industry like S Ramadorai, former chief executive officer of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Ganesan Natarajan, vice chairman and chief executive officer, Zensar Technologies and Subroto Bagchi, co founder of MindTree Consulting.

The state government recently announced the appointment of noted telecom expert Sam Pitroda as the technical advisor for the state.

Pitroda would be offered the rank of a cabinet minister, stated a release from the chief minister's office. The telecom czar is expected to play a crucial role in scripting the IT success story and launching a roadmap for telecom, IT and ITes (IT enabled services) at a time when the Odisha government is preparing a Vision Document 2036 to mark 100 years of formation of the linguistic state.

Noted IT majors like TCS, Inofsys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra have operations in Bhubaneswar. 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. Leading IT company, Infosys is the anchor tenant of the project.

That apart, the state government is also developing electronics manufacturing cluster (EMC) planned on 203 acres of land at the Infovalley, a dedicated IT park proposed on the city's outskirts. The proposed greenfield EMC cluster, located at Harapur, Gaudakasipur and Durgapur villages of Khurda district in Odisha, is expected to house over 100 electronics manufacturing units with an employment potential of 10,000-12,000 jobs, which will be a mix of skilled and semi-skilled personnel.