Digital India mission to empower common man: Prasad

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that the Digital India mission is to empower common man in the country.
Inaugurating the incubation facility of Software Technology Park of India, Mohali, the Union IT Minister said that Digital India is also for the poor and underprivileged in the society and directed STPI Mohali to provide special facilities to promote entrepreneurship amongst dalit youth.
The incubation facility is the largest among Tier-II cities and would ramp up the region's march towards one of the most favoured IT destination in the country, an official said.
On the request of Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal to make STPI Mohali to innovate IT solutions for farmers, Prasad endorsed the idea and assured that STPI Mohali would become the centre for innovation for farmers too, and should become a beacon of Digital India.

STPI will very soon be laying the foundation stone of its next centre in Amritsar to help the smaller cities become part of the digital India movement.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that Punjab is an agrarian state and it requires innovative IT solutions to help farmers cope up with the vagaries of nature and reduce their dependence on weather.

Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla said that Punjab has largest number of Scheduled Castes and tribes who need to be empowered and STPI can contribute immensely.
Spread over nearly 1.40 lakh square feet of builtup space, the incubation facility would go a long way in encouraging new IT/ITES entrepreneurs and startups to make it a hub for entrepreneurship.

This would provide a major boost to the IT companies in Punjab to enable them to host their software applications and data, securely and safely at a fraction of the cost, instead of their own dedicated data centre, an official said.
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Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is an autonomous body setup in 1991 under the Union Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.
At present, STPI has 56 centres operational across the country with focus on establishing STP centres in both Tier-II and Tier-III cities for uniform dispersal and expansion of IT/ITES industry in the country.
Meanwhile, the tricity region comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula is evolving into a major software hub amongst the Tier-II cities, and now enjoys the unique distinction of having largest startup incubation facility in Mohali.

The tricity region has around 125 IT/ITES units, predominantly in small medium enterprise (SME) segment, and 20 units are majorly into product development catering to the global markets with tremendous success.
"The region has the potential of developing into a product development hub and STPI has been a catalyst in ensuring growth of the region," said Dr Omkar Rai, Director General of STPI.
Meanwhile, STPI Mohali inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar for active collaboration for its newly established incubation facility, here today.
STPI Mohali Incubation Facility's tie up with the IIT Ropar would bring in academia's participation, research and innovation inputs to spur the startups as well as encouraging its students to effectively work with the industry to respond to the societal needs, it was informed.

Later, Prasad met the industry representatives and asked them to actively mentor startups and help them succeed through hand-holding.