Union IT and Electronics Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today laid the foundation stone of an incubation centre here with a view to promoting entrepreneurship, software exports and create job opportunities in the state.
The main objective of the centre being set up at Mehli is to promote entrepreneurship in the region through software development and to cater the needs of IT industries in the state as well as to promote export of software, IT services and to provide job opportunities to the youth, the minister said.
The centre will provide high speech data communication and other value added services, he added. This would be the second incubation centre for Shimla which will be developed by Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).
STPI has played a key role in creating brand India and transforming the country as the most preferred information technology (IT) destination, he said. Export by the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) units increased to more than Rs 3,50,680 crore in 2016-17.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that an STPI park would be developed with incubation facility in approximate built up area of 14000 square feet at a tentative cost of Rs 10 crore. This would accommodate about 15 to 20 startups with direct employment to 300 to 400 IT professionals and four times indirect employment in over five years.
Another STPI is proposed to be setup in Kangra district near Gaggal Airport, he said, adding that the land for the same has been identified.