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After the electronics policy, the government of Gujarat on Saturday announced two more policies in the areas of information technology (IT) and e-governance for 2014-2019. Given the challenges the IT industry in Gujarat is facing, the policy looks to encourage new units, create one million jobs and aim at Rs 75,000 crore worth of turnover by 2020, state government spokespersons and cabinet ministers Saurabh Patel and Nitin Patel said.
According to the state government, the policy is a step towards achieving the goal of Digital India as conceptualised by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. In terms of benefits under the IT policy, Gujarat will not only look to encourage new IT units, projects as well as parks but also provide incentives for creating quality workforce in the industry. "The IT policy aims to create a vibrant IT/ITeS ecosystem with the help of innovations and basis of knowledge capital in the state through which the youth will get benefited," the spokesperson ministers said in an official communique by the state government.
Benefits under the IT policy include 100 per cent waiver in the stamp duty and registration fees over purchase/lease or transfer of land for new units and 25 per cent subsidy for lease/rentals for new units coming up in IT parks, among others.
In a bid to institutionalise the concept of 'Digital Gujarat', the new e-governance policy aims to provide over 500 public services through electronic medium as well as expand coverage of mobile governance in the state through the yet-to-be-launched 'e-Gujarat' portal.
Under the e-governance policy, not only local bodies, corporations, boards and societies will be digitally upgraded to achieve last mile connectivity, but also cloud computing and virtualisation and GIS services will be launched by the state government.
In order to boost quality employment and workforce, the IT policy looks to provide benefit of 50 per cent fees coverage for skill enhancement upto Rs 10000 per employee. Moreover, to assist micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), subsidies in the range of 5-7 per cent will be given to MSMEs.
On the other hand, the e-governance policy will look to develop e-governance in the state. According to spokesperson ministers, the policy will look to achieve the goal of inclusive growth with the help of information communication technology (ICT).
