For effective administration of the newly announced Information and Communication (ICT) policy, the state government will constitute a Project Implementation Unit at the IT & ESDM (Electronic System Design & Manufacturing) promotion cell of Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC), the technical directorate of the IT department.
OCAC is the nodal agency of the implementation of the ICT policy.
"The unit will have specialists in the field of management, technology and finance for implementing, administering and extension of the various incentives available under the policy", said an official.
The PIU would be responsible for implementing the policy and would provide all information to the apex committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary to take appropriate decision on approval of incentives.
The disbursement of the incentives by the implementing agency will be in accordance with the chronological order of approved claims.
In its vision 2020, the new policy has set target to attract ten leading IT/ITES and five leading ESDM companies to the state and take the gross ICT turnover including (including exports of software and IT services, ESDM, domestic consumption and training) to Rs 24, 000 crore. The new policy was recently approved by the State cabinet and it aims to give direct employment to 60,000 professionals in 800 IT/ITES/ESDM units and create a built-up space of 60 lakh square feet and develop land bank of 2000 acres.
The policy among other things also intends to attract the investors in the ESDM sector. To give boost to the hardware sector, the state government has roped in the India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA), the premier trade body representing the ESDM industry, to prepare the roadmap.
About 160 acres of land in the Info-valley area has been earmarked for the ESDM industry. The Info-valley, spread over 600 acres of land, is being developed by the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (Idco), where IT major Infosys is the anchor tenant.
As many as 12275 people are currently employed in the IT sector in the state and the IT exports from Odisha stood at 1947.35 crore in 2012-13.
