IT entrepreneurs in Orissa have called for scaling up the capacity of the incubation facility at the city centre of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), expediting work on the proposed STPI at Balasore and giving an opportunity to local entrepreneurs to set up new STPIs in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
Responding to the demands of entrepreneurs, Omkar Rai, director general, STPI-New Delhi, said, “We are making efforts set up an STPI unit at Balasore in 2010-11. Besides, we will also ensure the STPI at Berhampur is inaugurated this year.”
This was announced by Rai at an interactive session on ‘Growth of IT and IT-enabled Services ITeS) in Orissa’, held recently.
Rai expressed happiness over the performance of STPI-registered IT and ITeS units in the state, which have achieved a cumulative turnover of more than Rs 2,000 crore and generated an employment for more than 10,000 entrepreneurs.
The STPI at Bhubaneswar will have its own campus spread over three acres of land, to incubate 1,000-1,500 people.
On its part, the Orissa government has agreed to provide the required land and is also committed to the state’s share of investment in the proposed STPIs. The state is also set to roll out a new ICT (Information & Communications Technologies) policy soon. The new ICT policy is set to be formulated after a gap of over six years.
A working group constituted to frame the new ICT policy has already met five times and discussions have been held with the stakeholders.
The ICT policy will have enabling provisions which will enable Bhubaneswar and other cities of the state to emerge as ideal destinations for the IT and ITeS units, he added.
Bijoy K Sahoo, president of Confederation of Information Technology Enterprises (CITE)-Orissa urged the DG, STPI to take up with the Union ministries of finance and revenue for extension of the sunset clause for the IT and ITeS units under Section 10 (A) and 10 (B) of the IT Act, 1961 which is due to expire in 2011.
More than 500 IT firms across the country have committed themselves to take up the issue of extension of the sunset clause for the IT sector with the Government of India.
These units have decided to form a pressure group, which will constantly engage with the government for extension of the STPI sunset clause.
The pressure group apart will also personally meet senior government functionaries including members of the parliamentary standing committees and the bureaucracy to develop a general consensus on the issue.
