The government today unveiled the draft policy on information technology, 2011 that is aimed at creating a pool of extra 10 million skilled manpower by 2020 and strengthening India's position as a global IT power.
The policy also targets exports worth $200 billion and a total revenue of $300 billion by 2020 from the IT and ITes industry, Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said unveiling the draft policy. The shipment is worth $59 billion, while the revenue is $88 billion at present.
"Our objective from this policy is to increase revenues of IT and ITeS (IT-enabled services)industry from $88 billion at present to $300 billion by 2020 and expand exports from $59 billion at present to $200 billion by 2020 and to create a pool of 10 million additional skilled manpower in ICT," he said.
The Indian IT sector, which gets 80% of its revenues from exports, employs over 2.5 million skilled people, he added.
The draft is available for comments from public and various stakeholders for a month on the websites of the Department of Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications.
The draft aims to provide fiscal benefits to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-up ventures in the key industrial verticals for adoption of IT.
"We are waiting for the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) to put in place, then we will make a framework to provide incentives to smaller and medium IT firms," Sibal said.
The draft also focuses on gaining significant global market share in cloud-based technologies and services and mobile-based value added services.
"A conducive policy environment and the concerted strategy is needed for the country to remain a global player on a long-term basis," he said.
Further, it also calls for setting up centres of excellence in institutions of higher learning so as to produce at least 3,000 PhDs in ICT in specialised areas by 2020.
The policy also formulates fiscal and other regulations to attract investments in the sector in tier II and III cities and to create employment opportunities across the country.
"As most of the IT companies are located in big cities like Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, the policy will now look at expanding to tier II and tier III cities as well," Sibal added.
