‘Rs 24K cr turnover in ICT sector by 2020’

Reported by Sandeep Pattnaik.

Bhubaneswar, Dec 21:

The Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy approved by the state cabinet on Friday aims to achieve a turnover of around Rs 24, 000 crore by 2020 from the ICT sector from domestic as well as exports, chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra said on Saturday.

Inaugurating the second day of the ongoing ‘Invest Bhubaneswar’ summit here, Mohapatra said; “The ICT sector has a target to provide direct employment for 60,000 professionals in 800 IT / ITES and ESDM units by 2020.” The new policy is farsighted taking the next five to ten years into consideration, he said.

“The ICT policy will give boost to formation of IT parks in the state by exemption of sales tax and value added tax (VAT) and waiving entry tax on machines, equipment, capital goods and construction material procured for setting up infrastructure projects,” Mohapatra said.

Appreciating the initiatives of Invest Bhubaneswar to focus on a very relevant subject like Electronic Semiconductor Design and Manufacturing (ESDM), the chief secretary said Odisha has a great role to play in the ESDM sector, which is still at a nascent stage.

Mohapatra said a mega second IT park is coming up at Infovally at Janla, around 10 kms from here, spreading across 600 acres of land of which 160 acres has been earmarked for setting up of an ESDM park. The Electronic Methodology Cluster (EMC) to be set up with joint equity participation by both the Centre and the State.

Speakers on the second day said the Electronic Semiconductor Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) industry in the country is set to achieve a total business worth US 400 billion dollars by 2020. The industry is poised to grow at a rapid pace from the present level of US 70 bn dollar in the country, which was at around US 45 bn dollar during 2008-09, the speakers said.

“While the ESDM sector has the potential to generate maximum employment in the coming days, at the same time, too much dependence on imports of these hardware products poses a threat,” said Madhusudan Padhi, Secretary, Department of IT.

”Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA) has emphasized on the need for getting into the sector as it is the high time to produce our own products in order to cut down expenditure on imports,” said Venkatesh Muruthappan, Vice President, ISA. “An ESDM project has the potential of revenue generation five times that of investment,” he added.

“Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), a not-for-profit body, in collaboration with the government of India, is in the process of setting up a ESDM fund to support entrepreneurs willing to invest in the sector,” Muruthappan said.

ESDM products cater to a wide array of sectors like telecom, consumer electronics, mobile handsets, automobile, medical and healthcare equipments, education, and last but not the least the energy sector.

“Odisha is endowed with an abundance of natural resources like land, water and minerals. Odisha has left behind states like Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in attracting investments in the year 2013, ranking us number one in the race.” S. K. Kar, DGM, Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited (IPICOL) said on the occasion.

The three-day long event of ‘Invest Bhubaneswar’ has attracted young entrepreneurs, promoters of start-ups and many established business personalities, investors, speakers, experts, scientists and venture capitalists, NRIs, VC funding experts, Management & Engineering Professionals, Academicians, Government officials, representatives from local industry associations and so on.