BHUBANESWAR, SEPT 22: The Odisha government will spend over Rs 4,000 crore on the IT nd IT-enabled services sector in next five years to create more than one lakh jobs in IT sector, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said today.
“The IT sector has been at the top of the Government’s agenda. The state government is going to spend around Rs 4,000 crore from its budget in next five years towards IT, ITES and ESDM (Electronic Systems Design and Manufacturing),” the Chief Minister said while inaugurating Mindtree Kalinga campus here.
Stating that the State Government has brought out a new industry friendly ICT Policy¬-2014 and Industrial Policy Resolution-2015, Patnik said the effort is to make Odisha the preferred IT destination for IT/ITES/ESDM Companies by providing a slew of attractive fiscal incentives and concessions.
“It is a matter of pride that growth rate of IT exports from the State is more than the national growth rate for last many years. Bhubaneswar has equally made good progress in IT SEZ sector too. The State Government is setting up a Green Field Electronics Manufacturing Cluster within Infovalley,” he said.
As Odisha has been at the forefront of IT revolution, the government has decided that every department would spend two per cent of plan budget or one per cent of total budget for electronic enabled service delivery to citizens as enacted under Right to Public Service Delivery Act, Patnaik said.
It is the first state in the country which has signed an MOU with TiE, Silicon Valley, USA to attract foreign investment under ESDM sector, the Chief Minister said.
The State Government is bringing out a Rural BPO scheme with 5,000 to 10,000 seats in all the STPI locations of the State in order to provide employment opportunity to the youth of the State, he added.
