M Karunanidhi, Chief Minister (CM) of Tamil Nadu recently released Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy 2008-09 for the state. The CM handed over the first copy of the ICT policy to A Raja, Union Minister for Comm­unications and Information Technology (CII).

The policy aims at making TN the IT hub of South Asia by 2011 by creating a knowledge driven ecosystem leveraging entrepreneurship and promoting socially inclusive growth to achieve a 25 percent production share of the Indian ICT industry. The new policy comes after a gap of almost six years and aims to create approximately three million jobs directly and indirectly. Vision 2011 predicts the creation of opportunities to employ 0.8 million directly in IT firms and 2.2 million indirectly. ICT services and ICT manufacturing sectors are expected to employ 0.7mn and 0.1mn people, respectively.

The government has drawn a plan to nurture talent in the state by setting up centers of excellence (CoE), finishing schools for economically weaker sections, allowing industry representatives in the syllabus committee, providing soft skills, introducing new methodologies and ensuring that every high, higher secondary school has computer labs with broadband Internet connectivity by end of 2011.

M Karunanidhi, CM, Tamil Nadu

The State Government has also planned to boost research and development by setting up IIT's, encouraging industry-academia collaboration in R&D, offering incentives, scholarships from government and industry to pursue research, setting up labs in the public private partnership mode and setting up research parks. The policy has some thing to encourage the entrepreneurs from the state by establishing incubation center in their institutions and making entrepreneurship as a subject in all colleges across the state.

All the IT-ITeS facilities set up in Chennai and neighboring districts such as Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts with an investment of over Rs 250 crore in a period of three years would be eligible for a structured package of incentives. And the investments for other districts has been fixed to Rs 150 crore for next three years and all those locations would be considered as tier-2 and 3 locations for the purpose of availing certain special incentives.

As a major relief for the new IT-ITeS units, the State Government has announced capital subsidy and electricity tax exemption for a specific period depending on the investments. Also the policy has provided exemptions in stamp duty and registration fee of up to 50 percent during the time of purchase of a land or building for IT-ITeS parks initiated by the State Government.

As a part of the initiative, government will ensure that sufficient bandwidth and power is made available to IT-ITeS companies at alternative locations throughout Tamil Nadu. It has also amended the Motor Vehicles Act to enable the IT companies to make use of hired privately owned omnibuses to transport their employees between their residences and work place.

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