Govt will remove all hurdles to develop IT sector: CM

 Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday reiterated his government’s commitment to position the State at the helm of the Indian IT industry by initiating more forward-looking policy initiatives.

Inaugurating the new campus of French IT services major Capgemini here, Siddaramaiah said, “We are ready to remove all the hurdles along the way to develop Karnataka further. The State is the IT capital of India with one-third of exports emerging out of here.”

Lauding the commitment shown by honchos and thought leaders in the IT industry, he said the government wants to bring new momentum to the industry growth. “The government is serious about bringing growth back. We have announced the new industrial policy and the Karnataka i4 Policy to boost the industry.”

Siddaramaiah also complemented the role played by the IT Task Force and the Vision Group on IT led by Kris Gopalakrishnan in giving direction to the industry in the State.

“I want the IT industry to embrace the facilities in Tier-I and Tier-II cities in the State. With the right cooperation of academia and the government, we will create a conducive ecosystem in the State to make the State IT a Rs 4-lakh crore industry by 2020,” he said.
All the hurdles to the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) project on the outskirts of Bengaluru City will be removed soon, the CM said.

“As part of developing the first phase of the project, 2,000 acres of land will be acquired by the KIADB soon, out of the total 10,500 acres. We are also availing a loan of Rs 10,000 crore from Hudco to speed up the acquisition process,” he said. Karnataka IT & BT Minister S R Patil said that the IT sector will provide employment to around 40 lakh people by 2020 in the State.

“Our IT Road Map gives a clear-cut policy to develop top-rung companies in the State. We have already developed a world-class startup ecosystem in Bengaluru with its top-level talent pool. The government has also decided to set up nine new age incubation centres across Karnataka.”

Patil said that there will be a further boost to the IT sector in the State with its skill development initiatives. “We have already announced setting up 110 Wi-Fi hot spots in Bengaluru. Also, each district will get three free Wi-Fi hotspots,” he said. Even though the minister mentioned the growing unethical practices of a few IT companies, he did not spell out the government’s action plan on the issue.  Capgemini will have 70k staff by 2016 Capgemini will ramp up its India presence with 70,000 employees at its current nine locations in India.

Addressing reporters at the inauguration of the new facility here, Capgemini India CEO and Group Executive Committee member Aruna Jayanthi said, “India will be the largest offshore centre of Capgemini with operations in verticals such as consumer products, retail, financial services, manufacturing and automobiles. We also focus on data analytics from India.”

Capgemini’s new facility is spread across 4.6 lakh sq ft, seating 5,000 employees. It will offer an array of service offerings including application development & management (ADM), infrastructure services, BPO and consulting services.