There is good news for those keen on pursuing IT courses, but are unable to afford them. Now, they can avail loans and also reduce the IT burden.
Thanks to the State government’s ambitious IT, Innovation Incentives Policy, the IT-BT Department is planning to launch a massive programme of skill development in Information and Communication Technology(ICT) sector.
“The skill development programme will be taken up in association with the industry for training the youth in IT, BPO, telecom and other related areas in public-private partnership model. The government will provide a 15 per cent default guarantee to banks and encourage them to extend skill development loans or education loans at low interest rates,” IT, BT, science and technology Minister S R Patil told Express. The specific details the programme, courses and funding for each would be decided by a committee headed by the Chief Secretary and other government and industry experts to be constituted soon, he added.
“The proposed programme has been incorporated in the new IT policy considering the fact that poor students and unemployed youth, especially from agricultural families are facing problems in getting bank loans for education and skill development. Many poor students face this problem of producing collateral for getting the loans sanctioned,” the minister said.
He said efforts would be made for greater industry-academic interface to upgrade the curriculum in ITC sector to suit the needs of the industry. “A slew of initiatives would also be launched to foster innovation and support start-ups in the state. This includes setting up a separate fund for this purpose,” said Patil.
According to him, the new IT policy aims to make Karnataka the world’s largest IT hub.