HYDERABAD: The Telangana government will unveil its Information Technology (IT) Policy in the third week of this month, with special focus on creating 20 lakh jobs either directly or indirectly. A slew of incentives, particularly for start-ups, are on the table as the government is keen to increase Hyderabad’s traction as a ‘global destination’ for investments in IT sector.
IT Minister KT Rama Rao, who has been working on the finer details of the policy in the last few days, is understood to be drafting it in such a way as to boost software exports from Telangana - to as much as `1.20 lakh crore. The growth rate of the industry is also being pegged at 16 per cent.
A key part of the proposed policy is skill development of the youth. The idea is to equip them with skill sets required for landing a job in the IT sector soon after graduation. KTR, who recently held consultations with industrialists and educationists to prepare a curriculum tailor-made for the needs of the industry, also wants to give enough scope for research, innovation and entrepreneurship in his proposed policy.
“The government will encourage investors to set up companies in two-tier and three-tier cities. Such companies would be given additional benefits and royalties, so that economic inequalities among various districts would be reduced drastically,” said sources, hinting that cities other than Hyderabad would be a key thrust area.
The tech savvy IT Minister is also giving due importance to analytics and cloud computing, the sources said. KTR himself expressed the hope that after the IT Policy is unveiled, companies like Facebook and WhatsApp would come set up branches in Telangana in the coming days. “The IT policy would be the best in the country to attract more investments,” he said.
Pointing out that Hyderabad is already among the preferred destinations for IT, KTR said the IT policy would carry the same spirit as the recently announced industrial policy. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s oft-repeated ‘chasing cell’ at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to attract investments would also find a place in the IT policy, KTR said.