ROURKELA: Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Rourkela on Thursday launched its first Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centre in Steel City.
The BPO centre, which came 16 years after establishment of STPI, Rourkela, was inaugurated by STPI DG Omkar Rai. STPI sources said 26 jobs have been provided by the BPO centre which deals in Banking, Security, Financial, Insurance (BSFI) sector and it would soon be expanded to 100 recruitments.
The facility has been set up under India BPO Promotion Scheme with an aim of providing IT jobs to local youths of small cities. Rai said the STPI has plans to set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Rourkela in collaborative model for which a Detailed Project Report will be prepared soon.
The proposed CoE, which will deal with cyber crime, data analytics, Internet of Things, gaming technology and data science would among other things promote research in emerging computer technologies and innovation and boost Intellectual Property Rights to create an eco-system for start-up business.
The collaborative model would involve prominent technical educational institutions, with National Institute of Technology-Rourkela as academic partners and also include industry and other key stake holders.
Rai said the Central Government is focused on transforming India from an IT service sector to IT product development sector. He said STPI is working on the Government policy and laying emphasis on promotion of software product development.
Incidentally, despite huge potential in IT sector, STPI here continues to struggle for growth due to the neglect by the Central and the State governments. It has been reduced to a sub-centre of STPI, Bhubaneswar as stated in the latter’s portal. The STPI, Bhubaneswar website claims the Rourkela centre has seven IT companies operating from its campus.
However, STPI, Rourkela sources said nine IT and IT Enabled Service (ITES) units are functioning from the campus while two other registered IT units are operating from outside. Only three IT companies have managed to get export orders of `4-5 crore annually on their own. With the land now transferred to STPI, Rourkela, it is hoping to set up an IT tower in future to accommodate entrepreneurs.