The Hindu Business Line : Jharkhand IT policy likely by Dec 15

THE Jharkhand Government is expected to announce its IT policy, incorporating incentives for the industry, by December15. The State Government has prepared a draft IT policy after in-depth discussions with various State Government departments.

The draft policy will be hosted online for feedback and comments from the industry, the public and various stakeholders in the State's IT arena. It will then be placed before the State Cabinet for approval.

Delivering the inaugural address here on Saturday at the National IT Seminar 2004 organised by XLRI, Jamshedpur, Mr R.S. Sharma, Commissioner and Secretary in Jharkhand's Information Technology Department, said the proposed policy would contain several incentives for attracting investments in the State's IT and IT enabled services sector.

Till now, the State's IT policy has been part of its overall industrial policy. According to Mr Sharma, around 50,000 new jobs would be created in the State's IT and ITES sector in the next two years.

"We are not expecting investment in manufacturing. We want to attract companies, especially ITES companies, which wish to operate from an environment which is different from the traditional crowded and saturated IT environment that exists in many cities," he said. He was confident that investments in the ITES sector would follow once the proposed policy was unveiled.

Mr Sharma said this would be facilitated by the fact that technology had become a "location-independent and also it does not matter whether a BPO is located in Bangalore or Ranchi."

Mr Sharma sought to highlight the attractiveness of the State capital of Ranchi and Jamshedpur as ideal investment destinations for IT and ITES companies. Their advantages include availability of skilled manpower, low cost of operations, good quality of life and presence of institutes of excellence such as XLRI and Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.

Besides, a single window clearance has been provided for IT companies and necessary clearances are accorded in 30 days. No charges are levied for right of way on companies that wish to lay optical fibre cables. The State Government only asks for some bandwidth to be made available for it in such cases.

Mr Sharma dwelt on the importance and implications of IT in governance, and said IT tools must be adequately leveraged to ensure efficiencies and delivery of information and services in a cost-effective and transparent manner. This is most important in cases where the incidence of public interface is relatively more pronounced, he said.

The Jharkhand IT Commissioner and Secretary also highlighted the spreading IT awareness in different departments of the State Government, and appealed to the private sector to participate in the e-governance projects in the State.