Tamil Nadu government is a people’s government, and going forward it will be a people first and digital first government, said State IT minister Mano T Thangaraj.

“We are putting in position every possible mechanism in the best interest of the people and their welfare. The IT sector will enable other industries in our State to become competitive globally. This sector will also foster innovation and new product development. Many such relationships can be fostered through this event - Connect,” he said in his valedictory address at CII Connect2021, the Tamil Nadu government’s International Conference and Exhibition of ICT.

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Thangaraj said that the IT department will work with other departments to strengthen the State’s investment attractiveness by enriching the ICT infrastructure 360 degrees.

“As promised, we will look into all the current policies in a thorough manner, and ensure the new policies are highly industry friendly and progressive. All of us are responsible for guiding the evolution of technology, in the decisions we make on a daily basis as citizens, consumers, businesses and investors. We should grasp the opportunity and power we have to shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution and direct it toward a future that reflects our common objectives and values,” Thangaraj said.

IT Secretary Neeraj Mittal said that IT is horizontal across all departments. The start-ups will have a critical role in the $1 trillion economy target set by the Chief Minister MK Stalin. They will create jobs and create growth. The government needs to get its act to support them and stay out of their way. If they are in trouble, help them and give them some business, if it is possible.

“We need to move from manufacturing excellence to IT excellence,” he said.

R Narayanan, National Leader, Education and Skill Development, KPMG, presenting the key takeaways from the two-day event said that Tamil Nadu has been long established as a manufacturing hub; hub for higher education and skills, over the recent years, it is emerging as a hub for FinTech and SaaS. “Next, it needs to double down on DeepTech, which can have far reaching consequences in areas of health, education, agriculture, supply chain, logistics and many other areas,” he said.

There is a need to strengthen the pipeline of potential unicorns and funding to support entrepreneurs, strengthen IT / ITeS special economic zones, cloud data centres, and software technology parks.

It is important to ensure that sectors such as the MSME, which are significant contributors to the economy, are not left out because of Industry 4.0.

The State has all the right enablers, which it should further build on a future-ready higher education and skilling ecosystem; an incubation system to facilitate entrepreneurship across the state; strong infrastructure; an agile skilled workforce and stronger partnerships between government, industry, investor community and higher education institutions land, said Narayanan.

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