K'taka Govt urges IT industry to move to tier II cities

Bangalore, Jun 20 (UNI) Seeking to look beyond the saturated state capital, the Karnataka Government today urged India Inc, particularly IT industry to set up units in tier II cities in the state.

The government was ready to ready to respond and fulfill their requirements, State IT and BT Minister Katta Subramanuim Naidu said while speaking at the Fourth Innovation Summit-2008 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

Smaller cities in Karnataka offered everything except air connectivity and the government had already initiated steps to construct new airports in Mysore, Gulbarga, Shimoga and Hassan.

Other tier II cities like Hubli and Mangalore, already had airports, he said.

Stating that tier II cities offered sufficient talent pool, availability of power, water and land, he said the primary objective of the state government was to generate employment in these smaller cities.

''Cities like Mangalore and Mysore, have already made enough strides in attracting IT and other industries. As part of uniform growth policy we are going to set up skill training centres to help the industry further,'' he added.

The state government would soon come out with a new policy to ensure that benefits of IT reach the people in rural areas. It would have special incentives and concessions package for the IT industry to set up Business Process Outsourcing(BP0) units in the rural areas, he said.

In an effort to decongest Bangalore, Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation (KEONICS) would build IT parks and electronic hubs in tier-II cities, he added.

UNI RS ROY 1954