Centre to set up 11 Software Technology Parks

New Delhi, Aug 2 (UNI) The government will set up eleven new Software Technology Parks across the country, Information and Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran today said.

The new software parks will come up in Bhopal and Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh), Patna (Bihar), Haldia (West Bengal, Berhampur (Orissa), Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), Agra (Uttar Pradesh), Goa, Shillong (Meghalaya), Agartala (Tripura) and Gulbarga (Karnataka), Mr Maran told the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour.

The software parks are being set up by the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous society under the IT Ministry, established with the objective of promotion of software exports.

At present there are 47 software parks in 21 states, including, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Maharashtra.

According to Mr Maran, the total value of exports by the software parks in the last three years was Rs 100,965 crore (2005-6), Rs 74,019 crore (2004-5) and Rs 51,458 crore (2003-4).

The total exports in IT software and services are estimated to go up to 50 billion dollars by 2008-9, Mr Maran said.

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