TN to be made ideal destination for ICT: Maran

Chennai, Sep 8 (UNI) Tamil Nadu will be positioned as a competitive location for ICT industry, notably in the manufacture of hardware, Union IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said today.

Speaking at Connect-2006, a three-day conference organised by the CII and the State Government, he said ''our aim is to make Tamil Nadu the hardware manufacturing and supply hub for the globe as it is strategically located near the European and Gulf markets.

''Besides, the state has distinct advantages over other locations in terms of trained manpower, low cost of start ups, world class infrastructure and sustainable government policy,'' he added.

The state's human resources had attracted global IT and Indian companies for high end informatics like bioinformatics, cryptography and network security, nanobiology and communications engineering.

These assets needed to be further leveraged to increase Tamil Nadu's share of IT, ITeS and electronic hardware market revenues to 20 per cent of the total value of exports by 2011 from 14 per cent.

''Achieving this vision will mean the state will have an output of 25 billion US Dollar in IT, ITeS and hardware. It will be employing nearly seven lakh people in these industries and will have attracted an investment close to 5.5 billion USD,'' Mr Maran said.

The Tamil Nadu Government was also planning to create a knowledge-driven ecosystem to nurture ICT business in the state and the new ICT policy would facilitiate the development of the eco-system.

UNI GV GM 1338