Centre to build integrated IT townships

Bangalore, June 9 (UNI) The Centre is planning to build integrated IT townships in many parts of the country to attract investors, generate employment and create ecosystem for faster growth of IT and BPO sectors, Union IT Secretary Jainder Singh said today.

Speaking at the 'NASSCOM-BPO Strategy Summit-2008' here, he said the Centre would invest in there townships through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), with the state governments providing land, power and water supply to the projects.

''These townships will have all facilities, like workplace, educational institutions, health and entertainment, in one place.

This would help the IT industry minimise travelling of their staff and thus increase productivity,'' he said.

Mr Singh said these townships would not offer any tax benefits to the industry. However, if they come in the periphery of any of the SEZs, the investors could avail the tax benefits as per the norms, he added.

The government would focus on strengthening three areas like talent promotion, providing right infrastructure and ensuring information security to help the IT industry, he said.

''For talent creation, the government has already initiated steps for capacity building and giving more freedom to educational institutions and change of curriculum,'' he added.

On tax concessions to the IT industry, he said the government had extended the tax holiday for IT exporters by one more year.

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