''Rural IT Policy' in Karnataka soon'

Bangalore, Sep 19: On Friday, Sep 19 IT secretary Ashok Kumar Manoli said that the Karnataka Government will soon bring out a Rural IT Policy to attract the Small and Medium Enterprise(SMEs) to set shops in Tier II and Tier III Cities. A dialogue with NASSCOM the IT industry body had begun to give a shape to the Rural IT Policy and an interim report would be ready in two months, he said.

Speaking at a CII function which launched the CII-KPMG report on 'Indian IT/ITeS Industry Expiry of Income Tax Holiday: Needs a re-examination', he said that as on March 2008, the State had received sanction for 41 SEZs with an expected investment of Rs 20,000 crore. It also projected creation of eight lakh jobs. "Of theses, SEZs 30 are in Tier II and Tier III cities and it would be in IT and ITeS space," he added.

Strongly supporting the need for extension of Tax Holiday to the industry the official said there was a need to create eco friendly atmosphere besides offering other benefits to attract major and SMEs players in IT to smaller cities.

There was good response from the industries to the government's call to establish in rural areas. The government was committed to provide better infrastructure and other and steps had been initiated in this direction, he said.

Major tier II destination of Hubli was attracting more the IT industry and 'Aryabhatta IT Park', a new Park under PPP model was coming up in Shimoga also an IT Park had been proposed.

In Mangalore the IT Park coming up on 915 hectares and six SEZs had been proposed. NASSCOM had also selected Dharwad, Mysore, Hassan for establishing IT Parks, he said.

UNI