Changes in new IT policy of Karnataka to focus on more investment

Bangalore, Oct 21: The Karnataka government is set to announce a new information technology (IT) policy aimed at attracting more investment into the state, reported

. Special focus will be on raising investors' interest in the tier-II and tier-III cities.

The new policy will be unveiled at the flagship annual IT event on Tuesday. It also aims at increasing employment in the state.

The government expects the new IT policy would enable the IT sector to employ around 2 million people directly in Karnataka by 2020, as against 900,000 now. The policy will also be aimed at taking IT exports from the state to around Rs 4 lakh crore by 2020, from Rs 1.65 lakh crore now, Srivatsa Krishna, secretary, Department of IT, BT and S&T, Karnataka, said.

The policy will also enable the state to become the "largest IT cluster on the globe" and become the "world leader overtaking Silicon Valley", he added.

"We are bringing a radical change in our IT policy, making it more investor-friendly," S R Patil, minister for IT, biotechnology, science and technology, planning and statistics in the Government of Karnataka said. "The ITE.Biz event will be more meaningful this time because we are all set to announce several incentives and exemptions to the IT industry, especially for the start-ups. These incentives also include helping the tier-II and III towns attract investments," he added.

The new policy is also likely to boost investments into allied sectors such as electronics hardware manufacturing. The Central government has also increased focus on electronics manufacturing within the country, as statistics show that the electronics import bill of India is going to be $280 billion by 2020, higher than the estimated oil import bill of around $200 billion.

The three-day ITE.Biz, which kicks off tomorrow, is jointly organised by the department of IT, BT S&T and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). The event, earlier called IT.Biz, has been rechristened to show the focus on electronics hardware manufacturing sector.

The organisers expects over 1,200 representatives from over 45 companies to attend the event this year.

With agency inputs

OneIndia News