Shinde extols M’rashtra’s ICT capabilities

MUMBAI: Sushilkumar Shinde, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, while welcoming the Nasscom delegates, presented the business case for the state in the ICT revolution in the country. In the last one year, the state government has approved 34 additional private IT parks in the state. While 24 of them are in Mumbai, 9 are in Pune. In addition, MIDC's new park that came up in Nagpur in December 2003 already has IT companies accounting for more than half the occupancy. And this, Shinde informed, has already generated demand for a third IT park from MIDC. Of the prominent IT companies, Infosys is taking an additional 110 acres in Hinjewadi IT park in Pune, while Patni is taking 25 acres in Airoli. Even Wipro is taking a large amount of space in Hinjewadi.

At the opening session of Nasscom 2004, Shinde emphasized Maharashtra's unique advantages on the ICT front. Apart from the public-private sector initiatives in having 46 parks, the government has also recently framed a liberal IT/ITES policy to encourage the ICT industry. With Maharashtra's traditional strengths like media, entertainment and HR nurturing IT in the state, Maharashtra this year contributed to 19% of the country's software exports. Besides, the software exports from the state has been growing by 20% over the last two years. With 2 million sq. ft. of built-up area already occupied by IT companies in the state, Shinde declared an additional 10 million sq. ft. over the next three years with 100% over and above FSI for the IT/ITES industry.

Lastly, the other major achievement of the Government of Maharashtra last year was bagging 4 awards on e-governance from the Central Government, for projects that penetrated more into society and reduced the digital divide. "In this respect, we have left behind Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh," claimed Shinde amidst thunderous applause from the august gathering.

CyberMedia News Service