BANGALORE: Union minister for communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran regretted
that India fails in emulating the Silicon Valley as it is not able to give
enough encouragement and support to those who come up with ideas and help them
productize them — and more important, launch them in the global arena.
He was speaking after inaugurating The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI),
Bangalore's new facility at the Cyber Park in the Electronics City on Friday.
“Today, when we talk about IT, the question invariably asked is how can we
move up the value chain? Why is it that we cannot emulate the Silicon Valley in
terms of coming up with disruptive technologies and innovative products instead
of merely focusing on IT services?”
Set against a backdrop of India's rich cultural heritage, STPI's new
facility also houses an Incubation Centre called the Orchid TechScape.
Maran said that Orchid has all the ingredients to create the right
environment to incubate firms with newer technologies. This centre is all set to
create the kind of synergy that is needed for IT Industry.
India today is synonymous with the IT industry. The brand 'India' has
been built on the strong foundation of the software exports industry, which has
been steadily propped up by the IT-enabled Services (ITeS) segment.
In this process Bangalore has not only contributed to this growth but also
created a brand for itself. Maran congratulated the Karnataka government for
this achievement.
With the proactive policies of the Government of India, the software and ITeS
sector exports from India have exceeded target and reached around US$24 billion
in the year 2005-06 and are on the right track to reach US$60 billion by 2010.
Maran said “We are also in the final stages of preparing a draft policy
proposing a special package of incentives for the semiconductor industry which
includes fabs, assembly and testing units, photo voltaic cells, flat panel
displays, storage devices, etc.”
This along with a proactive and industry friendly hardware policy would make
the Indian Electronics/IT Hardware Manufacturing Industry globally competitive
and ensure more inflow of investment including FDI into this sector.”
The minister further added that a special thrust has been given by the
Department of Information Technology, to enable IT Industry growth in Tier 2 and
3 cities and STPI has been working with several State Governments to identify
such locations, to ensure equitable growth for this sector and maintain global
competitiveness.
The IT ministry has proposed the doing away with the land area stipulation
for IT specific SEZs. “This would go a long way in enabling the IT sector to
retain its competitive edge,” Maran added.
“In Bangalore, STPI is like a serial entrepreneur where one initiative
after another has become successful,” Chief Minister of Karnataka, H D
Kumaraswamy said.
In his address, Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys NR Narayana Murthy
lauded STPI - Bangalore as a shining beacon exhibiting true corporate culture,
“catalyzing the rapid growth for the whole of the Indian IT industry.”
Madhavan Nambiar, additional secretary to the Government of India, Department
of IT, SN Zindal, director general, STPI and BV Naidu, director, STPI, Bangalore
also spoke on the occasion.
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