Odisha to spend Rs 5,000 crore on IT sector

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday said the state government will spend around Rs 5,000 crore in the next five years for the developing the information technology (IT) sector.

"According to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy-2014, every government department will now earmark two percent of its annual plan budget or one percent of its overall budget, whichever is higher, for IT spending so as to provide services through electronic mode," he said.

"By this process, the state government is going to spend around Rs 5,000 crore from the state budget for IT/ITES and ESDM (electronics system design and manufacturing)," the chief minister said, while inaugurating a new IT block of Tech-Mahindra here.

He said the growth rate of IT exports from the state is more than the national growth rate for the past several years.

"In order to promote such industries, IT Special Economic Zones are established at Info-city and Info-valley here. The state government is also setting up a green field electronics manufacturing cluster in Info-valley," he said.

"Odisha is the first state in the country which has signed an MoU with TiE, Silicon Valley, USA to attract foreign investment under the ESDM sector in the electronic manufacturing cluster," said Patnaik.

He said the ICT policy has a target to achieve a gross turnover of $4 billion, direct employment of 60 thousand professionals, attract 10 leading IT/ITES and five leading ESDM companies to the state.

It will also create a built-up space of 6 million sq ft and develop a land bank of 2 thousand acres by 2020, he said.

The government has also decided to make the entire Bhubaneswar WiFi-enabled.