Telangana clocked a steep growth, up from Rs. 66,276 core to Rs. 75,070 crore, in Information Technology (IT) and IT Enabled Services (ITes) exports in 2015-16, announced Information Technology Minister K T. Rama Rao at the release of annual IT report here on Wednesday. The State also employed 4.07 lakh professionals in the sector in 2015-16 as against 3,71,774 the previous year.
The State is looking forward to another major leap this year (2016-17) as it is planning to set up Phase II of the T-Hub that will sprawl across 3 lakh sq ft facility which will house 900 start-ups. The start-up incubation capacity of the State will later be improved to 5,000. The State capital, Hyderabad will have three IT parks all set up in Public Private Partnership (PPP) model this year, the minister announced.
To boost growth, the State will also draft an electronics policy that aims at attracting $3 billion investments in Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector. In the ESDM sector, the State has already attracted Thompson electronics, Celkon and Micromax, Mr. Rama Rao said.
The State also aims at setting up a Game City in a 6 lakh sq ft facility to attract investments in animation, gaming, image processing, music and entertainment sectors, the minister said. The State is also in talks with Defence Ministry to develop defence technologies, he said.
Pinning his hopes on the success of the second phase of T-Hub, the minister said that the first round of investments into the mammoth project will be Rs. 178 crore. “The first phase of T-Hub was a huge success. We ran out of space within the first few months and hence we decided to expand its scope,” the minister said. The State will also set up a I-Hub outpost in Silicon valley, Mr. Rama Rao said adding, “There is a lot of interest for this project in the US. We are waiting for someone to anchor it”. To improve the reach of IT sector in rural areas, the State is planning to set up rural BPOs. “While the R&D incubation centre in Warangal is an example of how the State is getting IT reach to rural localities,” he said, adding the world IT Congress which will take place in Hyderabad in 2018 will help the State further in developing its IT growth. The State’s Mee Seva centres also became the most successful citizen service delivery platform in India has it clocked 30,423 e-transactions per thousand persons in 2015-16.
Making IT the lay person’s dream, Mr. Rama Rao said, “This government will make sure that every household in the State gets broadband connection.” Hyderabad alone will have 3,000 hotspots, he added, as he predicted massive growth for the sector this year.
