The IT Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP) will partner with the State government in its endeavour to transform Visakhapatnam as the information technology capital of the State.
After holding talks with top officials of the Department of IT and suggesting certain points for incorporation in the IT policy now under preparation, ITAAP office-bearers also expressed their willingness to collaborate with the government in the proposed skill university.
“The biggest challenge today is skill development as all the IT and ITES companies are facing shortage of skilled manpower.
“We will supplement the effort of the government in preparing curriculum, organising guest lectures and offering internship to students to make them job-ready,” ITAAP president R.L. Narayana said.
He told The Hindu that with the government making it compulsory to recruit 75% workforce from among locals, improving skill-set had assumed importance. ITAAP also had plans to partner with industries to impart training to students for skill upgradation by facilitating guest lectures by domain experts.
Visakhapatnam has an IT turnover of ₹2,000 crore which is growing at the rate of 20%, according to Software Technology Parks of India Joint Director M.P. Dubey
Social infrastructure
Mentioning how Hyderabad developed into a prominent IT hub after Microsoft, GE and WIPRO opened development centres, Mr. Narayana said the hills at Madhurawada IT Special Economic Zone in and around Rushikonda were in need of improvement in infrastructure to strengthen the existing ecosystem.
“The city is in need of good social infrastructure to retain talented manpower and attract reverse migration of locals settled in good positions abroad,” he said.
ITAAP president-elect Sridhar Kosaraju said they were expecting a simplified incentivised IT policy to attract new investments and brownfield expansion by existing players.
