Announcing a slew of proposals for the Information Technology and industries sectors, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan in his policy address to Assembly on Friday said the focus of the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) in 2021-22 will be to upgrade the data centres forming the backbone of the IT infrastructure, setting up of an Aadhaar Data Vault, Unified State Portal, Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence.
He said an electronic file processing system would be implemented in all government establishments to ensure timely action and more transparency. The government’s aim is to provide all services online to citizens without any applicant having to visit a government office. A project for implementing this plan would be inaugurated on October 2 this year.
The K-FON project with a vision to ensure last mile connectivity to government offices in the State and to provide free high-speed Internet to the poor families would be expanded. More Wi-Fi hotspots, in addition to the existing ones, would be set up across the State.
Infrastructure build-up of the major projects including the Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ), Kalamassery and Village Knowledge Centre, Kannur, would be commissioned by the Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited. Kalamassery would be turned into one of the biggest hardware ecosystems in the country with the launching of TIZ, said the Governor.
An open-source platform was being developed by the Electronics and Information Technology Department, which would soon link all the stakeholders. This was in addition to the already existing e-market platform. This programme would create at least 1,00,000 jobs every year and in a period of five years, the State could add up to 5,00,000 jobs on a sustained basis, said the Governor.
The government would ensure fast-track development of 481 acres of Kinfra Petrochemical Park in Ambalamugal with all supporting infrastructure for the anchor investor BPCL and 13 other units. The Kochi-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (KBIC) would be fast-tracked by developing Palakkad as a node and GIFT (Global Industrial Finance and Trade) City as the hub in Kochi. This initiative was likely to generate investments of ₹20,000 crore and had an employment potential of 15,000. The Kochi-Palakkad Industrial Corridor would be developed to overcome the logistic cost and hurdles of bringing goods from outside the State, said the Governor.
A Spices Park is proposed to be developed by Kinfra at Thodupuzha. Integrated Rice Technology Parks (IRTP) are planned by Kinfra at Palakkad and Alappuzha districts.
