Union Minister for Law and Justice, Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday wanted Tamil Nadu, which has a strong manufacturing base, to avail itself of the Centre’s incentives and duty concessions for production of electronic goods.
After a 40-minute meeting with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at the Secretariat here, he told reporters that the Narendra Modi government was encouraging “in a very big way” the manufacture of electronic goods. All over the country, electronic clusters were being established. Tamil Nadu could make use of the scheme by offering land for electronic clusters.
Ms. Jayalalithaa responded “very favourably” to the suggestion, he said.
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He hoped that Digital India, another Central government programme, would digitally empower every Indian with broadband connectivity and the national optical fibre network. It would cover 60,000 panchayats this year; one lakh panchayats next year; and another one lakh thereafter. The government’s “ambitious plan” was to provide broadband connections to all schools and WiFi to all universities and tourist places.
Mr. Prasad said he requested Ms. Jayalalithaa to ensure that the programme was a “great success” in Tamil Nadu, which “itself is a tech-savvy State.”
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A scheme to achieve financial inclusion launched nationwide on Thursday would be a “great game changer,” as it would help mobile connectivity and mobile banking to converge.
Potential for growth
Mr. Prasad said the BJP had an “enormous potential” for growth in Tamil Nadu, given that the State unit had “a very promising president” [Tamilisai Soundarajan], who was complimented by the Chief Minister herself.
He also recalled that he had been in charge of the State unit for three to four years.