‘Coimbatore IT park to be inaugurated shortly’

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi inaugurates an online animation contest through video-conferencing at the Secretariat in Chennai on Friday. Photo: R. Ragu

An information technology park will shortly be inaugurated in Coimbatore, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said on Friday.

Launching digital drawing and 2D animation competitions for school students at the Secretariat, Mr. Karunanidhi referred to the inauguration of the TIDEL Park, a huge IT facility in Chennai, promoted by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation and Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, in July 2000 and said the government had been taking steps to open similar IT parks in Tier II cities.

Thanks to a number of measures taken by the State government, the value of software exports from the State went up from Rs 14,400 crore in 2005-2006 to Rs 36,680 crore in 2008-2009.

The competitions were held as part of the Tamil Internet Conference to be held concurrently with the World Classical Tamil Conference in June this year.

The winners of the contests would be given prizes during the Classical Tamil meet, the Chief Minister said, inaugurating the State-wide competitions.

Mr. Karunanidhi was addressing, through video conferencing, a gathering of students in Coimbatore, the venue of the two conferences.

P.W.C. Davidar, IT and Energy Secretary, said 10,500 students, from class VI to XII, took part in the competitions that took place in 33 engineering colleges all over the State. Broadly, the participation was at two levels — individual and group. While 873 students of Kanyakumari district had taken part in the competitions, the numbers of participants from Coimbatore and Tirunelveli districts were 785 and 754. Chennai accounted for 150 students.

The students from class VI to X engaged themselves in digital paint brush while the students of higher secondary carried out animation, he added.