STPI, Ranchi: Role model

Ranchi, Aug. 4: Steel hub Jamshedpur will soon host a software park, the second in Jharkhand after Ranchi where several IT companies are already working out of a 4.5-acre hi-tech campus.

Jharkhand government will soon sign a tripartite agreement with the Centre’s department of information technology (DIT) and officials of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

“The agreement paper prepared by the state IT department has been approved by the state government vis-à-vis setting up of an STPI unit in Jamshedpur. A 3.5-acre plot has been allotted at Adityapur Industrial Area by the Adityapur Industrial Area Development Authority (Aiada),” state IT secretary Satendra Singh told The Telegraph.

The state IT department feels that Jamshedpur, although a much smaller city compared to metros, offers a cosmopolitan environment suitable for attracting talent from various parts of the country.

Prospective companies, it was felt, would not find it difficult to convince youngsters to join once they set up shop. Also, in comparison to established IT hubs like Bangalore and Pune, Jharkhand would also work out to be economically viable.

The Adityapur facility will be a multi-storey building with about 10,000 square feet of office space that will be offered to IT, software and BPO firms as an incubation facility during their formative years.

“The facility, with high-speed Internet connectivity as well as 24-hour power back-up, will be directly managed by STPI authorities,” he added.

For now, Jamshedpur STPI will be governed by its elder sibling in Ranchi that already boasts seven IT companies. According to assistant director at Ranchi STPI Siddharth Rai, the state capital’s incubation facility had a work area of about 10,000sqft on a 4.5-acre campus provided by Ranchi Industrial Area Development Authority at Namkum.

Among the firms operating out of Ranchi STPI were RSG Software, with Apple as one of its clients and with offices in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, the US and Dubai, BPO unit Hicon Infotech and White Tiger Earrnd Pvt Ltd.

Having bagged two STPI units, the state is also trying to set up another one on the premises of BIT-Sindri in Dhanbad. Chief minister Arjun Munda is understood to have have taken a keen interest in the project and is pursuing the matter with Union IT minister Kapil Sibal.

“If the Centre agrees to set up another STPI unit on the Sindri campus, then it will be easier for us. Otherwise, the government will have to search for a new piece of land,” opined a senior government official.