Jamshedpur, June 18: Union minister of communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad today laid the foundation of two software parks expected to be ready by next year in Adityapur and Sindri at a function held in the manufacturing hub of neighbouring Seraikela Kharswan district near Jamshedpur.
The Union minister, who did the formalities online, also announced two more parks under Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) in Bokaro and Deoghar, besides an electronic manufacturing centre in Adityapur, fuelling hopes of a quantum leap in software exports from Jharkhand.
"Tenders have been completed and construction work of the STPIs at Adityapur and Sindri in Dhanbad district will commence soon. Both the centres will become operational within a year (mid-2017)," Prasad said and lauded the state for its achievements in the IT sector.
"With the only STPI at Namkum, which started functioning in Ranchi from 2012, the state has achieved software exports to the tune of Rs 45 crore for 2015-16. And with the functioning of the two new centres the state has the potential to become an IT hub by 2017," he added.
Among the others present were state IT secretary Sunil Kumar Barnwal and director general, STPI, Omkar Rai, who signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the Bokaro STPI in the presence of the Union minister and chief minister Raghubar Das, who was special guest at today's function.
"The state government has already selected land in Adityapur for setting up an electronic manufacturing centre, which would also start functioning from 2017. It will promote local manufacturing of electronic goods like television sets and mobile phones besides exporting them. The STPIs and the electronic manufacturing unit will not only help the state in terms of revenue but also create jobs," the Union minister said.
Barnwal said the state government had earmarked Rs 16.75 crore for the Adityapur centre and Rs 14.7 crore for Sindri.
"Bokaro STPI will cost somewhere between Rs 14-20 crore. We have already put ourselves on the IT map of the country and will lead in the eastern region by 2017," he said.
As per norms, the state government will be responsible for the infrastructure at the parks, while STPI, a unit of the department of electronics and information technology under the Union ministry of communications and IT, will look after its management.
Chief minister Das said that they had set an ambitious target for software exports for the state in 2017.
"IT is one of the priorities of our government and we have set a target of Rs 100 crore worth of software exports. Also, all panchayats in the state will have Internet connectivity by 2017 so that the rural populace could avail the benefits of various government schemes at their villages."
The chief minister said he had requested the Union minister for setting up a regional training centre of C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) and a National e-governance Academy in Jharkhand. We have earmarked 5-acre land for each of the projects," he added.
Later, Das, along with NIT-Adityapur director Rambabu Kodali, who is also mentor director of IIIT-Ranchi, inaugurated the IIIT website.
Besides, the Union minister also handed over a certificate to Raghubar Das for making Kasmar in Bokaro district the first Wi-Fi panchayat of the state.
Das and Prasad also distributed certificates among successful students of a 600-hour computer course under National Digital Literacy Mission and rural entrepreneurs who had performed well at Pragya Kendra (common service centre) at village level.
They also handed out Aadhaar cards to a group of special children on the sidelines of the programme.
