Bhubaneswar, Dec. 2: The state will shortly get centres of the Software Technology Parks of India in all its major three-tier towns (small towns) to boost entrepreneurship, electronics and information technology sectors.
The STPI centres will be available for entrepreneurs, especially catering to the need of start-ups and micro, small and medium enterprises to start their business without any hassles.
Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), under the Union ministry of electronics and information technology, has been set up to promote software export from the country.
"By 2020, there will be demand for electronic goods worth around $400 billion. To fill the gap, it is important that such items are manufactured locally. The government of Odisha provides a healthy environment for entrepreneurs in the field of electronics and we are ready to facilitate the same by setting up STPI centres across the state," said Omkar Rai, director general of STPI, while speaking at a seminar on IT and electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) at the three-day Make in Odisha Conclave that concluded here today.
Odisha is eyeing a gross annual ICT (information-communications-tech) turnover of $4 billion (Rs 27,400 crore), with direct employment potential for 60,000 professionals, by 2020.
At present, Odisha has eight STPI centres that is the highest among all the states.
Recently, an agreement was signed to set up STPI centres at Angul, Jajpur, Jeypore in Koraput and Sambalpur. Four more centres that are already operational are located at Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Rourkela and Balasore.
The STPI centre here has exported software products worth Rs 2,900 crore in the 2015-16 financial year.
The state government rolled out incentive packages for prospective investors in the field at the seminar. Investment proposals worth more than Rs 1,500 crore has been received by the state government at the conclave in the field on electronics manufacturing alone.
"Though we started late in the field, we are sure to outshine in the next five years with investment of more than $650 million to be made in the IT and ESDM sectors. Our aim is to create more than 1 lakh job opportunities through the investment," said state electronics and IT minister Pranab Prakash Das.
In another development, India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), the premier industry body representing the ESDM industry in the country, will shortly make its National ESDM Technology Research Academy (Netra) initiative functional in IIIT, Bhubaneswar.
Netra is a think tank set up on campuses focusing on creation of industry-ready talent, technology, research and incubation. "The initiative would help people with a business idea to chose the right ways and suggest ways to gather recourses. They will be trained for a period of time before they launch their start-ups," said IESA chairman K. Krishna Moorthy.
More than 100 investors from across the country attended the event. A question-and-answer session was also organized where industry experts and government officials tried to answer the queries of participants. The queries ranged from lack of availability of manpower for start-ups to non-availability of experts.
"We plan to get Rs 5,000 crore in investments in the IT and ESDM sectors in the next five years. We would embrace potential investors with open hearts and provide necessary support to them," the minister said.
