New Delhi: Sister states Bihar and Jharkhand made a strong pitch for investment before over 250 representatives from the IT and ITeS sectors at INFOCOM 2018, an ABP Group initiative, here on Wednesday.
IT secretaries of Bihar and Jharkhand, Rahul Singh and Vinay Kumar Choubey, showcased their strengths while being candid about some weaknesses at the conclave aimed at widening the IT bandwidth in India's eastern region commonly perceived to be lagging behind in logging in.
But this perception may not be correct, as the IT secretaries pointed out before companies such as Microsoft, HCL, Mango Data, Iris Software, HCL Technologies, BSNL, STPI, AICTE, NTPC, among others.
Bihar's Rahul Singh drew the attention of investors towards obvious change-drivers in his state such as better roads and power connectivity, accessibility to Northeast and cheaper investment.
"In fact, in density of roads, we come only after Punjab and Kerala," he said. "We are also the only state through which the Northeast states can be reached."
All new roads being built in Bihar have provisions for laying optical fibres so that the IT network reach can penetrate rural areas.
He stressed the government's efforts to boost Bihar's IT sector.
"We have aimed at opening an engineering college in every district and polytechnic in every subdivision," he said, putting emphasis on two incubator centres in IIT-Patna and BIT-Mesra extension in Patna. He said space for setting up IT units were available and allotments would be well defined. Singh also spoke on the proposed IT City and IT Park at Rajgir and Bihta.
"The IT City is coming up on 115 acres in Rajgir, 80km from Patna. The IT Park is at Bihta, where a new airport is expected to be completed by 2019," he said.
Bihar government incentives were conditional in post-production phase, he said. He also said law and order was a thing of perception and Bihar's crime rates were much lower than many states while corruption was being weeded out. He, however, defended prohibition laws, saying the decision was "political and aimed at benefiting women".
Outlining Jharkhand's biggest advantages in IT, Choubey pointed out the state's vast industrial network in cities such as Ranchi, Bokaro and Jamshedpur, stellar institutions of technology and a vibrant policy framework of the Raghubar Das government, including e-governance.
Choubey said the Jharkhand government believed in an aggressive IT policy, including special incentives to companies/investors hiring local talent.
Speaking about his proactive government, he said 5 per cent of the budget for each department was earmarked for IT, the stage was set for an IT Park in the heart of capital Ranchi and Jharkhand had started spotting IT talents in schools through a programme called Udaan in which around 80,000 school children participated this year. He also spoke about the government's move to provide free smartphones to over 73,000 self-help groups. He also said free Wi-Fi would soon be available in seven cities of the state and later to other towns.
Apprising potential investors of trained manpower in Jharkhand, Choubey pointed out that the state had tech colleges such as IIT(ISM), Dhanbad, BIT-Mesra in Ranchi and BIT-Sindri, apart from private institutions. Choubey, who is also industries secretary, claimed his government's efforts had led to big-ticket investments as part of the Momentum Jharkhand groundbreaking ceremonies.
He said power deficit in Jharkhand would be overcome soon. He admitted the Ranchi-Jamshedpur road was bad but said those problems were being ironed out.
INFOCOM 2018 was inaugurated by Uttarakhand minister Dhan Singh Rawat. Cisco India MD public sector and services Amit Malik, one of the key speakers, said how IT today "was no longer a choice but a compulsion".
