By Sunitha Natti
The Ministry of IT & Communications, Government of Telangana, will soon introduce a new IT policy 2015-20.
The Department of IT, Electronics & Communications (ITEC) has already commenced consultations with the industry and a draft policy will soon be issued for comments and recommendations from all the stakeholders. The existing policy, devised by the previous government, is set to expire in 2015.
“We are waiting for the Telangana Industrial Policy, which will be announced shortly. Once it’s done, we will soon announce the State’s new IT policy,” Harpreet Singh, Secretary, ITEC Department, told Express. He didn’t disclose the timeframe by when the final IT policy will be ready. “We hope it will be in 2014-15,” he said.
Currently, there are over 1,400 IT companies operating in the city and account for over Rs 57,000 crore worth software exports. The sector provides direct and indirect employment to 3.5 lakhs.
According to sources, the proposed policy is expected to have sops and incentives exclusively for start-ups and entrepreneurs.
“Currently, there’s nothing specific for start-ups in the IT policy and we are trying to include a range of sops in the new policy,” a senior government official said.
He added that the policy will include services, which are being proposed as part of the Telangana Hub (T-Hub) initiative such as offering ancilliary services to startups. “Besides offering infrastructure, the idea is to help entrepreneurs with related activities like registering a company and shared resources like a front desk,” he said.
This will be the first time that incentives for start-ups are going to be included in the State’s IT policy. “Every year, about 60,000 engineering students graduate. We want them to be not only job seekers but job creators,” said K T Rama Rao, Minister for IT & Communications.
Source: The New Indian Express