Odisha IT Dept to be renamed Dept of Electronics & IT

The Odisha government has approved the electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) road map prepared by India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA), paving the way for development of this sunrise sector in the state. IESA has suggested change in the name of Department of IT as Department of Electronics & IT on the lines of renaming of the Government of India's Department of Information Technology to Department of Electronics & IT (DeitY).

The industry body has identified Rayagada, Sundergarh, Balasore and Ganjam districts as the potential areas for setting up of ESDM projects after a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threat) analysis. Presently, the focus is mainly on Khurda district where the proposed Info Valley, a dedicated IT hub, is coming up. The industry body has estimated that the sector has a potential to generate about 60,000 jobs in the next 10 years.

"The government has been pleased to approve the ESDM road map submitted by IESA," Satyabrata Ray, deputy secretary of the IT department wrote to GM, Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) and technical directorate of IT department.

Officials said, the steps will soon be initiated to implement the recommendations of the report. The ESDM sector, as per the IESA projection, is poised to generate cumulative revenue of Rs 18,800 crore in Odisha by 2024. Apart from revenue IESA has also projected potential investments and employment opportunities in ESDM field in the report. It said, investments of Rs 7,340 crore need to be pumped into the sector in three phases to realize the projected revenue. Phase 1 (2016-18) can start with system integration and assembly of low complexity products and components.

In Phase-2 (2019-21), the manufacturing activities would get deeper into CKD (completely knocked down) assembly, component production and manufacturing of products with medium to high complexity. The focus in Phase 3 (2022-24) can be on products that are complex or require a mature ecosystem, and require good talent availability and large investment.