Orissa CM announces initiatives to catch up on e-governance

If the words of the Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik are any indication,

then the state is soon going to catch up with the rest of the nation in terms of

e-governance infrastructure. Inaugurating IT Expo 2004, the annual IT exposition

organized by ITAO (Information Technology Association of Orissa) in Bhubaneswar,

Patnaik pointed out that the state of Orissa may have started a bit late when it

comes to IT, but with a number of IT initiatives in place, the state will soon

catch up with the rest of the nation.

"During the past two or three years, a lot of work is being done in

various states involving the development of back-end as well as, front-end

operations for e-governance. And this has resulted in a transparent environment

for various governments. We have already implemented projects like land record

computerization project, Orissa Panchayat raj computerization, treasuries

computerization, commercial tax and vehicle registration computerization. Going

forward, we will try and bridge the digital divide as much as possible and bring

IT to the masses in the best affordable way," Patnaik explained.

In its endeavor to have a better IT infrastructure, Orissa is soon going to

have a state wide LAN networking connecting all the major state departments

centrally. "We are also planning to have a state e-governance portal which

will have different services targeted at the common populace. We are also

planning to have around 4,000 IT kiosks, which will be beneficial to the people

of the state, providing vital information on the fingertips," he added.

Though Orissa is foraying into IT a bit late, still the state government is

planning an aggressive campaign to attract investment in the ITeS and BPO sector

within the state. The government has announced a scheme wherein, any BPO company

setting up its base in Orissa will not have to pay rent to run its operations

for three years.

"IT exports for India stand at close to $ 17 billion and there is a lot

more potential in the nation to achieve far more than this. We have decided to

give a lot of encouragement to the BPO and ITeS sector. We already have

facilities like the Fortune Tower and the Infocity and a lot more are being

constructed. In addition to this, we have also announced that we are not going

take any rent from these companies for first three years of their operations. We

have got a big list of enquiries from all quarters, so we hope that some

companies will soon commence their operations over here," Patnaik added.

Interestingly, the state already has IT majors such as Infosys and Satyam.

Initially, the state is planning to give this BPO subsidy to first 50 companies.

In addition to this, to streamline its efforts towards IT enablement, the state

is going to announce its ICT policy soon.

"We are just about to announce this policy, which will have its focus on

a clear e-governance strategy and IT incentive schemes for IT companies in

Orissa. We will also be considering to provide IT bandwidth and captive power to

companies," he informed.





CyberMedia News Service


Bhubaneswar