We will make TN top IT destination: CM

Tamil Nadu's first international exhibition and conference on Information Technology, Communication Technology and Bio-Informatics -Connect 2001- jointly organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Government of Tamil Nadu got underway at the ITPO Chennai Trade Center.

Inaugurating the expo, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa reiterated her government's resolve to make Tamil Nadu the top IT destination in the country. She delineated the policy initiatives her government has taken such as the setting up of the Tamil Nadu IT council under her stewardship to formulate separate policies for IT and biotechnology. Tidel Park II was being built to meet the burgeoning demands for state-of-the-art infrastructure for IT. Mahabalipuram road was being converted into the IT corridor with more and more IT companies putting up their facilities there.

With the commissioning of the new satellite earth stations in Tiruchirapalli, Madurai and Tirunelveli, she hoped that those regions would also emerge as centers for excellence in IT like Chennai and Coimbatore. The connectivity issues of Tamil Nadu were being addressed by the initiatives of private entrepreneurs by laying optical fiber cable undersea and land. She also lauded the efforts of the MIT Media Lab of IIT Madras, which in collaboration with Harvard University, was trying to make telephone and Internet accessible to the rural masses using low cost wireless techniques.

For Biotechnology, she said the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) in association with Cornell University was in the process of setting up a biotech incubator and park at an investment of Rs 62.50 crore. She hoped that Connect would become an annual feature thus taking the private-public partnership for the betterment of the industry in the state.

The exhibition would extend over four days with a two day conference and round table discussions on IT for SMEs, IT for manufacturing and IT for services.