🔊 Take a moment and listen

“The State of Jharkhand will soon have a new IT policy to encourage IT industry in the state,” believes N N Sinha. In conversation with Kartik Sharma & Souvik Goswami

Please tell us about your view on the IT Policy of Jharkhand and also about the basic objectives of the IT policy?
The IT policy of the Jharkhand Government aims to promote use of IT in the governance of the state. It also aims to promote IT literacy among the Jharkhand population and it also aims to encourage the IT industry in the state.

What will be the vision of the new IT policy? Will it be focusing more on e-governance or focus will be more on promoting IT industry?
I think both have to come together. Because the e-governance cannot succeed in a vacuum as it needs people from IT industry. Industry by its very nature has to be very competitive. Therefore, they are aware of the latest trends and technologies and when these are applied to the e-governance field, then better services and products can be offered to the general population. So, we see e-governance and IT industry not as separate streams. We see them as two streams complementing each otheregovernance’s needs drive IT industry and IT industry, technologies and competencies drive the e-governance.

Please tell us about your plan to create IT Technology Park.
We have a small STPI unit in Ranchi. We have also requested the STPI to increase the capacity in Ranchi as we are aware that there is a great demand, however there is not enough pace in the present establishment. We are also trying to bring other STPI units in the cities of Adityapur near Jamshedpur and Sindhri near Dhanbad, in Bokaro and Deoghar. So, our goal is to also promote other cities of the state for IT industry.

Have you taken any feedback from the IT industry about what kind of requirements they want to set up IT industry in the state?
We have the IT industry which is at a nascent stage. So, possibly not much feedback has come. We have a software technology park, 2 to 3 BPO industries. Essentially not much feedback has been taken. But we are also in the process of revising the IT policy in line with whatever has been done by other states. Our IT policy was formulated in 2004 and now we are in 2014. State’s new Industrial Policy was announced in 2013. This policy includes the revise set of incentives for setting up industries. But we are also aware that lot has happened in the last 10 years in terms of technology, in terms of competitive incentives given by other states. Therefore, we need to have a relook at the IT policy of the state and we are in the process of doing so. We will soon be coming out with the new IT policy may be in 3 to 6 months time.

IT Park is all set to come up in Ranchi. Please elaborate on this.
We are working with the agency promoting the Ranchi Core Capital area to develop an IT Park and it will be built up in 200 acres of land. The land is already available with the government.

What kind of policy are you pursuing to provide incentives to private companies who can come here and set up their bases?
Our Industrial Policy lists the incentives that could be provided to the IT industry and then our IT Policy also lists some. So, by taking these two together, we will provide you complete list of incentives. As we are on the verge of revising our IT Policy, we will also look at what is being offered by the nearby states and in other parts of the country. We have to look at what is being offered elsewhere and then have to balance the attractions of other places with what we are offering.
Let me also point out that this place has some unique advantages. Climate is really good. Generally it is peaceful. Then comes education and level of school education is really good here as there are lot of English medium schools. Apart from these, many technical education institutions are coming up and we also have a plan of setting up IIIT in the state. Therefore we feel that we can offer large numbers of incentives to the industry people to set up their business here.
I would also like to mention that large number of students from the state goes to other parts of the country for studying information technology and related areas. If industry offers them placement with competitive salaries, I think many people will again come back to the state.

Any plan of distribution of laptops or devices to the students?
Initially government was thinking in this line a year ago. But with the change of regime this thing could not be taken up. Now the new government of the state is thinking that it will make its workforce more productive by providing computing equipments. It is already on cards. By this we would like to make all offices provide services through online manner to the maximum possible extent as well as to acquire data from the field.

What kind of IT industry would you think would be most suitable in the initial stage?
On the other hand, India is not doing that good in electronics manufacturing and DeitY is also planning to push this more. So, do you also plan to do something in this sector?
I would tend to feel that a very radical departure from the pattern of industrialization will be difficult to visualize. Therefore, by and large, the pattern of IT industry being set up in other emerging states would also be happening here. But there are some areas where there would be some initial push, like we have almost universal AADHAR coverage and industries who want to take benefit of this could come up. BPOs could also be interested as there are good quality English medium schools. IT industry which focuses on harnessing the power of natural resources, they can also come up. Mining is a major area where companies can come. We already have organizations like MECON, CMPDI and R & D units of SAIL.

IT projects needs human resources more than anything else. Realizing this you are already planning to have IIIT in the state. Please shed some light on this.
The IIIT has been approved by the steering committee of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It will come up in Ranchi. It will be set up on a 50 acre plot and likely to cost Rs 128 crores. Focus will be on the under graduate in the area of Electrical and Communication Technology as well as in the area of Information Technology. But as it goes, it will be offering Phd and MTech and Research programs. It would like to focus on certain specific areas like bioinformatics, computer science engineering. So, focus will be on latest areas of the development of IT and Computer Science. This will help us on development of manpower necessary not only for this state, but also for nationwide and we would also expect them to provide consultancies to the state government and industries.

Please tell us about your plans for skill development in the state?
We are focusing on skill development and for that purpose we are encouraging institutions like NIELIT and CDAC to provide skill-development programs. Recently, I met the Director of NIELIT Kolkata center and we discussed skill development of around 10,000 people in the state and the state government assured them of all kind of possible help.
Let me also mention that state government is also thinking of opening IT academy and we have proposed this to the 14th Finance Commission. If that does not materialize, then we will think of alternative.

Please give us details of the new e-governance initiatives in the recent past in the state of Jharkhand.
We have now enabled citizen search for their land registration-related past data online. We have also integrated AADHAR with the registration process, therefore the authenticity is ensured. Policy for extensive use of AADHAR for delivery of services has been made. We have now developed software for implementation of the Right to Guarantee of Service Act. There are sets of application, which includes both desktop application and mobile application. That takes care of the contingencies of the offices which don’t have the desktops or network connectivity. Apart from these, we have now made it mandatory for secretariat and attached employees to file their attendance through AADHAR based system from 1st January, 2014. MGNAREGA payments are also done through AADHARbased system.
The PDS has been brought under the AADHAR delivery platform.
We are also working on digitizing the record of rights and the Chief Secretary has given stiff targets to all the Deputy Commissioners of the districts for digitizing the entire set of land records. I would also like to mention that recently we held a significant event state innovation workshop. It was a two-day program, and one day was entirely devoted to the IT programs. There, we discussed, innovations based on the AADHAR platforms, mobile platforms, GIS platforms and general e-governance programmes. We also tried to ignite enthusiasm for IT activities by announcing a competition for suggesting IT ideas to the state and out of this, three were selected.

Did you find any interesting idea come out of this innovation workshop?
Oh yes, lot many. One idea that came out was that we should ask each of the department to come up with their own IT innovation roadmap. We also saw a great deal of interest of the people for participating in the IT activities of the state, which was evident from the large numbers of participations in the competitions that we had announced. People are interested in implementing projects in many areas, and I think it is also the responsibility of the IT department of the state government to provide them as much lead and support as possible.
We also discussed matter on having incubation centers.

Please share with us your vision for the IT industry in the state of Jharkhand.
I think we all should recognize that IT industry would need great deal of encouragement in the initial phase, and therefore, I call upon all the branches of the government to cooperate with us in this endeavor so that we could facilitate setting up of as many IT industries. We should also promote local IT start up units. There is a need for a dialogue with the IT units of the state so that we can know their competency and could facilitate their moving up the competency curve.

Be a part of Elets Collaborative Initiatives. Join Us for Upcoming Events and explore business opportunities. Like us on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter, Instagram.