C Chandramouli, secretary for Information Technology in the Tamil Nadu Government, who has returned back to the post after the new government took over spoke to R Jai Krishna of CyberMedia News about the new plans and strategies to make the State IT friendly.
There is a new Government in place, and we are all geared up to make Tamil Nadu for a destination of IT investments. Even in the Governor's address to the State Assembly, the Government has said that there would be a new IT policy which would be announced shortly, as the last one was in 2002, and till then on there have been a lot of developments. The new policy would be in tune with the current challenges, trends and the needs of the industry. We would like to project Tamil Nadu as IT-friendly State in the coming months, and thus we would also be launching our own e-governance shortly.
When would Tamil Nadu Government implement the e-governance strategy?
As per latest industry reports, Tamil Nadu is already topping the list in terms of e-readiness, and to take that forward, as I said earlier we would launching our e-governance by December 2006.
Could you elaborate the measures being taken in this context?
At present, we want the Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network to be put in place at the earliest, thus connecting the remotest of villages and towns, and bringing them into the network. For this purpose there would be a new department being formed, called the Directorate of E-governance to be headed by a young IAS officer who knows the issue well and can implement it successfully. All networks, including that of hardware's and infrastructure would be ready by December 2006.
Initially, 12 departments would be put under the e-governance scheme, which would include about 7 nodal departments, with which the common public interact day-in and day-out.
How does the new Government want to promote the IT industry in Tamil Nadu?
As mentioned earlier, there is a new IT policy which is to be announced which would support the IT and ITES companies who already have shops in Tamil Nadu and also for those who want to set Tamil Nadu as their base for operations.
Shortly, we would also be announcing two Special Economic Zones (SEZ) at Sholinganallur and Coimbatore for which the proposals are pending with the IT Ministry at the Centre.
Apart from that we are also looking at improving the infrastructure at Tier-2 towns such as Madurai and Trichy. While Trichy is to be promoted as a software hub, Madurai has all the essential features to be promoted as a hardware hub.
Can you throw some light on the strategy to invite more companies to invest in Tamil Nadu?
We have an inherent strength of being best in India on a lot of fronts, including that of the airports and international ports, which is a best offer for software and hardware industries.
Moreover, Tamil Nadu churns out about 60 to 70 thousand engineering graduates every year who suit best for the core industry segment apart from another 3 lakh graduates from the art and science stream who could work for the BPO centers.
The law and order situation is also good for these companies to set up their shops in Tamil Nadu.
On the technical front, Tamil Nadu is geared with 13 terabits of bandwidth, one by VSNL and the other by Airtel-Singtel venture, which IT companies see as an advantage.
All these along with the cost of living, which is the cheapest according to a latest McKinsey report adds a value added proposition, combined with the fact that most companies are managed by people Tamil Nadu, and the attrition rates being low due to the traditional values.
How do you see the growth of Tamil Nadu in IT sector vis-à-vis compared to other neighboring States?
We can only stand on our strengths, which only few other States can offer in the whole of India. All the more important fact is IT companies consider people from here as being more loyal and committed to their work, due to traditional values again, as a good destination.
Is there any measure being taken by the Tamil Nadu Government on addressing the employability factor?
Tamil Nadu Government has already initiated an industry-institutional tie-up for making the graduates much more employable.
In order to make our youth industry-ready, we have initiated a curriculum now for improving the soft skills for the voice-based BPO, which is to be shortly introduced in some universities.
The 52-week curriculum, to be offered in the final year of graduation, is designed keeping in mind the industry needs as well as we have also identified the areas for improvement. There will also be faculty-training programs, during which the faculty will be trained so that they could invariably train the students on the specified soft skills.
Thus if the adoption of this industry-designed curriculum happens then we would be able to come over the pitfalls as for employability is concerned, which is also a major issue for IT companies.
Autor/Author: R Jai Krishna
Quelle/Source: CIOL, 05.06.2006
