Centre earmarks Rs.500 crore-fund for promoting IT in tier 1 and 2 cities

Visakhapatnam The Government of India has created a fund with an allotment of Rs.500 crore to promote information technology in tier 1 and two cities.

This was stated at the time of an MoU signing between Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and IT Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP) for strengthening Kalpataru-Industry 4.0 Centre for Entrepreneurship (CoE) by STPI Director General Arvind Kumar.

The CoE was established following another MoU with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in July to spread innovation culture mainly among the startups.

The CoE at VSP has already collaborated with the industries in and around Visakhapatnam to promote innovation and startup activities.

ITAAP president Sreedhar Kosaraju told Bizz Buzz on Friday that they inked MoU with STPI on Thursday evening following an interactive session by the industry representatives with Arvind Kumar and discussed key issues at length related to IT & startup ecosystem in Andhra Pradesh in general and Visakhapatnam in particular. Addressing the IT fraternity, Arvind Kumar mentioned that a fund of Rs.500 crore has been created for the development of IT Industry in tier 1 and tier 2 cities.

The interactive meet was attended, among others, by STPI-Hyderabad Director C.V.D. Ram Prasad, Additional Director Suresh B, IT Industry leaders and office-bearers of ITAAP.

Kalpataru-Industry 4.0 CoE is the initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity, Government of India and the COE at VSP is started in collaboration with RINL, STPI and AP Government.

Sreedhar opined that Vizag being an Industrial city, the CoE will be able to attract a lot of startups across India that are working on cutting-edge technologies. Industry 4.0/smart manufacturing will be $330 billion industry by 2028. This is the first CoE with readily available business cases that are provided by the anchor company RINL

and other PSU's in and around Vizag. Industry 4.0 CoE will be the game-changer for Vizag, he stated.

For augmenting the startup ecosystem, ITAAP sought following initiatives by STPI viz. Restarting IBPS (India BPO Promotion Scheme) for Tier-2 cities, starting a scheme similar to IBPS for product development companies in Tier-2, incentives for product development companies, instituting IT awards for region and state-of-the-art Incubation center@Vizag.

The STPI Director General responded positively and agreed to support the IT industry and startup ecosystem in Vizag and AP.