New ICT policy to focus on digital empowerment of citizens

Hyderabad: The Government of Telangana State on Thursday launched its second ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Policy 2021-2026. The first policy was launched in 2016.

The new policy will focus on digital empowerment of citizens, innovation and entrepreneurship, and taking innovation ecosystem to global levels. Technology for social good will be the focus area with distributed development as the mantra for taking IT to Tier 2 and 3 cities.

The policy will put thrust to double the IT and IT-enabled services annual exports to Rs 3 lakh crore and increase the direct employment base to 10 lakh by 2026. Under the new policy, eVehicle (EV) and energy storage system sector would be accorded equal priority and the government would give a big push to EV sector in the next five years.

The new IT policy also targeted to attract Rs 10,000 crore investments from the enterprises and will set up a Rs 1,300-crore fund for start-ups of which Rs 100 crore would be allotted for grassroots innovation.

Launching the new IT policy, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said Telangana once again recorded a phenomenal growth in the IT/ITeS Sector with an increase of 12.98 per cent in the IT/ITeS Exports over the previous year recording a total of Rs1,45,522 crore in the exports.

The government aimed to attract Rs 75,000 crore investments in the Electronics sector of which Rs 25,000 crore will be from eVehicle and energy storage system sector. He said the government has recently announced the EV and ESS Policy and have seen high traction in the space.

To promote Electronics, the government proposes to set up six industrial parks catering to electronics and allied sectors such as electric vehicles, energy manufacturing and LED products.

Five lakh square feet of plug-and-play in the phase one and 10 lakh square feet in the phase 2 would be created under the new IT policy.

Special focus would be given to Animation, Gaming, Entertainment, Life Sciences, Agriculture and Defence.

End-to-end support to start–ups at all stages of development and a government investment committee as a part of start up funding ecosystem would also be created. The government signed MoUs with Microsoft on Cloud and Cloud Assisted Technologies.