Orissa CM announces initiatives to catch up on e-governance

If the words of the Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik are any indication,
then the state is soon going to catch up with the rest of the nation in terms of
e-governance infrastructure. Inaugurating IT Expo 2004, the annual IT exposition
organized by ITAO (Information Technology Association of Orissa) in Bhubaneswar,
Patnaik pointed out that the state of Orissa may have started a bit late when it
comes to IT, but with a number of IT initiatives in place, the state will soon
catch up with the rest of the nation.

"During the past two or three years, a lot of work is being done in
various states involving the development of back-end as well as, front-end
operations for e-governance. And this has resulted in a transparent environment
for various governments. We have already implemented projects like land record
computerization project, Orissa Panchayat raj computerization, treasuries
computerization, commercial tax and vehicle registration computerization. Going
forward, we will try and bridge the digital divide as much as possible and bring
IT to the masses in the best affordable way," Patnaik explained.

In its endeavor to have a better IT infrastructure, Orissa is soon going to
have a state wide LAN networking connecting all the major state departments
centrally. "We are also planning to have a state e-governance portal which
will have different services targeted at the common populace. We are also
planning to have around 4,000 IT kiosks, which will be beneficial to the people
of the state, providing vital information on the fingertips," he added.

Though Orissa is foraying into IT a bit late, still the state government is
planning an aggressive campaign to attract investment in the ITeS and BPO sector
within the state. The government has announced a scheme wherein, any BPO company
setting up its base in Orissa will not have to pay rent to run its operations
for three years.

"IT exports for India stand at close to $ 17 billion and there is a lot
more potential in the nation to achieve far more than this. We have decided to
give a lot of encouragement to the BPO and ITeS sector. We already have
facilities like the Fortune Tower and the Infocity and a lot more are being
constructed. In addition to this, we have also announced that we are not going
take any rent from these companies for first three years of their operations. We
have got a big list of enquiries from all quarters, so we hope that some
companies will soon commence their operations over here," Patnaik added.

Interestingly, the state already has IT majors such as Infosys and Satyam.
Initially, the state is planning to give this BPO subsidy to first 50 companies.
In addition to this, to streamline its efforts towards IT enablement, the state
is going to announce its ICT policy soon.

"We are just about to announce this policy, which will have its focus on
a clear e-governance strategy and IT incentive schemes for IT companies in
Orissa. We will also be considering to provide IT bandwidth and captive power to
companies," he informed.



CyberMedia News Service

Bhubaneswar