Telangana continues to get ignored by Centre in IT sector

At a time when Telangana is emerging as a strong contender for the numero uno position in the country when it comes to the IT industry, the BJP government at the Centre continues to discriminate against the State, evident from the fact that it finds no mention in the list of 22 upcoming Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) in the country.

Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh are in the list of upcoming STPI. Of the 22 STPI, a majority of them are coming up in BJP-ruled States including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka in addition to the existing STPIs in these States.

In Telangana, there are two STPIs – in Hyderabad and Warangal. The Centre, as is well known, has already cold-shouldered Telangana’s request to allot an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) for the State.

Responding to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the



Central government has taken various initiatives to promote IT/ITeS industry across the country including small cities.

Till date, STPI, an autonomous society under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has established 62 STPI centres across the country for promotion of the IT/ ITeS industry, and of these, 54 STPI centres are in tier II/ III cities.

Further, for creation of employment opportunities and dispersal of IT/ ITeS industry in small cities, the Central government launched the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) and North East BPO Promotion Scheme (NEBPS) under Digital India Programme, he said.

These Schemes provide financial support up to Rs. 1 lakh per seat in the form of viability gap funding towards capital and operational expenditures for setting up of BPO/ ITeS operations. The Minister said the Centre has approved Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) with total budget outlay of Rs.95.03 crore over three year period for establishing software product incubation facilities in 12 STPI centres in tier II/ III cities.