Sources in the state IT department said the corporation would take under its wing the Orissa State Electronic Development Corp (OSEDC), Idcol Software Ltd and Orissa Computer Application Centre, the three state-owned undertakings involved in IT-related activities. "The merger of the three undertakings would help focus on the activities," the sources said.

Meanwhile, the government is preparing a new IT policy with a thrust on attracting industry but without offering any incentives. "Orissa would be the first state to encourage IT growth sans incentives," the sources said. The government is going to discontinue the existing incentives after a period of five years. The draft policy proposes to set up a single window nodal organisation for speedy clearances of projects and a venture capital fund of Rs 15 crore to start with. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has committed Rs 7.5 crore and the OSEDC has chipped in Rs 2.5 crore for the venture capital fund.

The draft policy aims at attracting at least 200 IT companies to the state in the next five years with a view to create job opportunity of about 10,000 software professionals. It has targeted achieving exports of Rs 2000 crore by 2005.

As many as 65 software units of the total 144 registered in the state have become operational, and the export earning has touched Rs 91.23 crore last year. Major exporters from the state are IT giants Infosys Technology Ltd and Satyam Computers. There about 4000 software professionals now engaged in the IT sector in Orissa.

Orissa, sixth among the states in respect of forex earning from software export, has registered a tremendous growth in the IT sector with exports galloping at a higher rate. Starting in the year 1996-97 with no exports, the state earned Rs 4.76 crore during 1997-98. Software exports jumped to Rs 53.97 crore the next year. Despite the setback due to the supercyclone, software exports from the state touched Rs 91.23 crore in 1999-2000.

The Software Technology Park of India (STPI) is setting up its second park at Rourkela with an investment of Rs 5 crore. The ministry of commerce has sanctioned Rs 2 crore for setting up an information center at Berhampur. Small IT parks have also been planned at Sambalpur.

The OSEDC is planning to set up an incubator with IT-specific infrastructure at Bhubaneswar. Tenders have been invited for selecting a consultant for the IT Incubator Project. The state government has arranged Rs 7 crore and asked the Centre for another Rs 3.6 crore from the Critical Infrastructure Balance Scheme for development of optic fibre network, broadband connectivity, Internet connectivity and support services at the IT incubator.