Karnataka announces new IT to make it a `Silicon State'

Karnataka announces new IT to make it a `Silicon State'
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

BANGALORE, MARCH 18: The State's Millenium Information Technology Policy, `Mahiti', seeks to demolish the belief that IT is an `elitist' concept meant to benefit the upper crusts of society.

Unveiled by Chief Minister S M Krishna here on Saturday, `Mahiti' (which means, Information) sets itself lofty goals such as eradication of poverty and unemployment, empowerment of women, promotion of Kannada in IT and e-governance.

Granting a pivotal role to women in poverty-allievation, the policy seeks to use self-help women's groups as a base to encourage savings. The Government would step in with a revolving fund as well as bank credit to these self-help groups. The policy envisages setting up a data-base to track beneficiaries in poverty allievation programmes, self-help groups and its members.

Computerising Village Panchayats, building a Management Information System for Zilla Panchayats and pro-active involvement in rural development are the other main objectives of the Millennium IT Policy.The policy envisages not only a `Silicon City' status to Bangalore but a `Silicon State' status to Karnataka. Mysore, Manipal, Mangalore and Hubli, Krishna said, would be thrust centres for IT development in the future. This would be achieved with the guidance and support of IT chieftains in the State, he added.

Towards creating a human resource base for IT, the Government plans to raise Rs 300 crore through `Mahiti Bonds'. The money thus raised would be utilised for IT training in schools, ITIs, polytechnics, colleges, pharmacy and engineering colleges besides setting up training centres for uneducated youth, incubation centres, earth stations, IT Parks and communication infrastructure.

Krishna said that the State would completely liberalise higher education, despite many of his colleagues disagreeing with the move. While new institutions concentrating on IT would be encouraged, others would be permitted to convert to IT courses, he added.

The policy envisages 225 training centres all over the State besides seeking to develop IT skills among students in 100 polytechnics, 150 ITIs and 300 colleges. The programme would allow private sector to set up research centres, training centres and upgrade laboratories in colleges. The plan also proposes to take IT to 1000 schools.

The State Government has also entered into a joint-venture agreement with Carnegie Global Technologies Inc., Indian Institute of Science and LG Soft India to establish the Carnegie Centre for Software Engineering in the City. This would offer consultancy, training and education services, Krishna said.

Noting that the 2.8 lakh IT professions are currently employed in the State IT sector, the policy envisages an employment potential of 10 lakh in the next decade. IT enabled services such as customer interaction, financial and accounting services, call centres, medical transcription, engineering and design data management, remote education, networking, web-site services and market research would be open for employment, Krishna said.

Observing that IT was primarily English-centric, Krishna said his Government would bring about the usage of Kannada in the sector. Standardisation of codes in Kannada would be achieved by a committee headed by the Secretary of Kannada and Culture department. A standardised computer keyboard had been developed with the help of the Kannada Development Authority, the Kannada Ganakala Parishad and the Kannada and Culture Department. Wipro had developed a Kannada printer, Krishna noted.

Towards encouraging business with non-English speaking countries, the policy believes that IT companies in the State should tie up with China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore etc.

The State would establish a Centre for E-Governance, aimed at allowing information-access to the common man. `Mukhya Vahini', the Chief Minister's database would provide information about day-to-day business and decisions taken at the village and district levels. This data-base would help decision-makers to arrive at a ``sophisticated decision support system'' for the use of the Chief Minister.

`Bhoomi' a data-base of land records would record rights of ownership of land, agricultural crop details, besides helping farmers to obtain loans from banks. `Nondani', another data-base, would make land rgistration simple and also prevent corruption in sub-registrars' offices. Computerisation of treasuries all over the State and creation of a data-base termed `Khajane', and computerisation of operations in the Commercial Taxes Department under the data-base `Therige', are part of the new IT policy's goals.