Karnataka to float infotech bonds

Krishna said Karnataka had framed a new millennium IT policy to ensure that technology is used in the state’s social development. A statement from the Karnataka Government said that the state would use information technology to address issues such as eradication of poverty, empowerment of women, unemployment and use of the local language in technology.

"Besides, the policy will also focus on E-governance, incubation centres for start-up companies and focus on business with non-English speaking countries," the statement said.

Karnataka’s capital city Bangalore is home to dozens of leading global and domestic technology companies and is often referred to as India’s "Silicon Valley".

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 professionals 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 registration 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.