Thiruvanthapuram: More than a year after it came to power, the LDF government has finalised its Information Technology policy that aims at total digital literacy with a focus on digitally empowering citizens, lifestyle and commerce. The policy comprises a main framework policy that will remain throughout the term of this government and nine sub-policies on various key sectors that would be revised every year. Electronic governance, industry facilitation, digital inclusion guidelines, Free and Open Source Software, innovation and entrepreneurship, digital capacity building, digital procurement, responsible cyber use and cyber security policy and electronic system design and manufacturing and hardware policy are the nine sub policies.
The state IT industry was quite upset over the inordinate delay by the government in finalising its policy. The state government announced the draft policy in March. Discussions were held with IT sector leaders and the public and some changes were made. The policy aims at creating one crore square-feet of office space so as to provide employment directly or indirectly to 2.5 lakh people. Capabilities of the cooperative sector and capital from NRIs would be utilised for developing IT parks. Making the state an electronic hub, promoting electronic manufacturing is another objective of the policy.
While offering sops to IT firms and allowing round the clock functioning, the policy also mandates welfare measures like transport facility for women at odd hours. Enabling small and medium enterprises to have international links and ensuring a steady growth in software exports are the other focus areas of the policy. As part of achieving total literacy, internet connectivity will be made available upto the grassroot level. E-governance applications will be commissioned in a timebound manner, said the policy.
