Six new Software Technology Parks of India (STPIs) are being planned in Odisha, Tourism Minister Ashok Panda, deputising for IT Minister Pranab Prakash Das, told the Assembly on Tuesday. The Government also has a plan to make the State an IT hub by 2020, Panda said while answering a question by Naba Das of the Congress.
Expressing concern over the reluctance of IT firms in the State to employ Odia techies, Das wanted to know the number of Odias employed in the State-based IT firms. “In the last 14 years of your rule, how many Odia engineers did you enrol in your skill development programmeIJ You gave them land, infrastructure and tax benefits. My direct question to the minister is how long would you fool the people in the name of skill development,” Das asked.
Amar Prasad Satpathy of the ruling BJD said the companies are not hiring people from the State as they find them incompetent. He wanted to know if the Government has insisted on any condition to employ local people before providing land and other facilities to these companies.
Minister Panda replied that there are 108 software companies operating in the State and they have given employment to 13,384 people of whom 9,849 are Odia.”We are trying our level best to launch a skill development initiative for engineering graduates during their final year campus placement through the Employment Mission. This will empower them technically so that they can face the tests of IT majors such as Infosys, TCS, WIPRO etc once they are on the job,” said Panda.
An IT hub has been planned in the State by 2020, besides six more Software Technology Parks. There are four existing parks in Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Brahmapur and Baleswar.
It may be noted that earlier IT Minister Das had on September 30, 2014 announced setting up of six more parks at Jaypore, Sambalpur, Jajpur, Angul, Rayagada and Bhawanipatna. The Central Government had also accorded in-principle approval for setting up the six parks, taking the number of such parks in the State to 10.