CM calls for investments in IT sector for sustainable and inclusive development

Keralas efforts to modernise its economy, ensure inclusive growth and injectefficiency in governance through a raft of IT applicationswere unfolded at a global stage here on Tuesday, even as ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan sought suggestions to help pull outthe state from the pandemic-induced scenario.

Presenting the vision statement at the 'Kerala LooksAhead' (KLA) global conference and consultation, organised bythe Kerala State Planning Board, Vijayan also stressed theneed to ''rework and renew'' the existing Information Technology(IT) policy to meet new demands and changed circumstances.

The state has accorded priority to investments in humandevelopment and basic social welfare.

''But we are also aware that for a sustainable andprosperous future for all our people, we must attend to theimprovement and modernisation of productive capacities in theeconomy.One important way to do this is to invest intechnologies and industries of the future,'' he said.

Underscoring the prominent role of IT in shapingthe future of Kerala, Vijayan said the IT revolution has beenin progress for more than 30 to 45 years now and continues tobe at the forefront of modern technological advances.

''Like the machine of the 19th century industrialrevolution, the silicon chip is the key to the newtechnological revolution.Unfortunately, like machines in anearlier era, our country even today lags behind inmanufacturing and fabrication of the range of silicon chipsthat are at the heart of the hardware that powers the ITrevolution,'' he noted.

Significant progress in production of softwareand hardware would contribute to value addition, growth ofproductive assets, advanced knowledge generation and promotionof highly skilled labour and employment, Vijayan said.

Listing the initiatives taken by his government topromote the vital sector, he said ''we are aware that this isonly the beginning of a journey that is important to our stateand its future.Our government has declared an IT policy.Ifnecessary, we can rework and renew this policy to meet newdemands and changed circumstances.'' A common refrain at the conference was the imperative needto launch robust policy interventions, provide best-in-classinfrastructure, ensure Ease of Doing business, offerhand-holding to startups and put in place a system forcontinual skilling of the workforce.

Speakers also stressed the need for Kerala tostay competitive as several sectors of industry and businessare undergoing digital transformation at a swift pace.

The conclave sought to identify a string of sectorsthat would attract leading enterprises to set up their digitaltransformation knowledge centres in the state.

Dr Saji Gopinath, Vice Chancellor, Kerala Universityof Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology, predicted thatmarket for software and hardware would reach USD 350 billionand 400 billion dollars, respectively in India by 2025.

''In the next five years, as many as 10 million jobswill be created,'' he added.

Speaking about the 'Major Changes in the SoftwareIndustry and How Kerala could Leverage on the Same ThroughAppropriate Policy Intervention', S D Shibulal, Co-founder,Infosys, noted that digitization would continue at anunprecedented pace.

''We never thought that education will be an areawhere digitization will come in at such a fast pace.Healthcareis another area where we wanted digitization.If you look atglobal transportation, it will look at moving goods from onecountry to another.'' Srikanth Srinivasan, Head, Membership and Outreach,NASSCOM, advised Kerala to look at an effective ''cybersecurity policy which will encourage organisations to buildsecurity operation centres in the state.This will be a bigboost to cyber security professionals, which is the need ofthe hour.'' Animation and gaming are the other two growing areas,he added.

Nivruti Rai, Country Head Intel India & VP, DataCenter Group, talked about the opportunities in theelectronics hardware sector and how Kerala should leverage itthrough appropriate policy interventions.

Nandakumar K Nair, Founder & CEO, Suntec BusinessSolutions, dwelt at length on opportunities in the softwaresector, while Prof Prahlad Vadakkepat, National University ofSingapore, spoke about opportunities in the hardware sector.

In the open discussions that followed, Shibulalpointed out that Kerala should actively build a brand for itsproducts and services that will create awareness and marketpotential besides reducing entry barriers.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)