Software Tech. Parks for 4 more cities

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, APRIL 14. The State Government's proposal to have Software Technology Parks (STP) at Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Warangal has been accepted by the Union Minister for Information Technology, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, who has even promised to inaugurate the Vizag STP by the middle of June.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the office of the Software Technology Park of India, Hyderabad (STPH) in the HITEC City here on Friday, Mr. Mahajan said in a lighter vein: ``I am partial to Vizag because it is the first city in the State to have a BJP mayor.''

Regaling the audience with a speech interspersed with humour, he said he could not say `no' to Warangal because it was his father's birth place. ``God is there (in Tirupati) so I cannot say `no.' You (State Government) give me land in the three places, I will give connectivity. In six months we can establish STPs in all the four places,'' he said. He even assured enhancement of the bandwidth to Hyderabad from 19 kbps to 2 mbps in a month.

The State Government's demand to have such STPs was in tune with the national-level thinking that IT should proliferate to the rural level and not be confined to State capitals. Expressing satisfaction that Information Technology buildings in India had attained international standards, he said that the concept of STPI was created by the Government of India (GOI) ``Much before today's great people in IT ever thought of it. The foundation for today's technology was laid by the STPI,'' he pointed out.

Mr. Mahajan sought to caution IT enthusiasts against a ``digital divide'' in society, by pointing out that IT was now limited to a few cities, the elite and English-knowing people, and to the South and West. ``For real progress, IT must be taken from the classes to the masses, from South to North, from West to East, cities to the rural areas, and from rich to the poor. This must be our mission.''

``Then only the benefit will go to the villages. Otherwise, only IT islands will be created in an ocean of one billion people- where IT will be talked of only in posh five-star hotels.'' Narrating his own experience, he said in the last five months he had come across only one place-Baramathi (Maharashtra) where ``I spoke in Marathi of IT.''

On the proposal for a central grant of Rs. 10.75 crores to set up the National Institute of Smart Governance as part of the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Gachibowli, Mr. Mahajan said it could be a joint venture of State and Centre. Mr. Mahajan pointed out that though software exports from STPH were about Rs. 1,000 crores it was not even 10 per cent of the national exports (Rs. 18,000 crores).

The Centre was giving top priority to connectivity and bandwidth. ``But if despite the best of connectivity if State Electricity Boards cannot supply uninterrupted power, IT cannot survive,'' he said.

He struck another cautious note, pointing out that the country needed not only IT people but also civil and electrical engineers. Hence the Centre was planning to convert the 43 Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) into the IIT level.

The Union Minister of State for Urban development, Mr. Bandaru Dattatreya, feared an economic divide between those who had knowledge of computers and those who did not.

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