The Department of Information Technology, State Govt. of Bihar announced renewed efforts to bring in major investments in the IT & ITeS Services and Electronic manufacturing in the state and develop it as one of the emerging IT hubs in the country. IT investments in the state of Bihar is expected to grow at CAGR of more than 20% during 2017-22. Speaking at the 28th Convergence India 2021 here, Sri Jibesh Kumar, the Hon’ble Minster for the Department of IT, State Government, Bihar shared insights on Govt initiatives, Investor opportunities in the state and how the state envisions to exploit the ICT prowess for inclusive growth and large scale gainful employment.
The state of Bihar is blooming with projects, currently three IT parks are under construction including 33 Acres IT park at Bihta with seamless network connectivity, A 110 acres IT park in Rajgir with 3 phases development of electronic manufacturing hub and well established connectivity and the IT Tower in Patna with 90000 Sq feet proposed built up area. An Incubation center at BIT, Patna with floor area of 10000 Sq meter is already functional in the field of medical electronics to support startups in medical electronics.
For the Startup ecosystem, the government of Bihar has taken number of initiatives and more than 900 start-ups have been assigned for 100% free of cost incubation to state notified incubation centers. The state received 5591 applications on Bihar Start-up portal for certification and state govt. has organized more than 100 outreach programs. In the state, 104 start-ups are incubated and 53 certified startups are availing fiscal benefits under the state start-ups policy.
Speaking at the Convergence India Sri Jibesh Kumar, the Hon’ble Minster for the Department of IT, State Government, Bihar said “Bihar is determined to ensure the implementation of policies of ‘ease of doing business’ hand crafted by the current government to develop IT and IT-enabled Services industry for inclusive and overall socio-economic growth in the state. The state has a pool of talent with abundant skilled workers backed by finest educational institutes. We are sure this will provide the business houses an opportunity to reduce their cost and increase profits – simple formula ‘income minus expenditure’. In an ongoing effort we are taking various policy and regulatory reforms and are sure Bihar would be one of the preferred choice for the industry.”
The State Government has also established a Startup Hub in Patna as a Technology Innovation and Incubation Zone in the State to promote innovation, incubation, and entrepreneurship, where startups will have access to plug-and-play infrastructure, quality power, seamless internet connectivity at subsidised rates, and much-needed services in consulting, training, implementation, incubation and statutory compliances.
Since 2017, the department is focusing to create an incremental employment of 20,000 youth and emerge as one of the leading startup hubs in the country in the IT/ ITeS sector by conducting skill development and capacity building initiatives. The government is focused to generate a gross turnover of Rs.10,000 Crore in the IT/ ITeS space and accelerate investments flow in the IT/ ITeS sector at an average annual growth rate in excess of 20 percent.
In order to accomplish a holistic transformation in the investor attractiveness, the government is driving regulatory reforms across all relevant areas of business regulations. The government of Bihar is ensuring the provision of time-bound single window clearance mechanisms for faster processing of applications of lT/ ITeS projects in the State, and approval and disbursement of incentives under the Bihar Industrial Investment Promotion Policy 2016. The State Government has set up an Investor Facilitation cum Project Management Unit {PMU) for investor facilitation under the Department of Information Technology, Govt. of Bihar.
