Maharashtra unveils new IT policy

Maharashtra's Democratic Front government on Friday unveiled an ambitious policy to develop Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad as new IT hubs in a time-bound manner. “Based on a survey conducted by Nasscom, we have formulated a new IT policy. Since there is saturation of IT industries in the Mumbai-Pune region, we will now concentrate on developing Nashik, Nagpur and Auragabad as new IT hubs,’’ said industries minister Narayan Rane. “We have drafted a new policy. We have taken into consideration the regional imbalance, the need to grant more FSI to units in Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad as well as districts which have very poor human resource index,’’ Rane said. A few years ago, Nasscom had conducted an intensive survey on the present status of the IT sector. It was found that 90% of the IT units and BPOs were concentrated in seven cities, including Mumbai and Pune. Then Nasscom had recommended to the Centre the need to encourage promotion of IT industries in underdeveloped areas. “We expect our new policy will attract more investments in Nashik, Nagpur and Aurangabad,’’ Rane said. Rane said besides development of the new areas, it has been proposed to give more emphasis on the AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comics) areas. Steps will be taken to ensure that along with the development of the IT sector, there will be no adverse impact on the environment, encouragement for setting up more incubation centres and above all, more efforts will be made to develop Maharashtra as a brand in the IT sector, Rane added. For effective implementation of the IT policy, a 12-member committee headed by the chief secretary has been set up. Besides ex-officio members of the industries, urban development, finance, higher and technical education departments, nominees of Nasscom and manufacturers association will be special invitees. On the infrastructure facilities, a senior industries department official said it has been proposed to grant 100% FSI after charging 10% premium, while in districts of poor human resource index, there will be no premium.