IT & ITES POLICY 2007

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR MASSES

1.1       Computer Education

1.1.1 Bridging digital divide is high on agenda of the State Government. The State Government would strive to augment computer literacy and computer aided education campaigns in rural areas. For such programs, Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model would be encouraged.

1.1.2 Government schools would be equipped with modern ICT facilities such as computer labs.  Priority would be given to Girls Secondary and Senior Secondary Schools.

1.1.3 Information Technology Academies set up in conjunction with Microsoft would be expanded further so as to use this infrastructure for providing IT training to Government officials besides teachers and students.

1.1.4 The State Government shall extend the “Teach the Teachers” programme by including “IT knowledge” and “IT skills” as part of this program.  Teachers would be encouraged to upgrade their skills regularly through a large scale training programme.

1.1.5 The education curriculum shall be enriched to include programs on personality development, analytical ability, logical reasoning and problem solving skills, English communication. This should be finalised after taking views from IT/ITES industry.

1.1.6 The faculty of colleges and other technical institutes would be sensitized regarding the requirement of personnel for the ITES industry and courses introduced to enhance the employability of students.

1.2  Building talent pool for ICT industry

1.2.1 Government of Rajasthan has undertaken a successful endeavour in the form of ‘Rajasthan Education Initiative (REI)” that is aimed at comprehensively improving the delivery of educational services at school level through a set of innovative interventions. This program extensively uses Public Private Partnership (PPP) models for promoting use of ICT in education for mitigating digital divide. State Government would take appropriate steps to extend the REI to cover the entire education life cycle starting from primary school to secondary school to senior secondary and further on to college / vocational / higher education / university level. This way, REI would be positioned as a long term program aimed at enhancing the employability of youth in the Global economy. Secondary Schools shall be funded to have internet connections to enable students to connect to the rest of the world.

1.2.2 Education material shall be given to Secondary schools in the form of easily available standard Multi media materials to enhance the teaching and learning experience through e-learning. Possibilities of introducing distance learning program would also be explored.

1.2.3 The State Government would help set up a world class Institute of Excellence for ITES in collaboration with ICT Companies and other reputed institutions. The advisory board of this Institute would consist of experts from academia, industry and other stakeholders. This will be modeled after the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore to act as a nodal agency for IT education.

1.2.4 The State Government shall encourage inclusion of foreign languages like German, French, Spanish and Japanese as part of academic curriculum so as to enhance the employability of youth of the State in the ITES industry.

1.2.5 The State Universities and other educational institutions shall be encouraged to offer special IT/ITES courses for their students. These courses would be in verbal and written Communications in English and also domain specific skill-sets like Insurance, banking, pay-roll processing, HR, Financial analysis etc.

1.2.6 The formal education system (i.e. Universities and Colleges) already has a strong infrastructure and interaction platform. This would be leveraged to provide vocational courses and provide counselling on employment opportunities.

1.2.7 The colleges attached to a University would be networked and all Universities in the State would be networked to create the Rajasthan State Educational network to allow access to the Internet for all students, enhance availability of education material available on the internet, create a common repository of educational material for use by all the colleges/universities, sharing of best practices, and generally enhance use of IT in higher education. State Government shall attempt to access funds for this purpose from National Knowledge Commission.

1.2.8 The State Government, in collaboration with NASSCOM and IT industry, would support standardized ITES-BPO Certifications for job aspirants for the ITES industry thus adding credibility to the workers' skills, and reducing time and cost of hiring for recruiters. The Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC) test now being regularly conducted in Rajasthan is a step in this direction. 

1.2.9 Data bank of students who are IT literate and suitable for deployment in IT industry would be maintained by the State Government. The state government will launch a web portal to function as an online Employment Exchange System. This would enable the industry to have easy access to the skilled manpower.

1.2.10 Kota is the hub of coaching for engineering competitive exams. State Government will develop it further as the centre for providing the requisite skill sets to cater to the demand of the ITES industry in the State.

1.2.11 The State Government would encourage setting up of Corporate Training Centres, Customer Interaction & Development Centres in collaboration with the major IT/ITES companies. This would provide facilities to the companies to train their employees at these Centres.

1.3       Employment Generation

1.1.1 The State Government is rolling out Common Service Centres on the - e-Mitra model in the entire State through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. This would provide avenues for self employment to the local entrepreneurs in the rural and urban areas. All the CSCs that shall be set up in the State under NeGP shall be owned by women entrepreneurs.  

1.1.2 Further, towards women empowerment, State Government would encourage campaigns of IT & entrepreneurship skill development aimed at women. Such training programs would help build required capacity at grass root level in form of IT trained women who could become IT entrepreneurs, as for example, in the e-Mitra scheme.

1.4       ICT for rural areas

1.4.1 State Government would endeavour to use ICT for empowering the rural citizens by enhancing their capacities to garner the emerging employment and economic opportunities. Initiatives like Common Services Centres (CSCs) which aim at providing information and service delivery to the rural citizens at their door steps would be supported. NGOs and grass root organizations that catalyze and manage the community building processes and also train village folks in the use of IT to provide access would be encouraged to become partners in all such initiatives.  

1.5       Training Incentive

1.5.1 Incentive of Rs. 2,000/- per candidate will be provided to training centres whose candidates find placement in IT & ITES companies after successful training on communication/soft skills. This set of incentives would be provided only to those training institutions which are able to place a minimum of:

• 200 candidates per center per annum for Training Institutes located in Jaipur.
• 100 candidates per center per annum for Training Institutes located elsewhere in Rajasthan.

This incentive is available subject to the condition that all the Training Institutions are registered online with Department of Higher Education in accordance with the norms and criteria laid down by Government of Rajasthan to be eligible for this incentive. Details regarding registered training centers, information of candidates trained, placed must be maintained online at the website notified by the State Government. Training Institutions shall be required to produce proof of such placements from the IT/ITES companies.

1.6       Latest syllabi for educational and technical institutions

1.6.1 State Government would take all necessary steps to devise latest syllabi for the Engineering, ITIs and other technical institutes so that the students being produced are ready for absorption by the IT industry. State Government would facilitate a package of technical skills, soft skills and language skills as part of the syllabi.

1.7       Support and Incentives

1.7.1 State Government would encourage Banks and Financial Institutions to provide loans to the students at competitive terms for taking up courses for IT/ITES industry and also for purchasing computers for use at their homes.

1.7.2 State Government would endeavour to evolve a scheme under the ambit of Mission on Livelihood to subsidize the expenditure incurred on training and development of employees in IT / ITES organizations.

1.7.3 All IT software and service industries like BPOs, KPOs, (including Services and IT Training Institutions) have already been entitled to “Industry” status. Such units are eligible for all concessions and incentives applicable to Industries.

1.8       Entrepreneurial Development

1.8.1 The process for venture capital funding would be streamlined through a public private joint venture. The board of this venture would consist of eminent persons such as industrialists, academicians, government functionaries, etc. The existing VC corpus of Rs. 16 crores would be increased to Rs. 100 crores through private partnerships.

1.8.2 The State Government would encourage building up of the intellectual capital of the state. The State Government would reimburse the ICT patent filing costs (upto a limit of Rs. 50000/-) of individuals and non-profit organizations subject to the condition that the patent right stays with the State.

1.9       IT for Tourism

1.9.1 Tourism is one of the largest industries in Rajasthan. ICT has the potential to play a significant role in enhancing service levels of this sector. Local IT industry shall be encouraged to develop & offer the necessary IT products and services relevant to the tourism industry. Electronic Tourism Kiosks shall be set up at important locations for the benefit of tourists coming to the State.