Digital India’s mission to uplift poor: Minister : The Tribune India

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Digital India’s mission to uplift poor: Minister

MOHALI/CHANDIGARH: The newly inaugurated Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) incubation facility in Mohali will be the first facility in the country dedicated to farm innovation and promotion of entrepreneurship among Dalit youth.

Digital India’s mission to uplift poor: Minister

Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad (right) and Vijay Sampla at a press conference in Mohali on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Vicky Gharu



Tribune News Service

Mohali/Chandigarh, Oct 25

The newly inaugurated Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) incubation facility in Mohali will be the first facility in the country dedicated to farm innovation and promotion of entrepreneurship among Dalit youth.

This was stated by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, who was in Mohali to inaugurate the facility in the industrial area of the town.

Built at a cost of Rs 60 crore, the new facility is spread over nearly 1.40 lakh square feet of built-up space and is touted as country’s largest incubation facility by the STPI. The facility is likely to play a vital role in encouraging IT entrepreneurs and start-ups to make it a hub for entrepreneurship.

“We are committed to working for the welfare of farmers. Acceding to the request of Union Minister for Food Processing Industry Harsimrat Kaur Badal, I have decided to make the STPI, Mohali, the first centre in the country for farm innovation and thus it will become a beacon of Digital India,” said Prasad, while addressing industrialists in Chandigarh after unveiling the incubation facility of the STPI, Mohali. He was accompanied by Minister of State for Social Justice Vijay Sampla, Minister of Information & Technology (Punjab) Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon and Harsimrat.

“The Digital India programme by the Centre is to transform the underprivileged class of society. Therefore, the new centre will be unique as it will provide special facilities to promote entrepreneurship among Dalit youth,” he said.

Later talking to ‘The Tribune’ in Chandigarh, he added, “The Mohali centre will be a special centre for farm innovation and for the promotion of entrepreneurship among the Dalit community. We are ready to give financial assistance in case the demand comes for these two sectors.”

The region has seen exponential growth in software exports which used to be around Rs 7 crore in 1998 when the STPI, Mohali, was established and in the last fiscal year it touched Rs 3,300 crore.

On being asked about Punjab-specific projects, Prasad said another STPI centre would be set up in Amritsar. He said the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology permanent campus in Ropar would be inaugurated by December.

He also added that the Centre has allocated 1,200 seats for Punjab under the Indian BPO promotion scheme, which had been approved under the Digital India programme to incentivise BPO/ITEs operations in smaller cities and towns. Targeted at tier-II and smaller towns, the India BPO Promotion Scheme provides one-time capital support up to 50 per cent with an upper ceiling of Rs 1 lakh per seat under a viability gap funding.

Terming the opening of the incubation centre in the town a historic event, Harsimrat said such facilities to promote education, health and transportation in the state were changing the face of Punjab.

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