Stone of STPI incubation centre laid in Shimla

SHIMLA: Minister of Law Justice and Electronics and Information Technology Government of India Ravi Shankar Prasad along with Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday laid the foundation stone of a Rs 10crore incubation centre of the Software Technology Parks of India STPI at Mehli near here

Updated At : 06:24 AM Jul 03, 2018 IST

CM Jai Ram Thakur along with Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (left) laid the foundation stone of the incubation centre of Software Technology Parks of India in Shimla on Monday.

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July2

Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, Ravi Shankar Prasad along with Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday laid the foundation stone of a Rs 10-crore incubation centre of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) at Mehli near here. It aims at providing IT-enabled services to the people of the state.

Without giving any time frame, Prasad also announced during the function that all district health institutions would be developed as e-hospitals and 50 villages would go digital in Himachal soon.

He arrived two hours behind his scheduled time of 10 am. Due to the bad weather his flight from Chandigarh to Shimla was delayed. Prasad reached the venue at around 12.40 pm.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Jai Ram Thakur said The STPI park would be of 14000 sq ft and employ 300-400 IT professionals in five years.He said another the STPI was proposed to be set up in Kangra district near the Gaggal Airport for which land had been identified. As many as 113 services were being provided in rural areas through 2,858 Lok Mitra Kendras, he added. In the first phase of the Bharat Net Project, out of 251 panchayats, 221 had been provided high-speed Internet facilities and rest would follow suit soon, he added.

Thakur urged the Centre to sanction Rs 32.86 crore for the expansion of HIMSWAN data centre to provide connectivity to far-flung and strategic tribal areas of the state. As many as 52 services were being provided online under the e-district project for which the state needed Rs 9.23 crore, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Prasad said the growth of exports by the STPI units had increased from Rs 52 crore in 1992-93 to Rs 3,50,680 crore in 2016-17. The STPI has played a key role in creating Brand India and transforming the country as the most-prefered IT destination, he said.

He said 31 crore bank accounts had been opened under the Jan Dhan Yojana. The poor were getting all benefits directly transferred into their bank accounts, which had helped save Rs 90,000 crore in the past three years.

A national institute of electronics and information technology would be set up in Mandi and 50 villages would be made digital villages in the state.The state IT minister Ram Lal Markanda urged Prasad to approve a similar park in Kangra district.