IT aid for endosulphan victims

THIRUVANANATHAPURAM: In an interesting move, the state government in its new draft of IT policy-2011 has proposed Information Communication Technology (ICT) enabled employability skill development and rehabilitation of endosulfan victims in the state.Appropriate intervention through IT is also proposed to address the needs and grievances of the differently-abled and tribal population.Women empowerment with special focus on socially and economically backward communities is one of the proposals in the draft, under the ICT for masses category.Leveraging the recent trend of IT companies to move towards Tier II and Tier III cities, the new IT policy also proposes to extend the fiscal incentives given to IT companies to five more years.Accordingly, the new state IT policy-2011 promises a standard investment subsidy of 30 per cent of fixed capital investment for companies located in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam districts that are functioning outside the Special Economic Zone that do not enjoy the tax holidays.For companies located outside the two districts, the subsidy will be 40 per cent of the fixed capital investment subject to a limit of Rs 25 lakh. The draft states that the state will provide attractive incentives and concessions to the IT companies.Compared with the state IT policy of 2007, another major announcement in the new draft is the creation of the Industry Academia task force to identify knowledge partners to develop content for the new curriculum.Not to lose out to states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat that have made it big in the IT sector, the state government suggested a revised syllabus and curriculum aligned with the skill set needs of the IT industry by including industry representatives in the syllabus committee in universities.The government also plans to establish IT finishing schools in the state with publicprivatepartnership. According to a state government study, Kerala contributes to 11 per cent of the national IT pool but only 3 per cent could be employed within the state due to the lack of domain knowledge.