Kerala IT Policy: 10 takeaways that will bring cheer to youngsters

Kerala government released its draft IT Policy 2017 which aims at creating 2.5 lakh job opportunities. It also plans to add more than one crore square feet of office space for IT business. 
 

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that his government was aiming at using IT for the comprehensive development of the state and to bridge the digital divide. It also aims at the universalisation of Aadhaar card-based bio-metric system while the government would ensure that e-services would not be denied to citizens for want of Aadhaar card.  
 

 Takeaways from the draft of IT Policy: 

1. The policy aims to create one crore Sq ft office space to provide employment directly or indirectly to 2.5 Iakh people. 

2. A connected ecosystem of academic institutions leveraging Telepresence and audio conferencing, Online Portals and App-based learning.  Technology Education centres will be interconnected.

3. Develop a talent pool in skills for sunrise industries and human resource capabilities for emerging and futuristic technologies. Create a talent pool of additional resources and increase the Information and Communication Technology employability index.

 

4 Make IIITMK and ICFOSS Centres of Excellence for research and development and studies in IT sector 

 

5. Manufacturing of electronics goods/components will be made possible among all (including housewives) to transform the State into an electronic hub in the field of electronics production

 

6. Fab labs and the DIY (Do It Yourself) culture to address the societal needs. Engineering and other technical institutions will have mini-fab labs installed to impart training to their students. 

 

7. The government plans to set up free public WiFi hot spots in all major centres. 

 

8. State awards for best achievers in various fields of IT including start-ups and students’ projects. Annual Grand Innovation Challenge for the upcoming startup ideas is also on the cards. The winner would be given sufficient funding and support to realize the idea. 

 

9.   Cognitive Computing Hub for growing a global cognitive fabric, a cloud-based, knowledge ingestion, curation, learning and insights platform. This fabric will provide infrastructure and resources for aspiring entrepreneurs to embed traditional and acquired knowledge from structured and unstructured big data sources.  A Cognitive Decision Science Institute would also be established to provide sufficient human resources in this sector. The government hopes that this would open up avenues for entrepreneurs to leverage the cognitive revolution and create new jobs that do not exist today.

 

10. The government will encourage the development of devices for women safety.