E-Paper
50 villages in Himachal to go ‘digital’: Ravi Shankar Prasad
Adds that STPI additional incubation facility at Shimla will be a resource centre for information technology and will offer infrastructural facilities.
Union minister for law and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday laid foundation stone of Incubation Centre of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) at Mehli. During his visit, he announced that 50 villages of the state would be made ‘digital villages’.
Park would be developed with incubation facility with an approximate built up area of 14,000 square feet with an estimated cost of ₹10 crore. Park would house 15 to 20 start-ups and create employment for 400 information technology professionals.
Shankar also announced to upgrade district hospitals to e-hospitals, besides establishing the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology centre at Mandi.
Prasad said STPI additional incubation facility at Shimla would act as a resource centre for information technology (IT) centre, which will offer infrastructural facilities like ready to use incubation space, high speed data communication with uninterrupted data connectivity and other amenities for export of software.
Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said his government has initiated steps to provide IT enabled services to the people of state to visualise the dream of Digital India of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Thakur said another STPI was proposed to be set-up in Kangra district near Gaggal Airport and the land for the same has been identified.
“Park would go a long way in generating employment,” said Thakur, adding that 113 government services were being provided in rural areas through 2,858 Lok Mitra Kendras.
CM Thakur said data centre has been established in Information Technology department for strengthening digital infrastructure in the state. He said an amount of ₹32.86 crore was required for expansion of the data centre from the Government of India. He also said the far-flung and tribal areas of the state had poor mobile and internet connectivity.
