Srinagar, June 28: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday announced a Task Force for Information Technology sector in the State to help its holistic and comprehensive development.
 The Task Force to be constituted on the analogy of health sector Task Force will be headed by the Minister for Information Technology and represented by the members from the State Government, local players in IT sector and reputed experts from outside the State.
 The Chief Minister also directed for working out a concrete proposal for digitalization of records in the four departments of Home, Power, R&B and Planning. “Other departments like PHE, Health, Finance, etc would be brought under the ambit of digitalization gradually and this will move on”, he said adding that a well developed IT sector is imperative for the growth of e-governance in the State.
 Omar Abdullah was chairing a joint meeting of high level Government officers and members of Information Communication Technology Association (ICTA) here this morning.
 Minister for Information Technology, Aga Syed Rahulla, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Secretary to the Government, Information Technology Department, M. K. Dwivedi and other senior officers were present in the meeting besides representatives of ICTA.
 Underlining the importance of IT sector in the State, the Chief Minister said that its development would open venues of investment in this sector both for local and outside industrialists. “It would also enhance the job opportunities for local talent and provide them expanded arena to venture and grow”, he added.
 Omar Abdullah emphasized the need of capacity building in this sector. He said the departmental personnel should be simultaneously trained while going for digitalization so that there remains no gap between the trained staff and the modern operation of records.
 The Chief Minister assured full Government support to the people associated with ICT industry for the growth and development of this industry. He said the Task Force to be constituted within a week’s time, would study in detail various aspects of promotion of this sector identifying areas requiring assistance from the Government in a fixed timeline keeping in view the potential of IT sector in the State. “We want an organized and planned development of IT sector and Task Force would prove highly beneficial for the same”, he explained.
 The President, ICTA, Jahangir Raina presented a three-point proposal for promotion of ICT industry in the State deliberating upon each point in detail. He laid stress on establishment of IT Park in the township, taking up digitalization of Government Departments as a mission mode and capacity building in the IT sector.
 The Secretary Information Technology Department while detailing various initiatives initiated by IT Department for the growth of the sector told the meeting that the empanelment of the local companies by the IT Department is on anvil to work out possibilities of involving them in the Central and local projects for various IT initiatives.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 IST