New Delhi, Sept. 20: The new national IT policy, recently passed by the cabinet, aims to generate $300 billion in revenues and create 10 million jobs by 2020.
The policy also seeks to increase IT exports to $200 billion from $69 billion in the next eight years besides making at least one individual in every household e-literate.
"The IT policy, which has been cleared by the government, addresses a number of issues regarding the development of the ICT sector and using it for the growth of the country, not only from the point of exports but giving an equal emphasis on the domestic sector as well," J. Satyanarayana, secretary in the department of electronics and information technology, said.
The policy seeks to provide benefits to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups for IT adoption and consolidate the country's position as a global hub. It is also expected to encourage e-governance to increase transparency and accountability.
Officials said a framework with specific guidelines and timelines was in the works and would be released soon. They added that the policy framework would also look into formulating fiscal and other incentives to attract investment in tier II and tier III cities, besides promoting innovation, research and design in defence, space and atomic energy.
In research and development, the policy aims to promote technological innovations. Mobile-based value-added services, language-based technologies and service delivery through e-governance are the other thrust areas.
Analysts said some of these areas, such as service delivery through e-governance were already underway with several state governments such as Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh offering key services such as education and health through the Internet or mobile.