Srinagar: The Information and Communications Technology Association of J&K (ICTA) Friday revealed that local IT sector generated Rs.307 crore during the last financial year.
While hardware sales and service business forms a major chunk (Rs.165 crore) of that pie, it is the BPO segment that has been growing faster in comparison, ICTA said at Digital India week celebration organized by STP and Govt. of India Kashmir University.
BPO segment in the state, that comprises of customer care centres and digitization units, generated an estimated revenue of Rs.71 crore during the financial year 2014-15.
ICTA revealed these figures at a Kashmir University event that forms part of the ongoing Digital India week. The event at the Kashmir University was webcast live and monitored by the PMO in Delhi.
With that sort of sector turnover, it is now incumbent upon the state government to start promoting the IT sector. The state department cannot afford to ignore the sector anymore, claimed Meraj Gulzar, Chairman ICTA.
Gulzar further drew comparisons with other sectors of the state. He said the handicrafts sector has an annual turnover of Rs.1500 crore and with the rate IT sector is growing in the state, it wont take long to overtake that traditional sector of the state economy.
He revealed that the state government has not dedicated a single resource or staff within the state IT department for the purposes of promotion of the IT sector and that ICTA is the only organization, funded by the local entrepreneurs, that promotes the sector. We have since long undertaken to promote our businesses as well as the sector through ICTA activities, revealed Gulzar.
Promotion of sector is the responsibility of the state govt and we have been carrying out that task by ourselves since the last six years.
During the interactive session ICTA also revealed that the local ICT entrepreneurs have generated over 10 thousand jobs while the telecom companies especially the celluar operators and the state government have shied away from the task of job generation.
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