State to have three electronics clusters

The operational guidelines on AP Electronic Hardware Policy, which was announced in June this year, will be released in one week. The guidelines will be on the incentives and subsidies for attracting electronic industry to the state.

Information technology minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah, after a review of the information technology sector’s growth in the state at a meeting here on Thursday, told reporters that the guidelines would be in place within a week.

The state government would send its proposal to the Centre soon recommending establishment of three clusters in the state _ Fab- City, a 500-acre brownfield cluster; Maheshwaram, a 300-acre greenfield cluster; and Parwada (Visakhapatnam), a 100-acre greenfield cluster _ he said.

The minister said that the central government floated an Electronic Development Fund for supporting the electronic clusters.

For every 100 acres of a cluster, the Centre would provide a financial assistance under SIPS (Special Incentive Package Scheme) of Rs.50 crore.

The minister directed the information technology and communication department and the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation to prepare a detail project report and submit it to the Centre within 30 days.

Animation & Gaming Park: The state government, through APIIC, appointed a consultant which prepared design of Animation and Gaming Park.

 Ponnala directed the officials to conduct a workshop with major animation and gaming players in the country to take their feedback and ensure that the Hyderabad Animation and Gaming Park should become world-class in line with the Manchester Media City and Dubai Media City.

The proposed workshop will be conducted on August 30.

 IT investment region: The high-powered committee chaired by the Union cabinet secretary had given an in-principle approval for AP’s ITIR proposal.

Ponnala said that after receipt of the formal communication the state government would prepare a detailed project report which would include master plan of the entire ITIR region in line with HMDA’s draft master plan.

Incubation towers: The IT minister said that five IT Parks including two in Visakhapatnam - 1 lakh sft ( 50,000 sft each) and three in other tier-2 and tier-3 cities; 15,000 sft in each city at the cost of Rs 30 crore.

The towers would come up in Warangal and Tirupati.