THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After West Bengal and Gujarat, now it is the turn of Kerala to rope in a ‘mentor’ who will give impetus to investment in infrastructure, IT and innovation.Speaking to Express, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said he has held discussions with Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister on public information infrastructure and innovations. “Pitroda has given his consent to become the mentor for Kerala’s overall development,” Chandy said. The core committee roped in by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy has its chief mentor and Sam Pitroda as the chairman of the IT core committee. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had got Murthy to be the mentor for the international centre of excellence to nurture youth as entrepreneurs - a futuristic project of the Gujarat Government.Now, with a slew of projects taking shape in Kerala, including the Infopark in Kochi, the decision to appoint a mentor assumes much significance as Kerala is in no position to lag behind its counterparts when it comes to attracting investment. It is this compulsion that drove the state government to woo Pitroda, said a senior officer in the state IT department.Meanwhile, it is understood that the state government is also planning to appoint various committees of expertise in areas like governance, health, education, infrastructure and human resources. The idea is to appoint a mentor who will act as an advisor of the overall development of the state.Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) had recently announced an investment worth `1,000 crore to set up a training campus in Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, housing 10,000 professionals. There are other similar investment plans that Kerala is looking to firm up.“In my approach paper to the 12th Five-Year Plan I had highlighted various emerging sectors like IT, nanotechnology, satellite remote sensing and GIS-based systems. If Sam Pitroda, comes in as the mentor of the state, than Kerala will get a technological edge and will help to attract more investment in the technology sector. This is a sector that holds immense potential, which is yet to be exploited,” Finance Minister K M Mani.Leveraging the recent trend of IT companies moving into tier II and tier III cities, the new IT draft policy of Kerala proposes to extend the fiscal incentives given to IT companies to five more years.The new state IT policy promises a standard investment subsidy of 30 per cent of fixed capital investment for companies located in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam districts that are functioning outside the Special Economic Zone that do not enjoy tax holidays.Once the mentor gets on board, he will have a say in shaping the draft IT policy before it gets enacted.
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