Technology is fast gaining recognition as a driver of innovation for businesses in a disruptive era of volatile market conditions and stiff competition. What is interesting to note is how technology enablement transcends beyond businesses and fits into the bigger story of development and progress of a region. Information and communication technology (ICT) plays an important role not only as a sector, but also as a means of empowering governments and enabling good governance. Similar to what it can do for businesses, ICT helps a government function better by helping to increase its productivity, transparency, collaboration capabilities and by reducing transaction costs. While building customer centric organisations, ICT helps create citizen centric governments.
It is a great way of disseminating services to citizens at the lowest possible cost. Different kinds of novel approaches such as usage of cloud or IT as a service is decreasing the transaction cost and improving efficiencies of governance techniques. Further, dispensing government services through mobility are becoming the need of the hour to build a better and real-time connect with the citizens.
The Indian government is also rolling out the carpet for developing ICT-enabled regions. This means laying equal emphasis on e-Governance as an approach to transformation and on the promotion of the IT industry.
This report focuses on how eastern India; West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar are evolving as lucrative destinations for the IT and ITeS sectors. It discusses in detail the initiatives that have helped each of these states to be put on the map of investors and what is in the pipeline for further growth. While they were already rich in terms of skilled resources and harboured an environment of academia with the presence of seminal educational institutions, these regions have been given a further boost through the steps that are being taken by the government for their digitisation.
The CII-PwC report was released at the 13th Edition of ‘ICT East 2014’ organized by CII on 7-8 August, 2014 at Kolkata.