Tamil Nadu government is actively striving to promote new opportunities for the growth of the information technology sector, said Chief Minister MK Stalin. “The IT industry will help us achieve our ambitious goal of $1 trillion by 2030, and that CII Connect will play a very strong role in this,” he said inaugurating the 20th edition of CII Connect2021, an International Conference and Exhibition on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

“Our government has been implementing a number of reforms to improve the ease of doing business through the modern single window system,” he said.

Connect is the flagship CII event hosted by the State government and co-hosted by Software Technology Parks of India, Ministry of Electronics and Telecommunications, Government of India. The theme of the two-day Conference is “Building a Sustainable Deep ‘T’ech’N’ology Ecosystem.

BharatNet project for rural connectivity

To provide broadband internet access in the panchayats of Tamil Nadu, the Centre’s BharatNet project has been implemented to connect all the 12,525 rural panchayats of the State with at least 1 GBPS high speed connection. At all village levels, quality digital e-learning, telemedicine and triple-play services are available. High speed internet services are available for government offices, schools, colleges and businesses. Through this, the countryside will grow, he said.

“I hope our new policies and initiatives will transform Tamil Nadu into an international IT hub," he added.

The government is committed to adopting emerging technologies and will provide all necessary support to the IT sector. He urged the IT industry to utilise the large number of human resources in the State as a force of knowledge, he said.

CII Connect 2021 will help the State achieve the Chief Minister’s target of $1 trillion economy by 2030, said State IT secretary Neeraj Mittal in his welcome address. BVR Mohan Reddy, Past Chairman, CII-SR & Executive Chairman, Cyient Ltd suggested that the State government rejuvenate technical education; focus on ‘deep technology’ by creating an ecosystem consisting of various stakeholders, including academic, industry and investors, and focus on sectors like defence, space and drones.

Tamil Nadu will make that it creates the ecosystem for IT to flourish in the State. “From CII, we would like to assure you that we will create a Centre of Excellence for Industry 4.0,” he said.

Awards

Stalin also gave various awards at the function.

Lifetime Achievement Award - Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras

Dronacharya Award - Sridhar Vembu, CEO, Zoho Corporation

Ecosystem Enabler Award - Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI

Empowering Women in Technology Award - Vidya Durai, Director, BNY Mellon Technology Private Ltd

Entrepreneur of the Year Award - Sucharita Mukherjee, Co Founder & CEO, Kaleidofin Private Ltd

Exemplary Application of technology Award for the Government - N Muruganandam, Principal Secretary of the Finance department, Government of Tamil Nadu; Department of Treasuries and Accounts

Innovative and promising Start-up Award - Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy & Pranjal Mehta, CTO & CEO, e-Plane

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