AP Bets On Policy Push For IT/GCC Hub Target

This is the best IT policy in India on paper. Would be nice if the pending incentives are paid immediately. Incentives to employees coming to AP with a one lakh HRA for each year for 3 years directly to their accounts is a great move - O Naresh Kumar, V-P, Rushikonda IT Park Association, tells Bizz Buzz

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh government’s IT, Electronics and Communication (IT&C) Department has declared its resolve to address the infrastructure gaps in the physical, financial, and the digital spaces and incentivise massive employment creation to attract investments on a large-scale into IT and Global Capability Centers (GCC) sector across Andhra Pradesh.

The long-term objective of its new IT and GCC policy is to incentivise and enable the establishment of some of the prominent ‘Fortune-500 computer software and information companies’ within the State. A GO approving the policy 4.0 for 2024-29 was released by the department on Thursday to showcase Andhra Pradesh as a destination for investors in IT and GCCs.

The government felt that the IT field continues to evolve globally, and the IT firms in private sector meticulously plan, optimally integrate, and ensure alignment of IT operations with business goals spanning the social, the financial, the scientific, and the not-for-profit sectors. Similarly, the GCCs, the offshore entities established by parent companies to deliver IT services, R&D, and legal services to the parent organisation, form the backbone of the IT services in India, it said.

A senior official at ITE&C Department told Bizz Buzz that the aim is develop Visakhapatnam as a major IT and GCC hub and project other areas like Amaravati, Kurnool, Tirupati, Anantapur and Rajahmundry as centres for specific domains by strengthening the existing ecosystem.

Commenting on the policy, O Naresh Kumar, CEO of Symbiosy Technologies, and Vice-President of Rushikonda IT Park Association (RITPA), told Bizz Buzz that |this is the best IT policy in the country on paper.

“Would be nice if the pending incentives are paid immediately to make investors believe in this. Incentives to employees coming to AP with a one lakh HRA for each year for three years directly to their accounts is a great move,” he stated.

The government made it very clear in the policy that their emphasis is on creation of large-scale capacities in co-working spaces and neighborhood workspaces to provide flexibility in work spaces and foster work-life balance to the employees in the IT and the GCC sector, to ensure improved productivity.

These spaces are set to radically transform the way youth within the State can work for domestic firms and global conglomerates. In the short-, and the medium-term, this policy shall aim to develop large IT spaces, and leverage remote/hybrid work culture to create large scale employment in the IT & GCC sector in the State.

The policy was finalised after the IT, E&C Department held extensive meetings with IT industries associations, IT park developers, IT and GCC firms, and co-working space developers and various line departments at the State level. Accordingly, the draft of the new policy was submitted to the government.

The Finance Department accorded concurrence and approval for the AP Information Technology (IT) and Global Capability Centers Policy (4.0) and advised that APIIC to service the incentives by mobilising funds through Land Value Capture Model.

The incentives mentioned in the policy will be extended to eligible industries as per the operational guidelines to be notified separately. The IT, E&C Department, according to the GO, will take necessary action for implementing operating guidelines for the policy.