TiE Summit 2013:Working with the Government - A talk by Mr Sanjay Jaju, IAS, Secretary IT and Communication Department Govt. of Andhra Pradesh

As a Secretary in the IT& Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Jaju leads the ICT  industry Promotion and e-governance initiatives. He has been instrumental in promoting  the Electronic System Design and Manufacturing sector in the state through various Policy initiative.

Mr. Jaju had a very optimistic view about the opportunities coming up in Hyderabad. He spoke about how India has made a big name in the ITeS business in the past 20 years. He started his speech by explaining how the image of Indians had changed over the years and substantiated this by his experience while visiting the Silicon Valley. According to the statistics provided by him, out of every 3 Indian in the Silicon Valley, one is from Andhra Pradesh.

He stressed upon Hyderabad’s power to create great potential entrepreneurs through start-ups in the IT sector. He also spoke about the deficiencies in the infrastructure and the inability of the Government and corporate sector in providing the proper “eco-system” for the companies to work.

He enlightened the audience by providing information about the various policies and incentives that the State Government provides to the start-ups in the IT industry. He spoke about the State Government’s progressive development plans for Hyderabad city which might be of use for some budding IT entrepreneurs at IMT Hyderabad.

Next he talked about the electronic hardware industry coming up in Hyderabad. The Government plans to provide infrastructure for these electronic hardware companies .By providing such facilities it will help these companies to bring down their costs and the Government also has special provisions for research and development in this sector. Another astonishing fact that he told is that there are many provisions for funds available for electronic hardware start-ups but the entrepreneurs are not aware of it and all the funds go back to the Central Government. There is indeed a lack of awareness about the support that the Government provides.

There are many incentives also for the IT start-up companies in special areas like Vijayvada, Tirupati. E-Seva portal of the Government provides easy access to the entrepreneurs about these incentives provided by the government. The process of application for applying for these incentives is explained in the same website.

He even talked about the Animation and Media industry . Hyderabad is the only state in the country which has “Game Policies”. He even told about Hyderabad’s contribution in this industry. The successful movie Life of Pie had majority of its animation outsourced to Hyderabad. Chota Bheem is another successful story that started from Hyderabad. To promote the budding talent in this area the government also plans to set up an Animation and Media academy in the next two years.

Overall it was an enriching experience. It educated us about the various support systems that the government provides for the start-ups. It was truly motivational for budding entrepreneurs like me to see so much support from the government.