New Delhi, Feb 27 (KNN) With a vision to cover the entire state digitally, Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik recently stated that digital competence will be used to improve education, health, agriculture and poverty alleviation programmes.

On the inauguration of ‘Advantage Odisha 2016’, a Business-Technology and Leadership conference, Patnaik said, “We have a vision to digitally connect every nook and corner of the state and use our digital infrastructure for a swift service delivery mechanism".

The two day conference was organised jointly by Electronics and IT department of Odisha government, INFOCOM and The Telegraph.

Keeping in consideration the fact that the growth rate of IT exports from the state was more the national growth rate for many years, the Chief Minister formally made a declaration directing every department of the state government to spend 20 per cent of their plan budget for the electronically enabled service delivery.

Stating that Bhubaneshwar has mande good progress in It Special Economic Zone (SEZ) sector, Patnaik said, “In  order to promote such industries , IT Special Economic Zone (SEZ) were established at Infocity and Infovalley in the state capital” further adding, “ The state government is also setting up a Green Field Electronics Manufacturing Cluster at Info-valley.”

Depicting Odisha as one of the leading state in the country in the field of e-governance, Patnaik mentioned that their prime focus was on providing end-to-end dedicated government network from state to gram Panchayat level offering high speen broadband internet services in next three years for seamless transactions of government services.

In addition to that, the government is also bringing out a BPO scheme in all the STPI locations of the state to provide employment opportunity to youths closer to their hometowns, he mentioned. (KNN Bureau)