Gujarat’s new IT & biotech policies boosting employment

Gujarat government has announced two main policies in this month that will generate lakh of employments in the state. These two policies are IT/ITES Policy 2022-27 and biotech policy.

Few years back, there was a time when Gujarat was lagging behind in IT sector. The state missed the IT bus many a times but finally, Gujarat is ready to get a hold on IT sector.  As, its tangible that How speedily Gujarat has grown in every sector and made a huge difference in last few years, be it water management, Solar & renewable energy, ease of doing business, agriculture and many more, similarly IT sector will definitely see a new glow too. Gujarat has already become a global hub for investment, businesses and start ups, IT policy will play a major part to improve business and service sector’s performance. New IT policy will propel an eight-fold growth in IT exports from Rs 3,101 crore to Rs 25,000 crore. The policy provides support for both capital (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) expenditures. Under the new policy, the CAPEX support has been raised up to Rs 200 crore from the existing Rs 1 crore. The government has also proposed to provide 15 per cent OPEX support that will range from Rs 20- 40 crore per year for the policy duration of five years.

With a big Aatmanirbhar push, the policy lays stress on promoting rapid and inclusive growth in the IT sector. “I strongly believe that this policy will help us contribute significantly to one of the eight dreams of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendrabhai Modi – Berozgari se mukt, Rozgari se yukt,” the Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has said.

When we talk about biotechnology policy, the objective is to make Gujarat competitive in the biotechnology sector and maximize benefits from it. The policy offers financial assistance for technology acquisition, skill development, alternative energy production, quality certification and bandwidth leasing etc. Through the innovative CAPEX (capital expenditure) and OPEX (operational expenditure) models, overall financial support for units have been significantly increased. As per the policy document, MSMEs with a capital investment of less than Rs 200 crore will be given maximum assistance of Rs 40 crore. Large or mega projects with a capital investment of more than Rs 200 crore as well as special projects like emerging technologies will be given assistance of up to 25 per cent of the total capital expenditure. Under the policy, eligible firms will get assistance at an interest rate of 7 per cent on term loans, with an annual ceiling of Rs 20 crore.

Though, these are the benefits and advantages that will be given under both the policies, the Employment generation are huge. Implementation of IT policy will create nearly 1 lakh job in the sector as new policy will bring more business and more IT companies in the picture. These figures are just for the starters because once the IT infrastructure and data centers emerge in Gujarat, more jobs will come on the way. The demand for IT services has increased across the world. Due to this, there has been a jump of about 15.5 percent in this sector. This is the highest in the last decade. The revenue of this industry as a whole has reached 227 billion dollars. In coming future, Gujarat will also contribute its part.

The “Gujarat Biotechnology Policy 2022-27” has been formulated with a vision to create over 1.20 lakh new employment opportunities as the state government expects to attract capital investment of Rs 20,000 crore in the sector in coming year.

The policy’s objective is to make Gujarat competitive in the biotechnology sector and maximize benefits from it.

The policy offers financial assistance for technology acquisition, skill development, alternative energy production, quality certification and bandwidth leasing, feature which was not there in the previous policy, Gujarat Chief Minister has underlined.

On the other hand, Biotech policy looks to create about 1.2 lakh new employment opportunities, while attracting estimated investment of over ₹20,000 crore in the sector. Biotechnology has often been associated with the fields of bioengineering, biomedical engineering, molecular engineering, etc.For thousands of years, mankind has used biotechnology in agriculture, food production and medicine.After this new policy Gujarat will witness a boost in jobs related to these sub sectors of biotechnology.

By Minakshi Sharma