Propelled by the thrust of the Information Technology Policy announced in the year 2002 by the Government of Tamil Nadu and building on the foundation of world class infrastructure and human resource, Tamil Nadu continues to remain one of the best Information Technology destinations in India. Continuing on its trajectory of high growth in IT exports with less than Rs.2000 crores before 2001, Tamil Nadu touched Rs.8000 crores in the year 2003-04 and is expected to cross Rs.10,000 crores in the year 2004-05.

Maintaining a double digit growth the Information Technology sector today provides employment to nearly 100,000 IT professionals. All these are not easy tasks and under the able and dynamic leadership of the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu the Information Technology Department through Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT) has been able to position Chennai and Tamil Nadu as the most preferred Destination of Choice for IT investments.

The Hon’ble Chief Minister in an interview to the Wall Street Journal has stated that "Tamil Nadu is clearly India’s Eastern Gateway to the World - not just South Asia". The perception of Chennai has changed and is meeting the reality and so both NASSCOM and Gartner Inc., a world renowned IT Consulting Company, have predicted that Chennai would be one of the top favored destinations for IT Outsourcing by 2010 in India.

There are close linkages and synergistic relationship between Infrastructure and Investment. Infrastructures can be classified into three categories-

The Government of Tamil Nadu through ELCOT has taken numerous initiatives to develop quality IT Parks in private sector. The fast track clearance system for IT Parks / IT Multi Storied Buildings for building approval was cleared in order to speed up the process. In the year 2004, more than 40 IT Parks in the private sector in Chennai have been cleared totaling an area of 8.5 million sq.ft. Out of this 1 million sq.ft. is already built and occupied. About 6 million sq.ft. is expected to be ready by 2005. These quality parks are already home to huge multinational IT Companies like Philips, 24/7 Customer care, Accenture etc. and are expected to create an employment potential of more than 50,000 persons in the year 2005-06 alone. NASSCOM also opened up their Chennai office during October 2004.

Tamil Nadu is home to 250+ Engineering Colleges and more than 300 Arts, Science and Commerce colleges. It makes Tamil Nadu not only the source of various knowledge professionals across India, but also the intellectual capital in the Country. Tamil Nadu is creating a silent revolution in creating the needed talent pool for the requirements of IT / ITES / Hardware industries. The requirement of ITES industries has been met both by Engineering graduates and also students from the Arts, Science, Law, Medical and Commerce streams.

One of the key areas, which have been addressed recently, is to increase the quality of human resources so as to enhance the "employability" for the ITES industry through a series of HR initiatives. The ELCOT model ITES Certificate Course created in public private partnership with 5 leading universities in the State and 7 ITES industries from the State is for training for typical job requirements of the ITES Industry. In a massive "Training the Trainers" program by ELCOT, nearly 250 professors and teachers from Arts, Science and Commerce disciplines from 20+ districts in the State have been sensitized on the requirement of Personnel for the ITES industry.

Career Fairs were organised in Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Dr. MGR Educational & Research Institute, Chennai and SASTRA Campus, Kumbakonam and have been planned in all leading Universities. Through all these initiatives, nearly 50,000 students have been exposed and several thousands more will get an insight into the career opportunities in the ITES sector.

Proof of the Intellectual Infrastructure of Tamil Nadu is that out of 21 Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council - Centre of Relevance in Excellence (TIFAC-CORE) of Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, 9 are located in the State. These TIFAC-COREs are in various areas including IT, Pharmaceuticals, Industrial design etc. Specifically and interestingly out of the 6 TIFAC-COREs in the area of IT, 5 are located in Tamil Nadu. Thus Tamil Nadu continues to lead and fulfill the intellectual needs of the State and the Country.

The Government through ELCOT has participated in number of National events like CONNECT 2004 at Chennai, Outsourcing Summit 2003 at Bangalore, Bangalore IT.COM at Bangalore, India International Trade Fair and ASSOCHAM Conference at New Delhi, Pravashi Bharatiya Divas and NASSCOM 2005 at Mumbai and International events like International ICT Expo 2004 at Hong Kong, International Exposition on Government Innovation at Seoul, Korea, GITEX 2004 at Dubai.

As is evident Tamil Nadu with world-class strength and availability of physical, educational and intellectual infrastructure has been able to capitalise and translate these into strategic investment plans and so the following companies have recently started their large scale IT operations in Chennai.

i. Philips

ii. Accenture

iii. iGate

iv. KLA-Tencor

v. Kanby Software

vi. Syntel

vii. GECIS

viii. Virtusa

ix. Siemens

x. Alcatel

xi. 24/7 Customer Care

Not resting with these success in Chennai as IT Destination, the Government of Tamil Nadu have also identified Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and Hosur as Tier II cities for promotion as IT investment destinations. Certain lands have been identified in Coimbatore to promote an Information Technology Park there. Major promotion through "Coimbatore IT.COM" was organised in Coimbatore during 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry to promote Coimbatore as an IT destination. Efforts will be made to set up Information Technology Parks of International Standards through the Public Private Partnership route for the promotion of other Tier II locations such as Trichy, Madurai and Hosur.

The spread of human resources and availability of Physical, Educational and Intellectual infrastructures in centres like Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai and other Tier II cities and the sustained efforts of the Government of Tamil Nadu to take the IT/ITES industries to these locations for career fairs will enable the ITES industries to move to the Tier II cities in a couple of years for value addition in their operations.

Categorized in the highest bracket of "leader", providing Good Governance and its delivery electronically e-Governance-continues to remain an area of focused attention by the Government of Tamil Nadu. At the 7th National e-Governance Conference, the e-Governance initiatives of the Government of Tamil Nadu won seven National Awards. To further strengthen the infrastructure for effective delivery of e-governance, a Directorate of e-Governance will be formed shortly. The proposed Directorate will formulate the vision, blueprint and strategy for achieving the e-Governance objectives as stated in the IT Policy and will drive the e-Governance initiatives in the State.

Maintaining a strong economic relationship that exists between investment and infrastructure the Government of Tamil Nadu is establishing Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) which will be a back bone network for Government applications of data, voice, video and internet. The Information Technology Department is also working on the preparation of vision document to provide broad band connectivity to promote areas of Tamil Nadu so as to bridge the digital divide and be able to deliver Government initiatives to rural areas also in a transparent, effective and fast manner.

As part of its committed thrust to promote Tamil and also to provide knowledge about Tamil culture in books and linguistics trends , the Tamil Virtual University established by the Government of Tamil Nadu as a Society is unique and continues to provide internet based educational resources and opportunities for the Tamil communities living in different part of the globe as well as others interested in learning Tamil and acquiring knowledge of the history, art, literature and culture of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Virtual University offers Certificate courses in three levels-Basic, Intermediate and Advance- and B.A. Programme in Tamil. So far nearly 10.27 lakhs persons have visited the Tamil Virtual University Website. 1456 students from 58 countries have registered for the Certificate Programme and 1516 students for the B.A. Tamil Degree. Tamil Virtual University has 12 Coordinating centres in 8 countries.

Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited (ELCOT) was incorporated in 1977 as a wholly owned enterprise of the Government of Tamil Nadu. In the recent past, in tune with Government Policies, ELCOT is acting as a ‘Channel of Connectivity’ between Government, Industry and Institutions to position Tamil Nadu as a Destination of Choice for IT investments. ELCOT has further strengthened linkages with IT and ITES industries and with the leading institutions in the State by collaborating with industries and institutions to bring in the needed high quality Human Resources for both IT sector as well as IT Enabled sector. A unique partnership drive by ELCOT has enabled number of ITES industries to be part of the Career Fairs organized in Universities at Coimbatore, Vellore and Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu. In 2005 March ELCOT is completing 28 years of service to Tamil Nadu and is fully geared for many more years of service.

ELCOT has re-engineered into four distinct entities in the last years as follows:

A. IT Promotional and Developmental Initiatives

B. Project Implementation Division

C.Tamil Nadu e-Governance Mission

D. IT Procurement and Services

Due to the sustained efforts of the developmental activities by ELCOT, Chennai has emerged as a preferred IT destination for the consolidation and expansion of 1 Billion + IT Indian Multi National Companies. The efforts include handholding enterprises like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Polaris along the erstwhile Old Mahabalipuram Road. ELCOT has taken a pioneering role in identifying 220+ acres of land at Siruseri as well as 300+ acres of land at Sholinganallur about 10 years back and positioned the IT Services activities along the old Mahabalipuram Road. Presently, the Old Mahabalipuram Road is termed as IT Corridor with Government announcing to make a 10 lane IT High Way. ELCOT’s efforts in creation of IT Parks by private builders have ensured nearly about 20+ IT Parks coming up along this IT corridor. By this ELCOT would have created an employment opportunity for nearly 75,000 professionals in the IT corridor and nearly about 2 lakhs job opportunities as support services.

In the year 2004-05, ELCOT has showcased Chennai and Tamil Nadu as Destination of Choice for investments in number of fairs and events as given below:

1. Gitex 2004 at Dubai

2. International ICT Expo 2004 at Hongkong

3. International Exposition on Government Innovation and e-Gov.at Seoul, Korea

4. Assocham – World Bank 2^nd National Summit & Exhibition – India-The Knowledge Capital and

5. India International Trade Fair 2004 at New Delhi

6. Pravasi Bharathia Divas and

7. NASSCOM 2005-India leadership Forum at Mumbai

8. Connect 2004 at Chennai

9. Coimbatore IT.com 2004 at Coimbatore

A new initiative has been undertaken by ELCOT to create an ELCOT Model ITES Certificate Course by involving five universities and 7 ITES companies. 45 Professors have been trained for 60 hours period in 7 industries in Chennai. Nearly 250 professors from Arts and Science Colleges all across the state have been sensitized on the opportunities. For the first time, campus career fairs were conducted in Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, SASTRA, Kumbakonam, MGR Educational & Research Institute, Maduravoil and Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore with the help and support of 7 participating industries. This has created awareness to tens of thousands of students on opportunities in ITES. The industry institution interaction of ELCOT in showcasing the opportunities in ITES industries in the remote regions of Tamil Nadu in the long run will pave the way for the ITES industries to move towards Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and other Tier II cities.

For Development of Space Infrastructure for IT related activities, ELCOT proposed to undertake projects like Knowledge Industry Township (KITs) at Sholinganallur near Chennai, Coimbatore IT Park at Coimbatore.

As per the Government approval, the preparation and issue of Laminated Computerized Driving License was entrusted to ELCOT by the Transport Commissioner in all the 86 centres in the State.

Cooperation, Food and Consumer Protection Department have entrusted the work to supply 37,48,810 fresh Family Cards to ELCOT. The work was completed successfully within the record time. Now, orders have been issued from the Department for Phase-II to supply 152 lakhs family cards to replace the old cards.

Computer Education in Government Higher Secondary Schools and Colleges:

Government have entrusted the work of implementation of Computer Education Project in 1197 Government Higher Secondary and Corporation Schools. The Government have also entrusted the implementation of computer Education in 60 Government Arts, Science Colleges, 5 Law Colleges and 12 Medical Colleges to ELCOT.

The Government have entrusted the project of computerization of Registration Department in 325 District Sub Registration offices by outsourcing.

In addition various other schemes like computerization, facility management, Data entry and training are handled by the Project Implementation Division.

C. Tamil Nadu e-Governance Mission

e-Governance Cell with the name "TN e-Gov Mission" has been established in ELCOT to support the e-Gov policy and strategies in accordance with the requirements of the Government aligning with the general policies of the Government.

The e-Governance Mission is spearheading the implementation of e-Governance activities in the State in line with the National e-Governance Action Plan (NeGAP) by proposing to create a e-Governance Directorate under Information Technology Department and to appoint a Tamil Nadu e-Governance Consultant to prepare the Big Picture on e-Governance initiative in the State.

As part of National e-Governance Action Plan (NeGAP) the three pillars of Infrastructure, viz.

1. Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN)

2. State Data Centre

3. Common Service Centres (CSCs) like EDS / RASI Centres are being pursued for implementation

ELCOT is undertaking on behalf of the Information Technology Department, the implementation of Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) to provide backbone connectivity utilizing the 2 Mbps free bandwidth provided by the Public/Private Communication Providers (PCPs) linking State Headquarters at Chennai with all the 30 District Headquarters as well as linking Districts Headquarters to the Divisional Headquarters, Taluk Headquarters and Block Headquarters. Utilising the support provided by the Central Government, activities for Capacity Building in e-Governance are also proposed.

The Division is acting as procurement agency for IT products to Government Department and Public Sector Undertakings. During the year 2003-04, the Division procured IT products for a value of Rs.3257.00 lakhs. The Division has also established a Call Centre at ELCOT for attending to the customer complaints on hardware and software related problems. In addition to this, based on expertise gained, the Division has also established a Call-Centre for TNEB relating to fuse off call complaints and breakdown maintenance.

The Government of Tamil Nadu has established Tamil Virtual University (TVU) as a Society, a unique and first of its kind in India, for Providing internet based educational resources and opportunities for the Tamil Communities living in different part of the globe as well as others interested in learning Tamil and acquiring knowledge of the history, art, literature and culture of the Tamils. TVU offers Certificate Courses in three levels (Basic, Intermediate and Advance) and B.A. Programme in Tamil. So far, nearly 10.27 lakhs persons have visited the TVU website. About 1456 students from 58 countries have registered for the Certificate Programme and 1516 students for the B.A.Tamil Degree. TVU has 12 Coordinating Centres in 8 Countries.

The Teaching/Learning methodology adopted for the Academic Programme is E-learning through Internet based lessons with multimedia support. To further strengthen and augment TVU’s web based Virtual Education Programme, a state of the art E-learning methodology through Virtual Class Room, video conferencing equipments along with a streaming server and high speed internet connectivity are being established in TVU.

TVU has signed MOU to open three more Study Centres, one each in Germany, Switzerland and Reunion, to be coordinated by Tamil Heritage Foundation, Indian Association and Tamil Cultural Centre respectively, in addition to the already established nine in USA, Srilanka, Malaysia, Mauritius and Canada. It is planned to establish three more Study Centers during this year and extend the Study Centers throughout the globe.

The web based academic programme, inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, in June 2002 has successfully evolved and flourished, and moved forward. Today it has reached the level of conducting Examination for the Certificate and Degree programmes in Tamil, through the various Study Centers of TVU located in different countries. 78 students from California, USA, 2 from New York, USA, and 18 from Mauritius have successfully completed the Level-1 another 31 students from California, USA have completed the Level-2 Courses of the Certificate Programme. Further, a good number of them have registered for the Level – 1 and Level-2 courses from USA.

The B.A. (Tamilology) Degree Programme is offered under a 3 stage modular scheme comprising Diploma, Advanced Diploma, and Degree courses. All lessons for the Diploma course have been already put on the web and examinations were conducted in August / November 2004. 22 students from Sri Lanka have successfully completed their Diploma Level Courses. Another set of about 45 students have taken the Diploma Exams in February 2005. The development of the web based lessons for the Advanced Diploma are nearing completion and will be launched in a couple of months.

Tamil Virtual University is planning to launch the Post Graduate Programme of MA.(Tamil) during the academic year 2005 - 2006.

Tamil Virtual University has signed a Memorandum of Collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Open University for sharing their education resources for the students of TVU on 11^th March 2004. Their resources will be used from the next academic year onwards.

Digital Library

Digital Library of TVU, established on its website, comprises of a rich collection of Tamil Literature and also provides a view window into the culture, history and heritage of Tamils. The literature content includes a large number of Tamil books on

A total of 80,000 pages are on the web and another 7,348 pages are under web enabling and are at the verge of completion. During this year another 25,000 pages will be added.

Government of Tamil Nadu has shown sustained interest in promotional activities for the Tamil Software Development and has provided necessary funds. Providing Grant – in – aid under the Tamil Software Development Fund, a number of Tamil Computing Software packages have been developed.

Hon’ble Chief Minister released the Tamil OCR during June 2002 and Machine Aided English-Tamil Translation Software in August 2003. Development of 5 more Tamil Software Packages has been completed now. Four New Development Projects are now identified and are allotted funds for development. They are :

Government will further promote the Tamil Software development as R&D efforts for the growth of Tamil computing and Tamil IT.

To promote Tamil computing and to facilitate smooth data exchange among files and programs, Government of Tamil Nadu has standardized the Tamil99 and Typewriter keyboards for data entry and TAB and TAM encoding for Tamil letters. TVU is the Testing and Certifying Agency for the Tamil software suites for the compliance with the standard. Eight Software Packages have already been certified. An office suite software and a printer are now undergoing testing for certification. This kind of certification will help standardization and development of interface tools in Tamil.

With the increased use and spread of Tamil computing and Tamil IT, quite often, it is necessary to store the Tamil text (data) in a sorted order so that the search mechanism can locate it with ease. For this sorted data to be exchanged across Computer programs and files, the sorting order followed by all should be same and conform to a standard. Tamil Virtual University after detailed deliberations have recommended a comprehensive sorting orders for the Tamil text.