Govt. sets up nanotechnology task group

CHENNAI Sept. 19. The State Government has set up a Nanotechnology Task Group to planfor "reaping the benefits of this emerging technology'', the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, announced here today.

"Tamil Nadu has achieved one more distinction, in that the first-ever global conference on Nanocomputing was held at Thanjavur in December 2001, which attracted a large number of researchers globally,'' she said.

Inaugurating the Connect 2002 international conference and exhibition devoted to Information Technology, Communication Technologies and Bioinformatics, second in the annual series being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry-Southern Region (CII-SR) and the State Government, the Chief Minister said the "giant strides'' made by the event within one year in terms of the number of exhibitors and participants were the result of the ``proactive policy and sustained efforts of my the Government in promoting, branding and establishing Tamil Nadu as the most preferred destination for IT-related activities in the entire country,'' though growth in IT was ``nothing new to Tamil Nadu''.

Citing the acceleration in software exports from Rs. 3,116 crores in 2000-01 to Rs. 5,223 crores in 2001-02 (plus 68 per cent), despite the global downturn in the IT industry, Ms. Jayalalithaa said players in the IT field realised that "investments in Tamil Nadu are not a cost reduction exercise, but a value adding proposition''.

The Chief Minister, who released the new IT Policy, said the foundations of policy formulation in her Government "rest on three solid pillars: discussion, debate and analysis''. The draft policy was tabled at the Tamil Nadu IT Council meeting, chaired by her on August 22, and "discussed threadbare'' with software and hardware associations, academics and professionals, besides infrastructure agencies and service providers. Several improvements were made in the draft.

Tamil Nadu, with its "strong pool'' of accounting professionals, whose skills were renowned worldwide, "is the ideal destination for locating business process outsourcing for banking, financial services and insurance sectors'', as testified to by the back offices established in Chennai by the World Bank, ABN Amro Bank and Standard C hartered Bank.

The Chairman of CII-Tamil Nadu council, P.K.Mohapatra, said given Tamil Nadu's manyfaceted strengths, it was not surprising that Chennai had emerged as the "health care capital and retail capital of India'' and "Detroit of Asia" and that Madurai hosted the world's largest eye hospital, or that manufacturing companies in the State were pioneers in winning the Deming Award for quality.

T.Kannan, Chairman, CII-SR, said manufacturing industries in the State were "struggling to stay ahead in the competition'' in the wake of high-power costs and inflexible labour laws and called for a "manufacturing policy'' aimed at strengthening existing industries as distinct from an industrial policy aimed at attracting new investments.

The immediate past chairman of CII-SR, S.Mahalingam, said the CII would work with the Government for promoting knowledge townships.