Mysuru:  MP Pratap Simha on Saturday visited the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) at Hebbal industrial area in city and reviewed the progress of the STPI’s new building and   incubation centre.

Later speaking to press persons, Simha said that the STPI was established in the year 1991, as an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, with the objective of encouraging, promoting and boosting software exports from India.

Pointing out that the STPI has been established at five locations in Karnataka, with the main centre located in electronic city, Bengaluru and sub-centres at Mysuru, Hubballi, Mangaluru and Manipal, the MP said that STPI Mysuru was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998.

Continuing, the MP said that efforts are on to promote IT and ITES in Mysuru city and generate jobs for local talent. The launch of Wipro’s BPO operations here will be a turning point in the IT/ ITES space and this will pave the way for more companies in the future, he said.

Pointing out that Wipro is launching it under the India BPO promotion scheme, he said that the upcoming STPI building and incubation centre in the city will generate 600 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs and added that the built-up are of STPI building is 40,000 sq.ft. The building is coming up on 2.3 acres of land allotted by the State Government in 2008. The construction started in October 2016 at a cost of Rs.24 crore.

Referring to Dasara festivities, Pratap Simha urged the Government to invite Saraswathi Samman awardee writer Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa for the inauguration.

Highlighting the importance of inviting Dr. Bhyrappa, the MP said that the invite will also be a honour to the Kannada literary world, with Dr. Bhyrappa making enormous contributions. Noting that Dr. Bhyrappa is a native of Hassan district, the MP said that he will write to CM H.D. Kumaraswamy, who also hails from Hassan, on inviting the veteran writer for Dasara inauguration.

Urging the State Govt. to reduce entry tax for tourist vehicles during Dasara season, he reminded CM H.D. Kumaraswamy that B.S. Yeddyurappa as the CM earlier, based on a representation by the then Hotel Owners Association President M. Rajendra, had withdrawn the entry tax on tourist vehicles, which resulted in a considerable increase of tourist inflow into the city.

STPI Mysuru Additional Director Jayaprakash, State BJP Secretary M. Rajendra, CPWD EE Sanjay Kumar, AE Sudhir Babu and others were present.