Kerala was now ideally placed for rapid development of IT sector, Fisheries minsiter, S Sarma, today said.

Stressing the need for having a common man friendly IT policy in the state, Sarma said the state needs an IT policy which would bring the welfare services of the governemnt to the common people. The IT sector needs to have an orientation towards the common man, the minister said in his inaugural address at the two day India ICT with the theme 'Changing Role of IT Industry- Partnering for Trnasformation'.

The IT industry in the state had registered a significant growth in exports during the last few years. The exports has grown to rs 2412 crore in 2009-10 from rs 141 crore in 2001-02, he said.

Infosys Technolgoies Managing Director and CEO, Kris Gopalakrishnan, suggested that Kerala should focus on developing Theme based IT parks, like products, entrepreneurs.

'If we can focus on a particular theme for each of the small IT parks, it can attract more entrepreneurs of that particular industry', he said.

There is need to provide supporting infrastructure for the IT professionals like schools, opportunities for their spouses, hosptials etc. There is need to think ahead and plan, he said.

Stressing the need to run entrepreneurship workshops, he said necessary services required to start companies should also be provided. This could accelerate the growth of IT industry, he said.

S Mahalingam, Executive Director and CFO of TCS, stressed the need to to assess the preparedness of the indsutry for the changing technological trends.

In his keynote address, Kerala Principal IT Secretary, Dr Ajay Kumar, said there is lot of interst in companies to develop training in and around the parks. 'We could also develop hub for data centres. This is a hgue opportunity to explore'.

The central government had placed a huge thrust on e-governance and this was a big opportunity for the IT industry which needs to be explored.

The state's contribution to the natioanl IT export basked has increased from one per cent to two per cent now. Small and medium IT industries have a major role to address the rural and domestic markets, he said.

G Vijayraghavan, Director Sun Tec, Business Solutions Private ltd, P Ganesh, Chairman CII Kerala, were among those who spoke.