Punjab Principal Secretary, Industry and Commerce, SS Channy today said that the state is committed to promote Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) amongst the small and medium sector in the region.

He asked the chambers of commerce and industries associations to provide a platform to the IT industry to interface with small and medium enterprises in order to share the advantages of ICT adoption for profitability and achieving global competitiveness.

He was speaking during a discussion held on 'Adoption of ICT for Growth of Clusters in the Region'.

Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, Punjab Infotech, said that Punjab and Chandigarh have great potential to be the Knowledge Hub of the country, and many initiatives are being taken to sensitise the micro, small and medium enterprises to adopt information technology to scale up their operations and achieve efficiency, as well as encourage new IT enterprises in the state.

Sandeep Hans, Director IT, Chandigarh Administration, reiterated that Chandigarh is on the forefront of ICT adoption and its eGovernance initiatives have been recognised at the national level.

Ajay Srivastava, Centre Head of STPI-Mohali, said that STPI has created an online helpdesk and online bandwidth usage monitoring facility for its units by using the expertise and capabilities of the IT companies in the region itself, who can help the MSMEs in adopting ICT.