Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) will set up 28 centres of excellence (CoE) at a cost of Rs 400 crore to boost software exports.

According to STPI director general Omkar Rai, the CoEs would act as unique platforms to provide appropriate ecosystems and opportunities to budding entrepreneurs for launching innovative ventures.

The objective of creating the centres would be to transform India into a product nation from an IT services country.

The STPI has also chalked out strategies to raise the volume of exports by STP units from around Rs 4.16 lakh crore in 2018-19, by 12 to 14 per cent during the current fiscal, Rai said.

“Concrete steps have been taken to open the 28 CoEs in emerging technologies in different parts of the country in the next 18 months. Some of these centres are already in the process of being operational,” he said.

Noting that more than Rs 400 crore will be needed for these CoEs, Rai said, it is a collaborative venture as investments for the projects will flow from the concerned state governments, Union Electronics and IT Ministry, industries and the STPI’s own funds.

The CoEs are being set up in places such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Mohali, Hyderabad and Gurgaon.

More than half-a-dozen such centres will be opened in the north-eastern region, he said.

While establishing the CoEs, the focus will be on emerging technologies such as medical electronics, legal technologies, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and automotive electronics, he said.

“The National Software Product Policy 2019 also seeks to capitalise on the strength of our IT sector in order to make the country a software product nation and STPI has been encouraging, promoting and boosting the export of software,” he said.

Noting that the STPI has played a seminal role in India having earned a reputation as an IT superpower, Rai said the country’s IT services industry stands at $177 billion at present and exports amount to $136 billion.

More than 50 per cent of the software exports from the country, which was $4.16 lakh crore last fiscal, was contributed by STP units, he said and the aim is to increase it by 12-14 per cent during the current financial year.

Mentioning that the global software product industry stands at $511 billion, he said India’s share is only $8.1 billion. The objective, he said, is to increase India’s share to $80-90 billion by 2025 and the CoEs will play a major role in achieving the goal.

Besides regulating the STP scheme, STPI centres also provide a variety of services including high-speed data communication, incubation facilities, consultancy, network monitoring, data centres and data hosting. It also provides physical hosting for the National Internet Exchange of India.

Envisaged under the Digital India programme, the STPI launched the India BPO Promotion Scheme. This scheme seeks to incentivise the establishment of 48,300 seats in respect of BPO / ITES operations across the country.

Rai said the STPI has established a joint venture with the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association to set up an Electropreneur Park, which is aimed at supporting 50 startups working on electronics product designing and development.

The initiative is a subset of the government’s Make in India mission, aligned with entrepreneurial and innovation focus, he said.