T’puram: The cabinet on Friday approved the Information Technology Policy 2026, hoping to position Kerala as a major knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy in the country.The policy aims to secure at least 10% of the country’s IT export share and to triple IT space availability in the state through private participation and decentralised growth. It proposes to create at least 5,00,000 new jobs in IT and allied sectors and increase the number of startups to 20,000. The govt also set a target of achieving a 5-10% share in high-technology segments of the Indian economy, including space, aerospace, defence, electronics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and genomics.
To strengthen infrastructure, the policy promises 100% internet access to all households through fibre-optic connectivity. A land pooling mechanism will be implemented to create more IT parks along with the expansion of plug-and-play workspaces to new urban centres. Incentives will be provided to promote data centres, and a critical infrastructure fund will be established to ensure the smooth functioning of IT parks and to address disruptions caused by natural disasters and pandemics. Labour laws will be simplified to support ease of doing business in IT and high-tech industries. The policy proposes a unified user interface to provide seamless access to all citizen-centric govt services through an enterprise architecture framework. An API-based mechanism will be introduced to end the practice of multiple govt departments separately collecting and maintaining citizen data. Information will instead be collected and maintained in a single system and shared with authorised departments and agencies in a regulated manner. Legal and institutional frameworks will be created to ensure the privacy of data.In the education sector, new ICT textbooks incorporating emerging technologies will be developed for classes I to X. The govt plans to provide specialised training to 25,00,000 students in emerging technology domains over the next five years. Centres of excellence will be established in areas such as AI, blockchain, data analytics and bioinformatics to build a strong skill base.
