Software Technology Parks of India

STPI facilitates technology startup ecosystem in country and promotes IT ecosystem on software products and services. STPI provides state-of-the-art infrastructure, skilling, mentoring, market connect and supports startups. Organisation facilitatesIndia's largest domain centric incubation ecosystem in country having 21 Center of excellence in Disruptive innovation and Emerging technologies like IoT, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine learning, Computer vision, Robotics, Robotic process automation, Augmented reality/Virtual reality, Animation& Visual effect, Data science & Analytics.

The exports clocked by STP-registered units stands at Rs 4.21 trillion in 2019-2020.[2][3] and it's estimated to have touched Rs 2.49 lakh crore in H1 FY21.[4][5]

The growth of STPI - Noida unit exporting IT/ITeS is 52,795 crores in FY 2019-20 which made Noida as the major IT hub of North India. STPI Noida registered unit's export have grown over 21 times from Rs. 2,450 crores in FY 1999-00.[6]

STPI registered unit's exports stand to Rs 4,21,103 crore in 2019-20 from Rs 52 crores in 1992-93.[7]

Domain centric centre of excellence is established in association with blue-chip companies and academic institutions. A Blockchain CoE is set-up in STPI incubation centre in Gurugram in year 2020.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]

• IoT OpenLab at Bengaluru
• Electropreneur Park at Bhubaneswar
• VARCoE at Bhubaneswar
• FinBlue at Chennai
• NEURON at Mohali
• MOTION at Pune
• IMAGE at Hyderabad
• Apiary at Gurugram
• MedTech CoE at Lucknow
• IoT in Agriculture CoE at Guwahati
• Animation CoE at Shillong
• Emerging Technologies – AR/VR CoE at Imphal

Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) is one of the flagship incubation scheme by STPI To build innovative technology products and solutions in an indigenous manner by offering comprehensive support & services to budding start-up ecosystem in India.

STPI envisaged under Digital India program launched the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS). this scheme seek to incentivize establishment of 48,300 seats in respect of BPO/ITES operations across India. STPI is the nodal agency of this scheme under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Director General STPI Omkar Rai has announced to launch 48,000 such seats across the country, with a target employment of 72,450 in the sector.[20][21] The government provides financial support of up to Rs 1 lakh per seat under two plans—India BPO Promotion Scheme and North East BPO Promotion Scheme. The Scheme is distributed among each State in proportion of State's population with an outlay of Rs. 493 Crore.

With nine jurisdictional directorates and 60 centres headed by Director general, STPI has its presence in pan-India to support IT/ITeS Industry.

STPI maintains internal engineering resources to provide consulting, training and implementation services. Services cover network design, system integration, installation, operations and maintenance of application networks and facilities in varied areas. The process development of STPI is in accordance to the Quality Management System, and adheres to ISO 9001 certification.[22] The STP Scheme provides various benefits to the registered units, including 100% foreign equity, tax incentives, duty-free import, duty-free indigenous procurement, CST reimbursement, DTA entitlement, and deemed exporting.

STP units exported software and information technology worth Rs. 215264 crore in FY 2010-11.[23] The state with the largest export contribution was Karnataka followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Telangana. STPI has a presence in many major cities of India including the cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Kanpur, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, Warangal, Gandhinagar, Kakinada, Lucknow, Pune, Surat, Tirupati, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.[24][25][26]

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

The tax benefits under the Income Tax Act Section 10A applicable to STP units has expired since March 2011. While the Government has chosen not to extend the Sec 10A benefits against the demand by the IT units, most of the STP registered SME units will be affected, and now will have to pay income tax on profits earned from exports.[27]

A new incentive scheme for IT and ITES companies is under discussion. It will help dispersal of IT industry in smaller cities and also support STPI-registered units which have not come under SEZs as well as other units which are not covered under any incentive scheme. This incentive scheme is seen as an alternate scheme to compensate the STPI units, but the same would be restricted to those units located in tier II and III cities.

The overall exports done by STPI registered IT/ITeS units increased from 2,73,313 crore in 2013-14 to 2,93,797 crore in 2014-15, an increase of 7.49%. The bifurcation of 2014-15 exports is as follows:

• Exports from units availing servicesunder STP scheme (under FTDR Act,1992) is Rs 2,84,384.10 crore.
• Exports from units availing only Softex attestation services is Rs 9,412.40 crore.

• Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India
• Map of software parks in India
• IT Industry in India