Gujarat – October 28, 2022: Under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s Digital India mission & efforts to institutionalize the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Gujarat to Atmanirbhar Bharat’, has envisaged the creation of a conducive business ecosystem by formulating a robust policy framework and introducing enhanced incentive components, the Government of Gujarat has launched the Gujarat IT/ITeS Policy (2022-27).

Under the leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel, the Gujarat IT/ITeS Policy (2022-27) has accelerated digital innovation in the State and is now geared up to empower small and medium businesses to unlock the value of digitization and contribute incremental value to the State’s economy.

Furthermore, Hon’ble Minister for DST, Shri Jitubhai Vaghani’s constant focus on job creation and skill development gave rise to unique and enabling incentives such as the Employment Generation Incentive (EGI) and the Atmanirbhar Gujarat Sahay Yojana. The Policy also introduces an innovative concept of CAPEX-OPEX model for the first time in the Indian IT investment promotions policy landscape.

The Policy has generated massive traction across the IT industry landscape and investors have already started taking their first steps towards collaborating with the Government of Gujarat. In the first 7 months from the launch of the Policy, the Government of Gujarat has signed MoUs with 16 leading domestic and global IT companies, which will generate approximately 28750 high skilled IT employment opportunities. Such astounding results are a testament to the vision and commitment of Gujarat towards the development of IT/ITeS sector.

Lightstorm is currently building infrastructure for hyperscale networking of Clouds and Data Centers across  South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Lightstorm’s SmartNet, a utility-grade resilient fiber network, connects 50+ Data Centers in the country to accelerate the region’s growth and spur innovation in the digital economy. Lightstorm is a trusted partner of several Fortune 500 companies and is creating a robust foundation of digital infrastructure to create new sources of value and differentiation for businesses.

In terms of digital infrastructure being set up, Lightstorm intends to create the Submarine Cable Landing Station (CLS) and 2MW equivalent Data Centers (DCs) in Gujarat. The benefits expected from their investment for State of Gujarat include the following:

1. Enhancement of digital competitiveness with direct access to International Internet bandwidth and associated computing infrastructure.
2. Growth of other IT / ITeS, Data Center by third party post International submarine cable landing
3. Ultra low latency connectivity to GIFT City BFSI infrastructure – enhancing trading volumes through Stock Exchanges in GIFT city
4. Investment – Approx. INR 1000Cr into state by Lightstorm Telecom
5. Direct business to GETCO for approx. 100+ Cr over 15yrs IRU for Fiber optic segments
6. Job creation – Approx. 2000 new direct and indirect highly skilled jobs

In continuance to their commitment towards development of the IT/ITeS sector, Lightstorm has proposed to expand its operations by investing more than Rs. 1000 Crores in next 5 years to generate additional 2000+ IT jobs in the coming years, thus promulgating Gujarat as the next emerging IT hub.

In this regard, A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between CEO of Lightstorm, Mr. Amajit Gupta and Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Shri Vijay Nehra, IAS in the presence of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel on 28th October 2022 under the ambit of Gujarat IT/ITeS 2022-27 Policy to forge a strategic partnership and further the growth of IT ecosystem of Gujarat.

Details of an MoUs signed till date: