Chief minister Nitish Kumar has reiterated his government's commitment to develop information technology sector in the state and called upon infotech companies to make Bihar their investment destination as the state has already identified land for making available to them.

"We are committed to taking Bihar ahead of Gurgaon, Hyderabad and other such places where IT sector has grown," Kumar said while addressing the state consultation workshop on "Citizen-centric e-governance", organized jointly by the state IT department, Union ministry of communication and information technology andNASSCOM on Thursday. He asked NASSCOM vice-president Rama Vedashree to utilize the event for motivating the participating IT technocrats and entrepreneurs to invest in Bihar.

In her address, Vedashree said Bihari brains in the IT sector and the huge pool of engineering talent abroad could be convinced to come to Bihar. NASSCOM is ready to organize round-table deliberations for the purpose, she said.

The CM assured "all facilities" for IT sector investments in the state which now boasts of excellent law and order situation. The state IT policy has already been released, he said and added investments in hardware technology are also welcome. Stating that e-governance is an important component of good governance, Nitish said any policy of the government has mandatory effect and enacting law is not necessary for the purpose. "We are trying to adopt the best practices in e-governance and skill development," he said.

Nitish said the treasuries in the state have been computerized and are getting and disseminating information online. More than 50 lakh people have so far benefited from the state's Right to Public Services Act for which online applications are being received from December 1. The government is making all efforts for establishment of technical institutions in the state, he said.

IT minister Shahid Ali Khan underlined the need for opening Vasudha centres in panchayats for which, he said, the services of competent local IT companies could be taken.

National e-governance department director Rajendra Kumar said stress was on reaching services to the common man smoothly and at affordable price. "Under the Mobile Governance Policy, a mobile service delivery gateway is to be linked to the state portal for providing 25 government services on demand made on mobile phones," he said and added millions of cellphone users across the country would be potential beneficiaries of the initiative.