Chennai, Oct 23 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday launched two initiatives in the IT sector aimed at monitoring projects and increasing interaction between the government and industry, a statement from the Chief Minister's office said.

He launched new web portal 'e-Munnetram' that provides the status of more than 200 infrastructure projects, costing around Rs 1 lakh crore, and the IT Nanban project. Both were developed by TN e-governance agency (TNeGA).

The statement said that the e-Munnetram project provides updates on the projects periodically and some details on a monthly basis, including date of agreement, start date, cost estimates, progress of the project on both financial and physical parameters on a monthly basis.

The location data and GIS layers as well as the photographs of the site would be provided periodically and allow the heads of departments to update the progress, the statement said.

The reasons for delay in the projects are also provided in the portal and the department heads will be able to even flag certain projects through the e-Munnetram portal.

The statement also said that the IT Nanban project provides all IT companies in Tamil Nadu a platform to interact with the state government and contribute to policymaking. Companies can assess all government orders, IT policies, and tenders issued by the IT Department, and will also be able to provide feedback on the latest policies of the government and flag issues that they are facing.

The IT Department will address the feedback and concerns raised by these IT companies.

It will also notify the companies periodically about all the latest news and the work done by the government. Details about emerging business opportunities will also be provided to these companies.

The official statement said that the exports from IT/ IT-enabled services (ITES) have been growing in Tamil Nadu at the rate of 10 per cent per year and that there was great potential to improve this further.

The Chief Minister also released two computing software with advanced features developed by the Tamil Virtual Academy.

According to an official statement, the Keezhadi-Thamizhinaiya keyboard will function with three types of keyboards - the Tamil' 99 Keyboard, Phonetic Keyboard, and Old Typewriter Keyboard.