Monday 15 June 2015

Suggestions on Goa's Information Technology Investment Policy 2015 Draft


I appreciate the efforts coming from Department of Information Technology – Goa. Happy to see things moving in right direction may be better late than never.

11) Identification of multiple sites spread across the state at this planning stage.
As the draft very rightly highlights the two sites identified by the Government to set up IT hubs I feel we should be careful enough to select some more sites with less area may be to avoid congestion and overloading of all the facilities provided for the local. We have seen this happening in the Cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad.  For this reason we should mark the available and suitable places in different parts of Goa. The common problem in such set ups is once the IT/BPO office is operational, it attracts huge number of employees working from these office which will need accommodation, education, health, entertainment, shopping and transport facilities. Lets say if we have one set up in Chimbel we should think about the current facilities available in Panjim City and restrict the number of employees in the Chimbel set up. We can think about one in the vicinity of Ponda another in and around Margao or in Qupem, Valpoi etc..  One may say, Why we should be identifying and marking spaces right now? We can think about it later. No, I feel it has to be done now and mentioned in the IT policy so that the investors get a good feel about future prospects.  We all know it is difficult to get large area of suitable land to acquire at one site hence we should think about marking Government lands at different locations but with smaller areas which are more easy to spot. Making provision of Power, Water, Roads, internet connectivity, etc is not a big challenge today if we are thinking of having multiple sites rather becomes easier to manage since the requirement becomes  less in volume.

22)      Provision to attract Investors to accommodate multiple small scale IT setups in  one Complex.
Here I want to stress upon a set up where let’s say one Big investor will put his money to take the land on lease and construct a building with an option to lease out the office space to small scale companies or may be upcoming entrepreneurs from or outside Goa. It becomes Investors choice then to let out his office space basis of number of seats or carpet area leased out. Here the Government of Goa can itself become one of the investor to come up with a complex just like Goa Information Technology Innovation Centre (GITIC) at Verna Industrial estate, set up by the department of industries, trade and commerce, with the help of Goa chamber of commerce and industry (GCCI), functions as incubation centre tol assist the young entrepreneurs in venturing into the IT industry.  This kind of set up should work along with the other big giants having their presence in Goa and with the overall IT industry picking up good pace in Goa.  We have many such examples in Hitech city Hyderabad. The advantage in such set up is that, those companies who do not have budget or may be who do not want to take risk to invest can start their business by hiring space in the IT complex built by someone else. Such complex normally had common canteen facilities, meeting/seminar halls, security services,etc. Such sharing kind of working style brings down the operations cost for the small scale companies. This is the best way to give a helping hand to the Goan young generation to become entrepreneurs. Govenment should then think about the subsidies and the best way to help the Goan Entrepreneurs who wish to make use of such premises.

33)      Need to strengthen Goan IT professionals network with DOIT as the connecting point.
With the IT policy draft, along with the higher ups trying to convince the company heads to invest in Goa, I see a very high potential with the Goan IT professionals  over the period of last 25 years of time who have settled outside Goa and abroad with Multinational companies. “Lets get them back to Goa” which I feel is their long time wish as well which will drive them to convince the company heads to look in to the opportunities.

From:
Gopikant Shirodkar
www.goitway.com


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