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
No comments:
Post a Comment