Goa was given a golden opportunity to make its mark in the IT world when the Rajiv Gandhi IT habitat was initiated. However, typical of the Governments style of mismanagement, the opportunity was turned into a farce. Three years since its inception, Goa is still lagging far behind neighbouring states in attracting an industry that suits it. Only a few countable number of IT companies have their presence in Goa. Every year our graduates leave their families behind to join companies in other Indian cities as they have limited well paying employment options in the state. Thousands of Goans have settled outside Goa, creating an intra-country brain drain.
How IT would benefit Goa?
It is completely wrong to assume that Goa does not have adequate local manpower for this industry. IT companies largely hire Computer Science and Electronics graduates besides engineers from all other streams. IT companies develop software for diverse industries, including telecom, biotech, pharma, auto, banking, media, finance, etc. Hence, in addition to software engineers, they hire graduates from these fields who may not perform active software development tasks but act as an interface with the clients and mostly work as business analysts or domain experts. They also need technical support teams to fix hardware problems. These system administrators are mostly with Polytechnic/Physics/Electrical background. Software testers are hired from popular training institutes like NIIT and Jetking. Arts grads are hired for tasks such as graphic design for creating the user interface for interactive websites. This specialty is nowadays in high demand. Staff is required to manage the company's accounts and human resource management. As you can see, IT unit need as many non-computer science grads as CS grads.
Several Goans are employed outside Goa and India. A sizeable percentage among them can be expected to have intentions to work from Goa but do not find the right well paying opportunity, or are reluctant to return out of fear that their jobs here might not be stable considering the previous failure of IT companies in Goa. An IT park in Goa would provide respectable jobs to grads of all above fields and improve the overall standard of living in the state. We will also be projected as more than a mere tourist destination.
What should an IT park be like?
The government has to act as a facilitator for companies to set up shop in the state. Companies could be well established giants like Wipro, Infosys or smaller companies that have plans to expand. Larger companies may buy or lease land in the IT park as they are capable of building their own facilities. However, smaller companies may not need an entire plot. They may need only a couple of floors in a building. They also need high speed internet, sustained electricity, security, etc. They cannot be expected to build their facilities on their own and hence can be expected to lease their office space from some real-estate developers. This concept is widely called 'plug-and-play' wherein a company is provided a readymade setup and they only have to come in and start their operations. The Government gives away plots to real estate companies as long as the companies allot the space only to IT-related companies. The developers may then advertise to attract IT cos to lease space in their buildings.
More important than allotting land, the government has to actively approach IT companies with business proposals to attract investments so that the space developed in the IT parks gets occupied for serious business. It is also the govt's responsibility to verify the credibility of the IT companies to ensure that they are genuine and that they can sustain their presence in the state. There could be peripheral activities in an IT park such as a food court, shopping mall, theatre etc. However, such facilities spring up based on demand. Certain portion of the land is reserved for these activities and the govt does not participate in them. Rather, the land is allotted to an entity that runs it on its own. The govt does not spend on its construction, does not issue tenders, and merely declares the land as available.
What is good about the current IT habitat?
The per square meter rate which is about Rs 6000 is much lower than the market value of Rs. 20 -30000. This in itself is attractive enough to encourage genuine real estate developers who will make tremendous profit once they allot to IT cos. The location of the habitat is perfect as it does not burden the city. Most of the IT hubs like Bangalore and Pune have come to a total entropic state as IT cos are situated in the centre of the city. Walking and breathing are difficult in these cities. The IT habitat is centrally located with good connectivity from the North and South Goa. Hence this project should certainly not be scrapped. Rather it needs to be corrected.
It is important to note that, though Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad have become the hubs of IT activity, this has come at the cost of these cities' way of life. There is congestion and pollution all around. The infrastructure is not able to handle an ever-increasing population. This is a result of indiscriminate industrialization and no regulations on the setting up of units. This can be controlled by allowing industry only as much as can absorb the local manpower. The mistakes made in these cities can be learnt from and the corrected with better management in Goa.
What is wrong with the current IT park?
A noted Goan software entrepreneur, in a press conference made startling revelations regarding mismanagement of the project. Land has been given away to companies that do not qualify, companies that do not exist, or companies that do not need it. The whole project has been turned into a fraudulent Sale of Goa's prime land. This sort of a fraud cannot happen without the blessings of the top state leaders in power.
Wipro was ready to invest in Goa when our political climate seemed stable. But after the great political fiasco of 2005, they backed off. The present situation is far from the tall claims made in 2006 regarding Goa being set to lead the IT world. At a time when not a single company had registered for the IT park, the IT minister raised a tender for the construction of a mall and residential apartments.
With a Government that handles such a magnificent project so badly, Goa cannot hope to make it big in a non-polluting, high-income industry. Goa has missed the IT bus in its boom time. We kept losing our educated youth kept inviting migrant construction workers. Yet all is not lost. The present industry trend is to move out of Tier 1 cities due to saturation. It would still be possible to invite this industry to the state sufficiently enough to absorb the local manpower and to strengthen the states economy. This is all possible if the Govt. can think beyond mere sale of land and gets serious about industries that are suitable for Goa.
How IT would benefit Goa?
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It is completely wrong to assume that Goa does not have adequate local manpower for this industry. IT companies largely hire Computer Science and Electronics graduates besides engineers from all other streams. IT companies develop software for diverse industries, including telecom, biotech, pharma, auto, banking, media, finance, etc. Hence, in addition to software engineers, they hire graduates from these fields who may not perform active software development tasks but act as an interface with the clients and mostly work as business analysts or domain experts. They also need technical support teams to fix hardware problems. These system administrators are mostly with Polytechnic/Physics/Electrical background. Software testers are hired from popular training institutes like NIIT and Jetking. Arts grads are hired for tasks such as graphic design for creating the user interface for interactive websites. This specialty is nowadays in high demand. Staff is required to manage the company's accounts and human resource management. As you can see, IT unit need as many non-computer science grads as CS grads.
Several Goans are employed outside Goa and India. A sizeable percentage among them can be expected to have intentions to work from Goa but do not find the right well paying opportunity, or are reluctant to return out of fear that their jobs here might not be stable considering the previous failure of IT companies in Goa. An IT park in Goa would provide respectable jobs to grads of all above fields and improve the overall standard of living in the state. We will also be projected as more than a mere tourist destination.
What should an IT park be like?
The government has to act as a facilitator for companies to set up shop in the state. Companies could be well established giants like Wipro, Infosys or smaller companies that have plans to expand. Larger companies may buy or lease land in the IT park as they are capable of building their own facilities. However, smaller companies may not need an entire plot. They may need only a couple of floors in a building. They also need high speed internet, sustained electricity, security, etc. They cannot be expected to build their facilities on their own and hence can be expected to lease their office space from some real-estate developers. This concept is widely called 'plug-and-play' wherein a company is provided a readymade setup and they only have to come in and start their operations. The Government gives away plots to real estate companies as long as the companies allot the space only to IT-related companies. The developers may then advertise to attract IT cos to lease space in their buildings.
More important than allotting land, the government has to actively approach IT companies with business proposals to attract investments so that the space developed in the IT parks gets occupied for serious business. It is also the govt's responsibility to verify the credibility of the IT companies to ensure that they are genuine and that they can sustain their presence in the state. There could be peripheral activities in an IT park such as a food court, shopping mall, theatre etc. However, such facilities spring up based on demand. Certain portion of the land is reserved for these activities and the govt does not participate in them. Rather, the land is allotted to an entity that runs it on its own. The govt does not spend on its construction, does not issue tenders, and merely declares the land as available.
What is good about the current IT habitat?
The per square meter rate which is about Rs 6000 is much lower than the market value of Rs. 20 -30000. This in itself is attractive enough to encourage genuine real estate developers who will make tremendous profit once they allot to IT cos. The location of the habitat is perfect as it does not burden the city. Most of the IT hubs like Bangalore and Pune have come to a total entropic state as IT cos are situated in the centre of the city. Walking and breathing are difficult in these cities. The IT habitat is centrally located with good connectivity from the North and South Goa. Hence this project should certainly not be scrapped. Rather it needs to be corrected.
It is important to note that, though Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad have become the hubs of IT activity, this has come at the cost of these cities' way of life. There is congestion and pollution all around. The infrastructure is not able to handle an ever-increasing population. This is a result of indiscriminate industrialization and no regulations on the setting up of units. This can be controlled by allowing industry only as much as can absorb the local manpower. The mistakes made in these cities can be learnt from and the corrected with better management in Goa.
What is wrong with the current IT park?
- There is no mandate by which a real-estate developer would be forced to allot office space only to IT companies. They may allot it to the highest bidder with the excuse that no IT company has shown interest.
- The Govt. has not mad any attempt to attract IT companies. There is no news of any proposal being made or followed up. This only indicates that the govt is not so much interested in IT as they are interested in giving away land.
- While the IT park may also house ITES, there is no clear definition of what qualifies as an ITES. "A business that relies on IT" may be a dictionary definition, but that stands true of a printing press, an architecture firm, a law firm, and even a bakery as long as they have a couple of computers.
- Some of the companies that are allotted land fail the criteria of a track record of 5 years. A company has been allotted land even before being registered in 2007. Another company is heavily in debt and shows no promise of sustaining itself.
- A large portion of the IT habitat land has been allocated as a residential zone with the reasoning that employees will occupy the space. However, there is no mandate for that the occupants of these zones would actually be IT employees. The project is advertised more as a real estate habitat than an IT habitat.
A noted Goan software entrepreneur, in a press conference made startling revelations regarding mismanagement of the project. Land has been given away to companies that do not qualify, companies that do not exist, or companies that do not need it. The whole project has been turned into a fraudulent Sale of Goa's prime land. This sort of a fraud cannot happen without the blessings of the top state leaders in power.
Wipro was ready to invest in Goa when our political climate seemed stable. But after the great political fiasco of 2005, they backed off. The present situation is far from the tall claims made in 2006 regarding Goa being set to lead the IT world. At a time when not a single company had registered for the IT park, the IT minister raised a tender for the construction of a mall and residential apartments.
With a Government that handles such a magnificent project so badly, Goa cannot hope to make it big in a non-polluting, high-income industry. Goa has missed the IT bus in its boom time. We kept losing our educated youth kept inviting migrant construction workers. Yet all is not lost. The present industry trend is to move out of Tier 1 cities due to saturation. It would still be possible to invite this industry to the state sufficiently enough to absorb the local manpower and to strengthen the states economy. This is all possible if the Govt. can think beyond mere sale of land and gets serious about industries that are suitable for Goa.
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1 Comment:
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Oct 3, 2011, 5:37:00 PM
This is the true picture of IT scenerio in Goa. Software Industry being pollution free industry, should be encouraged. Many Goan IT engineers leave goa for job. If we dont work on getting IT compnaies in Goa...most of the Goan Students will settle outside Goa. And to be frank then Goans state will be like "Vakhadak legit sapadchenat" !!
