PANAJI: After several hiccups over the past 10 years, the Goa government looks set to revive the state’s only IT enterprise called IT Habitat. And, state IT minister Dayanand Narvekar is a man in a hurry.
First, Narvekar came out with an impressive IT policy. Till September 27, 2005, Goa didn’t have an official policy on IT and its IT department was headless. Narvekar now has an adviser and director (IT) M N Rao, who was former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s e-governance deputy director and e-seva director.
Next, he committed to complete the IT Habitat project at Panaji’s Dona Paula on the 2.5 lakh sq metre land earmarked two years ago. And to prevent the anticipated pressure on Panaji a la Bangalore, Narvekar intends to build a residential and commercial complex on the site.
“Actually 30% of it will be set aside for green space and for road widening, and of the roughly 1.6 lakh sq m left, 70% will be earmarked for IT plots, 30% for support systems. We will ensure that the people who come there, will stay there. A model of the Habitat will be ready for public display by January 31.” This is Narvekar’s answer to the burgeoning construction activity around Panaji and in Goa’s coastal areas.
“We are going to give start-ups two years to build their enterprises. If done in one year, they will get an extra 5% on the Rs 15,000 incentive offered to units per employee per year up to a maximum amount of Rs 75 lakh per year for a period of two years.” This is Goa’s response to growing unemployment, especially among the English speaking youth, and the reluctance of non-Goan firms operating here to groom local youth.
Narvekar said the government would only provide the basic infrastructure like roads, land, power, broadband connectivity and sewerage. The plot size that IT entrepreneurs can build on begins at one acre and goes up to 2-3 acres. “We are targeting second rung leaders, those who are good in BPOs and ITeS like call centres. They are the ones who generate the kind of jobs Goa wants.”
He told DNA Money, “We can’t bring in many industries because it just creates an influx of people from outside Goa and the resultant congestion. Goa has English speaking human resource - 1,200 Goan youth work in call centres outside the state, 400 are software engineers. Wipro has given me a list of 200 working for them outside Goa. I want to bring them home.”
According to Rao, the Habitat will have a public-private partnership model for broadband connectivity up to 1 gigabit. The successful bidder “will be given the right of way, that is, blanket permission for digging, laying cables, and will take away all revenues.”
Narvekar’s own constituency Socorro will also have an IT Knowledge Park. He said, “It will be a knowledge city. For example, it will have an animation industry that will be encouraged alongside IT. The project is expected to be completed in five years from now. We have begun the groundwork to acquire land for it.”
