Ajit John
PANJIM: The draft IT policy was released a couple of months earlier and it evoked much comment amongst the people in the industry. There were several people who supported it and then there were those who felt it was a hastily drawn out document prepared without consultation. There was also a section of people who felt left out by the scope expressed in the document. Individuals interested in designing and manufacturing hardware were left out of the policy.
Of the six people Herald spoke to just one of the aspiring entrepreneurs was willing to come on record. Tirath Prasad Nagvekar, director Adec Embedded Technology and Solutions Pvt Ltd said it was a pity the government believed that IT policy meant software and apps. He said the Central government had taken an important decision in 2014 to talk about manufacturing in the IT sector as separate instead of the times when it was bundled with IT.
He said “Information and Technology or just Information Technology, which actually originated in 2000 was like Darwin’s theory of the human tail which was lost in evolution. The important word ‘and’ has been lost and it has changed the meaning completely.” Similar effort, he said is seen in the government of India’s, Digital India Mission that highlighted that Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) was an important sector. To ensure this was a success they created an Electronics Development Fund (EDF) which can be used by Angel and Venture capitalists to fund ESDMs and ESDCs (Electronic System Design Centres).
This he said seemed to have escaped the Goa government completely. The state government in its draft policy mentions ESDM in passing and recently also mentioned that the Tuem ESDM and Chimbel IT park would converge in 3 years and that would depend on it moving at its present pace.
Another IT professional said that other States were coming up with fantastic IT plans and Goa did not stand a chance. He said “This plan to converge Tuem ESDM and Chimbel IT park in three years makes no sense. State elections will be held before hat and if this government does not return to power then you can say goodbye to this policy. There is an absence of political will.”
He went on to say that instead of waiting for the ESDM to settle up at Tuem the government of Goa can actually setup the ESDCs in each industrial area and have two centralized manufacturing centres. It could work on the Low Volume High mix methodology which could help the ESDCs get their product manufactured at volumes meant for sale at a cheap rate. The government could go one step further by ensuring these ESDCs can help bridge the gap between education and the requirement of the industry. The students he said could visit these ESDC’s and work on work on industry required projects and possibly get placed if conditions were right.
Businessmen feel there is a huge scope in the state for electronics design and manufacturing of instruments and commercial products. He said “Most of the instruments used in these institutions are manufactured by companies like Aplab, Scientific, Scientec, SES Technologies and all but most commonly used multimeters are made in China. We have MECO and Motwane who conduct research and development in India for similar products.”
Nagvekar claimed that most of the research was conducted using instruments imported at heavy cost. He said “It could be made at one fifth the cost of what we pay now.”
Speaking to the Herald Shilpa Shinde, director of IT said the policy had all the features necessary to make the State attractive to prospective investors and emphasized that it was not biased against manufactures of electronic items. A point strenuously denied by people like TirathPrasad Nagvekar.
Another businessman who operates in the same space said the IT policy in the state was created without talking to the big operators present in the state like TCS so it was not surprising that people like Nagvekar were upset.
He said “The absence of a vision is most glaring. We need to generate jobs and when one creates a policy it has to be well thought out. Manufacturing of electronic items is very big business and small outlets can real spring up all over the place thus creating jobs but then the govt does not seem to be interested in listening to these people. I don’t see a great future ahead”.
