Still reeling from the slowdown in tourism and mining, Goa’s two major industries, the State government is gradually moving towards Information Technology. The young Goan brigade has virtually forced the Goa government to think about the future of the State which will generate more white-collar jobs. This required the Goa government to work on developing a proper eco-system for the industry, which still needs a lot of improvement, but the course to achieve that seems to have been sorted out.
Bangaluru in Karnataka, which used to be a favourite with the IT companies in the country, is now threatened by states like Telangana and very recently Goa. Big IT companies are now sending delegations to these states to explore new possibilities. Goa has its advantages over others as cheaper manpower, better roads, lesser traffic snarls as compared to bigger cities, climate and overall international recognition appeal to IT companies.
Companies like Google, Lawa, Amazon etc are already in talks with the Goa government. The early bird gets the worm and obviously the first mover advantage for any company becomes a major advantage.
Recently, e-commerce company Amazon with their 7-member delegation, met with the Chief Minister of Goa and expressed their willingness to work in Goa and also include Goan items in their list of inventories for online sales. When asked by Herald about whether they will be opening their office in Goa, the Legal Director of Amazon Rakesh Bakshi said, “Yes, we shall be having a office in Goa by early next year.”
Member of the Investment Promotion Board (IPB) and past President of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Nitin Kunkolienker, who organised this meet with Amazon and the Chief Minister, told Herald, “The Chief Minister has given us clear direction and mandate to get investors in the State and we will support their entry. I am sure we will soon have big companies queuing up for Goa.”
Director of Goa IT Innovation Centre (GITIC), Jervis Pereira is of the opinion that, “MNC’s in the IT sector setting up base in Goa can find many advantages. The skilled workforce has a distinct advantage of being proficient with English as well as being comfortable with western culture. No other State has this unique advantage. An estimated 10-15,000 IT workforce spread across multiple states and countries with varying levels of experience too would benefits MNC’s setting up here greatly.”
Jervis also felt that considering large to mid-size companies coming to Goa would absorb human capital greatly, a symbiotic relationship with the established IT companies and start-ups should be explored. Level 2 vendors for MNC’s like Microsoft already exist and Level 3 and 4 vendors can also be sourced in Goa. Empanelling local IT firm will allow better community integration and benefit both.
“With the establishment of an IIT-Goa, NIT and BITS Pilani, Goa has created an ace for companies that setup here to find a highly talented pool to choose from. Research and project work for students can be explored for these companies. More job opportunities, business development and enhanced education can easily be a result of allowing MNC’s to setup,” said Mr Pereira.
Executive Member of Goa IT Professionals (GITP) and Technical Director of Digital Goa, Sangeeta Naik believes that GITP envisage Goa to be ‘The self-sustaining and eco-friendly IT-ITeS Innovation capital of India by 2024. To achieve this goal Goa needs to have the right mix of big, medium and small IT companies. All steps to populate the Goan IT ecosystem with big names in the industry are welcome.
“But we expect a serious followup in letter and spirit to convert these initial talks into actions in terms of the company setting shop in Goa in minimum lead time possible. In addition to quality employment generation product specific facilities and handholding for start-ups, training in State of art technologies will follow suite,” added Sangeeta Naik.
Building the right ecosystem can take the State forward to initiating a healthy reverse brain drain with Goan diaspora spreading across the globe coming back to their land. “From GITP end we have initiated building up of Goa Skills Registry (GSR). It is an attempt to bring together all Goan skillset available whether in Goa or elsewhere. Hundreds have registered already on GSR and the number is still counting,” added Ms Naik.
CEO and Co-Founder of Umang Software Technologies Mangirish Salelkar told Herald that, “We need big and small, foreign and local, product and service based IT companies to be in Goa. Of course, we have heard of commitments done by a lot of big companies in past and nothing materialized. However, I think they too require support and acceptance from the government and existing start-ups and companies. Building this IT ecosystem is very important for the growth and job creation in the state.
All the IT entrepreneurs within the State share a very good wavelength. And we very soon intend to form an association to showcase our strength and unity. This will in turn attract a lot of other national level IT oriented bodies like MAIT and Nasscom to have some focus on Goa. We also intend to have some strategies to build ‘industry ready’ technical resource pool within the state which in turn will attract big companies in Goa”.
CEO of Genorainfotec.com, Milind Prabhu feels that, “Our Chief Minister gave Amazon ample time and I expect that Amazon, alongwith their e-commerce business, can step in Goa in digital front too. Amazon can exploit their cloud services in Goa’s virgin market. We have already assured them of support from our side.”
The tech companies in Goa require guidance from cloud experts in order to understand and manage their application when scaling to a large user base. There is also a need of training to be provided on cloud platforms such as the Amazon AWS and its likes so that the companies are aware of the competitive advantages such services would render to them as well as reduce the learning time and also the time to market.
“The big companies could also partner with startups in Goa or look at using their services for their requirements as well as strategic funding from these giants in Goan start-ups will be great bonus,” added Pranav Kundaikar, CTO of Inventrom Private Limited.
