Voices have been heard that Goa has missed the information technology (IT) bus by quite a bit. The new IT minister for Goa, Rohan Khaunte, however, does not agree with this theory. Within 100 days of his installation as a minister, he decided to tour the Mecca of IT hubs — Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
“If you have a will there will always be a way and when you have the way you need to push it ahead. People in Goa are looking forward to do something in the IT sector. Also, people are now looking at Goa as an IT destination. When we look at the alternate economy which can handle generation of employment, I think IT can pitch-in quite a lot and we have seen this happening in our neighbouring states and it is worthwhile taking a look at how the sector is developing there. It is not that we have missed the bus but we have to ensure that people are benefited in Goa by this sector,” said Mr Khaunte.
To take IT ahead in Goa and to understand the sector better, a visit was planned for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, recently. Hyderabad became an IT icon since Chandrababu Naidu as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh evolved the concept of IT as early as 1994. Several meetings and presentations were arranged for Goa’s IT minister. Basically the entire visit revolved around two aspects. (1) Ease of doing business and (2) How the two states are catering to different industries and profiling them.
“We had signed an agreement with Telangana in the past on knowledge sharing and based on this we took off and I met the IT minister of Telangana, K T Rama Rao which gave me a fair idea of how a future for Goa’s IT can be planned. Areas related to cyber crime, cyber security, e-governance model, expansion of big IT industries, generation of IT Parks, generation of jobs, animation industry etc was a big take away. We cannot be AP or Telangana and there is no competition but we can be Goa. We have limitation of land but we must generate maximum output with whatever limited resources we have,” added Mr Khaunte.
Goa now has to look whether they can accommodate and encourage animation, multimedia, 3D industry etc whichever is good for Goa, both in terms of environment protection and job creation. “We need to discuss with our Chief Minister and go ahead. Cyber crime is on the rise; hence, we have to be ready to ensure that we are safe. There are several things which we learnt there through various presentations and discussions,” added the minister.
In Andhra Pradesh, Mr Khaunte met with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh who is the IT minister of AP. As of now, Andhra Pradesh is re-building itself after the creation of Telangana. “From the fiber net point of view and usage of e-office, cabinet meetings, cyber security etc was a big take away for us. We have taken a huge shell. Both the states, AP and Telangana, have given us lots of inputs. We need an intervention from our Chief Minister to outline our priorities towards Goa’s IT development. Mr Parrikar has already said that the primary thing is to look at creation of jobs. Even if we take 50 per cent of what we have learnt, Goa will go a long way,” said Mr Rohan Khaunte.
Goa has already picked up lot of inputs from Telangana in their IT Policy which was launched on December 31, 2015.
Goa government plans to encourage skill development in IT so that the people can enter this sector. The government has already prepared its Start-Up Policy and is now refreshing the IT Policy. The priority is surely for Start Ups and it is expected to be launched with the schemes very soon.
