the goan I network
PANAJI
Going by the ‘better late than never’ maxim the Goa government on Wednesday approved its Information Technology Policy in a bid to cash in on the technology revolution, nearly two decades after the State first made such an attempt in the year 2000.
Information Technology Minister Rohan Khaunte announced that the policy, approved at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, proposes developing a Technology Park with ready to move in ‘warm shells’, plug-and-play facilities and incubation centres with training facilities for existing as well as new IT companies.
Khaunte said the policy, which will be unveiled on July 15 in the presence of Union Law and IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has the potential of creating up to 10,000 jobs. The policy also has a provision to give incentives to recruit Goan freshers from local technical institutes and for recruitment through on-campus placements, he added.
Prasad will unveil the IT policy at the culmination of a two-day high octane event ‘Goa IT Day’ which will be held at the INOX courtyard in Panaji where over a thousand stakeholders from the IT field including industry, corporates and students besides the government will celebrate the “spirit of IT”, innovations and skilling, according to Khaunte.
The vision of the policy is to make Goa a powerhouse in technology innovation aimed at continuous job creation as well as economic growth, Khaunte said.
Goa has been attempting, albeit unsuccessfully, to board the IT revolution bus since 2000, when Manohar Parrikar first took over as Chief Minister, had formed the State IT Council with big names such as Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy and India’s ‘Patent Man’ Dr Raghunath Mashelkar. The foray never took off.
Attempts of subsequent Congress governments to trigger Goa’s own IT success story also ended up in failure. The decision to set up a big-ticket IT park at Dona Paula got scrapped because of allegations that it was in effect a real-estate scam in the garb of promoting IT industry.
POLICY UNVEILING
On July 15
AT INOX COURTYARD
Union Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will unveil the policy at the culmination of a two-day high octane event ‘Goa IT Day’
POLICY PROPOSALS
Developing a Technology Park with ready to move in ‘warm shells’
Plug-and-play facilities and incubation centres
Training facilities for existing as well as new IT companies
POLICY PROVISION
Give incentives to recruit Goan freshers from local technical institutes
Recruitment through on-campus placements
POLICY POTENTIAL
Creating up to 10,000 jobs
