Charged by the Start-up India schemes announced by the Central government, three youth in their 20s - Ankur Kankonkar, Amey Gaonkar and Rhutuja Desai - recently kick-started their own start-up in IT sector and are already bagging orders
BHARATI PAWASKAR
Amid a wave of information technology in the country, many youth in Goa are opting for start-ups of their own than hunting for jobs that do not offer them many options.
IT is one field that offers them ample opportunities. With the wind beneath their wings, three batch mates -- Ankur Kankonkar, Amey Gaonkar and Rhutuja Desaihave -- joined hands to start Kapslock, a start-up that offers customized quality software to those who are working in personalized setups.
The trio seems eager to find a solution to their clients’ software requirements and reduce their manual work, efforts and time.
Ankur, who has post-graduated in Information Technology from Parvatibai Chowgule College, Margao in May 2019 says, “At the moment we got our hands in Web Application Icon, Web Application Development, Mobile Application Icon and Mobile Application Development.”
The trio passed out this year and also completed BSc in Information Technology together from the same college.
A visibly impaired Ankur shares, “After hunting for an appropriate job, but not finding a suitable package I could accept, I decided to go for a start-up. Having my own start-up was a long-cherished dream and I thought I should give it a try before I opt for a job.” So he roped in his friends Amey and Rhutuja to team up with him in Kapslock. Recalling how he had to change his track in academic studies after he lost his vision when he was in std XII, Ankur explains how he chose to learn computers and mastered in it with the support from his parents, friends and teachers, his instructor Mitendra Alve at Diksha Computer Education in Margao who went out of his way to guide him. Today, after successfully completing post-graduation in information technology, Ankur who is in his late twenties is finally the CEO and co-founder of his own start-up Kapslock.
Expressing his joy over the speedy mechanism of issuing cards to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) under the Central government’s Start-up India Scheme, Ankur shares that he got his MSME registration card within a single day after submitting Aadhar and PAN card, company details, employees, investment done and the fund requirements. “It was self-declaration and I did not have to go to anyone to ask for a favour to issue any kind of certificates. That’s the best part of it,” exclaims Ankur.
The job market is congested. There’s a lot of competition out there. There are so many graduates hunting for jobs with very few openings for really good opportunities. “In IT field, there’s a lot of competition but there’s still reasonable scope for the software development business. In Goa, there may be over 50 companies that undertake IT related assignments. In India, the number may be two lakh. But the contribution of IT industry to the GDP is 7 per cent, which is highest,” believes Ankur.
There is ample scope for job work as well as workforce. There is demand for skilled IT workers. Ankur and his team decided to take up software development, website creation, web application, mobile application in Android and IOS. “There are two types of websites - static and dynamic. We create both. Static remains the same while dynamic has to be updated on a daily basis. There are other emerging fields too, like artificial intelligence. We are also looking into it and may start dealing with it in the future,” shares Ankur.
Kapslock has already delivered some of their assignments to happy clients including a temple management software which helps to maintain their day to day activities using PHP - Laravel and also a static website for an interior designer. IT sector in Goa is growing rapidly in the past five-six years. The recent government bill (IT Act of 2018) has given it a boost and youth are encouraged to take up challenges in IT. The Central government too is all out to help youth who take up IT and go for start-ups.
