Goa has logged in with IT Startup Policy throwing in grants, subsidies and incentives. It envisages creating 100 startups in the next five years. Among the goodies announced are a one-time grant of Rs 10 lakh and one-time 10-lakh loan to a marketable product. The good news for locals is a reimbursement of up to 50 per cent of the salary for any startup hiring locals. All looks good on paper.
Goa's tryst with Information Technology started in 2005 when it floated the IT Policy only to de-notify it two years later. Then came the ambitious Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat plan which was inaugurated in 2006 but work on it was stopped in December 2007, due to violent protests that caused extensive damage to the project infrastructure. In 2012 the BJP government scrapped the IT habitat project and Goa was back to square one on the IT front. Enter Laxmikant Parsekar and the BJP government made another ambitious start launching the Goa IT Investment Policy 2015-20.
Across a time frame of five years, the IT Investment Policy aimed at developing Goa as an IT hub with 200 startups. The draft was notified, but not the schemes and no financial provision was made. Nothing moved since then. There were 84 startups which were registered to begin business. The government only managed to acquire land at Tuem for an Electronic City and at Chimbel for an IT Park.
Now comes the IT Startup Policy, even when a similar policy under a different name called Goa IT Investment Policy is already in cold storage. The government should first come clear with the status of Goa IT Investment Policy and also the IT Park, where the real estate lobby has set their sights. Is this going to be an old wine in a new bottle? Or is the new IT Minister Rohan Kaunte just desperate to take pride in the fact that he has launched another IT blueprint.
Goa has been way behind on the IT front despite moving in that direction in 2005. Our government itself is leading by example with websites and online services falling far behind in comparison to other states like Maharashtra. In a generation where the online world has taken centre stage, our aam aadmi is still struggling to pay his water and power bills by standing in serpentine queues. It's an irony when the government talks big about IT but chooses to send Xerox copies of its Startup policy to the press instead of soft copies.
The IT Startup project looks like a long drawn plan. For now there is no financial provision made, the IT Promotion Cell has to be set up, IT Incubators have to take shape, and there is huge requirement of infrastructure to start off the plan. What remains to be seen is how seriously the government pursues this plan. Till then there would be doubts if this policy would go the way the Goa IT Investment Policy has gone.
Goa's tryst with Information Technology started in 2005 when it floated the IT Policy only to de-notify it two years later. Then came the ambitious Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat plan which was inaugurated in 2006 but work on it was stopped in December 2007, due to violent protests that caused extensive damage to the project infrastructure. In 2012 the BJP government scrapped the IT habitat project and Goa was back to square one on the IT front. Enter Laxmikant Parsekar and the BJP government made another ambitious start launching the Goa IT Investment Policy 2015-20.
Across a time frame of five years, the IT Investment Policy aimed at developing Goa as an IT hub with 200 startups. The draft was notified, but not the schemes and no financial provision was made. Nothing moved since then. There were 84 startups which were registered to begin business. The government only managed to acquire land at Tuem for an Electronic City and at Chimbel for an IT Park.
Now comes the IT Startup Policy, even when a similar policy under a different name called Goa IT Investment Policy is already in cold storage. The government should first come clear with the status of Goa IT Investment Policy and also the IT Park, where the real estate lobby has set their sights. Is this going to be an old wine in a new bottle? Or is the new IT Minister Rohan Kaunte just desperate to take pride in the fact that he has launched another IT blueprint.
Goa has been way behind on the IT front despite moving in that direction in 2005. Our government itself is leading by example with websites and online services falling far behind in comparison to other states like Maharashtra. In a generation where the online world has taken centre stage, our aam aadmi is still struggling to pay his water and power bills by standing in serpentine queues. It's an irony when the government talks big about IT but chooses to send Xerox copies of its Startup policy to the press instead of soft copies.
The IT Startup project looks like a long drawn plan. For now there is no financial provision made, the IT Promotion Cell has to be set up, IT Incubators have to take shape, and there is huge requirement of infrastructure to start off the plan. What remains to be seen is how seriously the government pursues this plan. Till then there would be doubts if this policy would go the way the Goa IT Investment Policy has gone.
