the goan I network
PANAJI
Slamming the state government for not having an IT policy even after several big announcements about coming up with one, Nitin Kunkolienker, president of the Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT), apex body representing India’s ICT sector, on Friday, called Goa’s IT policy a “start-up policy” at best. He added that even this existing policy’s implementation was zero.
The technocrat did not stop there and went hammer and tongs against the IT Ministry, saying that while crores of ruppees were spent on “big IT events” in the State, hardly any money was going to IT units.
He said that in the past four years, at least four major IT programmes had been organised to announce the IT policy, and at least Rs 50 to 60 lakh taken by way of donations for these events, with nothing concrete coming out of them.
While saying that the number of jobs created in IT in the State were nowhere near the demand for IT jobs, Kunkolienker said, “Goa produces 2000 IT graduates each year, but to find even 10 openings in the IT industry here is impossible. All graduates can’t start IT start-up companies. If all of them are job creators, who will work for them?”
Kunkolienker was speaking at a round-table discussion on “Livelihood Challenges, Opportunities and Sustainable Goals” organised by the Goa Livelihoods Forum at Kala Academy. He said that even people like Wipro Chairman Azim Premji did not want to invest in Goa for several reasons including no proper IT skill sets of IT graduates, no good telecom network and not too good internet connectivity.
He further pointed out that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation for the electronic manufacturing cluster at Tuem, not so much as a compound wall had been built there. “The Central government had even agreed to give Rs 50 crore for the project, but the State government did not move to sign anything,” he said.
Kunkolienker also lamented that there was no working electronic policy for the state.
Meanwhile, the former head of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI) did not hesitate to be critical of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, saying that even before he took ill, for 10 years, he did not respond to pleas to change things on the IT front.
He said that at least now with Artificial Intelligence (AI) going to take away many jobs, the State needs to explore new areas for employment creation.
Other speakers included Finance Secretary Daulat Hawaldar and Green Nobel prize winner Prafulla Samantara. The session was moderated by journalist Prakash Kamat.
