A group of industry representatives is working on a report with specific recommendations that will help establish an information technology (IT) industry in Dakshina Kannada district, said Mohammed Ameen, Chairman, Committee on ‘IT Vision Mangalore 2020’.
He was speaking at a press meet following a meeting of the committee in the city on Tuesday.
Mr. Ameen said the report would be submitted to the government in a month.
Kiron Shah, Managing Director, Velankanni Information Systems P Ltd., and a member of the committee, said Dakshina Kannada region had high literacy rates historically. Despite a pool of educated people in the district, with a high percentage of youth in higher education, research and in various professions, the service sector was lagging in the region and contributing less than 2 per cent of software exports from the State. The IT industry posed no problem to ecology. It would create high-paying jobs, expand trade and commerce and increase business opportunities across sectors, he said.
The government had approved a report on the “IT industry in 2020” for Bangalore and the report for Mangalore was on similar lines, he said.
Mr. Ameen said the group had set as target a revenue of Rs. 20,000 crore and employment creation for 50,000 people from IT industry in the district. At present, revenue from the industry was between Rs. 1,800 crore and Rs. 2,000 crore and it employed 10,000 people.
He said special area had not been identified and that the committee was “exploring the whole of Mangalore as an area for IT”.
The committee would point out deficiencies in each segment to the State government so that the region grows with IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS). It had various sub-committees including one on education led by Denzil Lobo; on IT led by Praveen Kalbavi, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bearys Global InfoTech Ltd; and on entrepreneurship by Dikshith Rai, founder and CEO, CodeCraft Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Mr. Shah said the main reason for lack of the IT industry in the district was the shortage of infrastructure and connectivity, IT parks, and lack of support from government departments and a dependence on Bangalore.
U. Ramadas Kamath, Senior Vice President, Infosys, said the industry was expected to create at least 50,000 jobs in the beginning (three to four years from now) with an additional 8,000 to 10,000 jobs every following year.
T.V. Mohandas Pai, chairperson, Board of Manipal Global Education Services Private Limited, was present.
