Tier-2 cities such as Mangaluru and Hubballi-Dharwad have good potential to promote remote working and these cities should focus on setting up better infrastructure for cloud computing and internet connectivity, Union Minister of State for Skill Development, Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrashekar said here on Tuesday.
Speaking at a vision group meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Mangaluru Chapter, Mr. Chandrashekar said that the stakeholders in tier-2 cities should come out of their single-minded focus on IT parks in their region, which, at present, are facing infrastructure problems. Instead, the focus should be on strengthening infrastructure that promotes remote working which has gained significance in the post-COVID-19 situation. Remote working will continue to be in vogue for the next five years, he said.
Districts outside Bengaluru should work towards building an eco-system by which their potential in the fields of education, health and other sectors can be showcased to the world. There is a good demand for electronic goods, research and development and the use of internet for software as a service. Large companies are unable to meet the demand and orders are going to small companies. The Union government is ready to support the districts in training youth in the new skill sets that will make these regions as human resource providers in skilled areas, he said.
Earlier, head of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s IT Sub-Committee Ashith Hegde expressed the need for opportunities to retain talent in Dakshina Kannada and stop brain drain. Though there is start-up eco-system in Mangaluru, entrepreneurs are facing problems in scaling up as there is an absence of infrastructure. The potential of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts should be harnessed for development as fintech hub.
While KCCI president Isaac Vaz expressed the need for harnessing the tourism potential of the coastal region, educationalist Manjunath Bhandary said that space in educational institutions can be used for skill development and other development programmes of the Union government. Past president of CII Mangaluru Prakash Kalbhavi expressed the need for a state-of-the-art skill upgradation facility to harness talent in the region.
The vision group meeting was the first programme of Mr. Chandrashekar who arrived in the city on Tuesday as part of his Janshirvada Yatra.
Mangaluru City MLAs D. Vedavyas Kamath and Y. Bharath Shetty, MLC Pratapsimha Nayak, Mayor Premanand Shetty and district BJP president Sudarshan Moodbidri participated in the programme.
