Though Goa has been projected as the new Information Technology destination of the country, the ground reality is that there are very few IT industries in the State. In an interview to JONQUIL SUDHIR, Nitin Kunkolienkar, General Manager, D-Link and President of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry reveals the reasons behind the reluctance of IT firms to open shop in Goa.

At a recent press conference it was said that a large number of the Goans who study IT in the state’s professional and non-professional colleges are under employed. Why is this?

Actually many are also unemployed. The reason for this is simple. There are only three to four IT units in Goa whereas the number of students graduating from these colleges every year is 500 to 1000, if you include the diploma students. There aren’t enough industries in Goa to absorb all these students. At D-Link we get more than five applications per day, but we aren’t able to accept them as we have sufficient staff.

Nitin Kunkolienkar: General Manager of D-Link.

A reason attributed is the students’ unwillingness to look for job options in the metros. But for a number of years now the Chief Minister has said that Goa will be the new IT destination. If this is true, why do students have to look outside for jobs? Why don’t IT companies set up shop in Goa?

There are several reasons for this. First, the manpower pull is less. Big companies are looking for a far bigger output of students. They are looking at places that have an output of 25,000 graduates per year whereas Goa produces a little over 5000 graduates a year. If they are to make Goa a hub, the required manpower should be readily available. It does not make sense for companies to come here, spend money on infrastructure and then start recruiting from other places in India. Companies in the metros do recruit, but a major percentage of their staff is from in and around the area they are located. The second major reason is the infrastructure – the telecom and broadband facilities. Call centres negotiate in terms of downtime and uptime. If the downtime is five percent, it may not seem like a lot to you. But if the server is down for five percent of the time everyday, the call centre cannot do business for 19-20 days in a year. That’s a lot. Call centres are looking for 99.9% uptime. Which means .1% downtime. The downtime in Goa is quite bad. Around three percent. The cost to set up in Goa is also high.

Is the cost of setting up the infrastructure also a deterrent?

The International Private Lease Circuit (IPCL) required to set up a call centre is Rs. 35 lakhs in Goa. Compare that to the Rs. 15 lakhs it costs to set up shop in Mumbai. Why would any businessman come to Goa and make a loss of Rs. 20 lakhs? As far as telecom is concerned, BSNL has to improve a lot. On a scale of one to ten, BSNL would rate as one. Also electricity is a major issue. The Verna industrial estate is not affected by the State’s constant power shutdowns because it is powered by Reliance, but if you expect industries to come to Goa, uninterrupted power supply is an absolute must. In simple terms, there is absolutely nothing that the State has to offer an entrepreneur. Business is not charity. There have to be some attractive incentives. In Goa, the manpower is less, the infrastructure is not better and definitely not cheaper.

The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on its own, has taken the initiative to promote IT in Goa. The GCCI has held two IT conferences – Goa Agenda – in 2003 and 2004. Senior executives from big firms like Mastek and Wipro attended. What was the government’s response?

The Government has a basic intention to promote IT. But it is not given enough importance. We lack the killer instinct. In order to compete with Mumbai and Bangalore, we have to be speedier. Our current pace won’t work.

Has the government been responsive towards the efforts to promote IT in Goa?

They are willing, but at the moment it is not going anywhere. Investors are not willing to invest if there are no firm commitments. And here lies the role of the government. They have to take the initiative to upgrade infrastructure. The problem is that decisions are not made at the lower level. If the Chief Minister has to make every decision is every department, it will take time to get anything done. The juniors should make decisions. Since the CM is asked to approve everything, his decision-making abilities will obviously slow down. And obviously most of his time is spent on polity and not IT.

But what about the IT policy and the dreams of Goa having an IT city and IT Resort?

There is no set IT policy. And after seeing five to six drafts, you tend to not believe the seventh one. The government has to be serious and come out with an IT policy that will be beneficial to all those concerned. As far as the IT city and resort is concerned, the intention is there. Work on the same has not begun, but the CM did not specify when these would be set up. It could be built anytime in the future.

What, then, is the potential of Goa to become an IT destination?

Goa does not have the facilities that the Class A cities like Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai have like a large manpower, governmental support. However, these cities are overpopulated, have a high cost of living and are prone to riots and strikes. Goa can be the alternate or secondary choice. IT professionals seek a high quality of life, recreational facilities, educational facilities and Goa has an edge when it comes to quality of life. The quality of life is comparable even to that of other international destinations.

What about the potential for making Goa a hardware hub?

Goa has immense potential to be a hardware base. Look at D-Link. The Taiwan-based company came to Goa and it was an instant success. If one model is successful, it should be followed. Goa is ideal because the airport, port and railway are all located within a radius of eight kms. Nowhere else are these so strategically located. If the government co-operates and is open to the idea, we can send a delegation to Taiwan and invite them to open out in Goa. The Taiwanese are ideal because, although they currently depend on China, they are not as comfortable with the Chinese as they would be with Indians. But someone has to follow up on this idea. I have been forwarding it to the government for a long time now, but nothing has been done about it.

What to do we need to do to make Goa IT friendly?

A good IT team is required. A team consisting of the bureaucracy, NGOs and the people have to work together. It requires dynamic thinking and ideas should be nurtured but personal prestige and egos have to be set aside. Manpower should be available. Which means more seats in the local colleges for IT. A pro-active government is urgently required. A government that will give IT companies a firm commitment that will invite companies and offer them all the facilities. As I mentioned before, business is not charity. The government has to offer something that firms will not get elsewhere or at least the same as they get in other cities.

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