Goa aims to go fully digital

NT NETWORK

 

PANAJI

Goa’s IT industry may be taking time to get off the ground but the government is hopeful of projecting the state as the next startup hub with a buzzing culture to attract startup entrepreneurs from other states.

IT Minister Rohan Khaunte said on Thursday that the next two years will be eventful for the local IT industry with a firm Startup Policy in place to foster a favourable culture for new units. The policy will cover the basic essentials such as ease of doing business, e-governance, broadband connectivity, favourable schemes and it will promote the concept of IT anywhere.

“It will focus on revenue and employment and will signal Goa’s arrival as top startup destination,” said Khaunte. He added that sometime in June-July, the government would also send local startups to Silicon Valley for a first-hand experience of the global IT industry.

Elaborating on the policy, he said that it took one year of groundwork by the government-appointed IT Advisory Council and is aimed at making Goa the first digital global state. The policy would also result in Goan cities being digitally equipped with Porvorim and Fatorda the two cities being initially taken up for digitalisation.

The policy unveiling will be done on April 28 by Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry during a two-day IT event taking place on Friday- Saturday. The event is expected to get together for the first time venture capitalists, angel investors, heads of incubators, and IT stakeholders.

The IT Minister was accompanied by members of the IT Advisory Committee that includes among others Mohandas Pai, Shrinivas Dempo, chairman of the Dempo Group and Sidharth Kunkolienkar, chairman, EDC.

Briefing media, Pai said that the two-day IT event ‘Goa Startup and Innovation Day’ is a fantastic opportunity for local startups. He said that IT services sector is booming and with training Goans could easily become world leaders in services.

“For local industry to grow, the government must use IT to provide services to the people,” said Pai. He added that Goa has not missed the IT bus because the industry is constantly on the move.

Industrialist Dempo pointed out that for private sector to take the initiative to invest in IT the government needs to act as the facilitator. “Goa has got the right ingredients to become a startup centre compared to cities such as Bengaluru, Gurgaon or Hyderabad because of its unique advantages,” said Dempo. He added that the Dempo Group would be willing to fund startups.

The EDC is planning to unveil an IT incubator soon and is also setting up an Rs five crore corpus to seed fund startups, said Kunkolienkar.

About 250 Goan startups have registered to participate in the two-day event and members of the advisory council pointed out that Goans are doing good work in artificial intelligence.