“We need to have a reverse brain drain for the state. My target would be, let my talent stay and develop the state to become an industrial as well as IT hub with positive mind frame,” Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said here on Saturday at the inaugural of a two-day IT Goa event.
Speaking about his desire to create opportunities in the IT sector in Goa to halt and reverse the brain drain taking place from Goa to Bengaluru and Pune, and lamenting on the lack of opportunities in Goa, Mr. Parrikar said, “When you do not get proper opportunities you tend to go into negative mindset. I think we (in Goa) are slipping into a negative mind frame. This is a good opportunity to reverse the trend of negative mind-frame into a positive mind frame and IT, as a good non-polluting industry, will do that”.
Speaking about how he overcame recent travails related to his health, Mr. Parrikar, who returned last month after more than three months at a US hospital, said, “First of all I am a very optimistic person. I am not pessimistic. If I decide something, I am very strong-willed also. Most important is the strength given to me by the people of the state and across India.”
On his reluctance to continue in Delhi as Defence Minister and return to Goa, he said he went to Delhi because he was needed for sometime.
“Right from beginning I never thought of going to Delhi. I was asked to come there and I did my job pretty well. I am satisfied with it,” he said.
Stating that Goa is known as a hospitable tourist destination, where it probably doesn’t have to market much, Mr. Parrikar said that a lot of people do not know about the talent in Goa.
“Though it is small, Goa has a diaspora of probably one or two crore. This is a very surprising figure as compared to other States, when the state has only a 15 lakh population. There are about a crore and a half Goans around India and one or two lakh around the globe and the potential of developing high cutting edge technology is very good, because we have excelled in science, music, art. Why not IT?” he asked.