State Budget 2014-15: Expectations of IT industry

TechnoparkToday.com>> January 22, 2013: IT industry has the potential to transform the socio-economic fabric of the state. While demand on land, electricity and water is minimal, it is totally green as environmental pollution is minimal. Perhaps the biggest advantage is its capacity to exponentially increase the employment opportunity. Group of Technology Companies (GTech), the industry body of IT & ITES companies in Kerala, puts for the following suggestion for the Government to consider, ahead of the state budget.

V K Mathews, Chairman – Group of Technology Companies (GTech)

Sufficient allocation for Infrastructure Development
Creating a facilitating infrastructure for the IT industry to grow is the single biggest requirement. Overseas customers who visit Kerala cities should be convinced that they are dealing with companies which are located in cities which enjoy a facilitating environment. Otherwise they would be concerned about the predictability and stability of their businesses. Hence Government should ear mark sufficient funds for improvement of roads, establishment of monorail, effective waste management mechanism, providing clean water, eradication of diseases like dengue and better healthcare facilities especially in cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikkode.

More Funds for improving Infrastructure in IT Parks
More allocation should be provided to the Government IT parks – Technopark, TechnoCity, Infopark and Cyberpark – to enhance the physical infrastructure within the Park. This is because the companies within the park, that employs nearly 70,000 people, should have the right ecosystem to compete with global enterprises.

Promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the youth of the state
To promote the spirit of entrepreneurship, especially among the youth of the state, the Government needs to create the right infrastructure for incubation. Current incubation facilities are fast getting occupied and there is an urgent need to provide for more. Funds for setting up an industry body driven incubation centre in Trivandrum, on the lines of Start-up Village and T-BIC should be provided for in the budget.

Anoop P Ambika, Secretary – Group of Technology Companies (GTech)

Sustainable Entrepreneurship – The next big challenge
The state has promoted a lot of positive activity around the new found entrepreneurial, innovation and creativity slogan. Public funds to the tune of several crores has been spent on awareness campaigns in schools and colleges. Time has now come for a reality check. Is entrepreneurship just about cool mobile apps and young ideas? Or shall we look at long term sustainable incubator ecosystems. It is time that we equip people with adequate sales and marketing ecosystems to showcase their product ideas and let the experts gauge them.

There is an urgent need to create a sustainable platform to help companies that have the potential, but not the bandwidth to develop early business to be able to grow big. ‘Global IT Connect’ under GTech is such an initiative that could benefit the industry. The call of the hour hence is to create a marketing corpus fund of Rs 10 Crores to set up a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem, which should be used for Collective Marketing and Sales, IP Procurement and Commercialization of existing ideas.

E-Governance – Opportunity Lost for Kerala SMEs
A large amount of revenue spent happens in implementing e-governance initiatives across departments. Sadly, there is no access for the SMEs into some of the systems and nuances of the governance framework.

GTech proposes that an amount of 10 Crore be allocated to set up an e-governance lab in association with an industry led incubator Katalyst, which will give SMEs the much necessary exposure to the existing IT systems. Research could then be conducted in order to come up with innovative systems and solutions which will ensure better governance through informed decisions.

Knowledge City in Thiruvananthapuram

The land has already been earmarked within the 400 acre Technocity and an advisory council constituted. The city has the most developed knowledge ecosystem in the State with over a dozen world-class institutions of higher education and R&D. It is now just a matter of willful action from the state of Kerala. Government should allocate funds to handhold the knowledge city envisioned in Thiruvananthapuram under the National Innovation Council.