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Sandesh Prabhudesai
in Panaji

Goa's money machines, mining and tourism, are hiccuping. Mining prospects are tapering off and the industry is expected to kick the bucket within an optimistic two decades. Tourism is getting to become increasingly unreliable because the beaches have been overexposed.

But Goa is not just about to despair. Like many resource-hungry start-ups, the young state is pinning its hope on information technology, to be precise, computer software.

T O D A Y

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The excitement about building a software industry in the state is such that despite Goa being under President's rule, the bureaucracy is pushing hard to implement the IT plans that were drawn up by Luizinho Faleiro's Congress government.

The state has set up a 'department of information technology'. The DOIT is a single-window agency for approving information technology business proposals.

A Software Technology Park Authority has also been set up to provide single-window service to entrepreneurs by creating a 'Margao-Vasco-Panaji-Mapusa supercorridor'.

A software technology park is being set up at the Verna Electronic City on the Panaji-Margao highway.

Another high-tech habitat is being built at Bambolim, adjacent to the Goa University Campus there. A 100,000 square meters will be acquired for this facility.

The Verna STP has already started receiving response from companies like Information Technology India Limited and Controlnet India Private Limited that develops software for 'very large scale integrated chips'.

The state is targeting Rs 12 billion in software exports by 2003. To reach this figure it will have to set up at least 50 IT companies. The state is now focusing its marketing efforts on US, Europe, Portugal and Japan.

Software exports from Goa have already risen from Rs 7.5 million in 1995-96 to Rs 150 million in 1998-99.

The authorities, however, admit that this is hardly 0.15 per cent share of the software exports from India.

Realising the fact that the state administration is far behind in computer literacy, the government has also decided to earmark 10 per cent of the budget to computerise every department while also making computer education mandatory for all graduate courses.

Goa is also setting up an Institute of Information Technology and Management, besides providing computer and Internet connectivity to every school, college and technical institute.

The plan is to also make Internet connectivity available through all 'public call offices'. These would also help the international tourists that flock to Goa.

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