North Karnataka to be promoted as information technology destination

North Karnataka to be promoted as information technology destination
The Hindu
BIC Society, a forum to market the region, to be launched today

• McKinsey report highlights potentials available in the region.
• Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and Davangere to be presented as a package of opportunities to investors.
• Companies are looking at smaller cities to set up workstations.

HUBLI: A voluntary effort to showcase Hubli, Belgaum and Davangere districts as IT destinations in the State will begin on Friday with the launch of a forum of professionals called BIC (Business processing outsourcing, Information technology enabled services, and Customer related management) Society.

"Our vision is to make north Karnataka an international destination for BPO/ITES/CRM activities and our mission is to pave the way for setting up one major anchor companies in each of the major cities in the region in the Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum and Davangere belt," M.S. Subash, founder-chairman of BIC Society, said. He is also a professor of management at Kousali Institute of Management Studies of the Karnatak University.

The society, according to him, will act as a single window agency for companies that wish to set up base in north Karnataka by helping them from the conceptual to the commissioning stage in all areas of work. The goal of developing this area as IT destination, had its origin in what McKinsey, the consultants, who had been commissioned by the State Government, had to say about the region's potentials. The McKinsey report identified Mysore, Mangalore and Hubli as secondary centres for the development of IT sector. The report has given Hubli "Satisfactory" rating as far as manpower and infrastructure is concerned. The plan now is to work on the aspects mentioned in the report but also to include Belgaum and Davangere, which are within 120 km radius from Hubli, to present a package of opportunities to the investors.

The development has come at an opportune time. After the uncertainty over the ownership of the Software Technology Park of Hubli is over with the State Government clearing the dues it owes to Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, the park will become a government property, which will make it easier to market the space and facilities available. The park will offer services, which can be matched by those offered by the best of IT parks, with 2.5 lakh sq m of space, high speed data communication services, quality internet services and incubation facility, a bandwidth with multiples of 64 kbps to 45 mbps or higher, the internet private leased lines, the end to end network management and a 24/7 customer care service.

"We decided to step in after we found that government agencies were not able to project the area well," said B.S. Patil, former chief secretary to the Government.

The society has planned to develop a comprehensive database as required by the targeted companies, develop a strategic advantage profile of dream destinations of Hubli-Dharwad, and Belgaum and Davangere, communication with strategic advantages and value propositions to target companies, and provide assistance to target companies. The society hopes to establish a network of educations institutions, liaisons with government, and conduct extensive industry specific training programmes for students.