IT cos to finally get possession of land

IT cos to finally get possession of land

20 May, 2007 0059 hrs IST
M L Kapur/TIMES NEWS NETWORK

HUBLI: Exactly a year after the IT Investors’ Meet held here to promote Hubli as the next best Tier-II investment destination for the IT/ITeS sector in the state, 11 local and Bangalore-based firms are set to get possession of HDMC land allotted to them at Rayapur.

The last hurdle was cleared at a meeting the HDMC Commissioner P Manivannan had with representatives of the firms here on Friday. He assured them that demarcation of the land allotted to them will be completed in four days and they would be handed over the relevant documents next week.

A senior HDMC official had caused confusion regarding the terms of allotment of land without doing his homework. It was sorted out at the meeting to the satisfaction of both the parties. According to the HDMC’s initial offer, 40% of the cost was to be paid at the time of possession and the remaining in two equal yearly instalments.

But when the HDMC’s proposal came up before the cabinet for clearance, it approved that the land cost will be recovered in two equal instalments. However,while HDMC had demanded interest on the instalment at prevailing market rates, the cabinet has made it without interest.

Manivannan told the representatives, "as long as you are willing to pay interest on the remaining instalment at the prevailing market rates, the number of instalments in which you pay the land cost will not be any problem."

Expressing satisfaction at the flexible terms offered by the HDMC, Sankalp Semiconductor founder and CEO Vivek Pawar said: "We will start construction work within three months of the possession of land and start operations at Rayapur within 18 months."

Pawar, who shifted his Bangalorebased firm to Hubli in June last year to overcome infrastructure bottlenecks and high attrition rate, told the Sunday Times of India: "We took it up as a challenge to develop industry-academia synergy in Hubli."

Functioning at present from the BVB College of Engineering and Technology campus, Pawar said: "We are into the designing of VLSIC chips for hardware, and for start-ups like us industry-academia interaction works to mutual benefit."

He said: "While the engineering college gets to know the industry’s latest requirement, we have easy access to trained manpower. Moreover, we always wanted to add value to Tier-II cities like Hubli so that it attracts more start-ups."

Sankalp Semiconcuctor started its operations in Bangalore in November 2005, and shifted base to Hubli in July 2006, with a highly skilled workforce of 15. At present, it has 45 people on board and plans to expand to 100 by the end of next year.

Tech cos setting up R&D centres near engineering colleges

Tech cos setting up R&D centres near engineering colleges

SOBHA MENON - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2007 02:01:09 AM

NEW DELHI: Don’t be surprised if you start seeing quite a buzz around cities with reputed engineering colleges. And an increase in prosperity too, for that matter. There are more and more tech companies looking to setting up their R&D centres close to engineering colleges in places like Manipal, Udipi, Trichy, Madurai, Udipi and Kharagpur.

Sankalp Semiconductors, a two-year-old start-up with about 45 engineers working on analog and digital mixed signal technologies, operates right from the BVB Engineering College premises in Hubli. “Besides Hubli’s colleges, we recruit from campuses in Nanded, Berhampur in Orissa and Durgapur. So we are planning to set up our next R&D facility at Durgapur or Kharagpur,” says Vivek Pawar, CEO, Sankalp Semiconductors.

There’s IT services company, Able Technologies too, that’s operated out of Dharwar in Karnataka for the last two years. “I source most of my engineers from colleges in north Karnataka, so I don’t see any reason to live in a tier one city,” says Jagdish Hiremath, CEO, Able Technologies.

Tier one cities with their problems of increasing operating costs, conjestion and pollution, just fails to stack up against these towns. “You can’t give much thought to innovation and creating IP if you spend most of your time travelling — which is what I was doing in Bangalore,” says Mr Pawar about his decision to move lock,stock and barrel to Hubli two years ago.

Says Poornima Shenoy, president, Indian Semiconductors Association: “Engineering colleges are indeed turning to be quite a draw for semiconductor startups. And in many states, the government is doing its best by setting up incubation facilities and providing good infrastructure.” The success of companies such as Robosoft, a software company in Udipi, and Karmic (Karnataka Microelectronic Design Centre), a semiconductor solutions company in Manipal, could also be a reason for companies feeling more confident about operating from smaller towns and cities.

And no, employees too don’t mind leaving big cities to live in places like Manipal and Udipi. “It’s the work atmosphere that we provide here that matters to them — and so we have people who have come from Uttaranchal, Rajasthan and Manipur to work with us here in Udipi,” a Robosoft official said. In fact, there are many who would like return to their hometowns if only they had the job opportunity there, says Mr Hiremath, who returned from the US to settle in Dharwar. The tech boom’s apparently having a ripple effect.