Karnataka: 'Tech address'ing the world

Karnataka: 'Tech address'ing the world

Times of India, May 29, 2010, 05.04am IST

Karnataka is a formidable avatar when it comes to the tech front. Little wonder that it is a prestigious address in the world of tech business today. We bring you some facts and figures which makes Karnataka what she is in the tech galaxy.

As a Knowledge hub Karnataka has 103 R&D Centres, 20 Universities, 158 Engineering Colleges, 39 Medical Colleges, 44 Dental Colleges, 47 International Schools and 1003 Industrial Training Institutes. Powered by over 5 lakh IT professionals, Bangalore, better identified as the IT Capital of India is the 4th largest technology cluster in the world, the other 3 being Silicon Valley, Boston and London. Bangalore has over 2,184 IT Companies of which 743 are MNCs. Of the 87 CMM Level-5 IT Companies in the world, 32 are in Bangalore. And with each passing day Karnataka's family of knowledge workers is only getting bigger.

Foreseeing future growth, the Government blue print on the infrastructure scene has a lot to offer. A fast track elevated expressway leading to Electronic City, hardware tech park near Bangalore International Airport, robust telecom OFC network of over 60,000 Kms etc. are some of them.

Secondary cities are being actively promoted through establishing IT Parks and Networks. High speed data facility operating centres are to soon dot the landscapes of Mangalore, Mysore, Dharwad, Belgaum, Shimoga, Gulbarga, Tumkur and Davanagere. An IT Investment Region (under the GoI scheme) covering a minimum area of 40 Sq Kms or 4,000 hectares of land is being setup near the Bangalore International Airport. If all this were not enough, the Government is also planning Industrial corridors from Bangalore to Davanagere through Tumkur, Bangalore to Bidar, Honnavar to Shimoga and Chitradurga to Belgaum through Haveri, covering most of the districts. The Animation and Gaming Academy is also round the corner.

Strengthening vital infrastructure in Tier-II and III cities seems high on the Government's agenda. Air-connectivity is being augmented in these cities. While the existing airports at Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad and Mangalore are being upgraded, Greenfield airports are being planned in Shimoga and Gulbarga. An IT Park with 2.75 lakh sq ft built-up facility catering to IT & BPO companies and the Aryabhata Tech park at Hubli are already functional.

The Semiconductor Policy 2010 is tell tale of the Government's intent to give a thrust to the hard ware front. Financial assistance to firms for filling IP, assistance to augment the Orchid Tech Space in STPI to a Characterization Lab, special incentives for setting up of ATMPS on a case-to-case based on specific employment potential, a focus school under IIIT equipped with state-of-the-art research labs etc. are some of the policy highlights. There also is a special fund of Rs.10 crores earmarked for semi conductor excellence which will encourage innovation and R & D in Chip Design, product development, telecom etc. apart from the fiscal incentives as per the Karnataka Industrial Policy 2009-2014.

Also in the proposal stage are the ICT and the Electronic Hardware policies. The later may raise the curtain on the Electronics Hardware Manufacturing Hubs (EHMHs) proposed in four corridors. The ICT policy may see the creation of a separate authority for the IT & BT sectors, entry tax exemptions on capital goods and power tariff concessions. Both the policies will have the fiscal incentives as per the Karnataka Industrial Policy 2009-2014.

The Millennium Biotech Policy II is to bring in BT parks such as Nutri-Nutraceutical and Phyto-pharmaceutical (Medicinal Plant) Parks at Mysore, Marine Biotech Park at Mangalore, Vivarium (Animal House) at Bidar and Agri-Biotech Park at Dharwad. The Government also seeks to fund Rs.1 crore per BT finishing school which will bring in 10 BT Finishing Schools. All Research Labs will automatically come under the Green Category. All fiscal incentives and concessions offered under the Karnataka Industrial Policy 2009-2014 shall be extended to the Biotechnology industry and the R & D Centres. The Bangalore Helix - Bangalore Biotech Park with SEZ facilities already offer world class Infrastructure, state-of-the-art Biotech Incubators, Common Instrumentation Facilities and R&D centres. While on the functional aspect are the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) and Centre for Human Genetics (CHG) Campus, elements like Biotech Incubation Centre (BIC), Common Instrumentation Facilities (CIF), Biotech Industries Cluster and Common Effluent Treatment Plant bring in the required value adds for the investor.

Besides, the State Government is now in the process of formalizing steps that may soon bring in the much needed element of 'flexibility in policy initiatives' to cater to the changing demands of the industry. As part of a few more new initiatives, KEONICS is to set up IT parks in secondary cites like Mysore, Mangalore, Shimoga, Belgaum and Gulbarga. BPO units in rural areas are to enjoy fiscal incentives from the Government. As a move to popularize Internet usage in rural areas by, Electronic Public Consumer Outlets (e-PCOs) are to be set up.

If one were to catogorise the existing biggies, the Karnataka tech theatre looks something like this:

Integrated Chip Design - Texas Instruments, Intel, AMD, Siemens, Synopsys, Philips, Analog Devices, National Semiconductors, Freescale Semiconductor, Broadcom etc.

System Software - Oracle, SAP, Novell, Sun Microsystems, HP, Network Associates etc.

Communication Software - Lucent Technologies, Nortel, Siemens, Motorola, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Sony, Sasken, Nokia etc.

Multinational R&D centres - Texas Instruments, Motorola, Daimler Chrysler, General Motors, GE,SAP, AstraZeneca, Microsoft, Intel, Philips, Cisco, Oracle, AMD, IBM etc.

Biotech Exporters - Biocon India Ltd, Sami Labs, Sartorius India Pvt. Ltd, Aurigene Discoveries, Astra Zeneca India, Strand Genomics, Metahelix, Avesthagen, Novozymes Sigma Aldrich, MWG India, Cipla, Himalaya Drug Co., Natural Remedies etc.

In all, Karnataka is on the threshold of a renewed technological revolution. One now has to see how many more await to enter Karnataka when the doors open at the Global Investors Meet 2010.

S M Krishna opens passport service centres

S M Krishna opens passport service centres

ANI 2010-05-28 19:40:00

Bangalore: External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said on Friday that the inauguration of passport seva centres marks the culmination of a long and arduous process of changing a 50-year old system in line with today's needs.

Addressing the gathering after inaugurating passport seva centres at Bangalore, Mangalore and Hubli, Krishna said: "Inauguration marks a red letter day in the quest of my Ministry to bring about quantum improvement in the quality of Passport services to our citizens."

"This also marks the culmination of a long and arduous process of changing a 50-year old system in line with today's needs," he added.

Krishna said the change involved a study of the existing processes, study of the procedures being followed in other countries, adapting these best practices to India.

"There were challenges and difficulties which needed to be surmounted before the system could be opened to the public," Krishna said.

In his address, Krishna said the era of globalisation has brought rapid change in the growth rate and integrated India more closely with changing world.

"The process of economic liberalization and reforms envisioned by Shri Rajiv Gandhiji and pursued with dedication and redoubled vigour by the central government since the early 1990s, brought about high growth rates and also integrated our country more closely into the rapidly globalising world," he said.

"The resultant opportunities and the growing proportion of the youth in our county pushed the demand for passports to unprecedented levels and between 1958 and 2006, the number of passport applicants increased 133 times and between 2006 and 2010, the number of passport applicants almost doubled," Krishna added.

The project involves setting up of seventy seven state of the art Passport Seva Kendras across the country in the first phase, a 24x 7 call centre operating in 18 languages, capturing biometrics of all applicants, more counters and increased public dealing hours.

The project also provides connectivity of the system to the district police headquarters to ensure faster police verification, status updates to the citizens through SMS and email, and uniform procedures and transparent and time bound completion of all processes.

"Live trials have revealed that these measures have indeed led to a quantum improvement in the speed of processing of passport applications," Krishna said.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has enhanced the amount payable to the State Government from Rs 100/- to Rs 150/- per verification.

"I would like to request the State Government, through the good offices of the Hon'ble Chief Minister and the senior police officials present, to extend their fullest cooperation to the Passport Office to get all police verification done expeditiously for the benefit of the residents of Karnataka State," Krishna said.

In his address Krishna also appreciated the work of Tata Consultancy Serivices.

Krishna also said a similar centre would be launched at Chandigarh in June.

After the pilot locations start working and are certified by an independent authority, the project will be rolled out across the country. (ANI)

No land in Bangalore, govt tells investors

No land in Bangalore, govt tells investors

P M Raghunandan, Bangalore, May 27, DHNS:

Planning investments in Karnataka? Not anywhere in and around Bangalore. Or, at least, this is what the State government has of late been telling investors, especially those in the manufacturing sector. Reason? The high land price.

Except for a few acres that is acquired or identified for acquisition long ago, the government does not have land in Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural districts to offer it to investors. And it also has no plans to acquire any either in the coming days.

As a result, the government has reserved the two districts for only high-end IT and aerospace sectors. “The land prices in the two districts are too high for acquisition. Moreover, there is hardly any land available here. So, we have decided to allow only for two sectors — high-end IT and aerospace,” V P Baligar, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce said.

Illustrating his statement, he said the government was paying a whopping Rs 70 lakh an acre as compensation in Devanahalli for the proposed Devanahalli Industrial Park, the highest ever compensation given for land acquisition by the government.

Currently, the government has just 2,321 acres in Bangalore Urban, while in Bangalore Rural, it has 3,011 acres, mostly in Devanahalli. The government, therefore, is hard-selling Tier-II cities and small towns close to Bangalore — Tumkur and Ramanagara for fresh investments.

That is also the reason for the Department of Industries and Commerce’s land acquisition spree in these cities and towns. The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) has acquired 12,205 acres in Ramanagara alone, the highest among districts, for creating a land bank. It is followed by Belgaum with 10,842 acres, Bijapur 9,926, Dharwad 9,347, Tumkur 8,363 and Bellary 6,151 acres.

Baligar said investors keen on land close to the State capital were being persuaded to opt for nearest towns like Sira, Kunigal in Tumkur district, Bangarpet, Malur, Srinivasapur in Kolar district and Ramanagara, where land is cheaper. “With good road and railway connectivity, these towns are as good as Bangalore for investors,” he explained.

The government aims at having a total of 1,00,861 acres in the land bank exclusively for industries. Of that lot, 87,005.06 acres is private land and 13,856.09 acres belongs to the government. The KIADB has so far acquired 12,379.14 acres, issued preliminary notification for acquiring 46,734.03. It is yet to initiate the process to acquire41,747.38 acre across almost all districts.

It is in Ramanagara the government has acquired largest extent of private farm land (12,250 acre) for the land bank. The government is bound to hardsell Karnataka at the proposed Global Investors Meet next month. But if prospective investors are looking for land in and around the Capital to put up their projects, then they are in for disappointment.

State proposes seven SEZs for global investors’ meet

State proposes seven SEZs for global investors’ meet

DH News, Subrahmanyan Viswanath, May 19,

Bangalore: With D-date for Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) approaching near, project proposals are flying off drawing boards fast and furious. The State government is working overtime to make the most of the two-day meet to woo as much investment as possible.

So much so, as many as seven Special Economic Zone (SEZ) proposals besides two industrial parks have been lined up for global and domestic private players participating at the GIM. Of the seven SEZs, three are Information Technology (IT), one each in aerospace, textile, food processing and pharmaceutical sectors.

PPP initiative

According to official sources, Expression of Interest (EoI) have been invited for implementation under public-private-partnership (PPP) initiative as part of government’s ambitious Suvarna Karnataka Development Corridor (SKDC) programme. For implementation, selected bidder (individual entities / consortium) will be responsible to plan, design, build, finance, opearte, manage and maintain them, besides marketing and branding. While IT SEZs will come up at Dharwad, Kolar and Mysore, aerospace SEZ is planned at Bangalore Rural, textile, food and pharmaceutial SEZs at Hassan and industrial parks in Bidar and Gulbarga.

The aerospace SEZ at Devanahalli, sources said, will house units focused on providing IT, design, R&D services and MRO (maintenance, repair & overhauling) facilities on a 252 acre plot. While processing area would comprise facilities for aircrafts, helicopters, IT & design services, avionics services and manufacture of aircraft components, non-processing zone is for ancillary developments like training institutions and research centres.

IT SEZs at Dharwad, Kolar and Mysore will come up on 30 acre plots and house both IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) units. The pharma SEZ on 270 acre area in Hassan is aimed at building quality facilities to attract global and domestic tenants.

Processing area

The textile SEZ over 581 acre plot in Hassan will have processing area of 65 per cent to house textile and related industries like weaving, garments, spinning and related service sector units, household and technical textiles etc. The food processing SEZ at Hassan will come up on 285 acre plot for exported oriented units.

The industrial parks in Gulbarga and Bidar, planned on 200 acre and 300 acre plots respectively, sources said is envisaged to house MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) units across a range of manufacturing sectors serving as hub for MSME manufacturing.

The engineering park at Chitradurga on 200 acre plot will house steel ancillary units like auto components, surgical and hospital equipment, architectural products, hardware, kitchenware, lifestyle products, stamping and forging. At Tumkur, it will come up on 500 acre plot focused on machine tools / precision tools, industrial machinery, hardware, industrial fasteners et al.

DH News Service

* IT SEZs: Prososed at Dharwad, Kolar & Mysore.

* Aerospace SEZ: Bangalore Rural

* Food, Textile & Pharma SEZ: Planned at Hassan

* Industrial parks: To come up in Bidar & Gulbarga

IT & BT projects worth $20.38 b on offer at Global Investors Meet

IT & BT projects worth $20.38 b on offer at Global Investors Meet

Bangalore, May 6, , DH News Service:

With preparations for next month’s Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) in full steam, the State government is on the overdrive leaving no stone unturned to make a success of it.

The State’s Information Techonology & Biotechnology (IT&BT) department has lined up a whopping US$20.38 billion worth of IT, BT, electronic hardware and solar farms projects to be taken up by prospective investors. These projects, official sources told Deccan Herald, are being offered on a public-private partnership model and MoUs for the same with successful players inked on June 3, 2010 during the two-day GIM.

Incidentally, while day one (June 3, 2010) will focus on four sectors of aerospace, infrastructure, tourism and biotechnology, day two will see deliberations on automobile, IT, minerals, power, food processing, textile, health and education sectors. Sources said, IT Investment Region (ITIR), proposed to come near Bangalore International Airport envisages to attract total investments of US$20 billion by 2030. Deloitte Touche have been appointed consultants for the project. Bid evaluation of the projects will be taken up on May 31, selection done on June 1 and signing of Letter of Intent on June 3, 2010, sources said.

The IT parks in Tier-II cities of Mysore, Mangalore, Gulbarga and Shimoga hopes to attract US$30 million, electronic hardware manufacturing hubs at Bangalore-Tumkur, Mysore-Nanjangud, Shimoga-Hassasn and Hubli-Dharwad at investments of US$100 million. Solar farms at Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bellary and Raichur at US$100 million investments, Bangalore Biotech Park (US$50 million), Agri-Biotech Park at Dharwad (US$20 million), Marine Biotech Park at Mangalore (US$20 million), Vivarium (animal house) at Bidar (US$20 million), Nutri-Neutraceuitcal Park at Mysore (US$20 million) and Phyto-Pharmaceutical Park in CFRTI, Mysore (US$20 million).

For biotech cluster at Bangalore, 50 acres would be provided for investments of US$50 million to be developed on PPP model and granted SEZ status, sources said adding incubation centre and instrumentation facility will come up on 14-acre land for which the Centre has provided US$3 million for instruments.

Hubli-Dharwad Road may be 4-lane one in three years

Hubli-Dharwad Road may be 4-lane one in three years

TNN, May 1, 2010, 09.09pm IST

HUBLI: If authorities have their way, then the much-anticipated four laning of Hubli-Dharwad Road may be a reality in three years' time. The state cabinet has approved a proposal on widening the 20-km road at a cost of Rs 155.40 crore.

The project comprises service roads, underpasses, footpaths and road-dividers. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 100 crore for the project, which was envisaged in the wake of increased traffic on the road connecting the twin cities.