Official apathy blamed for delay in work at Aryabhata Tech Park

Official apathy blamed for delay in work at Aryabhata Tech Park

Staff Correspondent - The Hindu

Building permission not being issued to IT companies: Shettar

For students: Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar inaugurating ‘CET Catalyst Regular’, a satellite-based interactive training programme, at the Information Technology Park in Hubli on Sunday.

HUBLI: Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar has taken strong exception to “official apathy” which he said has hindered work at the Aryabhata Tech Park in Hubli.

He was inaugurating the “CET Catalyst Regular”, a satellite-based coaching programme for students appearing for entrance tests for admission to professional courses, at the Information Technology Park here on Sunday.

Gumbi Software and Edusource Consultance Services (ECS) have, for the first time in the State, designed the interactive live training programme.

Although the State Government had allotted 26 acres of land to information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services companies at the Aryabhata Tech Park, between Hubli and Dharwad, the municipal corporation authorities were delaying the work there, Mr. Shettar said.

Some of the IT companies which had been allotted land at the park had performed “bhoomi puja”. However, they were unable start construction because they were not being issued building permission, he said.

Mr. Shettar said he had taken up the issue with the authorities concerned, and he would be forced to take it up with the Government if the official apathy continued.

The former president of the Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Madan Desai, who heads the Land Allotment Committee for the tech park, said the committee had proposed to allot another 10 acres of land at the park to six IT companies.

H. Devanand, Manager of Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd., said that in the last few months five companies had taken 26,000 sqft of space in the IT Park and termed it an encouraging development.

Managing Director of Gumbi Software Harsha Mahabala, Chief Administrative Officer of ECS K.K. Bhat, General Manager of BSNL Dharwad Telecom District S.S. Sindagi and Sadashiva Bhat were present. Under the programme, experts from Boscoss Publication will teach lessons from the Edusource Studio in Mangalore and students can interact with them with the help of special software designed by Gumbi Software.

HC Bench spurs realty boom

HC Bench spurs realty boom

Vincent D’Souza | TNN

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

Hubli: Belur, 10 km away from Dharwad off the Pune-Bangalore Highway, was a sleepy village a few years ago.
   Today, it is one of the most happening places in the state in terms of property value, though it still comes under the purview of Neeralkatti gram panchayat. Thanks to the High Court Circuit Bench, situated near Walmi, that has boosted land prices and house rentals in the vicinity.
   Land prices in Neeralkatti, Mammigatti, Tegur and other villages alongside the National Highway — falling under the radius of 8 to 10 km — have shot up considerably in recent months.
   “An acre of land abutting NH-4 was priced at Rs 10 to 12 lakh two years ago and the same is valued anywhere between Rs 30 to 35 lakh now,” said Santosh Jadhav, a realtor. “If it is a few kilometres away from the National Highway, it costs about Rs 20 lakh,” he added.
   The trend that set in two years ago when works on the HC Bench building got an impetus, made landholders, a majority of them farmers, calculate in terms of lakhs. Further, as the realty boom swept rural pockets and land became worth its weight in gold, more farmers away from Dharwad periphery began trading traditional land measurement terms like the gunta and acre for deals in square feet. Sensing megabucks that a deal in square foot can rake in, farmers across villages within a radius of 10-15 km from Hubli and Dharwad have started quoting prices in square foot.
   Also, house rentals in Dharwad shot up by 80 to 100 percent within days after the announcement of HC Bench inauguration. A single bedroom house in a decent locality costs a minimum of Rs 2,500 while the rent of a double bedroom house is not less than Rs 4,000. Additional facility like car parking will add up another Rs 500.
   H Shreeshail, a tech support working in the HC Bench feels that his decision of volunteering to Dharwad Bench from Bangalore did not turn out to be wise. “I was paying Rs 5,000 for a double bedroom house in Banaswadi in Bangalore and even here I have to shell out the same amount. I thought that I could cut down few thousands in house rent and hence had volunteered my transfer,” he says.

Mathikatti to work for N-K development

Mathikatti to work for N-K development

Special Correspondent - The Hindu

Bangalore: Chairman of the Legislative Council Veeranna Mathikatti has said that he will strive hard to create employment opportunities for the educated youth in north Karnataka by encouraging information technology and biotechnology majors to expand their activities in that region, so that the pressure on Bangalore would reduce to a great extent.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Mathikatti, who was recently elected to the post, said that he wanted to contribute to the development of north Karnataka, as he hailed from that area.

Coordination

Fortunately, he said that Speaker Jagadish Shettar also hailed from Hubli and hoped that both could help in coordinating development activities in the backward districts.

Asked to elaborate his plans, the Congress leader said that some of the eminent persons in the IT field such as Gururaj Deshpande, Nandan Nilekani and Sudha Murthy were from north Karnataka.

These industry leaders, he said, would certainly lend a helping hand, if he and Mr. Shettar requested them to start operations in north Karnataka towns such as Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad, Gulbarga, Bidar and Davangere, which had a large number of educational institutions.

HDMC all set to launch software for local bodies

HDMC all set to launch software for local bodies

Girish Pattanashetti - The Hindu

It is designed to conduct day-to-day activities, transactions

---

Management Information System cell has developed it

HDMC yet to decide its price

---

HUBLI: The Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) is all set to become the first municipal corporation in the country that will sell integrated management system software for use by other urban local bodies.

In fact, the HDMC has given the new software, designed to conduct day-to-day activities and transactions of urban local bodies, to Mangalore, Mysore and Belgaum city corporations.

The software is an integration of various software developed by the Management Information System (MIS) cell. The MIS cell was set up to facilitate computerisation of the HDMC. The HDMC now has custom-made software for handling birth and death registrations and issuing certificates, and an accounting software for transfer and receipt of funds and tax collection.

The MIS cell has also developed various working modules for different departments and software that would ensure adherence to administrative procedures and guidelines.

The software developed for the corporation’s Public Works Department enables officers concerned to keep track of the all the pending, sanctioned and ongoing works.

“At the click of a button, an officer will get details about various works, a project’s progress and details of tenders and work orders, among others. And, if there is no budgetary provision for a project, the software will not allow you to go ahead with the tendering process,” Commissioner of HDMC Ajay Nagabhushan said.

He said that experts from various fields, including M.S. Subhas, Dean of Kousali Institute of Management Sciences of the Karnatak University, had assisted the corporation in coming out with an integrated software system that would suit the requirements of urban local bodies.

Mr. Nagabhushan said that the Public Works Department of Goa had evinced interest in the software.

“We are yet to decide on its price,” he said.

Mr. Nagabhushan said the MIS cell was finalising the price for the integrated software. After it was decided, the HDMC would start promoting it in other States.

He said that the software would be made available to urban local bodies in Karnataka free of cost.