Venture capital can spur growth

Venture capital can spur growth
Vijay Times Network

Venture capital can be defined as fund used to support new or unusual undertakings; equity, risk or speculative investment capital. The fund is provided to new or existing firms which exhibit potential for aboveaverage growth.

If we see the success of IT industry in Silicon Valley (California - USA), the main contributor has been venture capital support. The ideas and innovations coming out of academic institutions (such as Stanford, Berkley) are backed by venture capital fund. SUN Microsystems (Stanford University Network) and Google are few such success stories.

Karnataka has setup one such fund called KITVEN (Karnataka IT Venture Capital).

On similar lines, the government of Karnataka must setup a North Karnataka Venture Capital Fund (NKVCF). The fund should go into companies with above-average growth and should set base in North Karnataka.

An initial fund to the tune of about Rs 25 crore can be setup and monitored professionally by industry, academic and government representatives.

The investment range could from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 150 lakh per company and the investment horizon would be 3 to 5 years. With this initiative, around 10 companies (may be existing companies or new ventures) will start their activities in the North Karnataka region. This initiative will bring definite attraction for small and medium-sized companies and also will develop entrepreneurial culture in the region (wherein universities and education institutes can transform their research into product or service to global markets).

Opportunities in North Karnataka

Santosh Huralikoppi,
CEO, NS Infotech Pvt Ltd
Santosh Huralikoppi is also CEO of Global E Network (a premier business partner of IBM). He is of the IT committee of Karnataka Chamber of Commer Industry. With offices in Michigan, Florida, New Y in USA as well as Bangalore and Hubli in India, hi will become the first IT/BPO company from North Ka to seek an Initial Public offer in Dec. The man power of organisation is likely to scale up to 500 by next

Palpable expectations at IT meet

Palpable expectations at IT meet
VIJAY TIMES NEWS

Hubli: Destination Hubli is all set to hold its first ever investors meet on Saturday to attract investments in information technology and other related sectors to make Hubli-Dharwad an IT hub of North Karnataka. The meet, which has been postponed twice earlier, will try attract IT investments from all categories - minnows to giants.

The meet holds significance in the backdrop of increasing complaints of infrastructure bottlenecks at the national IT capital Bangalor and some companies choosing neighbouring states for investment. Cost of land and unavailability of space were acting as potential barriers in choking new investments in the State capital.

The initiative to host the meet has been taken up by Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry in active association with the administration in order to highlight the need for showcasing secondary and tertiary cities as potential IT destinations, sources stated. Mangalore has been preferred by some companies due to North Karnataka cities due to better air connective. In fact infrastructure, investment climate and availability of trained human resource was better in cities such as Hubli. The government should encash the opportunities of these cities to channelise investment going out of Bangalore.

There are lot of apprehensions and expectations from the investors meet. There is a touch of cynicism with a group feeling that not much drastic changes will have taken place in Hubli cities. However, another school of thought has a very positive outlook, especially given the improvement in road and other infrastructure in Hubli, the sources revealed. The better drinking water and communication facilities have rubbed off on the enthusiasm to promote Hubli as the next IT destination, the sources stated.

The organisers expect the presence of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who also holds the IT portfolio, and his deputy Minister B S Yediyurappa (who holds the Finance portfolio) will give an impetus to put Hubli on the global IT map.

Infosys, IBM, Hewlett Packard, TCS and Wipro are sending their representatives to the meet and that has added to the enthusiasm of the believers. Now, the onus is on the government to fulfil the expectation of the people and organisers by announcing major policy initiatives to check the outflow of investment from the state.

Govt to revive proposal of textile park

Govt to revive proposal of textile park

Sources:

HUBLI: The officials of the government have been directed to revive the earlier proposal of setting up a textile park in the city, Revenue Minister Jagadish Shettar said here on May 17.

The minister was present at a meet-the-press programme organised by the Dharwad District Working Journalists' Association here in the city on 17th May.

Jagadish Shettar further clarified that as per the earlier proposal, their was only a requirement of 10 acres of land, but now a minimum of 50 acres of land might be required for the purpose.

The government’s decision to close down the NGEF unit at Bangalore has raised the chances of shifting some sections of the factory to the city, so the proposal in this regard has been submitted, he said.

The minister further listed out the number of projects sanctioned and steps taken by the government in the implementation regarding development of north Karnataka.

However the state government had sanctioned Rs. 2.65 crore for developing infrastructure in the Gokul Road Industrial Estate in the city.

IT cos come forward to adopt colleges at Dharwad

IT cos come forward to adopt colleges at Dharwad

Source: IRIS (19 May 2006)

Attempts are being made by the government to promote Hubli-Dharwad a Tier II location for IT and ITes companies. NASSCOM, on the other hand, is planning to make graduates in North Karnataka `IT-ready`. The taskforce on IT Workforce Development within Nasscom is ensuring that IT companies come forward and adopt a few colleges in Dharwad.

Nasscom, along with the Department of Technical Education, Government of Karnataka, is organising the first ever ITeS/IT Industry-Academia Meet in Dharwad on the same day where the IT investors meet would take place in Hubli.

On this occasion, Sun Microsystems and MindTree Consulting have come forward to adopt a few colleges in order to equip them on industry requirements.

Several Tier II cities in India are also identified by NASSCOM, where such initiatives would make a huge difference. This is the first time it would take place in Karnataka.