The ‘city beautiful’ Chandigarh is slowly emerging as a hot IT and BPO
industry destination in northern India. Leading the charge on behalf of the city
is a suave and articulate bureaucrat, Vivek Atray, the director of IT for the
union territory of Chandigarh. Under his leadership, the city has seen a range
of initiatives promoting the twin industries. Take for example CTOSS (Chandigarh
Training on Soft Skills)– a program to train local population for the BPO
industry. In an interview to Rishi Seth of Dataquest, he talks about his
strategies and plans for making Chandigarh shine on the IT map of India.
Excerpts:
Chandigarh has often been ranked higher over other cities on many
parameters including infrastructure and human resources talent, but still the
city does not have many big-ticket IT companies to boast of. Where do you think
the problem lies?
Chandigarh had been recognized for many years, as a city, which has the
potential to be a leading destination for technology companies. In the last 3
years, after the announcement of the IT Policy, major steps have been taken to
promote the growth of the technology sector in Chandigarh, by creating the right
environment, and by providing the right infrastructure.
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Chandigarh is fast getting attention of the big IT companies and is rated as
a strong emerging location for expansion plans of IT companies. World-class
infrastructure is being developed and companies like Infosys have already chosen
Chandigarh
for a huge software development center setup.
What are you doing to attract big-ticket companies?
We have had one on one meetings with many major technology companies. We
participate in all major Nasscom events and also IT.Com and TiE/CII events. We
have already signed an MOU with Infosys and are holding extensive discussions
with Convergys. Our incubation center is full now with nine companies occupying
it. DLF is building an 800,000 sq ft world class facility at the Chandigarh
Technology Park (CTP) which has already started booking potential occupiers.
Neighboring states like Punjab and Haryana today vie with
Chandigarh for attracting IT and BPO projects, often offering discounts and
subsidies–for example–cheaper land rates. How do you plan to compete against
them?
Chandigarh is uniquely positioned at the confluence point of Punjab and Haryana.
Because of its high quality of life, Chandigarh is a preferred city to work and
settle in for professionals from Punjab and neighboring towns of Haryana.
Several incentives/tax exemptions are also provided at the Chandigarh Technology
Park. Chandigarh being a union territory has the advantage of being governed by
bureaucrats free from any political setup.
On the status of Chandigarh Technology Park?
Infosys as the anchor company has taken 20 acres in the Chandigarh Technology
Park and will be constructing their campus which is expected to employ 2400 IT
professionals. DLF is constructing 8,00,000 sq ft of ready built space in the
CTP. The space will be leased/sold to big IT/ITeS companies and would be
operational by November 2004. Other global companies like Dell Computers and
Convergys have shown significant interest in setting their offices in CTP.
There are around sixty IT/ITeS companies registered with the
STPI and are operating in Chandigarh and Mohali. The software and IT services
exports from Chandigarh and Mohali amounts to approximately Rs 150 crore and is
expected to increase to Rs 600 crore in the next two years.
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What is your e-Governance strategy?
We have identified services related to 10 public dealing departments as our
priority areas for e-Governance. They are now ready at the back-end level and we
are front-ending them through our Sampark Centers and our new portal, which will
be launched by end of July. These departments include excise and taxation,
education, municipal corporation and driving licenses and vehicle registrations.
For example, in municipal corporation, all services provided
by the corporation shall be computerized and residents shall be able to access
the various departments of the corporation online from the kiosks, which shall
be set up throughout the UT.
What challenges are you facing–internal and external–in
implementing e-Governance initiatives?
The challenges are the same everywhere. There are attitude and change
management issues. Training is often not taken seriously by officials.
Identifying and entrusting enthusiastic and capable people with the
responsibilities is the key. Process re-engineering is a must, so administrative
reforms have to be carried out as well.
Your expectations from the IT industry in terms of the
role they should play in e-Governance, and your message to them?
The IT industry should itself be more proactive in developing sustainable
and practical products for implementing e-Governance. They should aim to provide
workable low-cost solutions for e-Governance.
Your one single e-Governance project which you are proud
of?
The Sampark Project, which involves setting up of 15 single window citizen
interface centers in Chandigarh, is our flagship venture. Project Sampark is a
multi-service single window system, which connects various public dealing
departments with electronic centers called Sampark Centers. These centers are
located in the already existing bill payment centers of agencies like
electricity board and municipal corporation across the city. The range of
services that it would offer include bill payments and space booking for
municipal corporation, complaint registration and tracking and even vehicle
challan payment for Chandigarh Police, issue of domicile or income certificate
for the office of DC, issue of bus passes for department of transport and many
more. The project will go live by August 1, 2004. Right now, we are selecting
banks for handling cash/cheques/online transactions.
We will also soon launch our interactive portal for residents
of Chandigarh to carry out department related transactions online, including
through payment gateways.
Rishi Seth in Chandigarh