'The time has come to move away from Bangalore and give importance to the other cities of Karnataka'

MN Vidyashankar took over as the IT Secretary of Karnataka in

October 2006. Besides IT, Vidyashankar also holds the post of Secretary for

Biotechnology, and Science and Technology. While at Bangalore Development

Authority, he was instrumental in implanting the e-Pragathi project aimed at

creating multi-utility kiosks across the city for the payment of utility bills.

Vidyashankar talks to Sudesh Prasad of Dataquest about the ensuing IT

policy and some of the new projects in pipeline, to expand IT beyond Bangalore.

What is the status of the new IT policy of Karnataka?



The vision group is deliberating on it and in our next meeting, we will give
a final shape to it. The reason for delay was that there were lot of inputs that

came from various stakeholders, and various departments which were in the

process of computerization. All the information that we have got is being

collated and it should be ready by March end.

What are some of the challenges Karnataka is facing in terms of

IT?



The main problem we are facing is that everything is Bangalore-centric. We
want to see that the new policy focuses equally on the proliferation of IT to

other cities and towns beyond Bangalore. We are in the process of awarding

tender for the development of the Bidadi Township for the IT industry which will

be one of the largest townships in the country-an area of 10,000 acres, with

25,000 acres of built up space. We have received requests from about 32

developers from India and abroad of which 24 have been short-listed. The

Infrastructure Development Corporation of Karnataka is technically scrutinizing

these. Then the financial bids will be done and an announcement of final bidders

will be made soon after; handing over of the land will take place by April end.

Only one developer will be given the entire space, and work will be completed in

18 months in two phases.

How different is the Bidadi project?



When we were planning Bidadi, we made it a point that it should not be an

infrastructure for just plug and play, so we created the model of PPL-plug,

play, live and learn. So any IT company which is taking space here should

necessarily take space for accommodation of its employees. That is a

precondition because we don't want to clog Bangalore. There will be schools,

colleges, hospitals and other facilities in this township.

Which were some of the e-Governance projects you were involved

with?



In my earlier capacities I did more IT work than my primary
responsibilities. When I was with the Bangalore Development Authority, I had

initiated a project called at e-Pragathi, which was a multipurpose 24x7 Kaveri

kiosk meant to accept utility bills including electricity, water and telephone

bills. We have 75 of them in the Banglaore city today. We did a pilot project

for this with three companies. For the first time we got customer reactions to

the pilot project and after we were fully convinced, we went ahead and gave the

project to an IT company. This model has now been taken up by one of the

airlines for their check-in facility.

How is the IT department working with the Karnataka government

to improve the physical infrastructure of the state?



There is a sub group on Bangalore infrastructure comprising 4 persons,
including me. We meet once every two-weeks. We actually go out with the

executing agencies and inspect the sites. Most of the work on roads in and

around the electronic city, are going to be completed by the end of April 2007.

The rest will be over by the end of May 2007. Each of the schedules are on the

website of the concerned department and on our website, so that anybody can see

it.

How are the other cities of Karnataka shaping up?



Mysore is doing good. Hubli is also shaping up in a big way. There is a huge IT
park, and we have created 2.75 lakh square km of office space. We are ready to

distribute about 160 acres of land to IT companies in Belgaum. Belgaum is

strategically located, it is 75 km from Goa which has a port and an

international airport. We are also holding an IT Investors' meet in Belgaum in

April to attract investment.

Chennai has marched ahead of Bangalore in attracting telecom

manufacturing companies. Your comments?



Each city has a strong point. The new semiconductor policy that was
announced will go a long way in making Bangalore the semiconductor hub of the

world. The variety of companies that Bangalore has attracted is incomparable.

What is the Karnataka government's vision for IT?



During 2007-2008, we intend to have 10 IT and BPO units outside of Bangalore,
not necessarily district headquarters. We are concentrating on Tumkur, Hasan,

Shimoga, and two others. The only criterion was that there should be a good

supply of quality manpower. All these places have very good supply of graduates.

RIIT is being set up in Mysore and would be the first IT-finishing schools in

India.

Any new initiatives?



All our departments within the IT department will go paperless from May
2007. All documents will be digitized and will be digitally signed. Even file

notings would be done digitally.