COMMENT... The Goa Agenda meet

----------------------------------------------------------
Archives:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goa-net/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goanet2003/
----------------------------------------------------------

Express Computer editor Val Souza comments on the recent Goa Agenda meet. 

http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20021223/opinion1.shtml
   
   Goas got IT on its agenda now
   
   When you proclaim you're 365 days on a holiday, it's kind of dodgy
   to--in the same breath--ask businesses to come set up serious shop in
   your State. They'd assume you'd been out sunbathing a tad longer than
   sensible. That's perhaps one of the reasons why Goa has been late off
   the blocks in wooing the IT services and IT enabled services
   industries to set up base on its pristine shores; and been reluctant
   too to hold out a begging bowl, like some other states unabashedly do,
   each time a visiting CEO is doling out the dollars.
   
   Of course it didn't help much that while the rest of the country was
   going gaga over the success of the Indian software industry, Goan
   politicians were busying themselves in toppling each other over--13
   chief ministers in a decade, surely that's Guinness-world-record level
   material.
   
   But it's been 26 months now that the BJP government, headed by
   IIT-Bombay alumnus Manohar Parrikar, has held its own in Goa. And over
   this time, albeit in its inimitably unhurried style, Goa has been
   working on policies and initiatives that seem set to make the tiny
   state a model for the rest of India to follow, in terms of utilisation
   of information technology to meet the needs of society.
   
   Sounds fishy? Well, for starters, Goa's draft IT Policy is
   refreshingly different from what most others have put out. The broad
   mission is to enhance the state's capacity for "quality decisions" in
   every sphere, whether at the government, corporate or individual
   level. There's an InfoTech Corporation that has been set up to serve
   as a single window for implementation of all IT initiatives by the
   government, and an InfoTech Council to facilitate creation,
   development and implementation of India's first R&D park, co-locating
   several R&D laboratories on a single campus.
   
   Throughout, the emphasis of the policy is on IT for development rather
   than a blind leap onto the software exports bandwagon. Yes, the
   document does talk of investment incentives and concessions, but the
   difference is that everything's directed at making Goa the R&D hub of
   the country.
   
   The behind-the-scenes groundwork done so far culminated earlier this
   month in the hosting of The Goa Agenda--a conference jointly organised
   by the Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the government--that
   brought together powerful minds from all over the country to
   deliberate on how the state should take the lead in utilising IT for
   the benefit of the common man in its society.
   
   Good intentions have already been translated into actual action in
   some areas. For instance, every single one of the secondary schools in
   Goa has at least one computer in place. Some have many more, thanks to
   the largesse of expatriate Goans and other well-wishers abroad--almost
   400 donated computers were distributed to schools via the Goa Sudharop
   NGO and the Goa Schools Computers Project recently. And next year,
   every student in the science stream at the pre-university level will
   be eligible to purchase a computer from a government agency for a
   paltry thousand rupees.
   
   Interestingly, many of these computers in the schools run the
   open-source alternative operating system Linux. One local expert
   estimates that Goa has the highest density of Linux-based PCs and
   users in the country. Complementing this alternative experiment is the
   fact that Goa is getting wired up pretty quick, with optical fibre
   criss-crossing the state and high bandwidth availability already a
   reality. It's been suggested that Goa should go all out to provide
   WiFi Hotspots (802.11 access points to use with wireless LAN devices)
   across the state as soon as the 2.4 GHz band of the spectrum is
   completely delicensed for outdoor use.
   
   Goa is an ideal state in which to experiment taking IT to the masses
   with these alternative technologies and innovative devices, for
   several reasons. For one, it's tiny--just about 105 km long and 35 km
   wide, with a population of around 1.4 million spread over only about
   2,000 square kilometres of the entire area. Literacy is over 80
   percent, with a high proportion of English-language fluency and a per
   capita income double the national average.
   
   Can Goa become India's first "intelligent" state, completely IT
   literate and fully wired? Well, The Goa Agenda showed that quite a few
   intelligent and dedicated individuals are working towards this dream.
   But they will have to go far beyond pitching Goa's salubrious
   environment alone as the USP, if they are to come even close to
   realising it. No doubt, there are already some success stories--like
   that of D-Link, the networking gear manufacturer that is one of the
   few companies in the hardware sector doing real manufacturing;
   ControlNet, with successful forays into chip design and embedded
   computing; and Zenith, which continues to hold high the `Indian PC
   brand' banner from its factories in Goa. But if the state can add even
   one really big name to this roster on the R&D front, the floodgates
   could well be opened.
   
   Any which way, it's going to be a long journey ahead. For now, I'll
   let Goa's Information Technology Minister, Francisco D'Souza, have the
   last word. He sat through most of the sessions at the two-day
   conference and stated at the end: "If we cannot make Goa a very very
   IT-savvy state within the next five years at the maximum, then I think
   we're not capable of handling anything in Goa."
   
   Now nothing could be more categorical than that, could it? We wish you
   all the very best, Mr Minister.


WANT TO check out which mailing lists you could subscribe to? Send a blank 
email message to goanet-request-fkB0aodkGtPQT0dZR+AlfA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
========================================================================
Ongoing: Exhibition of paintings, Art Chamber, Calangute www.goa-art.com
Dec 23-Jan 7: Dayanita Singh's photo exhibition, Art House Tel 2276123
Jan  18-19: International kite carnival at Morgim beach, Pernem
========================================================================