NGO will sell North Karnataka to IT industry

Contributes 40% of city skills

An NGO "" North Karnataka BIC (BPO, ITeS and CRM) Society has been set up by academics, bureaucrats and a few well-known retired people with Hubli as its headquarters to pitch for investments to the region.

The region contributes to 40 per cent of Bangalore ITeS and BPO manpower. This being the case, it is now North Karnataka's turn to seek investments, said B S Patil, former Karnataka chief secretary and head of the society, speaking at Nasscom's India ITES-BPO Strategy Summit 2005 on Wednesday.

Speaking on 'North Karnataka: An Ideal Destination for BPOTES/CRM', Patil said, "Due to non-availability of data on the region, with no organised marketing done in pitching for investments, the society took shape to address this issue."

While Bangalore has been putting up an impressive show and is poised to harness ITeS to its full potential, neighboring secondary cities are not fully exploited.

"To help these cities, the state government is implementing a Rs 1,800 crore Asian Development Bank (ADB) plan to improve basic infrastructure in the region. Now we are putting our acts together to highlight the regions' strengths," he said.

"And efforts are being made to enlist eminent personalities from north Karnataka in the IT sector like Nandan Nilekani, Sudha Murthy, Gururaj Deshpande and Anand Koppar to give it a strong platform and a voice," said Patil.

Highlighting the regions strengths, Patil said present human resources status of the region is as follows. About 50,000 graduates pass out each year. There are 10 engineering colleges which produce 5,000 graduates; BBA "" 30 colleges, 1,000 graduates; BA ""150 colleges 25,000 graduates; B.Sc. "" 75 colleges, 10,000 graduates; B.Com "" 50 colleges, 10,000 graduates.

The north Karnataka cities are well connected by road, being part of the golden quadrilateral and by air with night landing facilities at Hubli and Belgaum to destinations like Bangalore and Mumbai. By rail cities like Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad and Karwar are connected to Bangalore and to all cities in the country.

On the quality of life and the cost of living, Patil said, "The region has excellent living conditions backed by abundant farm fresh groceries, cheaper by 50 per cent compared to any south Indian city."

The region also has good weekend getaways like cultural heritage spots and the beaches of Karwar and Goa are just 200 km away, he added.

The society is targeting investments in back offices for accounts, banking, insurance, content development and e-learning in phase I. It has already begun its work by networking educational institutes in the region. "The society is also aiming to train manpower to be ready by day one at the workplace," said Patil.

As part of the plan to woo investors to the region, the society plans to enlist support of well known IT personalities to encourage other companies to explore the region and also by inviting all IT, ITeS and BPO companies to visit the region and meet the student community, said Patil.

"With this exercise, the decision makers will get first hand experience and feel the place," he added.

The NGO includes among its members R S Hugar, Ashok Shettar, Subhash and S M Dhumle.