BANGALORE: “The hardware industry is part of the IT gamut and the government will be concentrating on that aspect too. The government has been planning a Hardware Technology Park in the vicinity of the international airport, set up on similar lines to the software technology park. With the availability of skilled engineers, Bangalore can become an ideal place for hardware companies also to set up shop,” said S M Krishna, Chief Minister of Karnataka. He was speaking at the launch of the Indian development centre of Tasman Networks, a provider of networking solutions.

He added that the government would take all steps to attract more investment in the hardware area to the state. Pointing out that the hardware companies in existence had enjoyed almost 38% growth rate, Krishna said this was an encouraging trend. He also said that the government’s endeavors to attract more hardware companies to the park are one such forward movement in the trend.

Speaking on the lack of proper infrastructure in Bangalore, S M Krishna, accepting that it was difficult for any administration to explain such a deficiency, said that though the government had always been eager to make this necessary infrastructure a reality, ‘democratic checks and bureaucratic breaks’ keep it from seeing the light of day.

“I sense a trend in the way people these people here have come to set up this company. Gone are the days when people who went to the US for higher studies stayed back for gainful employment as well, enriching the USA with their technological manpower. Few ever got back. But these past three to four years I have seen a healthy trend, where such people have been eager to come back, invest in the country and prove that they can set up companies on their own. I want to express a special cheer for all of those who have come back to set up their own industry here and promise that they certainly will not regret it,” he said.

(CNS)