'Karnataka emerging as hardware hub of the country'

BANGALORE,INDIA: Karnataka minister for Information Technology S R Patil on Tuesday inagurated a socialisation workshop on "India Market Place: IT the unrealised potential" here organized by MAIT, an apex body actively representing IT Hardware sector.

Speaking on the occassion Patil urged for a shift in policy, tax restructuring, better functioning with the union government and encouraged domestic production.

The minister stressed on the need for a hardware manifesto reiterating the call that Karnataka was becoming a ‘hardware hub of the country'

The minister said "The stakes are high for Karnataka, already known as the Silicon Valley of India, Karnataka has to set an example to the rest of the country by promoting hardware manufacturing and enabling a manufacturing eco-system"

He stressed the need for members of MAIT to take an active role on government policy making

Speaking at the inaugural session, Anwar Shirpurwala, executive director, MAIT said "Karnataka has an enviable record in Information Technology; Hardware Manufacturing presents a huge opportunity and Karnataka can set benchmarks by being a hardware exporter"

He emphasized doing away with inverted duty structure and subsidies for encouraging domestic manufacturing"

There was a special session at the workshop where M N Vidyashankar, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary (Retd.), Govt. of Karnataka revealed that Karnataka was the only state in the country to have integrated e-procurement based on deliverables and outcomes, he highlighted that Karnataka was the only state to have a department of e-governance where 36 massive applications were monitored by 11 people. He bought to light that e-procurement initiatives saved over 13000 crore of the government exchequer.

Alekh Tiwari, Associate Director, KPMG, commented "the Indian IT hardware industry can look forward to making a substantial impact by taking some of the steps such as bringing down the hardware cost by 43% with the help of government subsidies, reducing the total cost of ownership of a PC and broadband solution, providing income tax exemption to individuals against PC purchase, and promoting the purchase of PCs amongst specific segments like students and households with annual income below Rs 5 lakh"

The session was followed by a panel discussion on "Large Procurement and e-governance". This session was deliberated by M N Vidyashankar, IAS., Additional Chief Secretary (Retd.), Govt. of Karnataka along with Mr. S Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer and Ramprasad Srinivasan, Director, MNC Business, Intel.

Another panel discussion on "MSME - the potential growth stimulator" was deliberated by M S Mokashi, CEO and chief advisor, TECSOK, Govt. of Karnataka, Rahul Gupta, MAIT SME Chapter and Dhanavanti Jain, President, Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka.

Venkat Kedlaya, Chairman, Southern Region MAIT on behalf of the Indian IT industry, thanked the Government of Karnataka for giving the hardware sector the impetus for growth

Dinesh Gundu Rao, Karnataka's minister for food and civil supplies said Govt will embark on a stable policy regime, he advocated that an encouraging ecosystem will boost Karnataka and pave way for global competitiveness in the hardware manufacturing.