IT’s the only way forward...
Software boom
After a gap of nine years, the spotlight is on Mysore again, as it is hosting an IT conference, Mysore 2.0 and an Expo, today, due to the initiative of Nasscom. In these nine years, the city, decked up as a bride, has grown enough to instill confidence in investors, stakeholders and the Government, to take the tier-II city to the next level, fondly hopes N Niranjan Nikam
It was in 2002 that the then President Dr Abdul Kalam inaugurated the Mysore IT.Com or Mysore 1.0. It was hoped then that Mysore would be catapulted as the next IT alternative destination.
Nine years down the line, lots of interesting things have happened to the royal city. It has now the tag as a heritage city, the four-laning of Mysore-Bangalore has happened, the doubling of railway track is going on and most importantly the city now has a functioning airport.
It was in 1997, in June that an IT.com under the banner of DEALIT (Dealers Association of Information Technology) was first held in the Institution of Engineers premises in which only hardware dealers had participated.
In 1999-2000 a few IT companies like Excel Soft participated and this was held in Chamundi Vihar indoor stadium. Then the Mysore IT Forum was formed in 2001.
The big boost came when STPI (Software Technology Parks of India) office was set up in the city in 1999 at the SJCE campus. Its role has been to provide data connectivity to software companies and to implement regulatory framework of activities.
Tax holiday helps
Export oriented software companies had to be registered with STPI and since there was a 10 year tax holiday, it helped software companies in the city to grow.
The city boasts of eight engineering colleges, 18 colleges offering MBA courses and two medical colleges. Added to this KR Pet and Chamarajanagar which are close to Mysore also have engineering colleges. There are 28 CBSE schools and all the central institutes like the CFTRI, DFRL, CIIL, AIISH, Rare Earth Minerals Plant (popularly known as the bomb factory) have made a difference. The population of the city stands around 12 lakhs today.
With all these facts and figures, the city truly stands on the threshold, to take a big leap forward.
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the premier organisation that represents and sets the tone for public policy for the Indian software industry, has shown a lot of interest in Mysore.
Since the last two years, it has been organising events and conferences for the nearly 40 IT companies in the city and the participation has been very good, says Excel Soft founder and CEO D Sudhanva.
Findings
According to findings from Nasscom-AT Kearney report, Karnataka State has one leading location i.e. Bangalore. The other potential locations i.e. Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad and Mysore need development support. In the year 2006-07, the IT exports from Mysore was Rs 76 billion to Karnataka’s Rs 4,870 billion.
Mysore is the first Indian city to become Wi-Fi enabled and is also one of the cities participating in an initiative to create e-governance systems across Karnataka.
With 62 per cent of the population in the working age, the city has a favourable age profile. With 75 per cent literacy rate, it is higher than the average of many other cities.
These are some of the big pluses, that the city of palaces and sometimes deprecatingly referred to as pensioners paradise has, say RiiiT MD and CEO S V Venkatesh and Lamda Communications chairman, K S Shanker Prasad.
Mysore is decked up like a bride, what with its wide roads, good water supply, fairly good power, the ring road, the many good hotels and drive-in restaurants, the cosmopolitan crowd and above all no traffic jams, say Venkatesh and Prasad.
The quality of life is much better in Mysore as one does not spend a lot of time commuting and in one hour at least four jobs could be completed, whereas in a place like Bangalore, we can finish just one job in the whole day and are totally exhausted, says Sudhanva, who had set up one of the first IT companies in the city.
“In our company, a few people had left for better job opportunities to places like Bangalore, New Delhi, Chennai. But some of them have returned because of the quality of life that Mysore offers,” said assistant manager, Corporate Communications Sujata Rajpal of Software Paradigms of India, again a home grown software company.
Ask why there was a lull in the activity of Mysore IT forum for the past nine years, Sudhanva, Venkatesh and Shankar Prasad who all were the main drivers, during the first IT.Com in 2002 have a different take. May be there was a leadership vacuum or the typically laid back attitude of a Mysorean, said Venkatesh. There was no critical mass, as the software companies were just coming to Mysore and hence the lull, adds Prasad.
“Mysore has a number of small to medium companies and as each one of us were more keen to drive our own businesses and see it grow, we just did not have the luxury of volunteering our time to take the forum forward,” said Sudhanva.
Will it, won’t it?
Can the big leap really happen? With Infosys, Mysore, having its own story to tell, Wipro and L&T firmly established, the best thing that could happen to the city being a tourist hub, is to have more such non-polluting giants to come and set shop. It is also for the young leadership to take the ecosystem through the next ten years for Mysore to become a truly sustainable alternative for Bangalore and IT’s the only way forward.
