VISAKHAPATNAM: The IT industry has welcomed the initiatives announced by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy with regard to development of Vizag. Speaking to TNIE, AP IT Association president Sreedhar Kosaraju said the proposed skill university in Vizag will go a long way to attract more companies to the Port City as the university will meet the skilled manpower demand. He said they are eagerly waiting for a new IT policy for the last several months and have pinned their hopes on it.
The draft IT policy will be tabled at the Cabinet meeting on June 30 after the Chief Minister’s approval. He said they have requested the government to release incentives which are pending since 2019. At least one fourth of the pending incentive should be released as it would give breathing space to the companies which are affected by the Covid pandemic.
Sridhar said the new industrial policy was very important now for an emerging state like AP to attract investors in view of stiff competition from places such as Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, where there is a strong ecosystem. “In fact, many investors are keen to come to AP but they are waiting for the policy. Though IT has been made industry, most of the units are yet to register under the industry category,” he pointed out. He said about Rs 100 crore worth incentives were due to IT companies since 2018. “The IT industry feels the sooner is better with regard to new industrial policy. At least Rs 25 crore should be released to help struggling IT firms,” he demanded.
The MSME package announced by the Centre as part of ‘Atma Nirbhar’ was of not much help to the IT companies, he noted.Former ITAAP president RL Narayana said the industry’s main focus in the new policy should be on infrastructure such as empty space and plug and play space, social infrastructure such as schools, entertainment zones and hospitals, skill development, incentives and branding of AP. The roadshows for ‘brand AP’ should be conducted in other places of the country, he demanded.
“The incentives should be competitive to attract investors. The new IT policy should be a win-win situation for both the industry and the investors,” he opined. He said the IT industry was waiting for payment of incentives for two years from 2019. There was only one IT secretary in Telangana for the last six years whereas in AP there were 10 secretaries for IT during the same period, he pointed out.
However, B Murali Mohan, CEO of Sankhya Technologies, said the IT policy played an important role in attracting big companies 15 years ago to set up bases in India. Stating that though he was not against IT policy, he said in the changed scenario, particularly in view of ‘work from home’ culture following the pandemic , IT policy will have limited role as the big companies have already come to India. What companies want now is availability of good local talent and researchers, he said and added that the skill university will play a greater role than the government in this regard.
“BPO companies will come if incentives are offered as they will have a thin margin of profits. However, this will not help the local economy as the package of their jobs will be around Rs 10,000,” he observed and added that high-package jobs will help rejuvenate the local economy. “If there is expertise and talent, companies will come to Vizag,” he said. There should be a strategy rather than the policy to promote the industry, he said. The state will stand out if a strategic policy was designed with a vision for the next few years, he observed. He summed up saying AP has an advantage and its potential should be properly tapped.