Monday, December 25, 2000		Article

"IT in Punjab needs nurturing"
by Naveen S. Garewal

The Punjab Government is very enthusiastic about making its Information Technology (IT) policy a success. The policy intent of the Punjab Government is a red carpet treatment for the prospective investor in this sector, but lack of awareness, attitude and skill set at the operational level about the state’s policies are creating bottlenecks, thereby slowing down the IT revolution in the state. The revolution can be expedited if a consistent effort is made to involve people at all levels," says the Quark India CEO, Mr Bal Sehgal, whose company was one of the first to set up shop in the state.

The state government, he says, has very good intentions, but the problem lies in the dissemination of state’s polices and decisions to the levels at which they are practically implemented. He cites the example of the octroi system’s working to make his point. "Even though the government has announced that the IT industries have been granted concession, after which they’ll have to pay only 50 per cent of the octroi, the clerk at the octroi post is unaware of this and insists on charging the full rate. The same attitude prevails in the case of sales tax, where delays at the check post waste critical time. In the IT world time is money and delays lead to setbacks in the revenue earnings of IT companies," he explains.

Mr Sehgal feels that the policies affect new operators more than the ones already in business. In the case of Punjab, the real issue is: How to implement the policy announced by the government? "This I feel is the biggest handicap."

The IT industry, he says, is unlike other industries and has IT-specific problems. For example, laws made for the general industry apply to the IT industry as well. "We do not have workers, but have ‘knowledge workers,’ the hours are ‘flexible hours of work,’ which are not covered by the existing labour laws, as our employees go and come at odd hours. The work in an info-tech company is not under the conventional framework. However, there are no specific laws that govern the IT sector.

"Punjab is more aggressive in making policies, but lacks implementation. In Mohali’s InfoTech Park, nothing much has really happened yet, while a lot has been talked about?" he says, adding, "We cannot match Karnataka as yet mainly due to low awareness levels among the masses." Offices there are organised and the policies of the state trickle down to the very end of the hierarchy. It is not just an advantage of location, but even in other ways.

The Punjab Government has to specifically build up a team of helping hands for new entrants into the IT sector. "Like a new-born baby, the IT industry has to be carefully nurtured during its gestation period that extends from a year to year-and-a-half ."

The IT sector can broadly be classified into three categories — 1) those who at the low end providing small solutions, 2) those doing projects for others and 3) the product developers. It is the middle category that is the worst affected in an unfriendly or indifferent environment.

At Quark, the emphasis is to do everything in-house and not bank on anyone for anything, including infrastructure like power generation. This, he says, is possible because the unit is established and well past its teething troubles.

But more than anything else, the government, Mr Sehgal, says should be willing to open up and become transparent for the IT industry to choose Punjab as its destination over other states, which have taken a lead in becoming technology savvy.

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