Vibrant Goa Summit..................................
Goa Technology Association has ambitious plans and a concomitant roadmap: Goa richer by Billions of ` through Vibrant event
Goa Technology Association, or GTA, founded in 2017, intends to pin Goa on the national and international IT and ITES maps for the state’s technology capabilities. Milind Anvekar, vice president at GTA, says GTA had presented an ecosystem study report to the state government and is working along with the government to frame an IT and startup policy for the state. The state had recently celebrated an IT Day and a Startup Day to showcase the IT companies and startupsin the state. GTA had also managed to get the likes of NASSCOM and STPI to focus on Goa and jointly organize few events there.
INVESTORS FOR FINTECHS
Goa has some 150+ IT and ITES companies. There are 3 fintech companies - Minkspay, Loan Singh and Codemax - in addition to several others operating in different technology domains.
GTA has already partnered with ICICI Bank to organize an event discussing the impact of the emerging technologies in the banking sector. In 2020, it plans to host a 2-day summit on the fintech sector.”
GTA was a partner for the first-ever, 3-day Vibrant Goa Expo and Summit organized by Vibrant Goa Foundation and held in Panaji in October. A number of angel investors had visited Goa during the summit and Anvekar says these include CIO Angel Network, India Angel Network, Lets Venture, Rajasthan Angels, Goa Angels, Startup Buddy, 91 Springboard, Crest Capital, KYT Venture sand Alacrity India.
PROMOTING 100 STARTUPS
Along with the Goa Business School of the Goa University, GTA curated an IT summit at Vibrant Goa Summit focusing on the IT segment. A workshop for early stage startups and potential startups discussing the various aspects of startups, was part of the summit. Anvekar says GTA believes that with eminent national and international business leaders and delegates visiting Goa for the summit, the startup and technology ecosystem has indeed benefitted. The summit also saw a workshop for HNIs on understanding how to invest in startups. A pitching session was also organized where 8 startups were shortlisted from total of 41 applications from Goa to pitch to the top investors from India.
GTA facilitated a meeting between the investors and IT minister Jennifer Monserrate to discuss on creating a local startup fund. The entire event received overwhelming response and has opened opportunities for GTA and its members to explore business in and outside Goa.
Goa’ s chief minister Pr a mod Sawant appreciated the efforts of GTA in accelerating the growth of the IT ecosystem in the state. He assured the government’s support for GTA.
Anvekar says GTA hopes to contribute 1% of the total national software export by 2025 and help build and promote at least 100 good startups in the state over the next 4 years. “We want Goa to be the next IT event destination of the world and will have next set of activities aligned towards meeting this objective,” he adds.
IT PARK SOON
It is proposed that Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) will develop an IT park in Goa and set up a mentor-enabled center of excellence in emerging technologies. Dr Omkar Rai, director general, STPI, said the facility will be created at a cost of `400 million for promotion of IT industry, entrepreneurship and startup culture in the state. The chief minister has offered 14,000 square metre plot of land at Dona Paula for creating a facility for promoting startup and IT industry activities in the state. An MoU was signed for the proposed project which is expected to be completed in 30 months.
Says Rai: “The project, housing a state-of-the-art incubation center, plug and play facilities, data center and a center of excellence, will provide opportunities to Goan boys and girls in the field of electronics and IT. They can become entrepreneurs by developing their products as startups. It will become a research and resource center for those startups that would like to convert their ideas into prototypes. STPI will also act as a facilitator for software export in this region.”
4.53 BN INVESTMENTS
The summit yielded investment proposals worth `4.53 billion as well as business inquiries worth `11.50 billion. The chief minister highlighted his government’s
endeavor to fill the gap by creating synergies as well as synchronising the existing industries and new industries that are likely to come up in the state as a result of the event and other initiatives. The state government is working to ensure that the youth in the state deservingly get jobs in the private sector, which is currently witnessing a resurgence .
The chief minister is also aiming for a political or legal solution to the mining issue by December end. The mining industry has been a major contributor to the state’s economy.
Sawant said the industry, business and trade related proposals of foreign investors, willing to invest in Goa, would be expeditiously cleared in 30 days through a single-window system under the Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board. He said several countries, including the US, Australia, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, Russia, Bhutan, Nepal, China, Malaysia and Canada, have shown interest to invest in Goa, especially in the hospitality, IT and tourism sectors.
MEDICAL, SPORTS TOURISM
The chief minister cited finance minister
Nirmala Sitharaman’s assurance that the cental government is ready to help Goa in promoting innovative projects such as medical tourism, on which the state government has been actively focusing because the hinterland areas of the state have a great potential. He said the state is ready to amend some laws, if necessary, in the next assembly session to promote to medical tourism.
Union minister for railways, commerce and industry Piyush Goyal had told the Goa leadership to engage Australia and New Zealand to bring sea sport and modern sea facilities into the state. The state should allso explore the feasibility of introducing helicopter services connecting the south and north districts.
Goyal had assured the central government’ s assistance to create empowered infrastructure to promote tourism in the state, with special packages for new hotel infrastructure and plans to expand railway infrastructure.
FIRST-TIME EXPORTERS
Dr Jagat Shah, the chief mentor of Vibrant Goa Summit, said small scale enterprises and local companies have become firsttime exporters in the state. He mentioned that a company from Oman has signed a contract worth `100 million, the biggest of the event, for the import of building material from a Goan businessman Arman Bankley’s AR-Mine’s Industries. Wooden Homes India, a South Goa-based company that can set up a one-storey house in less than 5 days, has got orders from Nepal and the US for constructing wooden homes. A Canadian building material company has also confirmed an order of `600,000 to a Goan company.
The Summit saw some 410 B2B meetings and 180 domestic companies were guided and prepared to deal with trade in foreign countries.
Raj Kumar Kamat, president, organizing committee, said: “The US, Australia, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar delegations have signed Mo Us in diverse sectors like renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, food processing, information technology, biotechnology, real estate, construction and artificial intelligence. The event attracted about 6500 business delegates, including 530 overseas delegates.”