Kumarswamy's call for IT bigwigs to invest in Hubli-Dharwad

Hubli, May 20: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumarswamy today asserted that his government was committed to take IT to secondary cities and called upon the Information Technology (IT) Companies to invest in North-Karnataka region saying that the government would provide all necessary assistance to investors and entrepreneurs.

Inaugurating a convention of IT investors here, he said ''It is my long cherished dream that Hubli-Dharwad region should also become an IT Hub in the state''. He said the region was the second largest in the state after Bangalore and had a literacy rate of over 72 per cent, accounting for a large pool of educated youth who could be fruitfully employed by the IT industry, especially in the ITes and BPO sectors.

Referring to the NASSCOM-Mckensy report that put the number of IT professionals in Karnataka at one million by 2010, Mr Kumaraswamy said ''I want atleast 30 per cent of them to be located in North Kanrataka''. he lauded the efforts of NASSCOM to take up the initiative of making graduates from Northern Karnataka 'IT Ready'.

Asserting that Karnataka was the undisputed IT leader in the country, the chief minister said the state has consistently been the front runner in the IT since 1998, generating software exports of over Rs.37,600 crores during the financial year 2005-06.

He said the growth rate recorded was 36 per cent over the previous year. the share of Karntaka in the national IT exports was over 37 per cent and a large part of this share of IT exports was contgributed by Bangalore, which has over 1650 IT companies.

He said the Hubli airport was being upgraded to accomodate bigger aircraft. With Goa and Karwar offering ideal beach resorts for weekend get-aways, Hubli was ideally located for work as well as pleasure.

UNI