Goa has 6,000 IT trained youth jobless

by RAMNATH N PAI RAIKAR
Posted on 2008-08-08
PANAJI - The president of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Nitin Kuncolienkar on Thursday said that there are around 6,000 unemployed youth in Goa who have completed their IT education/ training at various strata from post-graduation to lower level.
Mr Kuncolienkar said that the local youth who have completed their education/ training in information technology at various levels have no scope in Goa due to the acute scarcity of such jobs. “The employment opportunities for IT educated youth are extremely difficult in Goa,” he added.
Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times,’ the GCCI chief said that the report of the basic infrastructure committee set up by the Chamber under the chairmanship of Mr Mark Rodrigues had predicted good opportunities for Goans in the field of IT, however, jeopardising of projects like the IT Habitat and IT Park have falsified this prediction. “If such projects had taken shape, a lot of jobs would have been available to the local youth,” said Mr Kuncolienkar pointing out, “In fact, such youth are now forced to leave Goa and move to other states in search of jobs.”
The report of the GCCI’s basic infrastructure committee had stated, “Today Goa is one of the most literate states in India with over 80 per cent literacy rate and most of these people being conversant with the English language, which is the Lingua Franca of the IT industry.” “Also, most Goans aspire and are suitable for ‘white collar’ jobs like banking, service and IT,” the report had maintained, pointing out, “Presently, there is a post-graduation course in computer sciences at the Goa University; Besides there are over 250 institutes imparting lower level IT education (around Goa).”
“A large number of alumni from these institutes and the university are doing extremely well but they have had to leave Goa for better opportunities elsewhere, since adequate opportunities are not available in the state,” the report had observed, further recommending, “The government can be a major spender in the IT market and attract IT companies to Goa through implementation of a comprehensive e-governance scheme which would not only introduce transparency and accountability and provide better services to the citizen but save administrative costs and provide input data for planned development.” “Business opportunities from local business and industry could also induce IT companies to set up shop in the state,” it had suggested.
The report had said, “By building on its considerable strengths in IT and its large and growing number of IT professionals, Goa will be able to capture the huge opportunity available through the global shift towards electronic commerce as well as the increasing importance of IT in every sphere of the economy.”
“Computing and communications technologies are overriding the limitations of physical distance, allowing many services to be provided remotely, that is far away from the customer/ patron of the service, and spawning entirely new and exciting IT-based industries like call centres, business process outsourcing, etc,” it had predicted.