“With government-level support, Pune can take a quantum leap”

Deepak Shikarpur is Chairman of the IT sub-committee of MCCIA, Pune, and National Chairman (IT Applications), Computer Society of India. Express Computer spoke to him about the city’s promise, prospects and problems.

What is your assessment of the growth of IT industry in Pune in the last 10 years?

IT industry in Pune in 1995 was hardly Rs 500 crore, and now the total size exceeds Rs 9,000 crore (inclusive of all sectors). This shows the quantum of growth. Pune is famous for education and automotive business. Hence domain specialists from these industries have nicely converged with the IT industry. This has led to the creation of excellent domain-backed ventures. Companies such as PTC, GSSL, TCS Manufacturing Practice, KPIT Cummins, Zensar, Dimensions and UBICS have eManufacturing practice experts in Pune. The industry has grown mainly due to the presence of skilled professionals in the city. Proximity to Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, is an important factor.

What are the present and short-term challenges before the city’s IT business?

The present challenges before the city include how to attract big global players to set up their offices and development centres here. Many IT CEO’s want to start their second centres in Pune after Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi. We need to market Pune as a destination. For this we need to build Pumbai concept (Pune+Navi Mumbai +Mumbai) as a Knowledge Corridor connected by expressway. Pumbai software exports is approximately $3.5 billion.

What Pune-specific policy level initiatives are necessary in your opinion?

Pune needs a Sherrif who will be the city’s spokesperson. Since Pune is not a capital city, international business delegations tend to skip it. When a delegation visits us, we can’t get the Chief Minister to throw a red carpet. We also need a clear mandate for the proposed international airport and timely construction of flyovers besides a special policy for Public Transport. Brand Pumbai needs to be promoted by the Government of Maharashtra. Pune badly needs a Disaster Management Plan to help in case of a calamity such as floods.

How much of Pune’s IT progress is reflected in the city’s public and municipal administration?

There are islands of eGovernance in Pune. For example, land records & transfer, and MSEB bills are computerised and so are most of the municipal records. Yet the old mindset of delaying work continues to be a problem.

What are Pune’s key merits over other cities for IT investments?

Pune has good livable climate, ample water supply, good human resources, global mindset and excellent foreign language training in Japanese, German, French, Russian and Spanish. It has a strong industry in engineering, well spread network of educational institutions and world-class research organisations such as CDAC, NIV, NCL, ARI and ARAI. The city has the potential to be a leader in product development and bioinformatics

What is MCCIA’s role in the promotion of IT business In Pune?

MCCIA was the first to realise the latent potential in Pune and also the first to introduce the concept of a vision document for the city in 1996. The Hinjavadi IT park, private IT parks at Kharadi, Magarpatta and Talawade are a fallout of the suggestions made in this document. PMC was the first municipal corporation to allow software development in residential premises. This immensely helped firms in the small and medium enterprises segment. MCCIA has taken several delegations to the US, China, SE Asia, Europe, etc to help the Pune IT Industry. It plans to leverage its sister city connections with San Jose, the US and Bremen, Germany. It holds Pune EXPO as a premier show to promote all strengths of Pune.