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*GITP Welcomes Goa Budget Commitments for IT and Employment, Recommends Ways to Fulfill it* Goa IT Professionals welcomes Mr. Parrikar’s strong commitments in his budget towards Goan education reforms to align with international benchmarks, and, generation of high-income modern employment for Goans to prosper in Goa. GITP is glad to have contributed in various ways to this endeavor so far, and assures full-hearted support to turn these words into reality on a war-footing given the urgency of the situation in Goa. The declarations and provisions made in the budget have sparked a new hope among thousands of Goan IT professionals and their families. GITP appreciates the importance laid on the IT industry as it employs professionals from several educational streams and stands to eliminate Goa's long standing problem of unemployment, brain drain and outward migration. *GITP has further made below recommendations on ways to achieve the commitments made by Goa Govt in the Budget 2017*, based on the current state of the industry: *Government projects* The budget lays stress on digitization of government records. Many government departments will have to undertake IT projects. The startup policy should make provision for preferring companies with local presence for these projects. *Ease of Doing Business* All procedures and necessary forms should be available on a website. There should be a single windows that needs to be approached for starting a business. Many states have enforced time-bound clearances of industrial projects. A project is deemed to be approved if there is no response from the government within 15 days. As a small state, Goa can do far better than this. *Plug and Play centers* The incubation centers proposed in the budget should offer plug and play services and should not be restricted for startups that need incubation. A company looking for setting up in Goa should be able to start on a small scale in these centers and later move to the IT Park. All necessary infrastructure such as reliable power, internet, etc. should be managed by the center, allowing prospective companies to immediately start their business without infrastructural hassles. *Effective Marketing* The government needs to get into overdrive to visit mid-sized companies in other parts of the country and understand their needs. From the interaction we have had so far, most companies need and environment that lets them focus on their business without worrying about regulations, water supply, transport, internet and power generation. *Utilization of existing spaces* Though the IT park is 2 years away, the government and IPB should facilitate the setting up of development units in the state in existing workspaces. Most of the large companies in other cities have started on a couple of floors before moving to larger premises. *Tax relief* The government should announce a tax relief to IT and ITES companies for at least 5 years proportionate to the percentage of local manpower. This will make Goa a profitable location and will encourage companies to hire local talent. Once we have a sizable number of companies in Goa, there will be enough manpower to attract more companies to the state. *Upgradation of school labs* IT-literacy in rural Goa is suffering due to non-working PCs in schools. These can easily be revived with cost effective solution proposed and demonstrated by GITP using devices such as Raspberry Pi. *-----END-----* Regards, *Goa IT Professionals – GITP *| www.goaitpro.org | goa...@gmail.com *Important links: About GITP <http://www.goaitpro.org/gitp> | GITP on Social Network <http://www.goaitpro.org/follow-us/> | GITP Core Team <http://www.goaitpro.org/our-team> | *Goa Skills Registry - GSR <http://skills.goaitpro.org/> | Project GEIT <https://www.facebook.com/GoansEmpoweredWithIT/>
