MAIT, Karnataka government discuss reforms to attract investors

NEW DELHI: Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), the apex body actively representing ICT Manufacturing, Training, IT, Design, R&D and associated services sector hosted a national workshop on 'Ease of Doing Business' in association with the Karnataka government yesterday.

The 'Ease of Doing Business' workshop saw participation from industry stalwarts as well as representatives from the government like Tanusree Deb Barma, IAS, Director IT, BT and Managing Director KBITS, Chairman Dr Ravindra A, former chief secretary of Karnataka government and Nagendra Kumar, Principal ADG, Directorate of Central Excise Intelligence, Bangalore Zone.

"The Government of Karnataka is working along with MAIT to take the ICT manufacturing industry forward. An investment of Rs 30 crore for ICT and ESDM clusters in Mysuru has already been approved by the government. Meanwhile, an investment of Rs 100 crore for Bengaluru has received preliminary approvals and is waiting final approval. This kind of collaboration is best placed when the industry and government work together." said Tanusree Deb Barma, Director - IT & BT of Karnataka government.

Industry leaders had an opportunity to voice out operational and regulatory issues which require the cooperation and support of the state government as well as and regulatory authorities such as KIADB (for land acquisition), KSPCB (for e-waste compliances), Department of e-Governance (for favorable IT Procurement policies) and also the Commercial Taxes, Labour and Employment departments.

Some of the persistent issues that cropped up were pain points around interaction with bureaucracy, infrastructure, GST, investments, transparency and the need for state and central governments to coordinate in addressing the industry's concerns.

The 'Digital India' campaign has an ambitious target of achieving Net Zero Imports by 2020 in Electronics and IT Hardware goods by reducing its imports, encouraging indigenous manufacturing and increasing exports. This would be possible only if persisting issues are addressed.

"The Digital India campaign was initiated by the Government of India to achieve Net Zero Imports by 2020 in Electronics and Hardware. It is an ambitious, yet achievable goal which can be addressed by resolving bottlenecks. To improve manufacturing and exports, we need to identify what went wrong in the last decade and address each small and persisting concern. Besides, the gap between Central and State Governments have to be addressed for a business to run easily. This will help us to create an impact in international trade,” said Nitin Kunkolienkar, VP-MAIT and Director, Smartlink Network Systems.

"With this workshop, we are trying to create ease in setting up, running and operating a business at all levels. Karnataka has good resources but an investor's decision to invest also depends on the infrastructure,” said S R Vijay Shankar, VP- Intel and Chairman, Southern Region – MAIT.

"There's a need to understand how to create a collaborative approach between the industry and the government, as well as the central and state governments. There is a need for robust methods to end the State and Center tussle,” said Mahesh Jaising, Partner - BMR Advisors.

"GST is the need of the hour and is likely to get introduced soon, subject to parliamentary debate and approval. The Central and State governments are working together to create a GST law. They are trying to bring uniformity in taxation whereby there will be identical laws and processes across India. The introduction of GST will be a path-breaking reform,” said Nagendra Kumar, IRS, Principal ADG, Directorate of Central Excise Intelligence, Bangalore Zone.