New technology incubation centre opens in Bangalore.

Sufia Tippu
Friday, 02 June 2006 18:39

IT Industry - Market

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is a government organization which facilitates India IT growth and offers connectivity to Indian IT firms

The center aims to create opportunities for enthusiastic entrepreneurs who want to start their own enterprises without any capital investment and could work on innovative projects to produce intellectual property within India.

During the inauguration of the new facility on Friday,  Union IT and Communications Minister, Dayanidhi Maran said that the STPI-Bangalore stands out as a shining beacon catalyzing the rapid growth for the whole of the Indian IT industry.

“Today, when we talk about IT, the question invariably asked is how can we move up the value chain? Why is it that we cannot emulate the Silicon Valley in terms of coming up with disruptive technologies and innovative products instead of merely focusing on IT services? And the answer I think is this – we are not able to give enough encouragement and support to those who come up with ideas and help them productize them – and more important, launch them in the global arena,” Maran said.

The Orchid Incubation Centre coming up here is a witness to the changing mindset of the IT industry and what it needs to sustain itself in a longer term time-frame. The Orchid Incubation Center also comes with back-end relationships with TiE, Entrepreneurial Acceleration Programme as well as the Indian Semiconductor Association, academics and the venture capitalist (VC) community.

India is becoming a global IT industry center, based on a thriving software exports industry. In the process, Bangalore has not only contributed to this growth but has also created a brand for itself contributing about one third of the total IT exports of India.

Software exports from India reached around US$24 billion in the year 2005-06 and are on track to reach US$60 billion by 2010. “STPI is known for its entrepreneurial spirit in the country. And, in Bangalore, STPI is like a serial entrepreneur where one venture after another has become successful,” Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said. From its humble beginnings in a leased building from the state government where it started its international gateway facility and the country’s first internet node in a temporary bunker, STPI- Bangalore has come a long way in playing a crucial role in facilitating and promoting the IT export industry.

B.V. Naidu, Director, STPI, Bangalore, said that the previous building irrespective of its look and size, had received more than 10 Prime Ministers & Vice Prime Ministers and the Presidents of various countries and more than 100s of foreign delegates. “All of them had made it mandatory on their schedule to visit our office – our work by itself had spoken volumes and everyone had wanted to see what we had created here,” Naidu said.

Today, when one steps into the new facility the first thing that catches one’s eye is the marble floor with a traditional Indian design in earthy terracotta brown right in the centre surrounded by ancient statuettes in lighted niches in the walls. This is a symbolic way of depicting how STPI- Bangalore has become a meeting point of what India was centuries ago and what it is now -- an absolute convergence of India’s traditional culture and the present-day IT demands of the knowledge economy.