The Contribution of Information Technology in the Economic Growth of Karnataka

Information Technology generally is referred to the digital processing, storage and communication of information of all kinds. The today’s globalization is the polished version of knowledge economy. The Information Technology gives major impetus to globalization. Information goods typically have the characteristic of public and social good that one person’s use does not reduce their availability for another person. In Asia, IT sector is gaining prominence in India, China and Korea after Japan. Fortunately India has grown dramatically in the IT and IT enabled services, despite the country’s relatively low level of income and development. It is estimated by NASSCOM that the number of software and IT service jobs in India will increase by 1.5 million to 2 million by 2008, according to a report. This represents a 40% compound annual growth rate.Karnataka, the land of silk, milk and gold is also the knowledge capital of India. It is not only garden city, but also the Silicon city of India. It added with salubrious climate excellent education, health and skilled laborers also have good social harmony health. It is one of the top 5 FDI destinations in India, It has many first to its credit in IT Sector, to name few, it was the first state to introduce IT policy for the promotion of IT industry in 1997, it was first to introduce technological university for introducing uniform curriculum in all the engineering colleges, it was first to introduce engineering colleges The software exports in Karnataka grew by 36%, it is 37% of national software exports. The share of software exports in India is 2.6% of GDP at factor cost in current price in 2003-04. Whereas the share of software exports of Karnataka is 15% of its gross state development product. In 2004-05 the share of software exports of India to GDP increased to 3.3% and the state software exports to GSDP increased to 20.87%. This shows the increased contribution of IT to the growth of Karnataka. The following chart shows the software export of both the Karnataka and India.The secondary cities in Karnataka has made the moderate beginning with the Mysore with 40 units is exporting the value of 392 crores during 2004-05, in the same period the Mangalore/ Manipal with 21 Units is exporting the value of 570 crores and in Hubli there were nine unite with 4.92 crores of exports. Though the units and export value compared to Bangalore is small, it is the right decision in the right direction. The Karnataka government with the dedicated and determined effort computerised two crore land records of 67 lakh farmers living in 29,406 villages in the state. From the first kiosk in Saklespur taluk in 2000 to 203 kiosks by 2005, the BHOOMI has come a long way. Kaveri (Karnataka Valuation and e-Registration) project is the state’s first public-private e-governance initiative for the stamps and registration department — can help cut down time spent on paperwork relating to property registration from 45 days to half an hour. The Kaveri will handle around 10 -12 lakhs registered documents in a year, with over an annual revenue outlay of more than Rs 1,500 crore.Bangalore one is the integrated citizen service project to deliver all government services under one stop shop has been in operation since 2 April 2005. Bangalore citizens are benefiting from the 14 hi-tech citizen service centres