The Goa Government has decided to give priority to local Information Technology entrepreneurs (IT) in the two model industrial estates planned in North and South districts. The estates are planned at Quittol in remote Quepem taluka and Pissurlem, a village in the iron ore mining belt.

Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Chairman Manguirish Pai Raikar, who is also a Director of state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), said local IT entrepreneurs will get top priority in setting up facilities in these industrial estates.

"We are not looking at the mega IT firms to come up there. Instead, it should be small units which can employ IT graduates from the state," Raikar said on Monday.

Goa has three engineering colleges and around 1,500 IT graduates pass out every year in the state. Raikar said there is a lot of migration from Goa due to lack of opportunities. "We have students going to places like Bangalore, Pune and Noida (near Delhi) leaving their aged parents behind. The aim is to create industries in the state so that there is reverse migration."

GCCI will help the entrepreneurs to set up shops in these IDC-run estates, which have been cleared under the Regional Plan 2021, he said.

State-run Economic Development Corporation (EDC) is being roped in for providing financing to the entrepreneurs. GCCI has taken up an initiative to train IT graduates by tying up with CMC, a Tata Group firm which provides end-to- end IT solutions and services.

The GCCI Chairman said Persistent Systems, a software development firm, has decided to expand its facility at Verna Industrial Estate by adding 300 more professionals to its existing 350 employees.