Wednesday, December 10, 2008

PLANNING BODY FOR REVAMP OF GOVERNANCE

Chennai/Bangalore, December 10, 2008
Business Standard

To manage and maintain Bangalore’s growth, the Karnataka Planning Board has called for early revamp of its governance structure, upgrade of its existing infrastructure and utilise high-end technology platforms to change the working environment in the city.

D H Shankaramurthy, deputy chairman, State Planning Board, said first meeting of the board has approved and adopted ‘Karnataka - a Vision 2020 For Development’ document as its guiding principle to take Bangalore forward.

“The city has established its presence in the global knowledge industry as a central destination for technology, research and development (R&D) services. Now to manage this growth, the key challenges facing the state and to keep reinventing itself for the future, the vision document has been adopted,” he added.

The state planning board has laid emphasis on Bangalore city, in addition to other priority sectors as it is the engine propelling the state’s growth. Bangalore, which makes up less than 0.5 percent of the state’s area, is home to nearly 10.5 percent of Karnataka’s population and 12.7 percent of its workforce.

To manage and maintain the city’s transformational change, ‘Karnataka - A Vision 2020 For Development’ document has called for leveraging the existing high-tech R&D strengths in Bangalore which has been at the heart of defence research, heavy manufacturing and electronics and, a host of central research and academic institutions. Of late, it has become the nucleus of biotech and high-end IT research. To leverage this, the state government should play a role in stimulating the exchange between industry and academia by establishing councils, providing convention centres, hosting conferences and events.

The paper has called for using high tech platforms to change work environment as Bangalore is on the cutting edge of the knowledge industry, can create and demonstrate models of work-life balance. The government to work with private sector towards such advancements.

0 comments: