Bangalore, Nov 05: Leveraging on the growth in the knowledge sector, Karnataka government has targetted generation of one million jobs in this sphere by 2008, Chief Minister S M Krishna said today. Nearly two lakh jobs had been generated in the it sector in the last few years in Karnataka which exported software worth rs 14,000 crore, standing number one in the country, he said.
Jobs would be generated in the IT, IT-enabled services, bio-technology and top end manufacturing and hardware sectors, Krishna told a meet-the-press programme organised by the Press Club of Bangalore and the Bangalore Reporters' Guild here.
Krishna said Karnataka's software exports were much more than the combined exports of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, which was once projected as posing a major challenge to the state's pre-eminent position, Kerala and Pondicherry. It was also more when software exports of all northern states were put together.
Citing experts, he said they have projected that software exports from Karnataka could be Rs 50,000 crore in eight years.
Upbeat about the state's economy, he said Karnataka government was "on course" in reaching the target of reducing the fiscal deficit to three per cent by 2005-2006.
Collection of taxes had also grown by 20 to 22 per cent and there was "resonance and vibrancy" in the economy. Of the Rs 8,000 crore target in tax collection for this fiscal, Rs 4,197 crore had already been mopped up.
Bureau Report