Kalaburagi: Largely Untapped IT Market

As compared to economically and commercially developed cities like Bangalore, Kalaburagi is still behind in the list of developed tier 3 cities in the country

Kalaburagi, also known as Gulbarga is popular for its Sufism and tourism. The city is famous for its limestone deposits and rich natural resources and its contribution in the field of education. However, as compare to economically and commercially developed cities like Bangalore, Kalaburagi is still behind in the list of developed tier 3 cities in the country.

Kalaburagi at a Glance...

Number of Resellers: 40-50 Approx

Prominent Brands: Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, D-Link, iBall, Quick Heal, K7, Kaspersky, NPAV

Key Verticals: Education, Cement, Tourism

Education hub

Kalaburagi is known as the ‘City of Education’ for its institutions managed by the private and the government sector. The city has the Gulbarga University, established in 1980. There are 230 colleges affiliated with this university offering graduate/diploma courses in arts, fine arts, music, social sciences, science and technology, commerce, education and law. The city has several nursing schools, medical colleges and engineering colleges. Therefore, there is no scarcity of manpower resources in Kalaburagi. However, it requires to be channelized in a appropriate way to push the economic development of the entire district.

Tourist attraction

Kalaburagi is popular for its Sufism and tourism. The city is well known for its many places of architectural, historical and religious importance. It is called one of the Sufi cities having famous religious places, like Khwaja Banda Nawaz Dargah and Ladle Mashak in Aland taluk of Gulbarga District and it has many other famous places like Sharana Basaveshwara Temple and Buddha Vihar. There are many attractions in Kalaburagi: Bahmani fort, Tomb of first Bahmani Sultan Hasan, Government Museum, Holkonda fort, Ferozabad fort, Sharanabasaveshwar Temple, Shri Kshetra Ganagapur (Ganagapur), a well-known pilgrimage site of the god Shri Sadguru Dattatreya Narasimha Saraswati, Sri Hulakantheshwar Temple (Herur B), and the Ghathargi Bhagayavanti Temple, on the bank of the Bhima River.

 Growth of IT

Kalaburagi is an industrially backward district, but is showing signs of growth in the cement, textile, leather and chemical industries. The city is rapidly urbanizing with the infrastructure development. However, the IT industry is still in a nascent phase in Kalaburagi. IT MNCs are not keen to explore the potentials here. In order to boost the IT growth, the Government of Karnataka set up IT park in Kalaburagi. The infrastructure created in the IT Park has all modern facilities including in-built power backup system and centralised air conditioning for all the flour floors. However, it has so far failed to attract IT giants. Slow infrastructure development could be the reason for lack of interest of the vendors to invest in the city. The IT hardware business in Kalaburagi is growing steadily. Almost all brands are present in the city and around 50 odd IT resellers are leading the channel business here. Like any tier 3 city, IT resellers in Kalaburagi also face the competition from OLS and outsiders.

The way ahead

Kalaburagi can be considered as one of the unexplored IT markets with huge business prospects. However, it needs attention from the government as well as the IT giants. With no scarcity of resources and manpower, Kalaburagi is a place having prospects for the fastest development in the entire State of Karnataka.

Interview

Mohammed Rehman,

Owner, Micro Touch Infotech

What kind of challenges do you face in business?

Mohammed Rehman: The Kalaburagi IT market is full with all the major vendors therefore, the competition is quite tough here. Almost all brands have their service centers in the city. However, we do face a very aggressive completion from the outsiders. They are very aggressive on pricing and ready to drop the prices to get the customers. Unfortunately, we suffer due to such bad business practices of some of the dealers.

What is an impact of OLS factor on the business of the offline channel?

Mohammed Rehman: OLS factor is there, but we have been dealing with it efficiently. At the end of the day customers want services and support which OLS is failed to provide effectively so far. Therefore, we see an opportunity for ourselves in that area and try to convince customers about these issues.