FROM BUSINESS WORLD OF 22 SEPTEMBER 2005.
Waifs in their own land?
Waifs in their own land?
The row between the government of Karnataka and the
information technology industry of Bangalore has ended in an agreement to
differ. After years of inadequate action, the patience of the industry wore
thin; this year, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) as well as
Bangalore Forum for Information Technology (BFIT) threatened to boycott IT.in,
Karnataka government’s annual show, scheduled for November. In the compromise
that emerged, BCIC withdrew its threat in return for the government’s promise
to set up a monitoring committee on infrastructure; BFIT stuck to its decision
to support only one session in IT.in on infrastructure if the government
allowed it to be held. Whilst BCIC is the government’s principal partner in
IT.in, the fair itself showcases IT. So BFIT’s passivity will do the show
considerable harm. In particular, after this very public spat, foreign visitors
will feel they can skip this year’s IT.in. Thus whilst N Dharam Singh, the
chief minister, may be satisfied with the outcome, the quarrel has already
harmed his state.
Bangalore’s infrastructure has
been under strain for at least five years; what has changed is the government’s
response to it. The Congress government under S M Krishna did not do much to improve
it; but it worked together with the IT industry. The Congress did poorly in
last year’s election – some think because of its love of IT and neglect of the
countryside – and has had to take as its ally Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS), a
party that flaunts its rural bias. They could still have pulled together; but
in August, Siddaramaiah, the seniormost JDS leader in the government, seceded
to join the Congress. His rebellion
increased the strains between the two partners in the government, sharpened the
paranoia of JDS and brought competitive populism to the fore. M P Prakash, the
new deputy chief minister and JDS leader in the legislature, accused the IT
industry of discriminating against locals and being stingy with flood relief.
Dharam Singh has doused the fire he lit; but the embers are still glowing. The
compulsions of local politics remain unchanged, and will very likely lead to
further friction between the politicians and the industry. In particular,
Prakash’s dream of quotas for Kannadigas in the IT industry could start a
political trend and become as great a threat as the quota for scheduled castes
and scheduled tribes that the central government has been pushing.
What is striking about these
exchanges, not just today but over the years, is their unproductive quality. It
is not just in respect of Bangalore infrastructure; an impression has arisen
that the Karnataka government can get nothing done. This is not entirely fair.
For instance, Karnataka’s administration of tertiary education is exemplary; it
has achieved far better and more uniform standards than other states. The
result has not, however, been the ascent of Kannadigas in knowledge industries;
rather, students from states with poor education such as West Bengal have
flooded Karnataka universities and gone on to work in the IT industry. This may
seem to Prakash like insult and aggravation. But the fault lies in the school
system of Karnataka; it is just not educating children to a level where they
can take advantage of its tertiary education. It is only training them for
teaching and selling vegetables – perfectly respectable vocations, but they do
not pay as much. Still, if it were not for the IT industry, there would be
fewer people employed in teaching and hawking as well. Local chauvinists should
consider the multiplier effect of the money spent by IT geeks in Bangalore.
Forecasts of Bangalore’s demise
have been made before, and have invariably proved premature. Cities do not die
in a space of a few years. Bangalore’s strength lies in its intellectual
infrastructure; that is not going to die out soon. But most of companies that
have made Bangalore famous are big. They may not pack up their bags. But they
can certainly shift their weight. Azim Premji threatened last year to explore
other states; and he has kept his promise. His Calcutta campus is up and
running. Others have set up branches elsewhere without making a hullabaloo
about it. In particular, without any hype, Madras has emerged as an attractive
location. It has not yet struck Jayalalithaa to develop one of the hill
stations of Tamil Nadu for the IT industry.
It is thus advisable that the
Karnataka government should get down expeditiously to improving Bangalore’s
roads, water and power supply – not because the well paid foreign nerds deserve
to be mollycoddled, but because they have a choice of locations and locals do
not. If it did so, it would also do something to remove its notoriety as a slow
and inefficient government compared to those of its neighbours, Maharashtra and
Tamil Nadu.
