Godly Gates

His visits are like those of a head of nation. For security reasons, the roads are cleared for his entourage (which included three Mercedes vans of the same make and colour); the prime minister, the finance minister and chief ministers bend over backwards to take time out to meet him; and he talks passionately about how he holds the key to solve India's macro problems. Yes, we are talking about Bill Gates, the richest human being on earth who breezes in and out of national borders like those invisible binary digits on your computers.

When we met him during a car ride from Bangalore's Leela Palace hotel to the city's Palace Grounds, we were given explicit instructions. "You can't get down before he reaches the venue." Or, that "if you enter the venue with him, you cannot get out till it's over." But the best thing was that Gates didn't have enough time for pleasantries. We were not introduced to him and as soon as he got into the car, we started shooting our questions. (It's a different thing that we didn't mind it as we wanted to ask 30 questions in the 20 minutes allotted to us; earlier, we had pleaded with the driver to go slowly so that we can get some extra minutes with Gates.)

Before we left Delhi for Bangalore, there was much excitement in the office about our meeting with the God-like Gates. A colleague wanted us to get his autograph. Another one designed a simple five-question quiz for the Microsoft founder. It included questions like how long did the 100-year war last? And what is Bombay Duck? "Most people believe that he's the smartest man in the world. So, why don't you try and cajole him to answer these questions?" he dared us. In the end, we chickened out on that one, but we did try to devise questions that might bring a certain freshness to our piece. We are not sure whether we succeeded in that endeavour.

What we did achieve was to irk the Software Shah. We hinted that the Microsoft Madness has been replaced by the eye-catching iPod Influenza. And asked Gates a direct question: "When will Microsoft come up with an iPod-like idea?" The reply was a terse, somewhat angry one. "I think the best product in the market today is the (Microsoft's) Xbox 360. I think the technical innovation there is far beyond putting music on a hard disk. The iPod is a great product.... But, in some ways, it's not doing something like switching from there (one device) to another one that's easier than switching your video game," he countered.

Gates was also taken aback when asked about the future of the personal computer (PC). There's a growing feeling that hand-held or pocket devices (mobiles or palm-sized computers) will be able to do most of a PC's work. So, in a way, the PC is likely to become less relevant. "It does not matter what device you have, the PC will be there. The full-screen device will be there for some jobs (to type a document or fill up a form) and the pocket-sized ones will be there for other jobs," he predicted. He added that "the pocket-size is a natural farm factor that you can carry around but you are not going to read your newspaper on it."

But the techno-tsar was at his best when he talked about how all this technology can be an enabler to help India tackle problems like health, education, unemployment and the lack of manufacturing competitiveness. He feels that one of the important tasks for the country's policymakers is to generate millions of jobs every year. "The IT sector is certainly playing its part (in doing that). But India needs growth from companies in many other sectors to create hundreds of millions of jobs literally. We need competitiveness to reach other sectors."

Obviously, Microsoft, "as a responsible company", is playing a key role in this area. For instance, it has announced a partnership with the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, which strives to improve efficiencies in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to explore ways to use IT to achieve those objectives. If one realises that the majority of manufacturing growth in both the US and India is contributed by the SMEs, it's logical to assume that India needs to help the smaller businesses to adopt technology. Another interesting fact is that the domestic software sales constitute less than 30 per cent of the industry's annual revenues.

In the case of education, the advisors of Regal Bill contended that Microsoft is working hard to bring the computer to rural schools and also helping make teachers computer-literate. "We have already trained thousands of teachers in rural areas and because of the induction of PCs in rural schools, we have witnessed a dramatic decrease in school dropouts," said one of them. However, several critics believe that the software firms are exaggerating the benefits of IT in education. One of them recently wrote that both TV and radio too were supposed to have revolutionised education access. But it didn't happen.

"Nobody said that IT alone can solve the education issue. It (IT) doesn't eliminate the need for teachers and an environment in which you can get things together for motivation and support to put things together. But there are other elements like accessing the latest information and world-class lectures that can happen once you get more broadband in India," was Gates' reaction. He went on to qualify how broadband can become a delivery mechanism for "a new generation of TV services, video services, as well as classic ones like browsing and e-mail." Therefore, what the Indian companies have to do in the near future is to lay down optic-fibre networks in the villages, not just for the computers but for other applications too.

Can India invest the millions of dollars needed to technologically connect the villages? Or will such a vision be caught up in a wireless whirlpool? Gates' panacea is that the competition framework that has worked in the mobile space can also yield results in the broadband one. He feels that broadband is three years behind mobile in terms of bringing down prices. It has happened vis-a-vis mobile, and the same kind of aggression can surely creep into the broadband business if the Indian government becomes a willing facilitator.

Still, there has to be a political will in the country to do it—fast. Gates thinks that Indian politicians are among the sanest that he has met. The observation is important because, in the past five years, he has interacted with global leaders like Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela and Ariel Sharon. "India is probably the only country where you see politicians saying that 'elect me because my e-governance is better.... In the US, we don't have presidential candidates talking about their ambitious plans for e-governance. When I first met Naidu (the former Andhra Pradesh CM), he came with a laptop and had a PowerPoint slide on e-governance."

Even the chief ministers that he has met during his visits to India have become tech-savvy. "Some of the chief ministers are more technologically involved. All of them have state-level ministers or people who are extremely IT capable. So, dialogues take place at several levels and we try and understand what their priorities are, we want to come in and help them in those platforms," he explained. In a sense, Microsoft is trying to formulate a different strategy for each state, for different districts in some cases.

It's clear that Gates is extremely comfortable with charting out a technological vision or a software blueprint for either an individual, a corporate, or even a country. But he's quite cagey and apprehensive when asked to map a long-term political plan for India. As the country's PM, he would focus on deregulation and increased levels of investment. "India's very much on the right track. Deregulation and reforms have started paying off despite there being different parties in power. There's a consensus (over such issues) and that is the direction that things are headed towards."

If it happens, it should be a good sign for Bill Gates and Microsoft. For, India is one of the most important countries for the software giant, both in terms of the potential market and a source to develop new products. Let's try to amplify and explain what Gates told us: "We expect India to make great products (at much cheaper prices to aid Microsoft to expand its global marketshare) and that's why our research group is here, our development centres are here. And we expect India to itself start using IT (so that Microsoft can sell more products in India)."

To a few Indian cynics, it seems that Microsoft's investment in education and enhancing manufacturing competitiveness and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's allocation on health (see box) is meant to build a stronger base for Microsoft products. After all, what is an expenditure of a few million dollars compared to a sizeable chunk of a domestic market that may be worth tens of billions of dollars in the near future!