HIS navy-blue Mont Blanc works at a frenetic pace, jotting down every detail his guests may speak. His gaze is transfixed on the 30-odd men gathered around him; his concentration unwavering throughout the 90-minute session. This interface between the who's who of the Indian infotech industry and chief minister S.M. Krishna emphatically underlines the intention of the suave politician not to allow Karnataka's position as the Silicon Valley of the East to plateau off.
Krishna's pro-active stand and his promise to meet the ceos once a month finds favour with the likes of N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman of Infosys Technologies. "I feel very enthusiastic and positive about the new government. Mr Krishna seems fully committed to maintaining the premier position Bangalore enjoys in the software arena," Murthy said at the end of this meeting hosted by the chief minister on October 26. And to give teeth to his aggressive infotech focus, Krishna is working out details to provide sops to the hardware industry as well.
The new chief minister, it seems, is in a tearing hurry to make good the time and advantages frittered away by his predecessors. J.H. Patel, in particular, was apathetic towards infotech and had no qualms about admitting to the pmo's IT task force that he did not know the difference between software and hardware. This at a time when Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu was busy courting Microsoft ceo Bill Gates to launch his software technology park. Naidu's astute media management even gave credence to rumours on the flight of capital from Bangalore to Hyderabad.
Krishna's no stranger to IT; son-in-law Siddarth Hegde is a big-time IT investor whose venture capital outfit, Sivan Securities, recently funded a start-up company called Mind Tree Consulting, set up by Ashok Soota, former ceo of Wipro Infotech, and his associates. Siddarth incidentally triggered off the wave of Internet surfing centres in Bangalore through the launch of the first cybercafe on the city's fashion avenue, Brigade Road.
Krishna's Vision
But IT, per se, is not Krishna's sole focus. The state's backwardness in terms of poor infrastructure, low literacy rates, poor medical care, paucity of potable water in most parts of the state too form part of his vision, a glimpse of which was evident in the governor's address to the first session of the assembly. "I know this hype will not lead us anywhere. So, this regime will strike a balance between websites and e-governance and breakthroughs in the IT sector on the one hand and potable water, good education and medical care on the other. The quality of life of people should be improved," said the chief minister. Some of these problems, however, would be tackled with the help of infotech tools.For instance, the government plans to improve primary education and access of people in remote villages to information on various schemes with the help of computers. "The vision of this government is to make IT a rural phenomenon through education and e-commerce," avers Sonjay Dasgupta, secretary of the IT department.
The quality of intellectual input available for Krishna is incomparable, what with his keenness to seek out the likes of Murthy and Azim Premji, chairman of the Wipro group. But unlike the IT programme of Andhra Pradesh which revolves around Naidu and his bureaucrats, Krishna's plans are interactive and would involve the private sector to a large extent. This is because IT's played a dominant role and is user-driven, leaving Krishna the task of hitching his plans to the inherent talent and ride piggy-back on the momentum already generated by the industry during the last decade.
As industry sources point out, the bar graph of the IT industry in Karnataka has been phenomenal, for exports have grown from
Rs 5 crore plus in 1991-92 to Rs 3,200 crore in 1998-99. Though start-up cities like Hyderabad and Chennai have registered fantastic growth percentages over their exports of Rs 272 crore and Rs 292 crore of 1997-98, Karnataka stands way ahead of them. The new government's now set an exports target of Rs 15,000 crore by 2005, its mission being that this industry help meet people's aspirations.
In order to achieve e-governance, the first phase of which will come into force early next year, Krishna plans to utilise a statewide network of www.online bangalore.com, a bilingual portal site due for launch on November 1. Such a move would save the government several crores of rupees which it would otherwise have incurred to establish a network of computers across the state. The chief minister has already sounded the deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and chiefs of zilla panchayats about the new system of e-governance. "I can't tell you the time-frame within which we'll implement it, but the introduction of e-governance will be one of the major preoccupations of this regime. The babus better be mentally prepared to accept it. If they believe in files, notes and delays in decision-making, they'll be sidelined from the mainstream of bureaucracy," he said.
Krishna is extremely keen to provide the much-needed facelift for Bangalore, where most of the IT companies are located, by constructing a network of flyovers and subways. Well before the captains of IT companies poured their tales of woe about the appalling infrastructure, Krishna took the initiative to see for himself the traffic snarls on the bumpy road to the electronics city on Bangalore's outskirts. "Yes, we know that the infrastructure is poor and we'll act fast to improve things in Bangalore," was his assurance, followed up by a plan to the World Bank for its funds to beautify Bangalore.
And to facilitate easy access, Krishna will field questions on his own website at cm.smk.bangaloreit.com, where he would appear in an animated form to speak about the priorities of his government. He would also tell you what he is looking for from each constituency.
But the criticism to these proactive steps is flowing as fast. Leader of the Janata Dal (United) in the assembly, P.G.R. Sindhia, says that policies introduced by the previous government are merely being continued. The principal Opposition, the bjp, feels the urban-rural divide would only increase over the years. "There are no new programmes for rural development," says he.
Krishna's decision to acquire a new LG hand-held palmtop and to seek guidance on video-conferencing are also being viewed as part of his 'suave' attributes. Unlike his predecessors, who were copybook politicians, Krishna has a Master's degree in Comparative and International Law from the Southern Methodist University, Texas, which is why he's often called the western Gowda. His lifestyle is urbane too, its distinct traits being his passion for tennis and his trendy wardrobe comprising a blend of tuxedos, casual-wear and kurta-pyjamas. Add to this is the trademark cloud of cologne that wafts across as the chief minister moves about in his office.
The weak point, his partymen admit, is to play genteel among colleagues. But if he treats the bureaucracy in the same manner, it could well-nigh negate the brisk beginning. The man in a hurry would better serve aces across to the babus in order to ensure that Karnataka cruises on ahead of the other states as the land of the cyber rulers.
