Chennai Corner

Foot In The Mouth

Arcot Veeraswamy, the electricity minister, is one of the most troubled men in the cabinet and the DMK, because, among other things, his prominence as the CM's close aide has been threatened by the reunion with the Marans. In fact, word is that he was against the rapprochement with the Marans and thathe, in fact, was among those who cheered silently when there was a rift. The reunion coming on top of stringent criticism over the poor power situation in TN has only added to his distress.

But apparently he does not suffer from an affliction that dogs all politicians-- verbal diarrhoea, and in fact earned the gratitude of a Haryana minister ("Thank you for donating your time") when he made a short speech at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas recently. Privately, many thought Arcot had already said enough and caused enough damage when he gave into anot so rare affliction among politicians -- the foot in mouth disease.

Even as the state was tom-tomming that 22 MOUs had been signed since 2006 by industrial houses promising nearly Rs 33,000 crores as investment, Arcot stunned his audience at Chennai's first ever PBD, by announcing, "There's no scope for IT industry in Tamil Nadu. I am telling you the facts. Please don't waste your money." 

But that was not all. Arcot was unstoppable, as he went on to say, "TN does not need any more investment in the IT sector. If you want, invest in steel, cement, automobiles, electronics hardware and even the brick industry. The IT industry is no longer good. It has become dull. After the US recession, more than 50 per cent of the companies on Rajiv Gandhi Salai (also known as Chennai's IT corridor) have been closed."

Even if Arcot had an axe to grind when he said enticingly that investments in the power sector would bring in profits of over 200 per cent, the truth is that TN has lost its sheen as an investment destination because of its poor electricity infrastructure and would do well to shore up this sector before throwing open its gates to industrial investments.

Is The Sun Setting On IT?

Also, with the Satyam tsunami hitting IT, many would agree with Arcot. Even more so because it's the indulgence to software companies that is partly responsible for the rest of TN being "powerless". Still Arcot created quite a stir, causing Chief Minister Karunanidhi who has been showcasing Chennai's IT achievements, to clarify that there was no change in the state's IT policy and that its target was to increase to 25 per cent from the current 11 per centthat is TN's share of the country's IT production.

Tamil Nadu aims to achieve the creation of three million jobs in the sector by 2011 and it has been pulling out all stops to ensure that this target was attained. Contradicting Arcot, the CM said investment in the sector was welcome. But the ground situation is quite different. One of the indicators that all is not hunky dory in IT is that taxi services which had mushroomed in the metropolis-- one conservative estimate is 5000 with a fleet of 10-12 cars each in the last five years-- are jobless. A taxi driver told me his agency had earmarked half its cars for the IT sector and everyday, from the wee hours of the morning till after midnight, the drivers would be ferrying software"engineers" (anyone working in the BPO sector is termed an engineer) to and from work. Sometimes, on the week-ends, these taxis would take these young people to East Coast Road so they could have a blast. "Many were the days when I would watch them dance on the road, in between swigs from a beer bottle," says the taxi driver disapprovingly. "Money had made them so arrogant. They treated us with contempt." 

But now it's buses for the IT nawabs as they wait in dread that the pink slip will find them.Taxi drivers might think it's poetic justice to see these youngsters being taken down a peg or two but since their fortunes are linked with the IT sector, they are also facing unemployment. There are those who say that even drivers had become arrogant and would quote humongous salaries because IT companies had "spoilt" them. Now if they get a driving job once in four days, they can count themselves lucky. "Soon drivers will bequeuing up even for Rs 4,000 a month," says the same taxi driver. 

Hic Hic Hurray

Chandrababu Naidu, then CM of Andhra Pradesh, who cosied up to Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju andnow denies doing so, diluted the prohibition policy that N T Rama Rao reimposed in 1995 because he felt prohibition did not gel with attracting investments. The revenue (thousands of crores) that the sale of booze has brought in has always been an impediment although governments have outdone each other when it comes to other populist schemes. Maybe they feel that if you are high enough, the quality of cheap rice may also seem high. PMK founder S Ramadoss' mantra is prohibition and he has long irritated the CM withthis demand. He was at it again at the PMK's women wing meeting recently. If Gujarat can progress industrially despite prohibition, why not TN? he asked. Well, if industrialists Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharati Mittal are to be believed, it's because Gujarat has a CM who has what it takes to be a PM. Does TN too? Or more importantly, does Ramadoss think so?

Students Booked

Last November the clashes at the Ambedkar Government Law College shook up citizens after the merciless beating a student was subjected to by other students, as police watched uncaringly, was played out again and again on the TV. That a college campus should be used for caste politics was no surprise but what stunned everyonewas that fissures run so deep that students virtually kill each other. The Justice Shanmugham Commission of inquiry has been appointed to probe the bloody clash.

The Madras high court meanwhile has been in the forefront of measures to make the students have an attitudinal shift. Some of its directions have met with lukewarm response like the PTA (Parent- Teachers meeting) held last month. Despite the seriousness of the episode, only four parents and a handful of students came to the meeting. Among the suggestions made was : Don'tpoliticise college activities, don't allow politicians inside the college, hire more faculty so that students are kept busy. Last week, the high court granted bail to 29 students arrested in the clashes but set an interesting pre-condition-- that they spend at least two hours every Saturday and Sunday for the next four weeks reading good books at a public library. "They shall submit a report about what they had read during the period," said Justice T. Sudanthiram. In addition parents of the arrested students-- 40 were named in the two cases filed in connection with the clash -- have filed affidavits testifying that they will supervise their children so that they will not get into any other trouble.

An Asset To The Nation

Lavinashree is an exceptional child which is why when President Pratibha Patil came here last week for the Pravasiya Bharathi Divas, she evinced an interest to meet theeight-year-old girl. Madurai-based Lavinashree is the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional and met the President at Raj Bhavan last Friday. "She is an asset to the nation," said the President of Lavinashree after giving her a cash prize of Rs11,000.

Lavinashree bagged the national child award for exceptional achievement in 2006. She entered the Limca Book of World Records in 2005, reciting all 1,330 couplets of the Tirukkural.

Munisamy, her father, remembers that when he took Lavinashree to a software learning centre for the Microsoft Certified Professional Examination preparation course last May, she was not given admission because she was too small. But Munisamy persisted and today she has taken over as the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional from nine-year-old Arfa Karim Randhawa of Pakistan who got the honour in 2005. Lavinashree took the exam in August last year after two months of coaching, scoring 842 marks out of 1000 in the online test.

Her ambition is to become a scientist like her hero, former President A P J Kalam.