Karnataka fails to impress NRIs

Karnataka fails to impress NRIs

Minister for Industries and Infrastructure Development P G R Sindhia called Bangalore the ‘Knowledge Capital’ and Technology Hub’ of India.

Deccan Herald

Karnataka’s presentation and interactive session with the overseas Indians on Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas — 2005 on Saturday turned out to be a lacklustre affair and failed to impress the handful of participants, while a powerpacked presentation by Gujarat led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi carried the day.

Nine states had lined up their parallel sessions at the Pravasi event to induce overseas Indians and NRIs to invest in their respective states.

These states included Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. The venue of the Karnataka presentation of Little Theatre at National Theatre for Performing Arts, which has a capacity of 100 seats, was half empty. Karnataka’s Minister for Industries and Infrastructure Development P G R Sindhia led the presentation before a handful of audience, emphasising Bangalore’s importance as ‘Knowledge Capital’ and Technology Hub’ of India. Six paragraphs in his speech were devoted to Bangalore alone.

He claimed Karnataka ranks among the top five industrialised states of the country. He then reeled out figures of how many MNCs, engineering and medical colleges, universities and business schools Karnataka has.

Mr Sindhia said the New Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli is expected to be completed soon and would be ready for operation in just 33 months. Mr Sindhia was followed by secretaries who made six dry and boring presentations on infrastructure, tourism, health care, food processing and so on.

Chief Secretary K K Mishra, Principal Secretary Vinay Kumar, N Gokulram, D Thangraj, Lata Krishna Rao, Food Karnataka’s V S Somanath and other senior officers were on the dias. In an interactive session, a gentleman from Chicago sought help from the minister to sort out his property dispute, while a businessman from Mumbai, Rikshi Raj Agarwal, who is on the industry committees of both FICCI and CII, spoke about his bad experience in getting clearance from Karnataka Udyog Mitra. He said he spent nearly 20-22 lakh only on travelling to Bangalore and back and despite a single window clearance system, has been unable to get a green signal.

Mr Agarwal said while his project with an investment of Rs 100 crore is still on hold in Karnataka, he started four units in Gujarat in record six months due to speedier clearances and conducive business atmosphere. His assertions about non-clearance and high price for land were challenged by a senior officer, who was later seen engaged in altercation with the businessman. After doing away with the third question on quality of medical education and nurses, the session was brought to a conclusion due to apparent lack of response from the audience present. “You hardly get any investment from such events (like Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas), these people just come here boasting of their Indianness and only talk and complain,” a senior officer said, summing up the overall attitude of the state’s team.

On the contrary, Gujarat’s presentation was powerpacked. The state had advertised in a big way about chief minister Mr Modi’s interaction, which was held at Hilton Towers in a large hall. The hall was packed to capacity. Among the participants were a large number of Gujaratis.Mr Modi made a startling claim that Gujarat has the largest wide area network not only in India but in Asia, and has 35,000 kms optical fibre network. The e-governance has become a reality in the state. While Bangalore and other metros in South are yet to enjoy 24 hours uninterrupted power supply, Mr Modi said one third out of 18,000 villages in Gujarat are supplied with uninterrupted III phase power supply 24 hours of the day.

He even spoke of having “five or six Singapores and seven Shanghais” in Gujarat and was confident of Gujarat leading industrially and even agriculturally. He asked the overseas Indians to send at least five foreigner families to India to explore the country.

On conclusion of his speech, he got a standing ovation from the audience. Interestingly, Gujarat will also hold a global investment summit in Ahmedabad from January 11.