Bangalore should diversify: Chidambaram

Bangalore should diversify: Chidambaram

The minister said apart from IT, the City must encourage a variety of businesses and industries, like engineering, medical services, manufacturing and bio-technology.

Deccan Herald

Bangalore needs to diversify away from Information Technology (IT) in order to avoid becoming hostage to one industry and also needs to address its infrastructural problems, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has told Deccan Herald in an exclusive interview.

Mr Chidambaram, who was invited to London as a keynote speaker to the G7 group of industrialised countries, acknowledged that Bangalore was a beneficiary of globalisation, but said there were key issues that had to be tackled to assure further growth.

Echoing one of the themes he touched upon in his keynote speech on Friday morning, he said, “Bangalore must address some of the problems. There are problems of roads, road traffic, infrastructure, drinking water. It is really for the citizens of Bangalore and the citizens of Karnataka to acknowledge there is a problem and that problem if addressed properly, can easily be resolved.”

Asked if the Centre should shoulder some of the responsibility for the delay in opening the new international airport, he responded, “How can anyone blame the Central government for the delay in kicking off the international airport? We’ve been putting pressure on the government of Karnataka for the past five or six months and it is because of the pressure put by the Central government that the government of Karnataka eventually allowed the concession agreement to be signed and eventually signed the state support agreement.

Mr Chidambaram acknowledged the importance of IT software in Bangalore’s development, but said the city needed to diversify and avoid becoming hostage to any one industry.

“Bangalore had a tradition of many industries,” he told Deccan Herald in his interview. “Even today Bangalore is home to many industries. The Toyota Kirloskar group is based in Bangalore, there are many other groups which are based in Bangalore. Software of course is the most recent entry and it has acquired prominence.

“But there are other opportunities for Bangalore and these opportunities should not be ignored. Engineering, medical services, manufacturing with Toyota leading the way and perhaps bio-technology and therefore Bangalore must encourage a variety of businesses and industries.”