Waifs in their own land?

BW OPINION
Waifs in their own land?
If JD(S) continues to needle the IT industry,Bangalore will not die, but Karnataka will lose out to other states in the long run

Businessworld



The row between the government of Karnataka and the information technology industry of Bangalore has ended in an agreement to differ. After years of inadequate action, the patience of the industry wore thin; this year, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) as well as Bangalore Forum for Information Technology (BFIT) threatened to boycott IT.in, Karnataka government's annual show, scheduled for November. In the compromise that emerged, BCIC withdrew its threat in return for the government's promise to set up a monitoring committee on infrastructure. BFIT stuck to its decision to support only one session in IT.in on infrastructure if the government allowed it to be held. Whilst BCIC is the government's principal partner in IT.in, the fair itself showcases IT. So BFIT's passivity will do the show considerable harm. In particular, after this very public spat, foreign visitors will feel they can skip this year's IT.in. Thus whilst N. Dharam Singh, the chief minister, may be satisfied with the outcome, the quarrel has already harmed his state.

Bangalore's infrastructure has been under strain for at least five years; what has chan-ged is the government's respo-nse. The Congress government under S.M. Krishna did not do much to improve it; but it wor-ked with the IT industry. The Congress did poorly in last year's elections - some think because of its love of IT and neglect of the countryside - and has had to take as its ally Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS), a party that flaunts its rural bias. They could still have got on; but in August, Siddaramaiah, the seniormost JDS leader in the government, seceded to join the Congress. His rebellion intensified the strains between the two parties, sharpened the paranoia of JDS and brought competitive populism to the fore. M.P. Prakash, the new deputy chief minister and JDS leader in the legislature, accused the IT industry of discriminating against locals and being stingy with flood relief. Dharam Singh has doused the fire lit by Prakash; but the embers are still glowing. The compulsions of local politics remain unchanged, and well lead to further friction with the IT industry. In particular, Prakash's dream of quotas for Kannadigas in the IT industry could start a firestorm and become as great a threat as the quota for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes that the Central government has been pushing.

What is striking about these exchanges, not just today but over the years, is their unproductive quality. It is not just in respect of Bangalore infrastructure; an impression has arisen that the Karnataka government can get nothing done. That is not entirely fair. For instance, Karnataka's administration of tertiary education is exemplary; it has achieved far better and more uniform standards than other states. That has not, however, resulted in the ascent of Kannadigas in knowledge industries; rather, students from states with poor education administrations such as West Bengal have flooded Karnataka universities and gone on to work in its IT industry. This may seem to Prakash like insult and aggravation. But the fault lies in the school system of Karnataka; it is just not educating its children to a level where they can take advantage of its tertiary education. It is only training them for teaching and selling vegetables - perfectly respectable vocations, but they do not pay as much. Still, if it were not for the IT industry, there would be fewer teachers and hawkers as well. Local chauvinists should consider the multiplier effect of the money spent by IT geeks in Bangalore.

Forecasts of Bangalore's demise have been made before, and have invariably proved premature. Cities do not die in a space of a few years. Bangalore's strength lies in its intellectual infrastructure; that is not going to die out soon. But most of the companies that have made Bangalore famous are big. They may not pack up their bags. But they can certainly shift their weight. Azim Premji threatened last year to explore other states; and he has kept his promise. His Calcutta campus is up and running. Others have set up branches elsewhere without making a hullabaloo about it. In particular, without any hype, Madras has emerged as an attractive location. It has not yet struck Jayalalithaa to develop one of the hill stations of Tamil Nadu for the IT industry, but it will.

It is thus advisable that the Karnataka government should get down expeditiously to improving Bangalore's roads, water and power supply - not because the well paid foreign nerds deserve to be mollycoddled, but bec-ause they have a choice of locations and locals do not. If it did so, it would also thereby do something to remove its notoriety as a slow and inefficient government compared to those of its neighbours, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.