Kiran does a Murthy, picks more holes in infrastructure

Kiran does a Murthy, picks more holes in infrastructure

Mumbai: Peeved by infrastructure woes plaguing Indian cities, biotech entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on Saturday joined the likes of Infosys chief N R Narayana Murthy in bashing politicians for lacking vision and resisting change.

Shaw, India’s richest selfmade businesswoman, said instead of keeping pace with the changing times, politicians adopted a parochial outlook to rule the nation.

“I believe that public-private participation is an important part of transformation, but in Bangalore and other places this is challenged by politicians and bureaucrats,” she said, receiving the ‘Technology Change Agent’ award, instituted by Infosys Technologies and Wharton School.

She alleged that the political leadership in the country was not focussing on change and did not seem to have the global vision. “It is right time for the politicians to accept publicprivate participation in developmental projects for the economic growth of the nation.”

Shaw, whose Biocon is headquartered in Bangalore, said just changing the name of a place would not generate jobs or improve infrastructure or improve law and order — alluding to the move to change the name of IT City Bangalore to Bengaluru.

Stressing on more accountability in public and private spheres, she said India needed to make large-scale changes in business, development and infrastructure to address larger global issues and tap national resources.
Recently, in one of the most controversial confrontations between the political leadership and the business heads over infrastructure issues of India’s technological capital, Bangalore, Narayana Murthy had resigned as chairman of Bangalore International Airport Ltd, alleging political interference. PTI