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In a week or so, in a pioneering development, the major arteries of Bangalore's commercial hub - Brigade Road and MG Road - are going to be blanketed with free Wi-fi as a de-facto kick-off to the Karnataka Information and Communication Technology Group (ICT) 'Vision 2020', headed by Manipal Global Education Services Chairman T V Mohandas Pai. He talks to Rajiv Rao about the plan's prospects. Edited excerpts:
When will free Wi-fi in Bangalore become a reality?
All the equipment has been installed and is being tested. It took more time than we anticipated because of all the power connections, approvals and security clearances that we had to obtain. We should go live in about a week.
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We asked an internet service provider (ISP) to do this along one km of MG Road and Brigade Road free of cost. We want to make sure that it goes live - but only for email and surfing and not for things like movie downloads. After we stabilise, we will look at a revenue model. For now, though, the ISP will bear the cost.
What is the overall gameplan?
We have developed a vision for Karnataka that involves creating 1.2 million jobs by 2020. So far, our exports have increased from Rs 1.35 lakh crore to Rs 1.65 lakh crore in a year, and we hope to get that to Rs 4 lakh crore by 2020.
We also have an Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) policy involving setting up a venture capital fund to jumpstart 1,000 startups as well as incentivised clusters. An education policy, which involves networking schools and colleges, distributing tablets and setting up incubation centres in engineering colleges, has been approved but is yet to be implemented.
Bangalore and Mangalore desperately need a tunnel across the Ghats so the potential of Mangalore as the state's go-to port can be exploited. The Japanese have already come forward with a proposal to dig a 14-18 km tunnel. A growth corridor from Bidar to Bangalore via an eight-lane highway and industrial cities built over 5,000 hectares every 50 km is also being planned.
Why is this initiative so important?
The last few years have seen Karnataka's growth rate come down below the national average and we're not even in the top five growth states today. Manufacturing has come down, and every year one million young people come into the work force. Despite this, there has been a total lack of planning in the state.
The state must have a big idea of what it wants to be in the next few decades and how to go about reaching it. People want jobs and the current generation is not meek, is very demanding and not going to be very forgiving.
Can you extrapolate this to the national stage?
For instance, the GST (goods and services tax) is much more transformative than the food security Bill. The food security Bill is an old idea whose time has lapsed. It is not going to have an impact since the number of starving people is coming down.
However, the political class is not responding to the GST. They are all playing games. Vijay Kelkar spoke of a grand bargain where the central government would underwrite losses of states for two or three years and help the states make the transition. The states raised the issue of lack of reimbursement of Central State Taxes (CST) in the last two or three years. The government did not listen to them. Delhi has shown itself to be very mean and cussed.
Other problems?
Obviously, manufacturing is a huge concern and for that to be solved, we need to improve our power problem and our logistics.
What about skills?
The strategy of the National Skill Development Corporation is totally wrong because skills are learnt by doing and for that, you have to amend the Apprentice Act so that more and more people can become apprentices. You can't train people theoretically for things that industry doesn't want.
