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A V Rajwade: IT, infrastructure and Mr Deve Gowda

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A V Rajwade New Delhi
If politicians like Mr Deve Gowda are one road block, the CPI(M) poses a different type of threat to the IT and ITES industries.
 
In an article in the Indian Express (October 16, 2005), N R Narayana Murthy, the Infosys chairman, wrote that some of our politicians "believe that (for an egalitarian society) the solution is to restrict the growth of the IT industry, instead of encouraging the creation of a large number of such jobs". He further argued: "We in the corporate world ... have to ... stop crawling when politicians ask us to bend". Within a few days, Mr Narayana Murthy resigned as chairman of Bangalore International Airport Ltd. when Mr Deve Gowda, the former Prime Minister, accused him of making little contribution to the project. Obviously, Mr Narayana Murthy has lived up to the point he made in the article. Mr Deve Gowda has also accused Infosys of taking more land from the government than it needs.
 
Until his recent outburst against Mr Narayana Murthy and Infosys, one's impression of Mr Deve Gowda was of a rather amiable gentleman, prone to fall asleep even at cabinet meetings when he was Prime Minister, and with a penchant to announce central assistance of thousands of crores at almost every centre he visited. Clearly, he is made of sterner stuff, as also witnessed by the way he has repeatedly put spokes in the implementation of the much-touted Bangalore-Mysore highway project. The "humble farmer" seems to believe that the best way of narrowing the gap between the haves and the have-nots, the urban and the rural, is "to restrict the growth of the IT industry" and stall the creation of infrastructure so that everybody is forced to come down to the lowest common denominator.
 
Is this a conviction born out of a lifetime spent in politics in the service of the "poorest of the poor", which he repeatedly claimed to serve as Prime Minister? Unfortunately, he did not last long enough to make much of a difference to anybody. On the other hand, it is difficult to credit most Indian politicians, or indeed political parties outside the Marxist-fold, of holding any deep convictions. (And, even the Marxists' convictions change with location""Delhi/Kolkata.) To quote just one recent instance, Narayan Rane, who was the "communal" Shiv Sena's chief minister in Maharashtra, crossed over to the "secular" Congress Party without batting an eyelid""the "secular" Congressmen also welcomed him as a long lost brother and offered him a senior ministerial portfolio. Mr Rane also claimed that he left the Shiv Sena because of the dynastic rule in the party""his new party's abhorrence of dynastic rule is of course too well-known to need any comment!
 
But to come back to Mr Deve Gowda, there does not seem to be much substance to his objections. Mr Narayana Murthy's contribution to the airport project is well-known. And, Infosys has rebutted Mr Deve Gowda's criticisms point by point. Or does his real grouse lie somewhere else""in his need to feel needed; to bestow favours on the crowd of supplicants who come to his house every morning, to distribute patronage? A Congress minister, quoted in the Indian Express on October 24, said: "He cannot do without it ... for him holding such durbars is governance". His biggest grouse against Mr Narayana Murthy and Ashok Kheny, managing director of the company which is trying to construct the Bangalore-Mysore highway, could well be that they were not part of the morning crowds waiting for his darshan. Are such petty ego needs the reason why most of our political masters are more comfortable with the public than the private sector, with the licence/permit raj than economic liberalisation? (Some of course have far more venal designs.) Note that there is not even a whisper of protest at the halt of economic reform. And, no politician has shown the courage to "market" reforms to the people at large, to argue that the endless search for the "best" is the enemy of the "good", that any change will affect some adversely, that reforms alone will benefit the silent majority.
 
Mr Narayana Murthy could resign from the airport project perhaps because he does not have too big a financial stake in it. Mr Kheny, an NRI, has by now invested too much time and money in the highway project to quit. But he is obviously frustrated at the repeated delays in the implementation of the project""the agreements were signed eight years back""and has been quoted as saying that "if I had to do this again, no amount of money would entice me to do so". Is this how we wish to encourage public-private partnership in infrastructure investment?
 
If Mr Deve Gowda and politicians of his ilk are one road block, the CPI(M) poses a different type of threat to the IT and ITES industries. In a recent bandh in Kolkata, employees of such units, which often need to work on a 24x7 basis, were forcibly prevented from entering offices""and this when the Marxist chief minister himself is trying to promote Kolkata and West Bengal as an attractive investment location for both IT and manufacturing. Reports convey that foreign buyers of BPO services have already started imposing stiff penalty clauses in their fresh contracts or renewals with Indian suppliers. And, this is happening when the BPO industry seems to be on the verge of an explosive growth in value-added services. KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) seems to be the buzzword in areas like financial analytics; equity and bond market research; legal, accounting and tax services; engineering and architectural design services, R&D; etc. Global outsourcing of such services is a rapidly growing segment, and a CII report estimates the potential size at $17 billion in five years.
 
Such growth is quite possible, given our several advantages. But we have an unrivalled talent for snatching defeats from the jaws of victory""we have done this in textiles, in other labour-intensive manufactures, and countless other lost opportunities. Would history repeat itself in the IT and ITES sectors as well? Don't be surprised if, instead of battling the crumbling infrastructure and politicians like Mr Deve Gowda, our industry seeks growth elsewhere: China is welcoming them with open arms.

avrco@vsnl.com  

 
 

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First Published: Nov 11 2005 | 12:00 AM IST

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