An old friend from my international banking days, now relocated in Mumbai, was on one of his “catching up with you” calls and soon began to bemoan the cost of real estate in India’s financial capital. So what’s your problem, I said, relocate to Kolkata.
He paused for a moment and asked pointedly: And do what? Haven’t you seen the papers, I asked, the West Bengal chief minister, better known as Didi, has just inaugurated an international financial hub in the city. That made him pause even longer and observe: Don’t you guys know that global finance capital and big Wall Street names, the only ones who can anchor a financial hub, are in the doghouse after almost wrecking the global financial system a few years ago? Why try to grab a slice of a declining and discredited industry?
A bit offended by his hint that we, in the City of Joy, had not been reading the papers, I replied a bit loftily that financial innovation at hubs that have critical mass would always create value. Get it into your head, he said with a touch of exasperation, financial innovation is out, conventional commercial banking is in. He then added: Look at the plight of Britain; it killed its manufacturing and put all its eggs in one basket, the one square mile of London called the City.
Keen to stay in the argument, I changed tack and replied with a show of confidence: Kolkata will not disband its factories; it will relocate the back offices of global firms in its knowledge factories. A note of respect returned to my friend’s voice as he admitted that that was a viable model. He then added: Yes, I have heard Infosys and Wipro have been given land in your city to set up centres of excellence — sweatshops, to be precise.
I was put completely on the defensive and admitted that there was some trouble over those projects, as the government did not want to give them special economic zone, or SEZ, status, which came with critical tax breaks. What on earth for, my friend interjected, not letting me finish my sentence. I sounded lamer still and explained: Didi does not like SEZs; they are real-estate projects by another name. You mean you suspect Infosys is trying to become a DLF, he asked incredulously. An SEZ is an SEZ, is all I could say. And Didi does not like the hire-and-fire policies that will be allowed in SEZs, I added.
My friend was by now one decibel short of screaming. He said: You mean you will have a global financial hub in which perforce highly motivated traders will become sarkari karamcharis earning not bonuses but pensions and not getting sacked for non-performance? Well, Didi has these bees in her bonnet, I admitted, wondering why I had gone down this track of reasoning.
Changing direction, I began to list for him the progress already made, and mentioned the land that was being allocated to the Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE), which would naturally be in the heart of the financial hub, as it were. I could see my friend scratch his head in disbelief and ask: But has CSE not ceased to exist, and isn’t it only a set of terminals operated by brokers trading on the two Mumbai-based stock exchanges? Yes, I agreed and added, by now giving up all attempts to defend the great decision of Didi’s government, some of the land allotted to CSE has been encroached upon, and there’s no knowing when it will be vacated for CSE to build.
My friend had stopped being combative and was trying to help me find decent arguments. There will surely be other buildings to operate out of, at least temporarily, he reasoned. My spirits immediately rose and I replied excitedly: Yes, there is one building that is completely ready and has one lakh (this in a tone more fitting for saying one million) square feet of space. All he could say, after yet another long pause, was: You are going to start an international financial hub with one building?
I thought it was wise not to reply, and so I changed tack again. Actually, this is not an original idea of this government. It is the Left Front government that had inaugurated this project in 2010, with the Union finance minister in attendance. The present government is merely trying to revive the idea. So this is not even a new idea, he promptly noted, displaying no magnanimity towards a friend who was losing an argument.
Not willing to give up entirely, I changed tack yet again and said: Well, Didi wants to turn Kolkata into London and for that you need to have a financial hub. And it will have the iconic presence of, say, the London Eye and Walmart. That had my friend shrieking: Are you daft? When investment bankers go shopping, if they have the time, it is to Harrods or Bloomingdales, not budget stores like Walmart, he said. I decided enough was enough and told him: You are totally irrational in your opposition to Didi. And then I put the phone down.
