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Indian Software’s New Driver

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DQI Bureau
New Update

THE PROFESSIONAL ROADMAP

Before Nasscom, Kiran Karnik was the

chief of Discovery Networks in India. Most recently, he was director of

the Consortium for Educational Communication, overseeing the production

and transmission of educational TV programs for college students. He has

served as director of the development and education communication unit of

ISRO. His work has included strategic planning, which helped launch India’s

national satellite and communication system and the Kheda communications

project–a pioneering effort in the use of local television for rural

development. Karnik managed the Indo-US satellite instructional TV

experiment, India’s first largescale, satellite-direct broadcasting

initiative. An expert in technology applications and communications, he

has consulted for Unesco, Ford Foundation, World Bank and John Hopkins

University and authored several journal articles.
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The lanky frame and salt-and-pepper beard make him look unobtrusive and

unlike his media-savvy predecessor. The soft voice and calm demeanor speak for

elegance and dignity, but don’t promise the rusticity of a salesman who will

sell his wares, no matter what the terrain. It is not surprising then, that when

Kiran Karnik’s name cropped up as one of the probables for the post of Nasscom

president, most of those that heard this news exclaimed out aloud.

...But not any more. Even before Karnik assumes office as the new Nasscom

chief on September 15, he has charted out his priorities. Within the country, he

has to use this latest and most powerful weapon called IT to the benefit of the

common man. Worldwide, he has to make India and IT as synonymous with one

another as France and fine wines, or Switzerland and classic time-pieces.

That’s a long journey, indeed, especially for a little boy who, long ago,

would watch trains steam past him all day long, fanning further his ambition of

becoming an engine driver one day. Today, that little boy has finally slipped

into the driver’s seat. Only this once, that hot-seat is not in his

once-chosen steam locomotive, but the cockpit of the country’s software

juggernaut, one that has played the lead role in positioning Indian IT where it

is today on the international firmament.

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"Perhaps they have put me in the cockpit because my next youthful dream

was to be a pilot, keeping in tune with the advancement in technology by the

time I graduated from IIM," jests Karnik.

But the Nasscom thinktank and Korn Ferry, the headhunting firm that was

entrusted the task of finding a replacement for Dewang Mehta, are serious when

they talk of Karnik. "Kiran has both grey matter and a dreamer’s passion–these

are the essential requisites for this job. You have to have the ability to dream

big, and then the capacity and the wherewithal to go out and make those big

dreams come true."

The chairman of the Nasscom selection committee, Harish Mehta, sums it up–"Kiran

definitely has the qualities of consensus-building. His marketing background

will come in handy to market India IT Inc. His skills in building an

organization, and his knowledge in building education systems are also

important. We have made our choice. Now, it is up to Kiran to actually go out

there and show them his stuff."

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Vijay Mukhi, member of the Nasscom executive council, backs the marketing

aspect most. "We have lots of software experts in Nasscom, what we needed

was a marketing genius, one who could sell Indian software to the world. Kiran’s

success as the Discovery India chief executive is a great asset. Dewang knew

marketing… so does Karnik."

And therein, the first comparison between the two... but they will rise again

and again, from time to time, after every success of Karnik’s, and every time

he fails to pull out the proverbial rabbit. However, the driving force behind

both men remains the same–the passion to dream really big, backed by the

ability to come through on all responsibilities and promises.

The 23-year gamble

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The sixties were idealistic years and Karnik, fresh out of an MBA course from

IIM, Ahmedabad, wanted to do something meaningful with his life, "something

that would have an impact on society". ‘‘There were few career options

in those days. After your MBA, all you could do was join Citibank, Coca-Cola

India, Levers or any other of the few MNCs operating in the country. For those

that could not cut it with MNCs, the options were to join DCM or the Tatas. I

wanted to do something different," remembers Karnik.

And a different way he did go. Rather than sit around in a big office with a

retinue of secretaries and drive back to his house promptly at 5.30 pm, Karnik

decided to try out what could help others for two years. "I knew I could

spare that much from my life to try and do something for society. Anyway, I also

had a strong education to fall back on if my endeavors did not work out. MNCs

were not an option for me, not for the money, not for the glamor. The last thing

I wanted to do after an MBA degree was to sell underarm deodorant!"

It was this drive that saw Karnik apply for a job with a government entity–Atomic

Energy Commission. At the job interview at AEC, Karnik was greatly influenced by

Dr Vikram Sarabhai, then AEC chairman, who was devising ways to use advanced

technologies for doing the most simplistic things for the masses. ‘‘Dr

Sarabhai had this driving urge to do something extraordinary on the technology

front. Those were post-Bhaba days and it would have been easier for Dr Sarabhai,

as a scientist, to limit himself to pure science. Those were also the days when

India was looking ahead to use technology to address its basic problems. Dr

Sarabhai rose to the occasion and decided to take up this challenge. This was

very inspiring and appealed to me–it was the challenge that I was looking for,’’

reminisces Karnik. "I decided that those two years of my life that I had

decided to gamble with would be best spent here," he adds.

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The gamble lasted for 23 years...

The space romance

A year-and-a-half into his job at AEC, another big chance came up. This was

the time when India’s space program had started to take off. The program, in

those days, was a part of AEC’s activities, and the new challenge of working

on space research was interesting and intriguing to the young idealist.

"Sure it did, and I was soon on the new platform," he says.

"There was a hurdle though–the posting was in Ahmedabad, a place I did

not like too much. I soon found myself travelling between Ahmedabad and Mumbai

every weekend,’’ he adds.

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Despite this, Karnik decided to stick to the job and continued there till

1991. ‘‘It was indeed a very exciting phase of my life,’’ he says.

"The challenge of having a say in determining how the most advanced

technologies and techniques were to used and where was a great opportunity. In

India, it’s very clear that the most needy sections are those that are worst

off–typically, the poor and the underprivileged.’’

However, taking infrastructure to remote areas did not keep Karnik excited

for long. ‘‘What was exciting was changing the mindset of people who would

use technology and that meant communicating with people, giving them new

information and empowering them. I always believed that television would be able

to bypass the literacy barrier and that it was perhaps the most powerful way of

achieving this goal.’’

This thought led Karnik to spend more and more time on the medium of

television, and soon, as director of the development and education communication

unit at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), he was able to lead the

organization to launch India’s national satellite and communications system.

He was also instrumental in the launch of the Kheda communications project–a

pioneering effort in the use of local television for rural development. His

interests in television as a means of awareness and education continued,

becoming stronger with time.

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DD to Discovery

It was a natural extension then, that he became director of

the Consortium for Educational Communication, where he oversaw the production

and transmission of educational television programs for college students in

India. "However, around this time, I realized that I wasn’t getting

anywhere near achieving the objectives that had driven me to the field in the

first place. I wanted more," says Karnik.

The restlessness increased, and finally led to frustration

when Karnik realized that the government was not as serious about the use of the

medium for education as he was. "Everyone was talking about meaningful

television. Sure, everyone had taken to television in a big way, and it was the

latest fancy and the in-thing, but the very meaning of meaningful was lost to

nach-gaana. Those with the authoritative muscle were just not moving to toward

achieving what they had set out to do–to use the incredible reach of TV,

especially in remote locations, to spread education and knowledge," he

says.

Karnik paints a picture of himself as he was in those days–"refusing

to bow down and continuing to believe that the medium could be used to address

our social malaises, I tried to cut through the red tape". It was, as he

says, a time when he would come close to despair, then start out anew, only to

have his carefully charted plans snuffed out by the devil of bureaucracy.

That’s when Discovery happened to Karnik. And immediately,

he had his personal agenda clearly chalked out. He wanted to prove that

meaningful TV was not just possible, but that it could be greatly enjoyable and

entertaining, while remaining economically viable. "Discovery already had

good content and the need was just to increase the viewer base for this pay

channel. Once that was achieved, Discovery would become a financial success as

well. Unlike my previous job, there was no bureaucracy and layers of authority

at Discovery to stop me from going ahead according to plan,’’ he says.

And as Karnik remembers those golden days, the soft voice is

replaced for the moment by authority and pride. "I didn’t do too badly,

did I? I proved my point and met my personal goal of spreading the viewer-base

of Discovery to 23 million homes. Discovery almost broke even when I left,’’

he adds.

The move to IT

What began with the space program and Dr Vikram Sarabhai, graduated to

government-run television and then self-Discovery, finally moved to a segment

that promises tomorrow’s answer to yesterday’s problems–information

technology. "I had been reading and watching and absorbing the wonders of

IT for ten years. I had dreamt so many times about how IT could be used in

conjunction with TV, virtual classrooms, audio-video feed going into everyone’s

homes, education reaching everyone at their chosen time... there were some great

possibilities. It was a parallel track after Discovery to see how IT could help

the rural areas, the masses, education, micro-level planning. The linkage was

there," says Karnik.

So it was that when he was about to leave Discovery and the possibility of

heading Nasscom came up, it was the beginning of another challenge for a man who

has lived by them all his life. "It was like another discovery for me. What

we could do to make IT useful not just in a smaller sense but the greater

ramifications on a much broader, countrywide, worldwide scale. It was really a

chance to start off my life from a new perspective, with a new mission, all over

again," he says.

Swiss watches, French wine

So what is it that the country’s most high profile software job holds for

him? And how does he propose to meet his mandate? "My first concern would

be to largely help the country actualize its tremendous potential in the IT

arena. Next on the agenda is to convert India into the most powerful brand–similar

to the status Switzerland and France enjoy in other fields. ‘‘Think of

watches and the Swiss come to mind; think France and you think wine and cheese,’’

Karnik says. ‘‘In our case, whenever someone talks about the world’s

premier IT destination, they should talk India."

And he hasn’t forgotten his long-held Indian domestic agenda either–he

remains keen to ensure that IT India Inc does not just feed global needs, but

also becomes all pervasive within the country–"technology for the masses

is what I have always believed in". "Speaking purely from an industry

perspective," says Karnik, "no matter how big you grow, no company–and

in this context we are talking about the whole hog, India IT Inc–can ever be

successful in the long run if domestic demand is not sufficient. And that’s

where China scores over us. They have a huge domestic demand that makes it

viable for global hardware players to set shop in that country. They have the

critical mass. India has the potential too, but it is yet to be realized,’’

Karnik explains.

"And time is running out," he warns. "China is moving fast,

very fast. Everyone knows about the English language problem they have and says

it will last for another five-to-six years, protecting us. I don’t agree. I

hope we have a three-year window, and I am not sure that we do. I won’t call

the Chinese totalitarian, but they are a centrally-run state and move incredibly

fast on decisions and faster still on implementation."

"In infrastructure–both processes and systems–we are way behind

them, and China scores over us hands down. If we talk about the Olympics, let’s

be clear what it means–these are not just the Games, they could just be the

announcement of a new China," he adds.

Credibility, balance, merger...

A clear priority is to build up Nasscom as an institution on the lines of CII

and Ficci, "so that the IT sector can work closely with the other parts of

industry and in tandem with their needs in changing times".

Ask mission statement, and the answer is simple–"We have huge

potential, I want to actualize it in terms of achievements. But I also want to

make the India IT brand strong overseas; I want to see IT become a productive

tool that is just there, for every Indian, and always used, like pencil and

paper, bread and butter..."

Dapper and open Karnik is, and that doesn’t change when about any possible

links between Nasscom and MAIT. "Why should people walk on eggs when

talking about this? It is time for Nasscom and MAIT to work closely together,

perhaps even merge… But there are some concerns–one or the other could get

neglected, as software was earlier. There has to be a fine balance, whichever

way things go."

But there are some other issues he wants to focus on before taking any big

decisions. "First and foremost, Nasscom has to be seen as credible, its

every word and number etched in rock. Like Caesar’s wife, it should not be

enough to say that the figure is right," he says. "And we have to

build up a database which is authentic, credible and transparent and wherever

there is lacunae, we should make it clear that these are our best estimates, not

predictions."

The list goes on and on, as does the man. From one challenge to another, one

task to the next... engine driver he might never have been, but let’s not rule

even that out just yet!

Rajeev Narayan in New

Delhi

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