Another One Bites the Dust

On May 13, Dayanidhi Maran resigned from the post of union ICT

minister, after a run-in with his political party. The DMK, its supremo

Karunanidhi, and the latter's family, all wanted him out.

The abrupt exit of this 40-year-old Chennai politician from the

Central berth he climbed into three years ago was met with mixed feelings in the

industry.

Nasscom was first off with a politically-correct statement of

appreciation of the 'champion and friend of the Indian IT sector' and his

'positive and key role' in the industry's growth. It looked forward to 'working

as closely with his successor.'

Yes, Maran did much for ICT. He made talking cheap, and helped

drive the mobile explosion, taking India to #4 in installed base, with over 150

million mobiles. He helped bring in investments in the past two years, and

pushed for manufacturing in India.

Yet Maran is a street-smart politician. His home state was

clearly his focus. He made no bones about that: "I have done whatever I

could do India and Tamil Nadu," he said, adding that nearly a fifth

of the Rs 266,000 crore of investment proposals received were directed toward

Tamil Nadu. The Nokia and Motorola factories in Tamil Nadu were special coups.

Maran was also in the right place at the right time. The IT

industry is a star performer (its major challenge other than HR and global

competitive issues is a government wanting a bite out of the golden goose). He

rode a wave of change in global telecom technology and markets. The three ICT

ministers so far-each so completely different from the other-all had a good

track record in this portfolio. From the late Pramod Mahajan, who, despite the

controversies he engendered, helped drive the explosion of cheap bandwidth that

set the stage for rapid growth in BPO; to the dignified Arun Shourie, ever

stretched by his disinvestment portfolio.

Maran was focused on Investment. $1 bn was the magic figure you

needed in an 'investment proposal' for a joint public audience. Maran jumped

the gun in a confidential discussion with Intel and announced that a test

manufacturing plant would be in Tamil Nadu; Intel got miffed at the breach and

finally decided in favor of Vietnam, thus falling out of favor with Maran, who

turned to AMD and SemIndia.

The industry would, of course, have wanted Maran to continue.

There is worry about discontinuity, with little known about successor A Raja's

view of ICT. All that we should fervently hope for from Mr Raja is continuity.

In an office that's at the pleasure of the DMK supremo, a 'more national and

a less regional perspective' would be way too much to expect.

Prasanto

K Roy



pkr@cybermedia.co.in