Can Computers Outlive the Gujarat Bloodbath?

When the Gujarat government went global inviting potential investors to the

state, it hardly imagined a situation where its own people would enact a

nightmare, scaring away investors. Given the grave situation in the state,

business is far from booming. ‘Resurgent Gujarat’, the mega event held to

promote the state as a major business destination in the global market, hardly

made headway and even the few MoUs that were signed may be nipped in the bud.

Business analysts see this as an end to foreign direct investment in the state.

From being the premier industrial state, Gujarat is seen as one of the most

unfriendly states for business.

"What business demands is a peaceful atmosphere to work in and a

friendly government. Here, the former is a foregone conclusion and the latter

alone will not work. The recent riots proved exactly that," said Sandeep

Shah, director of Creative Infotech, an Ahmedabad based IT company. Though the

government says that the IT sector is not likely to be affected by the carnage

that killed nearly 800 people, the players in the IT industry are not willing to

take any more risks. With states like Andhra Pradesh attracting at least five

times the FDI, Gujarat is already losing ground. The focus of business in

Gujarat was on diamonds, textiles, and chemicals. IT has been pushed to the

backseat despite government efforts. This is primarily because the schemes to

promote IT were poorly drafted. Besides, there were political issues. Meanwhile,

Sanjay Gupta, who was looked upon as a key bureaucrat to promote Gujarat’s

emerging IT sector, was shunted out to a nondescript post after the current

Chief Minister took up the mantle.

A City In ANGUISH: Corporate houses on CG Road and Ashram Road were looted and burnt in a carnage that has put one of India’s most prolific business states to shame

The emerging field of call centers and transcription, which had a majority of

non-Gujarat residents on the rolls, will be affected since Gujarat is no longer

an attractive destination for job seekers. "What guarantee does one have

that you will not be targeted simply because you belong to a particular state or

religion or caste?" asks Sudip Bhattacharya, a medical transcriptionist in

Ahmedabad. Sudip has already decided to return to his home state, West Bengal,

where he has no hopes of getting a job that matches his specialization.

With great plans for the future, Gujarat was the first to draft an IT policy

and had earmarked one percent of the budget for IT related activities. The

government had hoped that this would increase to 3% by the year 2005.

The policy clearly says that to ensure quicker availability of funds, a

separate IT sub-head should be created within each major section of expense. IT

related funds will not be subject to any economy measures and would be made

available to the departmental heads in lump-sums rather than in the form of

quarterly/monthly releases. But for the perennial communal riots and the latest

‘secular riots’, this could have been a major emerging destination for IT.

Given this scenario, not many are confident that Gujarat will bounce back.

"I personally don’t think Gujarat will attract any more investments in

the IT sector," says S N Khemka, chairman, Growth Compusoft Exports. Khemka

informs that there has been 50% absenteeism among his own staff after the

incidents. "This is a people oriented industry where services are provided

in real time online. How can I commit service to clients when the entire office

is empty?" remarked Khemka. But some entrepreneurs still claim that the

state has the potential for re-birth. "It is absolutely true that the

situation has changed as far as investments and business atmosphere are

concerned. I hope that time will heal the wounds," says Chirag Mehta, CEO,

and managing director of IceNet Limited, another major player in the Internet

arena. Mehta points out that the manpower in the IT companies here, largely

comprises migrants. "There is no doubt that no one will venture into

Gujarat now, thereby making it impossible to outsource talent," he says.

Both Khemka and Mehta agree that business has gone to dogs. The adverse

market conditions have also done their bit in pushing the IT sector into a

corner. The present riots saw shops and business houses on C G Road and Ashram

Road looted and burnt. Though the miscreants justify that the shops belonged to

a particular community, business entrepreneurs maintain that the buildings

housed many other offices as well and any of them could have been targeted.

"The voter’s lists were used to zero in on a particular community’s

shops. Tomorrow they could use the same list to target a particular sector or a

section," warns Sukhdev Patel, head of an NGO working among the refugees in

Gujarat.

Khemka informs that he had considered shifting his business to a different

venue. "There is continuous turbulence here, if not natural, then manmade.

The future seems to be bleak and I believe that the IT industry needs peace to

grow and the people, a stress-free environment," he says.

A majority of the employees also agree. "How long can you wait to get

stabbed? Just because luck has favored you, does not mean that you will always

be lucky. I would not like my name to be on the list of casualties," says

Meet Mistry, a software engineer in Vadodara who has already made plans to shift

to southern India.

Vadodara, considered to be more peaceful than Ahmedabad, also witnessed

rioting and looting, leading to panic among residents. The issue is not just

about the financial losses suffered but also company property and the safety of

employees. The recent carnage saw the General Motors plant at Halol Industrial

Estate being destroyed and its truck burnt down.

And considering that the government’s efforts to appease the rioters has

not proved too successful, the future of IT in the state looks very bleak!

Binu Alex in Ahmedabad