No Hard Drive Ahead

The poll took its inevitable toll—first to fall was Cyberabad CEO and tech

champ extraordinaire Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh, followed by SM Krishna

in neighboring Karnataka. But IT here took it easy. "There is really no

shock to sink in," said industry sources whom Dataquest spoke to after

Bangalore Inc’s ‘CEO’ (now, Chief Executed Officer, as one wag puts it)

was "laid off" in the state elections.

Obviously, the tech branding gave the government image a bigger makeover than

observers would have imagined. Far from the positive image touted by Krishna’s

media managers of IT being a government imperative, the electorate retaliated

harshly to the so-called "Bangalore-centric" ways of his government.

IT is now being cited as the prime reason for the electorate arranging the

Krishna government’s date with Davie Jones’ Locker.

Will it Hurt IT, Not really



In a statement on the election results, Infosys Technologies President, CEO

and MD Nandan Nilekani said, "In India today, there is a broad consensus

that reforms are irreversible. We are confident that whichever party comes to

power, the process of reforms will continue. The Indian economy is poised for

growth and we are sure that this will be endorsed by whoever forms the

government. The IT industry has reached a fairly self-reliant stage now and will

continue its growth. The primary concern of the government should be job-led

economic growth, across all sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, retail

as well as knowledge-driven industries. Some of the other focus areas should be

efficient and transparent governance, primary education, better infrastructure,

healthcare and an efficient judicial system."

BS Murthy, chief executive of Human Capital Consulting, a major recruiter of

personnel for TCS, Texas Instruments, Synopsis and Cadence, feels that IT has

long crossed the barrier of being dependent on government support.

Fallen Urban Hero



Interestingly, the Krishna government’s early by-election victories were

touted as triumphs of state policy, while in reality, they were fought on local

issues. "It was only an urbanized electorate who spoke highly of Krishna.

He neglected his constituency and ran away from it to an urban electorate to

save his seat," scoffs Murthy. Krishna and company were better media

managers than IT visionaries. West Bengal chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya

was not half as pampered by the media as the Naidus and the Krishnas.

Saturation media bombing techniques apart, the issue here was one of voter

perception. The rural perception was that all the money was being spent on

Bangalore, say industry sources. Ergo, the pinkslip for the Krishna government.

"The money allotted for irrigation projects and power generation was

minimal. Many projects were left uncompleted," says the marketing director

of a well known retail chain.

Notes industry observer and entrepreneur Arun Revanna, "It was common

knowledge that Naidu’s government faced a total rout in the Andhra elections

after the huge mismanagement of resources at the district levels, not to mention

infighting within the TDP. The revelation in Karnataka, however, is that

Bangalore was being pampered at the expense of the districts."

Karnataka’s IT industry will continue to scale, no matter which government

rules the state, new export peaks and may not need anything more IT-friendly

than governments who can govern well, benevolent mamas serving them good tech

coffee and staying out of the business side of things. At least, for the moment.

Ravi Menon in Bangalore