The Coming of the Silicon Coast

Its quite paradoxical that while Kerala still lags behind
many Indian states in terms of per capita income and production, the human
development index and standard of living are the best in the country. In fact,
on certain development parameters, Kerala is at par with few of the developed
countries. Experts dub this discrepancy between high human development and low
economic progress as the Kerala phenomenon or the Kerala model of development.
The reasons are pretty straightforward: an agrarian economy that is largely
dependent on tourism and overseas remittances.

The idyllic and picturesque coastal state figures quite high on
a number of social and developmental parameters. For instance, thanks to the
100% literacy, Kerala is the longest-lived, healthiest, most gender-equitable,
and one of the most literate regions in the Third World, according to a survey.
A nationwide corruption survey by Transparency International ranked Kerala as
the least corrupt state in the country.

Despite all these achievements, Kerala does not rank much highly
in the pantheon of Indian states and this perturbs KR Jyothilal, special
secretary, Department of IT, Kerala. This dynamic and energetic alumni of IIT-Madras
is keen to not only change the lethargic image associated with Gods own
country, but also foster development.

As head of the Kerala IT Mission, Jyothilal is involved in a
variety of schemes that work inward and outward, ie, ways to attract investment
in the state and spread of IT to rural areas. He believes in equitable growth
and is ready to forego rapid strides in favor of slower and all-encompassing
development. Jyothilal knows well that to be profitable, not only does one
require a good product but has to market it accordingly too. So, the informed
technocrat is chalking out road shows to showcase Keralas infrastructure
prowess across India in the coming months. Seated in his Spartan office at the
Kerala Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, Jyothilal shares his vision of Kerala
with Dataquest and what all he is doing to achieve it. Excerpts.

Kerala has clearly missed the IT bus when compared to other
southern states, though it had a lead. What went wrong?

I would agree that we had the lead in terms of IT advancement. In fact, the
Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram was the first such park in India, way back in
the nineties. But, due to a variety of reasons, namely negative perception and
political will, the state lagged behind. Yet, even though it might have fallen
in the race to investments, the state has continued to be a flag bearer for
India in terms of social indices. Take the case of education, infrastructure,
and people; there is nothing that the state really lacks, we just need to market
it soundly and the story will be quite different. You will see that in the days
to come, while the US has the Silicon Valley, India will have the Silicon Coast.

What benefits can IT companies draw by investing in the state?

Literally, every survey in India ranks Kerala quite high as an investment
destination. The recent Nasscom survey of emerging cities ranked Kochi at the
second position in all of India. There are a number of reasons why IT companies
are indeed opening up campuses and development centers in Kerala. The biggest
attraction is cost saving. According to estimates, companies can save as much as
50% on the cost of operation when compared to other destinations like Bangalore,
Chennai, etc. Next is the highly literate workforce that is abundantly
available. And finally, there is a great infrastructure in place.

Kerala is well connected to any part of the world through
undersea cable connections. In fact, Kochi is the only city in the country that
is the landing point for both SEA-ME-ME3 (it lands in Mumbai) and SAFE undersea
cables that connect the country to the rest of the world. Also, gigabyte router
of VSNL gateway lies in the vicinity. Kochi is the best city in terms of
bandwidth connection, as around 80% of the Indian traffic is routed through the
VSNL gateway. In terms of transport, there are three international airports in
Kerala, connecting it to the rest of the world. And, now we are taking IT to the
very grassroots through innovative e-Governance initiatives like Akshaya. And,
not to forget, Kerala is a beautiful place to live and work.

What are these e-Governance initiatives?

The governments vision is to turn Kerala into a knowledge society with
sustainable economic growth, social harmony, and a high quality of life for all.
Unlike other Indian states, we lay a lot of emphasis on inclusive growth rather
than rapid growth. Our IT policy clearly maps out the path we intend to take.
Even our e-Governance initiatives are geared toward that objective; for
instance, the Akshaya project. To ensure that the benefits of ICT reach the
commonest of the common Keralites, the state government is in the process of
setting up around 3,000 broadband-enabled information hubs, or Akshaya
e-centers, throughout the length and breadth of the state. The project envisages
providing functional computer literacy to at least one person from each of the
64 lakh families in the state. In the time to come, every citizen of the state
will have a unique Akshaya ID, whereby he or she can make use of the numerous
e-Governance applications through the Internet or the kiosks. By December 2007,
the entire state will have broadband connectivity, right up to the gram
panchayat level.

We are also in the process of implementing the SWAN (State Wide
Area Network), whereby all 14 districts of the state will be connected to
smaller blocks in the state. All the districts have been inter-connected by a 30
mbps pipe and all the districts will be connected to the block level on a 2 mbps
pipe, thereby facilities like video-conferencing and other such things will be
available to state officials as well as the common man.

There was also the talk of networking all government
departments. Any progress there?

We are in the process of networking the government departments. As of now,
we have configured and networked fifteen departments, the entire secretariat has
been networked, making it the first in India. We are also putting in mechanisms
whereby petitioners can track the movement of the files through the means of IT.
As of now, the facility is available in the Finance, IT, and the Industries
department, and we are in the process of networking more departments. Not only
does this increase the efficiency, but also helps in making the process
transparent.

What is your take on open source?

I am an ardent admirer of the open source movement and feel that wherever
possible we should have open source applications and systems. The government of
Kerala also keenly promotes open software, as it is less costly. We have also
established a center for free open software, wherein developers are co-operating
with people across the globe to come up with unique solutions. We also have a
special officer to looks after the issues of open source. We migrated a number
of systems to Linux, Red Hat recently, and intend to keep working to that end.

Shashwat DC

shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in