It has been six months since Mr. S.M. Krishna took over as Chief Minister of Karnataka. If there is one thing that distinguishes him from run-of-the-mill politicians, it is his dynamism. Within weeks of his taking charge, a good part of Bangalore roads received a new coat of tar. Realizing the need for quick action to gain some of the ground that the state had lost in IT to Andhra Pradesh, he announced a new IT policy. His next target will be biotechnology.

When asked about issues that plague the state, like power and bandwidth, he remarked confidently: "Give me one and half years. I plan to change the situation." In him, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu will certainly find a tough competitor in the coming years.

In his interview to CIOL Bureau, the first to an online media, Mr. Krishna listed out the plans he has up his sleeve to sell the state to investors. He spoke to Manoj Chandran and Srinivas R in great detail on some of these issues. Excerpts:

What are the changes you have brought to the IT sector in the state after taking over as Chief Minister?
I have brought several changes in the IT segment in Karnataka. We have declared the new millennium IT policy, Mahiti, which takes IT to the common man. One of the several objectives is to use IT to track the beneficiaries in the women’s self-help group, Sthree Shakthi scheme. IT will thus be used in eradicating poverty and empowering women. There are several programs where IT is taken to the common man. For example, Bhoomi, where farmers will receive their RTCs right at their doorsteps and Panchayat, where accounts of zilla parishads will be totally computerized, and so on.

A popular perception is that many IT companies that came to Bangalore over a decade ago chose the city because of its pleasant weather and surroundings. It had less to do with what various governments offered them. How do you respond to that? What have the previous government done to improve the situation for the IT companies in the city?
Bangalore does have a favorable weather. But, this reason holds good for what the IT community calls as the Silicon Valley in the US. There are a number of historical reasons, apart from the fantastic weather, as to why Bangalore has become the IT capital of India. There are several research institutes like the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIT-B). There are centers for advanced research for robotics as well as the Indian Space Research Organization, which is doing international quality research. In addition, we have many public sectors like BEL, NAL, ITI etc. that have been perennial sources of technical manpower for the IT industry. It is not to say that industry has grown without government initiatives. The technical manpower that is available today in Karnataka is the result of several actions taken by the government. For instance, the government had permitted the formation of new engineering colleges at least 20-25 years ago. Now, 30,000 engineering students graduate every year and out of that 9,775 are from IT related streams. This is one of the reasons for the IT industry’s success in the state. In addition, the government has taken many steps for improving infrastructure and reduced the taxation for the hardware sector. The hardware sector today pays only 0.25 per cent tax, which is one of the lowest in the country. These initiatives have certainly improved the status of the IT sector.

You have formed various committees, the BATF, the IT Task force and one for biotechnology, to spearhead various development activities. What has come out of them? What will be the future of these committees?
The government has formed various task forces like the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF), vision on biotechnology and the IT task force. The BATF, headed by Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, is doing excellent work. Both Nandan and Infosys have given tremendous financial support to develop 2,252 rural libraries all over Karnataka. BATF has collected Rs 12 crore for the development of Bangalore. As far as the IT task force is concerned, Narayana Murthy is doing an excellent job. He is holding meetings regularly and giving quality time for IT development. He is also a member of Indian Institute of Information Technology board. He has been following up several state-related IT issues with DoT and the Civil Aviation and IT ministries.

Karnataka has taken a lead in the software arena. However, the hardware sector, an equal player in ensuring greater computer penetration, feels neglected. There was also a rollback on hardware duties by the state government recently. What are your plans for the hardware sector? What steps have been taken?
India lost its competitive advantage in hardware. Countries like Korea, Taiwan, Japan etc. have progressed in this sector. In fact, a few big players dominate the hardware sector world over. In Karnataka, however, the hardware sector is slowly picking up. We are developing this sector by taking several initiatives. Karnataka’s taxation for the hardware sector is the lowest in the country. This is one of the major reasons why many companies are expanding in Bangalore. For example, Hewlett Packard wanted 200,000-sq. ft. space and they have asked ITPL to build an independent building for them. This shows that the hardware sector in Bangalore is growing.

Why did you come out with a new IT policy? What was wrong with the earlier one?
Nothing was wrong with the policy announced in 1997. In fact, Karnataka was the first state to announce an IT policy. As you know, IT is a dynamic sector with rapid changes. Many other issues also affect the IT industry, like infrastructure, airport and so on. Also we wanted to encourage IT parks. Since the sector is growing very fast, we wanted to refocus our policy, and more importantly take it to the common man. That is why we came up with the new policy.

How does this new policy help the common man?
We have explained this aspect in the policy itself. First consider e-governance projects. Many of these e-governance projects will help the common man. For example, under the Bhoomi project, we have almost 190 lakh records in the computer that need to be taken to 60 lakh farmers. This project will work on putting RTC data in a data-center in Bangalore that could be accessed by the concerned people via information kiosks. This is only one aspect. There are many other schemes like tracking self-help groups for women, computerization of panchayats, computerization of sub-registrar offices etc. As you know, there is a high degree of corruption in sub-registrar offices. We believe that computerization will help in reducing corruption and help in giving better services to citizens.

One of the biggest issues in the state, especially Bangalore, is the lack of proper amenities and infrastructure. Despite your initial efforts, Bangalore roads are still in poor condition. Power continues to be in huge shortage. The state also lacks proper communication links. How are you planning to improve the state infrastructure? By when? How do you propose to raise money for all these?
Bangalore’s infrastructure is improving. One of the major projects is the outer Ring Road project. If that comes through, about 12,000 vehicles that enter the city from the North (Pune and Mumbai) to go to Chennai will take this road, thereby clearing the city roads. As far as power is concerned, this is a problem which cannot be resolved overnight. The government has taken bold initiatives in announcing privatization of distribution. Karnataka is the first state, which has signed a Memorandum of Agreement in this regard. Apart from this, we are starting the Bidadi power project by the end of August. I hope this will be completed in 36 months. That project will get Rs 3,500 crore from the government of India. In addition, the World Bank has given Rs 3,000 crore for the public sector. Also, we are getting HUDCO funding. With this, I am sure, the city infrastructure will improve.

Next comes connectivity. We are taking a number of steps in this regard. We would like to bring one more International gateway to Karnataka in the form of FLAG and we have discussed this with VSNL. We have received a positive response from them. Further negotiations will soon bring in an international gateway to Bangalore. Apart from this, another issue is domestic network. We already have taken DoT fiber in about 140 of the 175 state taluks. Small taluks and towns are already connected through fiber. Many private companies like Reliance, BPL, Enron and Lucent Technologies have expressed interest in participating in such projects. They will be encouraged to put their own fiber and given right of way. In addition, Spectranet has already started working around the city. It is about to complete a network in Electronic City and the entire project should be over in next few days, say by the end of May. Now, the companies located in Electronic City have two choices—DoT and Spectranet.

The curricula followed by the state colleges are outdated. Don’t you think a change is necessary to prepare the students for the IT revolution?
The curricula definitely need to be improved and we have to bring in more IT into our colleges. We are setting up an IT council to look into the state education. The council will be revising the syllabus for many of these courses. Apart from revamping old courses, they will be offering a few new courses on the Internet.

You respond to e-mails from citizens. Do you plans to use this kind of communication in the district levels too?
At the district level, the deputy commissioners have e-mail and I have asked them to respond to citizens very promptly. Deputy commissioners have already begun responding to e-mails. Citizens can send their problems and letter of grievances through e-mail. We are happy to help them in this regard.

What more needs to be done in the IT sector in the state?
A lot of things need to be done in the IT sector. We need to create many more IT professionals. Keeping this in mind, in our project, yuva.com, we are planning to train professionals in IT. In IT development, what we really require is people. So we are concentrating more on training.

How do you relate Hyderabad’s progress in IT?
It is a vast Industry and we think there are immense opportunities for India. We have to take advantage of it. I would like to say that Bangalore has been leading the way as the IT capital of India. For instance, Indian software exports crossed $1 billion in 1997. But in 2000, Bangalore alone has aggregated $1 billion in software exports. This is enough to illustrate the strength of Bangalore. I think Bangalore is growing tremendously. I wish every Indian city grew like this. I will be very happy if that happens. We wish everyone all the best.

How do you react to the Sankhya Vahini controversy?
We are for Sankhya Vahini. Under the project, Bangalore will act as a mirror to the Mumbai hub. We know that there is controversy over this project. We believe that the center will solve the issues relating to this.

Numerous central government decisions are getting delayed. For instance, the IT Bill, NIB, and many telecom issues. How do you see this affecting the growth of IT and telecom in the country? How do these delays affect fast developing states like Karnataka?
Yes, there is a delay in taking these decisions. The Bills have to be tabled in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha before they are passed. There will be a lot of controversy and opposition for these kinds of bills. But, I can say that till today, the center has not said "No" to any of our projects. Pramod Mahajan (Union Minister for Information Technology) is doing a really good job. We wish him all the best.