Can computers outlive the Gujarat bloodbath?

Binu Alex

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.

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!