IT, trade bodies happy, but wary over Cong. rule in K'taka

BANGALORE, INDIA: When it comes to industry growth in Karnataka, and especially that of the information technology sector, changes in government have always been observed closely, as they have always made a lot of difference to it.

So, after the Congress coasted to a clear majority in the recently-concluded state Assembly elections 2013, there were a few sighs of relief, some happy faces and also a few concerned ones. On being asked, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) chairman, Krishnakumar Natarajan, succinctly summed up the emotions, making his intentions clear that there was hardly any governance over the last five years.

"No one was able to think through what is required to take the state forward, take the IT industry to tier-II cities. There was no thought leadership. The Congress government can address it seriously and possibly make the operational environment for the industry friction-less," said KK, who is also the chief executive officer of Mindtree.

Industry veteran Mohandas Pai, who is currently the chairman of Manipal Global Education and a former director of Infosys Limited, more or less aligned with those statements and reflected the industry's positive views over a single-party rule in the state. "Moreover, we have a strong person with a record of impeccable governance and one who knows how an administration works - we have seen him as the finance minister - as the Chief Minister (referring to K. Siddaramaiah)," he said.

Pai, however, had a word of caution, as he went on to add that the CM should not pick anybody with criminal charges, with strong involvement in real estate or someone whose network has grown a lot in the last few years in his Cabinet. "Those who indulged in crime or corruption should not be encouraged."

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which recently had a new president in Infosys executive co-chairman, Kris Gopalakrishnan, has also welcomed the results. "We believe the new government will encourage more progressive polices to speed up the economic growth of the state and would like to support the new government to ensure the overall development of the state," said Soumitra Bhattacharya, chairman, CII Karnataka.

Karnataka's trade body, the Federation of Karnataka Chambers for Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) has also voiced its support to the Congress for gaining majority and stated that it is a vote against deficit governance, corruption, carelessness and self enrichment.

"For some time in the past, we suffered a fractured verdict and all the deficiencies of a coalition government. Now, since the Congress has bagged a clear majority, it can go ahead with the required reforms, which has been pending for a long time, execute the infrastructure projects that have suffered due to deficit governance and concentrate on tactical measures to improve the growth of Karnataka, which has fallen to 6 per cent from 8 per cent and industrial growth from second to thirteenth position," said K. Shiva Shanmugam, president of FKCCI.