A Vision for Bangalore and Karnataka

Clean Lalbagh Express - An Appeal

2009-07-05T17:48:00.003+02:00

View more presentations from bangalorevision.

Appeal submitted to:
Smt.Mamata Banerjee, Honorable Minister for Indian Railways.
Shri.K.H.Muniyappa, Honorable Minister of State for Indian Railways.
Shri. V. Sriram, GGM, IRCTC, South Zone.
Dr.Jayashree Rana, ED/Health, Indian Railways.

Lorry Menace on Outer Ring Road - A Proposal

2009-07-05T17:26:00.002+02:00

Lorry Menace Outer Ring Road

View more documents from guest5f31b6.

This proposal has been submitted to BBMP Commissioner in September 2008

Its not the terrorists - its the mindset of the authorities

2008-11-28T07:25:00.006+01:00

Just two days ago, city of Mumbai has been attacked by terrorists again killing atleast 173 people and injuring more than 308 people. It is such a shame that the city is being attacked by foreign terrorist mercenaries repeatedly. See a chronology of Mumbai attacks here. I travel along today to office with this predicament overcrowding my thoughts.

As I tried to take a left turn towards our office, I found that the whole road was jammed with vehicles facing me. They did not leave enough space for the vehicles coming from the opposite direction. I got down from my car to check with the police inspector who was standing nearby watching the scene helplessly. I asked him whether this road has been declared a one way, why is that the vehicles can't stand on one side of the road? The policeman seemed helpless, he grumbled - "Yen maadona heli, the number of vehicles in the city have grown to 40 Lakh the population of the city is now 80 Lakh. This is bound to happen with so many vehicles and so many people.".

The police inspector was complaining against the population, but weren't Indian police supposed to solve the traffic problem of Indian cities which will (obviously) have Indian population. If the responsible authorities plead helplessness and pass on the buck to someone else, how will the situation ever improve?

So what should we do now? Reduce the population back to 50 Lakh, how do we do? Drive the North Indians and IT industries away from Bangalore? OR why not ruthlessly kill the poor and jobless people. Thats an invalid argument. The problem was not with Indian population - its proven now, population is an asset, if people have enough jobs and there are enough places where they can spend their earnings -- that creates a booming economy. The problem is with the people's sulking mindset. The problem is with the resolve and commitment they put in to solve the problem.

We have heard these helpless arguments before - "Population and poverty are our problems, nothing will change until we control these", "Mumbai is a city with xxx lakh people how can a troupe of yyy policemen handle the terrorists", "India has a xx km wide open border can we safe guard it?", "Indian railways is the largest in the world with xxx trains carrying yyy people - these accidents are bound to happen", "Number of people killed in road accidents is more than the rail accidents".

It just took one resolved KPS Gill to fix the terrorism issue in Punjab. It was one Manmohan Singh who ushered in the right economic policies. It was one Mohandas Gandhi who raised a non-violent war against the British government. It was one Dhirubhai Ambani who created the Reliance business empire. We need to find that one resolved and committed person to solve Bangalore's traffic problems and India's terrorist problems.

Alarm bells for higher education in India

2007-05-17T23:15:00.000+02:00

As per NASSCOM, the total employment in Indian IT/ITES industry was more than 1.2 million people in FY05-06. Of these, 2.2 Lakh people got employed in the industry in 2006.

However, increasing employment should be adequately matched with qualitative and quantitative improvement in education. Quantity wise the employment and graduation rate is at a good situation as the employement is increasing at 16% per year whereas number of people graduating is increasing at 13% (Source: NASSCOM 2003-2008).

Worrying factor is with the quality of education, According to REDIFF article here only 25% of the graduates are employable. What good is quantity without quality? In a study conducted among companies offshoring their work, 38% companies said that US engineers produced higher quality work, Even though, 40% of the companies said quality of engineering talent is the same, still 38% is a huge figure. If offshoring needs to move up the higher value in the value curve – then the quality of education should improve.

I would like to quote some facts and figures from this article in Issues in Science and Technology

Below are two charts, Chart1 shows the master degree graduation rate in US, China and India. Chart2 shows the number of PhDs graduating from US, China and India. Note the low levels of Masters and PhDs output in India.

The bottom line is that China is racing ahead of the United States and India in its production of engineering and technology PhD’s and in its ability to perform basic research. India is in particularly bad shape, as it does not appear to be producing the numbers of PhD’s needed even to staff its growing universities.

So why is China performing better in higher education?

I quote further from the same article.

Immigrants return home:

Data for 2005 that we obtained from the Chinese government show that 30% of all Chinese students studying abroad returned home after their education, and various sources report that this number is steadily increasing.

Policy improvements:

China has been decreasing its total number of technical schools and their associated teachers and staff. From 1999 to 2004, the number of technical schools fell from 4,098 to 2,884, and during that period the number of teachers and staff at these institutions fell by 24%. So graduation rate increases have been achieved by dramatically increasing class sizes in the good schools.

Researchers who publish their work in international journals are accorded status as national heroes

Surprisingly, immigrants from India have have founded more engineering and technology companies during that past decade in US than immigrants from Britain, China, Taiwan, and Japan combined. Immigrants were inventors/co-inventors in 24.2% of the patent applications, Chinese were the largest group, followed by Indians, Canadians, and British.

What makes immigrants to do it?

The education level of the individuals who make it to the United States that differentiates them. The vast majority of immigrant founders have master’s and PhD degrees in math- and science-related fields. The majority of these immigrant entrepreneurs entered the United States to study and stayed after graduation.

What incentive do those doing higher education have in India?
In a long term perspective higher education issue should be addressed by Ministry of higher education, UGC and AICTE.

Role of Karnartaka to make India as a global power

2006-01-08T14:23:00.000+01:00

Deutsche bank in its german website site has published a report of “India as a global power“. The report rates very highly that India is a potential world power because of stable democratic political system, huge middle-class population, immense military clout in South Asia, rising economic fortunes and global ambitions. While also highlighting the challenges that need to be addressed:
· The fiscal deficit
· Freeing its manufacturing sector from antiquated labour laws,
· Selling state-owned assets and using the freed-up cash for investments in physical infrastructure.
· Economic priorities dictating foreign policies.

The report interestingly looks closely at the growth of the states in various parameters like Gross State Product (GSP), Per capita product, Population, Poverty rate, Urbanisation, Literacy, Quality and effectiveness of governance. This report refers to Gujarat as the fastest growing state.

For Karnataka the good points are it is the largest exporter of software services, but software services constitute only 3% of GDP. Karnataka attracts 7.5% of the total investments in India. Represents the new brand of India as a Knowledge powerhouse. Having a large global community of highly educated citizens. Other sectors growing very well in Karnataka are: automotive and auto components, textiles, electronic, engineering and steel.

We need to look at the following issues to make Karnataka as a leading state in our ambition of "India as a global power".

The main issues for industrial development are:
- Improving gross per capita productivity by 50%
- Even spread of Infrastructure development – lack of proper roads, ports, airports and hotels
- Improvements in labour laws
- Unreliable power supplies
- Faster progress in getting special economic zones
- Improvement of network connecting the universities
- Speeding up of import clearance for auto-components
- Reducing freight and power tariffs

The main social issues are:
- Improving effective functioning of state and local government agencies
- Reducing the 20% poverty rates
- Improving the literacy rate from current levels of 65%
- Addressing public health: Lively economy draws mobile labour force and truckers which bring in diseases and infections

The link to the document is here:
http://www.deutsche-bank.de/en/downloads/20051219-dbresearch-india.pdf

Some precautions to citizens about terrorist attacks

2005-12-29T17:47:00.000+01:00

· Keep the police, bomb squad, emergency response center, ambulance number in your purse
· Find out the emergency response plans of employers, school, daycare and other officials. To where would they evacuate workers and students?
· Write down your emergency contact person’s name, landline and mobile number and keep it in your purse
· Keep a FM Radio handy with you to get the latest information – on the first information about a public transportation attack avoid using the public transport immediately.
· Closely monitor news reports and Emergency Alert System (EAS) radio/TV stations.
· Avoid crowding, traveling in crowded buses, malls, cinema theatres take a longer route if required (Esp don’t visit the big malls)
· Check underneath your seat when travel in a public vehicle like bus, taxi, auto
· Change your office timing start early to office by 6am and return early
· Be aware of suspicious strangers in your road, question them
· Be suspicious of persons taking photographs of critical facilities, asking detailed questions about physical security or dressed inappropriately for weather conditions (suicide bomber). Report these incidents immediately to law enforcement.
· Be aware of unclaimed things kept on the roads – if you see a suspicious car parked for long time in your road that you have not seen before, check out the situation. Esp. Beware of vehicles with non local registration numbers
· Avoid passing unsubstantiated information and rumors

Prepaid Ticketing Machines

2005-12-25T11:52:00.000+01:00

The prepaid auto counter on MG Road triggers me with a idea.

Why not somebody make these prepaid auto and taxi ticketing machines,
Get the funding from Police, Auto and taxi associations and public for the investment and maintenance.
For safety these machines can be installed at a nearby STD booth too.

- The machines will be installed at each Auto and Taxi stand in Bangalore
- The machines come with a replacable smart card with has configurable list of places and price per km
- The machine will have two displays one to the front for the consumer and one to the rear for Auto driver
- Auto drivers queue up at a taxi stand and enter their vehicle regn number into the machine
- Consumer access the machine from the other side to chose the destination and print a receipt for it with the amount
- The consumer boards the auto and pays as per prepaid ticket
- Additional features: the consumer could pay by any card, the auto driver collects the amount at the end of the day from a
specified office
- A card pay consumer has facility to rate the auto or taxi he used on safety, service, helpfulness
- Going ahead, this machine can be used buy tickets for Auto, Taxi, Bus, Metro, Light elevated rail.

regards
JP

How to fight corruption

2005-12-09T20:55:00.000+01:00

How to fight corruption:

CVC online complaints:http://cvc.nic.in/vscvc/ecomplain.htm

Lokayukta:kla-reg@kar.nic.in

If you need help on creating applications under Karnataka Right to Information Act.
Some volunteers have registered themselves at www.parivartan.com

Posting here for the public good:

GURU RAVINDRANATH
Phone : 08026713616
Address : 593,DUNDUBHI 24TH CROSS BSK II STAGE BANGAORE-560070
Email : guru_ravindranath@yahoo.co.in
I am member of Consumer Care Society and also BSK II Stage Welfare association. We are working under RTI , and have making efforts to obtain information and utilise it to expose the short commings of Govt. Depts, Mahanagar Palike,Bangalore Development Authority, Water & Sewage Suuply Board, etc

Consumer Rights Education and Awareness Trust - CREAT
Phone : 23357280
Address : 239, 5th C Main, Remco Layout, Vijayanagar, Bangalore-560040
Email : creatorg@sify.com
Consumer Rights Education and Awareness Trust (CREAT) is a consumer advocacy group. It has launched a campaign on RTI with the assistance of CHRI, New Delhi. CREAT is conducting workshops, seminars both for NGOs and government departments. It has published a leaflet on KRIA. It is networking with over 30 NGOs.

A tale of two cities: Bangalore and Shanghai

2005-12-06T08:05:00.000+01:00

A tale of two cities : Bangalore and Shanghai are like 'yin' and 'yang', with their pros and cons. Business Times, Singapore,
By RAJU CHELLAM

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity . . . '
This famous quote is from A Tale Of Two Cities, which was Charles Dickens' twelfth novel and was based on events that took place during the French Revolution of 1789. The first full print of the novel appeared in November 1859.

The best of times: Bangalore is emerging as the software capital of the world while Shanghai is already the hardware factory of the world. Exactly 145 years later, the high-tech world is looking at the unfolding tale of two cities, Bangalore and Shanghai. Like Dickens' introduction to his novel, it is the best of times for Bangalore and Shanghai. The two cities are like yin and yang. They are as different from each other as they are similar. And they are in a great rush to catch up with the First World.Bangalore is emerging as the software capital of the world and Shanghai is already the hardware factory of the world. The first is in the throes of development, while the other seems to have gotten there already.

Here's a personal insight:When you land at Bangalore's antiquated airport, you can feel the charms of an era gone by when Bangalore was a more relaxed city and was considered suitable for pensioners to retire in. The drive from the airport to the heart of the city is nerve-wracking, with potholes on the roads, cows straying in, sidewalks dug up, people milling around alongside, and three-wheelers jutting into any available space between two vehicles.

When you land at Shanghai's new Pudong airport, you're greeted by an expanse of steel and concrete beams that hold the almost kilometre-long structure's roof. China opened the airport in 1999 to take the pressure off Shanghai's older and smaller Hong Qiao airport. After clearing customs, you take a lift to the third level to ride on Shanghai's showpiece: the Maglev train.The 10 billion yuan (S$2 billion) Maglev is the first-ever magnetic levitation project system in commercial use in the world and whisks you from Pudong airport to the Shanghai Lujiazui financial district in under eight minutes at a top speed of 431kmph. The 30km ride costs 50 yuan and a train leaves either station every 15 minutes. A cab ride, on the other hand, costs 110 yuan and takes 50 minutes during non-peak periods.Shanghai gives a superb first impression, while Bangalore offers a different appeal.

Almost everybody in Bangalore speaks English - unlike in Shanghai - and one out of three is employed in the infotech sector. Almost half-a-million people work in the IT outsourcing sector alone in Bangalore, which has 1,400 infotech companies registered there, 506 of them MNCs. The government of Karnataka state (of which Bangalore is the capital) wants Bangalore to gross US$10 billion in software exports by 2007 - up from about US$6 billion this year.As for Shanghai, in 2000 it earmarked 100 billion yuan - 25 per cent of the total proposed industrial fixed investment between 2000 and 2005 - to prop up its IT sector. Shanghai wants the IT sector to contribute 15 per cent to the city's GDP by 2005, up from about 7 per cent now.Both cities are in a hurry to modernise. The competition comes not just from other cities around the world but also from within their countries. A

ccording to BusinessWeek, India produces 316,000 science and engineering graduates a year and China 337,000.By comparison, Singapore churns out 5,600 a year, Israel 14,000, Taiwan 49,000, and South Korea 97,000."

"You can do it. The whole nation will be with you" - Dr.Abdul Kalam

2005-11-21T18:54:00.000+01:00

The President advised the Karnataka government to decongest Bangalore by making its economic activity equitably distributed across the state for ensuring homogenous growth. Although Bangalore occupied one per cent of the total area of the state (191,791 sq.km), its present population of about 7.4 million was 14 per cent of the state's total population (50.27 million), he reiterated.

"For a state which has given the world the first war rocket, pioneer in science and technology revolutions, creating development facilitating environment commensurate with the economic and industrial growth is not an impossible task. You can do it. The whole nation will be with you," Kalam told the state government and its legislative members. "For improving connectivity, enabling existing industries to disperse and creating new industries, the first requirement will be reliable air connectivity to and between all the tier-two cities. At the same time, there is a need to make the development facilitators of Bangalore world class," Kalam pointed out.

The president urged the government to set up commercial airports at Mysore, Hubli, Belgaum and Gulbarga through BOOT (build, operate, own and transfer) scheme within the next three years. "Similarly, the Bangalore international airport, scheduled to come up by 2008, should rank among the top ten best airports in the world," Kalam exhorted. The president also stressed upon the need to create four-to-six lane road infrastructure across the state, inter-connecting Bangalore and the tier-two cities with proper linkages to the rest of the state. In the second phase, connect all 270 towns to the tier-two cities like a hub and spoke model with four-lane roads having flyovers and over-bridges. "Since the road capacity in Bangalore has reached a saturation point, the metro rail project should be taken up on top priority. At the same time, care has to be taken to ensure concrete structures are not built at the cost of damaging the greenery, which makes Bangalore so beautiful," Kalam cautioned the state authorities.

Summarizing responses till now

2005-11-15T13:14:00.000+01:00

Over 700 visitors to the blogs here and o3.indiatimes.com/visionkarnataka for providing a vision for karnataka.Very good responses have been given in the comments section and also I have recieved numerous emails with the inputs.

Thanks to every one for such a tremendous response. Please continue to provide your thoughts with more analysis. Whenever you find something interesting that can be emulated and it solves a problem - send me a email or post it as a comment - We can do more research on it and put a writing about it here.

All these efforts would not go waste, these will be sent to influential people in politics, bureaucracy, industrialists and journalists. I am sure the journalists watch all the blogs and will pick out the thoughts published here for further work.

Most people felt that we need to improve on:
- Governance
- Rural Education System
- Judicial system
- Benefits of IT should reach the masses

Following were the main thoughts:

Governance
- We need to change the way people are elected based on caste, religion, groups etc
- Fix minimum criteria for contesting elections
- Young people with future vision for our country should enter politics
- We need leaders with longterm vision

Rural education
- Education will help in choosing right political leaders
- NGOs and private people should come forward for this
- Promote moral education

IT
- State should proceed with promoting IT / BT industries
- The benefits should trickle down to the other sections of the society, people want to see definete contribution
- Educate and improve awareness of people
- Provide IT solutions to Agriculture sector
- IT should be used for providing transparency
- Expand to Tier-II cities
- Benifits of IT should be utilised for building social security system to poor people

Learning
- We need to closely look at development of small countries like Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand which have done significant progress
- Also learn from China which is ahead in economic reforms
- Patriotism must rule our hearts, people should help each other and fellow citizens

Tourism
- We should promote responsible tourism
- Profits should be invested back locally

Judicial system
- Should Quick and fair
- Police force should be reformed

Thanks To everyone who contributed,
especially:
Abdul Salam, Murali, Paramesh,
Jai Belagur, Arun, Dr.Rao,
RVP, Kanth, Krishna, AJ,
Ramgopal, Vincent, Anil,
Dr.Jayaram, Manohar Dudda

Bangalore showed to the world that we "Can Do"

2005-11-07T13:52:00.000+01:00

From our PM Dr.Manmohan Singh's address at Infosys Leadership Institute, in Feb 2005:

I am fully aware that to sustain this process we need urban renewal, we need better infrastructure. Yesterday in Bangalore I was apprised of the steps being taken to build a new international airport and modernize Bangalore’s infrastructure. Our Government is committed to a new beginning for Bangalore and to creating the infrastructure required to meet the needs and aspirations of one of our most dynamic cities. Bangalore has already become a globally recognized brand name. The steady flow of world leaders and global captains of business to this city, thanks to firms like Infosys, has already established the international pre-eminence of Bangalore, as India’s knowledge capital.

Bangalore’s emergence as a hub of enterprise and intellectual creativity predates its growth into a major metropolis. The city’s infrastructure has, therefore, lagged behind its development. The time has come for Bangalore’s infrastructure to catch up with Bangalore’s intellectual and entrepreneurial status. The Bangalore “Brand” needs an infusion of new equity and I am personally committed to this cause. I hope this institution will do for Mysore what you have all been able to do for Bangalore.

I am fully aware that many of you have become impatient with the pace of development of our urban infrastructure, I understand your impatience. India needs world class infrastructure. For too long have we remained satisfied with the second best. Our “Make-do” attitude must give way to a new can-do spirit. Bangalore has demonstrated to the country and the world that India “Can Do”. That Indians “Can Do”. I promise you our Government will now show that we “Can Do” what you expect of us. We can and we will create world class infrastructure.
Here too we need leadership. I hope the Infosys Leadership Institute will show us the way forward. I eagerly look forward to your creative endeavours. I wish you all the best.

Reducing the rising real estates prices in Bangalore

2005-10-16T13:25:00.000+02:00

Here are some ideas to reduce the growing real estate prices in Bangalore

- Ban reselling of retail property for 5 years

- Restricted Residential permit to people, only people with 3 years of residence in Bangalore can buy a property

- Restriction on Number of employees per sq meter of industrial land area thus expanding IT Industries to nearer towns and reducing the density in the central part.

- Sanctioning lands beyond green belt (urban-green belt-urban concept) and keeping housing loan rates cheaper there

- Government sponsored Urban housing with lower rentals

- BDA to allot sites based on economic criteria (quota), Also people with higher income will be required pay higher price.

- Government to ask banks to stop offering homeloans at prevailing interest rate of 7.5% and increase it to a higher rate for Bangalore.

American Image of India through Bangalore

2005-10-16T02:43:00.000+02:00

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman is the author of the best selling book on Globalisation - "The World is Flat" - Inspiration of this book is supposed to be by his meeting with Nandan Nilekani. http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/worldisflat.htm

A slightly old article - published about a year back:

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, just back from a tour of the Bangalore region of India, discusses the impact of more and more outsourcing on the subcontinent and its ripple effect here in the United States. (3/9/04)

TERENCE SMITH: Tom Friedman's latest trip took him to Bangalore, India, where he looked into the issue of outsourced jobs. Tom, welcome home.

THOMAS FRIEDMAN: Good to be back.

TERENCE SMITH: Those are outsourced U.S. jobs.

THOMAS FRIEDMAN: Yes. Fortunately, mine can't be outsourced, Terry, but a lot of others can be, and that's really what I discovered on this trip. We visited, you know, everything from radiological labs that are reading the X-rays done by big American hospitals to accounting firms that are now using Indian CPAs to do your taxes, to cartoons and game companies that now have Indian artists drawing for American games and cartoons.

You know, you know you're in Bangalore, you know you're in the Silicon Valley of India, Terry, when you go to play golf and the caddy on the first tee says you can either aim at the Microsoft building or the IBM building. You know you're at Bangalore when you see the Pizza Hut advertisement says "gigabytes of taste." And you know you're at Bangalore when you see street signs sponsored by Texas Instruments. This is one hot town, and it's going to ... it's producing a lot of energy, and it's going to be a real challenge to American workers.

TERENCE SMITH: Why are these jobs going to India, and why to Bangalore?

THOMAS FRIEDMAN: Why to India? Why is India so well positioned for this? It's a lot of reasons that have come together. One is very simple. You have a huge number of educated people who speak English. You have a culture, also, where being a doctor or an engineer is absolutely the top of the pyramid. It's amazing. You go down any side street in Bangalore, and there seems to be an engineering school, you know, or some kind of software programming classroom.

Another oddity: Their day is exactly the opposite of ours. You can work all day in America, then outsource all the stuff you need done overnight to India. They work all day in India, and send it back the next day. And so a lot of these things have converged. And then there's a couple of just accidents, Terry.

One is the dot-com bubble and huge overinvestment in dot-com stocks in America. You know what it did? It laid all these pipes, these fiber optic cables around the world, and created all this excess capacity, which made it easy -- not only easy, almost cost-free -- to transmit data from America to India. And then there was something called Y2K.

Y2K comes along, and you need all these software programmers basically to go through code, to see if the date is going to be a problem in whatever software program you're running. Well, what country in the world had that many programmers easily available, cheaply available? And once the Indians did that, they said, by the way, could we do this for you? Maybe you'd like your taxes done also.

Click here to read the whole article and see the news clip

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june04/friedman_03-09.html

Need an Industry-Academy Interface

2005-10-13T00:28:00.000+02:00

It is the starting of a semester in Vishweshwariah Technical University (VTU), Technological university situated in the world's largest Technology Hub - Bangalore. In last 1 month, about four students have emailed me inquiring for industrial projects for their final semester of Bachelor of Engineering course.

I have tried to push hard with the company that I work for. I also send emails to network of my friends who are placed in 100s of technology companies in Bangalore. After waiting for about a month I hardly find any response, except for a few offers from institutes which provide projects to trainees at a price.

This troubles me a lot, this NOT the first time that I am seeing such problem. Every year,including our batch, my senior batches, my junior batches have had this problem, not just from VTU, from every university in India students have to take this great pain for finding a company which provides them project opportunity for their study completion. Sometimes due to compulsion from the university, sometimes because of peer pressure, sometimes with the hope to get job in the same firm. Why can't we have a organisation which co-ordinates this activity?

Let us see some statistics to understand the problem:

- There are 10 thousand students passing out of VTU in IT courses every year,
- There are about 1400 technology companies in Karnataka
- Karnataka employs about 2 lakh IT engineers
- Every year it adds about 30 thousand jobs in IT

Definitely it is not too hard for such a organisation to place these students. Companies have an advantage to evaluate a student before hiring.

A Industry-Academy interface organisation can also look into following aspects:
- To identify the skill sets and technical competencies needed by individuals to guarantee the for next generation employability
- To identify broad research areas in IT and co-ordinate participation of IT departments from colleges in this research
- To co-ordinate between students and companies to place the students for their on-the-job training in Industry
- As we establish ourselves as the leaders in IT, the world will also ask our contribution to the open source development. We need to work out large projects and use these training opportunities to deliver open source projects
- To promote participation of students in international events

Solutions for Integration of Non-Karnataka people into Mainstream

2005-10-05T11:40:00.000+02:00

The Purpose:

For smooth integration of Non-State people into Karnataka`s main stream of population
For Development of Language and Culture of Karnataka

The Background:

Karnataka is the leader in IT, BPO Industries and Education

We are proud to attract educated people from all across India for education and employment. Integrating them into Karnataka is good for us.

Knowledge industries need qualified people

We need to acknowledge the fact that Karnataka's supply of qualified people is less than the demand.

We need to offer employment to qualified people from other states OR risk losing the leadership in IT.

Integration of Non-Karnataka people is a growing concern – Bangalore alone has about 40% expatriates

The Scope:

Common Entrance Test, BPO Skills Assessment Test and IT Skills Assessment Tests are the entrance gateways for education and IT/ITES employment:

13000 Non Karnataka Students enter into our professional colleges every year
25000 People Seeking IT-BPO Employment entered into Karnataka last year

Certain percentage will be fresh graduates from colleges who would take B-SAT and IT-SAT

The rest would be lateral recruits (experienced employees)

The Solution:

Introduce Kannada tests - Test of Kannada as a First Language (TOKFL) to be conducted by CET cell.

Introduce compulsory TOKFL tests in Entrance Tests – CET, B-SAT, IT-SAT (caters to students and fresh graduates)

Promote part-time Kannada schools

Higher tax for Non-Karnataka people working here, but this is not applicable to people who clear TOKFL tests (caters to lateral recruits)

Supporting Information:

Let us learn from U.S – Entrance tests like GRE, GMAT have compulsory english tests

Example to emulate - Kannada Prasara Parishad. KPP, established in 1990, holds classes Sundays at the St. Euphrasius School, Albert Street, behind Brigade Towers, from 10 a.m. to 1p.m.

Some European and U.S states have differing tax rates for locals and non-locals

Govt promises...

2005-09-24T09:22:00.000+02:00

Govt promises all help to north Karnataka

published in Business Standard on 23rd Sept.

HD Revanna (minister for public works and energy) said
- the national highways and state highways would be strengthened in the region
- state government has sent a proposal to Centre for converting the Dharwad-Ramnagar stretch of 82 Kms into four-lane road at a cost of Rs 70 crore under Central Road Fund.
-sought help for Hubli-Ankola road
-390km state hwy in Dharwad wud be repaired.
-considering ring road between hubli-dwd, upgradation of hubli airport.
-500 power stations wud be built in the state at the cost of 15,000 cr by 2012!!
-300 substations in the next 3 yrs.

for full report read on..

lets c how many of them are actually fulfilled.

Some Comments

2005-09-24T09:04:00.000+02:00

by Capt BW Shirolkar...

abt 'Our Demands' post

Dear All,

My friend Kulkarni have nice and noble ideas. Even if at least some of these gets fulfilled at the right time Karnataka will prosper. But I would like to add some more thought process to this. It is heartening to note that people are taking active interest and there seems to be a genuine concern towards the present state of affair.

1. Even spread of Industry to all parts of Karnataka. It is now concentrated at Bangalore and few more places. This will help in all round growth of the state. Government should take active part with right kind of incentive and tax benefits to Industry big wigs. Once Industry start spreading to the rest of the state the improvement which you have listed will automatically taken care of.
2. Complete all ongoing Irrigation Projects, with right earnest. This will give fillip to Irrigation. Also availability of water will attract more Industries.
3. Improve power, quality as well as quantity.
4. Infrastructure: Infrastructure in Karnataka is not evenly spread. Connection for Internet in small township, villages is very poor. Even at Chiradurga connectivity is very poor.
5. Attitudanal Problem: Somehow there is lack of work culture in interior Karnataka. I have seen it myself. This has to be addressed to otherwise the employemt avenues will go the enterprising people of other states. People need to be more enterprising.

abt 'Job reservation for Kannadigas ruled out'

The need of the hour for Kannadigas to be assertive and not docile. We should assert and be more competitive. Jobs will be ours. The people sitting at the right position can be catalyst and look at the interest of Kannadigas. Rather than asking for job reservations, Kannadigas need to be more assertive, competitive and people sitting at right place can always be proactive to recruite Kannadigas

Thanx

Capt BW Shirolkar

What people say abt Blore's infrastructure

2005-09-23T23:48:00.000+02:00

- From The Times of India, 22 Sept 2005

Vijay Mallya - Hopelessly inadquate and feels ashamed after reading about it in an international paper in Honk Kong

Ananth Nag - says he'd seen the present situation coming long ago when he was minister for development. "The congestion is because of population influx. I'd foreseen the current infrastructure crunch. That's why I had suggested raising funds from the corporate bonds. The first year, it was to be Rs 125 crore, and each subsequent year, it was to be doubled to Rs 250 crore, 500 crore, 1,000 crore and likewise. By now we would have raised Rs 64,000 crore. But it was shelved."

Writer Shashi Deshpande looks at all of Bangalore's woes through a different perspective altogether. What really irks her most is the attitude of Bangaloreans, their lack of discipline. "We defy or break every rule there is and then blame the other person for the result. Whether it's traffic congestion or cleanliness, it's our indiscipline that's the problem. When on the roads, I notice no lane discipline. And that's why at signal lights there are gridlocks. I am so full of rage when I go out. We don't stand in a queue. I just saw a maid in our neighbourhood throw her garbage on the road. Now that will get strewn all over the place. We are terrible. We ought to blame ourselves."

read on..

News updates

2005-09-23T09:51:00.000+02:00

IT sector drops boycott plan of Bangalore fair

yah.. the boycott on BangaloreIT.in has been called off as published on The Hindu Business Line.

Excerpts -
....During the discussions, the Chief Minister, Mr N. Dharam Singh, assured a team of IT honchos led by Infosys Chairman Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, that infrastructure concerns in Bangalore would be addressed on a priority basis...
...The Chief Minister also agreed to ban trucks during certain hours to reduce traffic congestion in Bangalore, and to accelerate work on various projects, including some 10 major arterial roads and 15 flyovers....
..."We've become even more ambitious because we're comparing ourselves to Shanghai and Singapore," Mr Murthy said, adding, "There's great need for co-operation between the Government and the industry."...

Job reservation for Kannadigas ruled out

thats some good news, dont u think?

Not by curbing infrastructure in Bangalore

2005-09-23T03:45:00.000+02:00

I agree that government should give importance to other places but not by curbing infrastructure in Bangalore which is essential for growth of industries. Industries are the only source of income as government won't get enough money from agriculture, but we cannot stop putting 50% of expenses on agriculture.

Now for any development activities in the state (not only infrastructure) -- govt needs money. For this, we need to develop industries. Industries in Bangalore are contributing huge money to government, that is why government is patronising them.

But what is required is uniform growth of industries all across Karnataka, government should meet the industry big wigs and ask them what stops them from expanding? what facilities they need to expand?

Let us also remember that 15% of Karnataka population is in Bangalore. Have you ever travelled on the electronic city road? Please travel once and tell me how much time it took. Do you know manytimes it is more than travelling from Bangalore to Davangere by Car !! It takes 3 hours for 10 kms here, But In 4-5 hours we reach Davangere. Look which infrastructure is better.

We have advertised to the world that here is a destination where you can invest money, accordingly they have believed and invested here. Now if we have to get more industries (more employment, more revenue) we have to keep our commitment with Bangalore first (we need to make the city atleast liveable). Then we need to invest the money earned from our exports into other areas and ask industries to setup units there. Increasing the revenue to tune of 120 billion dollars (current revenue from Shanghai).

-- in simple terms: because goose (Bangalore) is laying golden eggs (revenue) - give better food to this goose and also make other gooses to lay golden eggs - instead of starving this goose and killing it as well killing the other gooses.

We are in a global world, if we don't develop infrastructure because of our internal fight, countries like china will take benefit, they are already much ahead on the reforms. Do you know already Shanghai city offers its 21 lakh unemployed, poor and senior citizens guaranteed social security of Rs.2000 per month. From where does this money come from? From its industrial output of USD 120 billion. From its 8.5 lakh hitech employed population.

Do you know that in Germany every child is given a maintenance amount Rs.6000 per month until it is 18 years old. From where have these people got so much money? There population is so less, but they have industrialised, they have given money in the hands of people, A beggar here will make about Rs.500/ day - less than a educated person earns in India. Why? please tell me. it pains me.

What are we talking about green, white revolutions -- have they created such facilites for citizens? No way. Not only Germany, you can take example for Japan too -- such a small country (100 million) and their GDP is 4.3 trillion dollars (India is 0.5 trillion dollars). SO, We need to identify the opportunities, produce goods, sell to rich people abroad and in India. Make them cough their money in India. The times of talking self sufficiency are over, because we are keeping huge amounts of what government earns for subsidising petrol bills.

Our Demands...

2005-09-23T01:32:00.000+02:00

..by Cdr. N L Kulkarni
A. My request [inaddition to giving priority only to Bangalore as desired by IT Sector] are as follows:

1. Rail line between Bangalore and Miraj should be doubled and electrification done, say by 2010.
2. Rail line between Hubli and Ankola to be ready by 2010.
3. Rail line between Gadag & Bijapur/Gulburga to be ready by 2007.
4. Doubling of rail line and electrification between Hubli and Guntakal by 2008.
5. All state highways to be widened and re-laid by 2006.
6. All roads in various cities & towns to be relaid by 2006.
7. Roads connecting to each village in the state to be asphalted by 2006.
8. 24 x 7 Power supply through out the year to all villges and towns and cities etc by 2006 as is enjoyed by Bangaloreans.
9. Supply of drinking water to all Villages, Towns & Cities for 4 hours Daily.
10. Make Airports with night landing facility capable of landing Airbus-300 and Boeing-747 at each District Headquarters.
11. Upgrade KSRTC Bustands to Bangalore KBS level in all Major cities and Dist. HQ.
12. Development of 30,000 sites in all major cities and Dist HQ and allotment by 2006.
13. Ringroads for developing cities having population more than 5 lakhs by 2007.
14. Schools from primary to 12th and Colleges in all disciplines run by the Govt with international standard but fees reachable to common man by 2007. [Eg. Alternate to Engg & Medical entrance throught CET at Govt rates, now negated by Supreme Court].
15. Tel & Mobile reach availability in every village by 2008.

B. The list can go on and on....

C. After achieving all that are listed as above, let IT sector have their cake!!!

D. How can we achieve this if we have Tax Holidays enjoyed by IT majors and other medium/major industries filling their coffers in millions. Add to it various subsidies to farmers [including rich farmers],below poverty line etc.

E. We are in a catch-22 situation. JP says Dont kill the Golden Goose. I say, if Golden Goose is asking more than it produces, why have a that Goose??? It would be a white elephant!!!.

F. IT revolution unlike White Revolution[Milk], Green Revolution[Agri] an Industrial Revolution has not helped Upliftment of common man.

G. Benefit of IT sector needs to reach every village and every home in India, instead of enriching other nations only. Enable each and every village and city etc with these benefits from the profits earned by IT sector. It may be an Investment with poor return. Still it is worth it.

Problem of Bangalore has been realised now. Because no one thought even in his/her dreams that, this city would grow in the last 20 years so much [from around 25 Lakhs to around 80 lakhs population]. Most of this is due to groth of IT, BTand ITES etc. Sector.If fore-planning was done by those in power in 1975-80 and put to action by 1980 for improving the infrastructure, we would not have been in this mess!!!

Hey, `am yet to see any comments from IT Czars. Is bangaloreit.com boycott still there or withdrawn???

Goodluck ITians!!!!

-Cdr N L Kulkarni

Future is excellent

2005-09-23T01:23:00.000+02:00

writes Aravind M P .. (thanks :))

Though concerned I'm personally not worried with the state of affairs. I strongly believe that the future is excellent!!

From the statements of CDR N L Kulkarni it is clear that we are speaking in different languages here!! While some of us talk about economic improvisation (revenue, infrastructure, employment et al) the other section talks about social improvisation (parties, richie rich attitude .... hmmm wish I could also be one of those!!). The bottom line is that the focus of all our reforms has always been oriented towards bringin social equilibrium. Consider reservation system, panchayat raj...even the painted economic reforms such as subsidies to farmers have been evolved to bring in social justice rather than achieve economic equilibrium.

As a result, this new vision of building economic centers (e.g. Bangalore) is not perceived as something that can bring social equilibrium by a "larger" section of our society. This entire episode is creating a risk of making distinctions between "haves" and "have nots". I tend to agree with CDR N L Kulkarni with this regard and we certainly have to be careful not to become another Africa!!!

For 58 years we have been bringing all our reforms and yet we keep complaining about the same set of issues...we are still unable to provide basic amenities to a significant section of our society. And more over we are way too much in debt....free country are we???

It is time for the country to realize the potential of this new economic opportunity and reap the best outcome of it. For that it has first let this "child" be mature enough to be a man..or woman...no gender discrimination ;-)....and only the can this feed the rest of the nation.

While it is not necessary to give exclusive privileges to the IT sector (remember our security forces have the well deserved privileges...and I'm not complaining) it still needs good support for improvement.

Yes Bangalore is not Karnataka and so let us also not treat it that way. Point to ponder: Why can’t we have Bangalore as an autonomous city and have CM worry only about Bangalore? Weird me :(

For long, we Indians have had this habit of focusing on our weaknesses. We keep moaning about the losses and deficiencies. It is time for us to focus on our strengths. In our very own epics it is always taught that one makes a living out of strengths and not out of weakness….time we took this seriously.

Caution: This boom is contagious. It is soon going to affect the smaller towns as well. From my latest understanding Infosys Technologies Ltd. has started to train the professors and lecturers of north Karnataka colleges to improve the communication and reasoning abilities of the students from that region. The idea is to have at least 2 BPO centers established in Hubli within the next 12 months. I guess I will be soon worried about the infrastructure in Hubli!!

Too much has been said… time for some action from my side. I still will not enlist myself in the electoral…they don’t have a “None of these” option…however will continue to present our beautiful India to the few people I get to meet across the globe. And yeah will ensure I throw the paper cups in the waste basket…may be I should attend some training on moral science…my school forgot to teach me some :(

-Aravind M P

Why government should focus on Urban infrastructure development

2005-09-22T22:28:00.000+02:00

First question is should we focus on Urban Infrastructure Development?

Why should we focus on Urban Infrastructure Development:
1. Put your money where there is growth and where people can get employment
2. Because 40% of our population is in Urban areas, 15% is in Bangalore.
3. Because Karnataka Agricultural growth rate is 4%, Industrial & Services growth is about 9%, Major source of revenue is from Manufacturing and Services
4. Most manufacturing and services industries are placed in Urban centers
5. Employment is reducing in Agriculture by 10% and moving to industries and services.

Source of Funds can be from:
1. Central funds
2. Increased allocation from state budget - inevitably at the cost of agriculture and rural development.

Look at the sectoral outlay in Karnataka Budget above,Leave Water supply, Energy, Transport, Education & Sports : 45%

We have 10.16% (Rs.1200 crores) for housing and urban development, this is the amount that we are fighting for. Whereas there is about 35.59% (Rs.4400 crores) for agriculture and rural development.

A letter to the Bangalore Colleagues

2005-09-22T11:52:00.000+02:00

Dear Bangalore Colleague,

How many times have you thought "Why don't these people close the pothole, why is this service road not tarred, why don't they make proper drains, why not run a tram between Koramangala and ITPL" and similar thoughts. How many times do we vent our ire against bad infrastructure with colleagues, family and friends. Who are as helpless as you are. Infact the word of mouth brings down the morale of everyone. And spoils the image of the Bangalore in the eyes of business prospects. Which is like falling into the fire from frying pan. Ofcourse there are problems, like it would have been for any other fastest growing city, but we are the ones who need to sort it out rather than simply blaming the government. It is time we understand that, we are collectively responsible for these problems. We, by the way of electing people, by our callousness towards society and public areas, by our nature of bribing and accomodating are responsible for the current state of affairs.

IT community is one of the most vibrant in the country, being highly educated, with sufficient cash, being young and energetic, having travelled the globe, having a vision to change - It is this community which is well placed to bring about this change to realise the dreams of a developed India.

Now here is a golden opportunity to make the change for Bangalore, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) produces a Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) every 10 years. The next one will be in 2015. This document is going to shape the Infrastructure of Bangalore for the next 10 years. It will be a plan for the roads, public transportation, environment, residential and commercial development, parking, drainage and so on. BDA displayed this CDP at Yavanika building, Nrupathunga Road, Bangalore in August 05. Now, It is for us the citizens to give feedback on the CDP. Fortunately an NGO in Bangalore, Janaagraha is collecting the citizens feedback to be submitted to the BDA.

Please see the CDP feedback here: http://www.janaagraha.org/publication/images/cdp2005_collective_feedback_report_Bangalore.doc

Also see this report, http://www.janaagraha.org/publication/images/masterplan2005_bangalore_janaagrahareport.pdf

Act now, if you have any feedback to be given to BDA/CDP, you can post it here as comments, I will collect, compile and send it to Janaagraha on 10th Oct 05, you could also send it by email to info@janaagraha.org.

A Vision for Karnataka

2005-09-22T11:16:00.000+02:00

Here is a Vision for Karnataka:

1. For the services export-oriented units like IT, ITES, BT and Healthcare:
- Replicate the success of Bangalore by expanding industrial belt to nearer cities, See golden-yellow colored region in the Karnataka growth map above:
- Create a “Greater Bangalore Services Export Zone (GBSEZ)” with Bangalore, Mysore, Tumkur, Hassan, Davangere, Chitradurga, and Mandya.
- Build an International Technology Park (Similar to ITPL Bangalore) in each of these districts and give direct public transport inter-connectivity between all the centers. With maximum 2 hours travel distance between the farthest centers of Mysore and Davangere.
- The first phase of expansion can start with triangular area of Bangalore-Mysore-Hassan. And in the second phase create the allied centers.

2. For the manufacturing export-oriented units:
- Create a “North Karnataka Manufacturing Export Zone (NKMEZ)” for the export of goods from Automobile, Garments, Gems and Jewellery and Leather goods. See brown colored areas on the growth map.
- Create industrial areas in Uttara Kannada, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Bijapur, Bagalkot, and Gulbarga.
- Initial core centers can be started at Hubli-Dharwad and Belgaum.
- Provide similar public transport interconnectivity.

3. For the tourism industry:
- Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kodagu, Shimoga, Bellary and Mysore have great potential for tourism.
- Promote all types of tourisms like nature tourism, adventure tourism, sea shore tourism, historical tourism, healthcare tourism, religious tourism.
- Declare this region as a “Karnataka Tourism Promotion Zone (KTPZ)”, by offering significant cost savings for companies interested to setup private infrastructure facilities like cable cars, trip buses, cruise rides, sea beaches, health SPAs for ayurveda and yoga, horse rides, hotels, resorts, fun parks, museums, adventure walks, para gliding, white water rafting, fishing etc.
- Create special trains for connecting these places of tourism interest - including palace on wheels. Provide packages for people visiting these places. Make travel passes with validity from 2 days to one month. These passes should allow free travel any number of times in any transport corporation vehicle in this region.
- Provide combinational package offers for travel, stay and visiting tourism places.
- Provide another domestic airport in this region. Give permission to setup private airports to cheap flyer airlines.

All these need not be funded wholly by the state government, it can be handed over to private groups on BOOT basis. It is the responsibility of the Government to engage the industry.

Focus on Export Oriented Industries

2005-09-22T11:01:00.000+02:00

In this article, I have highlighted the contribution of export oriented industries like IT/ITES/BT to Bangalore and Karnataka. Argued that it is important to make Bangalore's infrastructure according to its popularity across the world. Later use Bangalore as a showcase and get more industries into Karnataka.
--

From the historical times - Karnataka has led India into the next generation. Kittur Rani Chenamma was the first lady to revolt against the British even before Jhansi. Karnataka was the first to introduce participatory democracy in India - People’s representative council (1881). First to allow women to vote (1932). First to implement Panchyat Raj. First to setup industries for iron, steel and soaps, First electricity station. First to have dams with automated water controlling gates (Vishweshwariah), First to introduce special provisions for economically backward classes (1924) [source:WEB1].

It is quite natural that we lead India to next generation of growth and industrialization. That is why Karnataka has been top exporter of IT/ITES services today and should continue to be first in the whole sector of manufacturing and services exports.

Government needs money to develop Bangalore as well as other parts of Karnataka. Without growth there is no money. Growth is happening in the exports from services industries like IT, ITES and Healthcare. Manufacturing industries like Automobiles, Garments, Gems & Jewellery, Agricultural products and Leather goods. Promote these industries. All they need is proper infrastructure (roads, land, public transport and energy).

Better education, higher employment, better salaries, more money in the hands of people, more spending and more retail businesses – all this leads to higher revenue for the government. Without infrastructure, we would kill the goose laying golden eggs (Bangalore and IT Industry) – because China will utilize this opportunity.

What is the revenue generated from IT sector till now:
Ø Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attraction to India is 4.2 billion US$ and correspondingly by China is 45 billion US$. We are sitting ducks while China is capturing the market.

Ø IT sector attracts 40% of the venture capital investments happening in the country today. Concrete IT Investments in Bangalore is about Rs.2500 crore per annum.

Ø IT sector contributes for 25% of the Karnataka’s GDP.

Ø Rs.40000 crore revenue per annum from IT/ITES Sector in Karnataka (36% of India’s IT exports, 7% of overall exports, Rs.35000 crore from Bangalore alone)

Ø Karnataka paid the highest commercial tax in the country that is about Rs.10500 crores. Income tax collection is about Rs.875 crores. Increase of 27% in VAT this year; majority of this is from IT sector.

What is expected in the future:
Ø This is tip of the iceberg - just 3.5% of the global market today. IT exports are expected to grow upto 15% by 2009. IT revenues from Karnataka can increase to Rs.100,000 crores per annum (considering Karnataka maintains 36% exports). Investments would grow upto Rs.15000 crores per annum. Income tax revenue would reach about Rs.3000 crores.

Ø This tax rate is only till the tax holiday for IT industries ends in 2010, after which the tax collection would be even higher.

What should be the area of focus:
Ø Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural development outlay in current Karnataka budget is 35.63% about Rs.4390 crores. Housing and Urban development is just 10.6% - Rs.1200 crores, Karnataka government contribution to Metro rail, International Airport and other developmental works is less than Rs.500 crores this year. From the past decade, year after year average of Rs.3000 crores is being allocated for irrigation and rural development. Can we know what improvements have taken place?

Ø If you invest 40 Rupees on agriculture you are getting 22 Rupees back as value. 65% population is in Agriculture and they contribute 25% of the India’s GDP and we spend 45% of the expenditures on Agriculture. Comparatively, 0.5% of Karnataka’s population in IT&ITES sector is contributing for 25% of State GDP and we spend less than 10% on infrastructure development. You can calculate the contribution if we were to take more of our population into these export oriented industries.

Ø A trend has been noted from past decade that there has been a 10% shift of employment from Agriculture to Services and Manufacturing and this trend would continue. Focus on these sectors, especially manufacturing and services exports (IT, ITES, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Automobiles, Garments, Gems & Jewellery, Agri products, Leather goods). All these industries need is infrastructure – a committed 15% of budget per annum on Infrastructure development.

IT/BT Industries are the answer to government’s three problems:
Revenue, Employment and Education. We have already looked at Revenue; let us see Employment and Education.

Employment:
Ø In the country, there is expected to be a 10 percent shift of employment from agriculture to services and manufacturing areas. In these areas there would be a demand of employment opportunities for 76 million people by 2009.

Ø Fortunately, for Karnataka, IT & ITES sectors alone currently employs about 2.5 lakh people in 1360 companies. Employment will go upto a requirement of 10 lakhs people by 2009 (if we maintain the leadership). That is, we need to immediately establish and promote five cities of the size and potential of Bangalore.

Ø Karnataka will also be a leader in technology research and thus a lot of startup ventures would open. “There are three waves of technology research. The first wave was in-house R&D in large corporations. The second came with venture capitalists funding innovative startups that eventually grew to maturity or were bought by the big players. 'This wave is about harvesting innovations anywhere in the world, with companies using their own employees or third-party researchers”. And Karnataka is right there ready to grab this opportunity.

Education:
Ø Bangalore is today the house of 48000 engineers, 15000 doctors, 150000 graduates and 8000 lawyers. It is home to some premier institutes like the Indian Institute of Management (IIMB), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Indian Institure of Fashion Technology (IIFT). Obviously good things would happen to such a state that provides shelter to such a large conglomeration of educated people and premier institutes.

Ø Way back in the ‘80s, for a bright graduate who aspired to make money and become rich, there was limited scope. He would end up being an IAS/IPS or Police inspector or a sub-registrar – and many would get drawn to taking illegal money. This was leading to disenchantment and thus failure of our education system. Today, with the growth of IT industry, youngsters have new hope, they aspire to work for top IT companies and later start their own ventures too. IT companies screen the students to recruit only those with good marks, so students study hard from the beginning. This has restored the faith in our educational system.

Ø Initially, the students opting for IT courses were limited to urban people. Now, seeing the success of relatives and neighbours, the culture has creeped into towns and villages. It is not far away, that we have an IT knowledge group in every village in Karnataka. Let us be the world’s first region to become 100% computer literate.

Bangalore is the brand of “Made in India”. Keep up your commitment with Bangalore first.

See the popularity of Bangalore brand:
Ø Bangalore registered as fastest growing city in India at 8.3% in terms of GDP growth.
Ø World’s number 1 investment destination for IT and BT
Ø World’s largest pool of 2.5 lakh IT & ITES professionals
Ø 4th leading innovation hub of the world along with Sanfrancisco, Texas (Austin), and Taipei
Ø 130 of the Fortune 500 companies have base in Bangalore
Ø Home of 1460 IT Companies, 110 BT Companies
Ø 50% of BT companies in India are in Bangalore.
Ø Oxford dictionary added a new word for “my job got outsourced” – its simply “bangalored”.

The start of the trail of mails - a must read

2005-09-22T01:25:00.000+02:00

What really started a trail of mails and made everyone think is this mail from Cdr[Ret'd] N L Kulkarni sent on 15th Sept '05-

Hi Everyone,

I am not a S/W/E. I am a retired Defence Service Officer form Indian Navy [Kannadiga], hailing from Hubli and now settled in Bangalore. I do understand the plights of common man in Bangalore but not of IT Richie Richpeople. Their life style, late night parties, Pubs, Bars, latest cars adding to Traffic problems, Real estate boom etc; because they can afford but what about others??

I am not questioning as to whether, What Ravi Belegere wrote is right or wrong. But I want to ask " You overnight rich Techies" as to what is "Infrastructure Development"? Is it only restricted to Bangalore????? Is it only Govt job??

Have you all experienced the conditions of Roads, Rails, Electricity and Drinking water problems in Karnataka [Specially North Karnataka] other than Bangalore??

When Bangalore gets Kaveri water every day, you should experience the problem in North Karnataka; getting water once in 10 to 15 days for the last 20 years!!!!!! Roads not re-laid for 20 years, where as Bangalore roads are re-laid every year or two!!

I am not saying that, above problems are to be resolved only by IT companies. But Govt has its own budget and constraints. Same time I am not absolving the Govt for state of affairs we see every where.What I want to say is, we need to have DEVELOPMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE ACROSS KARNATAKA INCLUDING BANGALORE.

BANGALORE IS NOT REPEAT NOT TOTAL KARNATAKA.

In case IT & ITES companies feel that roads etc are not to international standards, adopt some roads and make them better.

I, as a citizen; appreciate valuable services rendered by Mrs. Sudha Murty in States other than Karnataka. I have read her articles in VK and tried to understand her vision. But what I want to know from her[She being from Hubli], is What has been her contribution for Infrastructure in NK?? We know her help by way of PCs, Libraries, Mid Day Meals etc.Similarly other IT
Czars may like to tell!!

Our present state Govt is totally ineffective. What had happened during JH Patel's time is happening now. Five years lost can not be regained. Who will bell the cat??? Voters?? Educated techies are the last to get election voter registered and rare to have voted!! ask your self, your conscious will tell.

What you and your companies are earning is going in to your own coffers. Income Tax generated can not be sufficient for over all development. If IT company's P & L or Balance sheets for Karnataka combinedly are taken, those figures may be higher than Govt Budget figures.

Don't cry foul!! Either bear it as other citizens are doing it for the last 20 to 30 years or lead the way by chipping in your might in Roads, Airport, Flyovers, Rail tracks, Metro, Rivers linking, Water and Power Plants etc. I remember what Pratap Sinha wrote in 'Vijay Karnataka's few months back about JRD Tata, achievements and compared IT Czars of today. It is worth
reading.

I have seen S/W/Es closely; where they dont even bother to put Paper Cup of Coffee/Tea, trash etc in the designated dustbins in their premises, But blame Facility Manager for the messy area!! Basic niceties and work ethics are missing.

That ego for having become rich overnight and owning a House/Car and all luxuries within few months of fetching the job has gone to their head. Ask old timers, your parents those working in other services, Salary you get in 25th month was earned by them in their 25th year.

Stop press: Let us have this debate through this e-mail. Forward the message to all your friends and relatives. Let them comment. Hope that one day all top Brass of IT & ITES will read these comments [Govt can not be faulted as they have little time for debate or development].

Kindly pass on to e-mail ids of Narayan Murty, Nandan Nilekani, Azim Premji, Kopparand all those who matter for a meaningful debate.

MAIL TRAIL YOUR COMMENTS!!!!!

Take care.
Commander [Ret,d] NL Kulkarni

The second mail

2005-09-22T00:55:00.000+02:00

Here is a reply from a Software Engineer lady from Gulbarga stating the contribution of the IT industry. The pdf file I am unable to attach here in this blog:
"I would like to ask him what is the contribution he expects. I want to state few facts which may help him to understand the reality in case he reads this:

IT in Bangalore contributes more than 100000 jobs for the Kannadigas.
IT in Bangalore contributes more than Rs 100 Crores as income tax per annum.
The disposable income creates another equivalent amount of tax in the state.
More than 100000 are employed for the vendors of this industry in bangalore. ( Canteen, Transportation, Security, House Cleaning etc).
IT firms like Infosys, through their social arms, have helped to establish thousands of libraries in the state."
http://thatskannada.indiainfo.com/category/response/090305dattatreya.html

The first mail

2005-09-22T00:54:00.000+02:00

It all started with a letter from our "great" journalist Ravi Belagere to Sudha Murthy: http://thatskannada.indiainfo.com/column/ravibelagere/050905sudha.html, urging her to do something..

To begin with...

2005-09-21T05:49:00.000+02:00

the current state of affairs, the roads, the infrastructure, the companies relocating, the Government apathy and other problems in the Silicon Valley of India - Bangalore. Anybody and everybody has a view and a say about it. I am sure even you have somethign to say, even if its "life goes on...". But a concerned few are worried about other parts (ALL other parts, esp. the north) of Karnataka that are seemingly and totally neglected. People are concerned, worried, anxious that Karnataka's crowning glory, Bangalore, is losing its shine..

The common man, the (endangered) non IT guy, has really something to worry about, with the prices of his roti, kapda and makaan soaring... he must be thinking "why oh why dint I become a software engineer".

This blog is a result of mails exchanged between people with strong views, ideas and concerns, who felt that certainly sitting like ducks wont make any difference. The trail of mails is supposed to have reached Chief Minister of Karnataka, Chief Secretary, and NRN. I felt that it is high time the mails are made available for everyone to read and comment on, for more people to be a part of the discussion. The articles published here will certainly make u think. And hopefully someday a visionary, a statesman or someone like u, hits upon this blog, be inspired and convert the words into action.... (pardon my grammar, but i guess u get my point)

Vishwas