Premji prodding

Premji ko gussa kyon ata hai? We all knew the answer to this one. But, surprisingly, the S.M. Krishna government didn’t. That is why it needed a spontaneous outburst from the Wipro chairman on the dismal power scenario, bad roads and poor infrastructure in Bangalore’s Sarjapur area to kick-start a moribund state administration. First, the governor took note and, days later, the Karnataka government launched correctives and set up a task force headed by the chief secretary to look into the woes of the Wipro facility and the neighbouring IT corridor. At least in the south, IT czars are taken seriously — that’s far better than the way New Delhi’s babus treated Narayana Murthy, when the civil aviation ministry shredded the Infosys chief’s representation for more international flights out of the city.

But is that enough? Is it all that a government can and is supposed to do — wake up only when entrepreneurs upwards of a net worth of $5.9 billion throw up their arms in despair? After all, Bangalore’s problems with infrastructure are age-old. That the city of future sciences, which attracts one new foreign company with 100 per cent equity every week, is strained of its resources is evident in daily life. Instead of tackling problems ranging from irregular drinking water supply in city areas to insufficient power — a statewide peak demand shortfall of 1,000 MW — all the state government has been doing is blame it on the weather. This newspaper has been one of the first to highlight the nightmarish “breakfast jam” that techies deal with every morning on the potholed Hosur road to Electronics City.

Today, if one of Bangalore’s two most famous IT firms has put on hold domestic expansion plans for reasons of its own government’s apathy, how can we expect global giants to continue to evince interest in nemma Bengaluru? As for grievance redressals, this is one task force the state did not think twice about setting up. Good, no one’s complaining. But this should not be the trend. In its efforts at making the taxpayers’ lives that much easier, the Krishna government must be proactive and not spring to life only when goaded by the ruling elite. After all, we wouldn’t want the Narayana Murthys and Azim Premjis to be holding janata darshans to get the state to act, do we?