Aparita

Toronto Star, [05/10/2004]

 

His name is Naidu and he lives grafted to an IBM laptop. He promises farmers wireless, Web. Will they vote for him?

APARITA BHANDARI

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

 

Hyderabad, India — It takes a little more than 30 minutes to arrive at the HITEC City. The autorickshaw driver knows the place well, speeding along the meandering roads, past Hyderabad’s old city, posh enclaves, to finally arrive at Asia’s largest software technology park built on the outskirts of the main city.

The tall Cyber Towers shimmer in the sun. Cyber Towers is the first phase of HITEC City, 5 million square feet of office space designed to serve as a one-stop-shop for the needs for India’s growing IT industry. Cyber Gateway, the second phase is also at full occupancy, and the third phase Cyber Pearl has approximately 60 per cent occupancy. There’s also a residential township adjacent to the office space, which has been beautified with landscaped gardens and natural rock sculptures.

Standing at the reception area of Cyber Towers, you notice the names on the mailboxes - Microsoft, Oracle, Toshiba, GE Capital, HSBC. Clients at Cyber Gateway include Dell Computer India, Microsoft, Oracle, Bose and ING Vysya Ltd.

It’s no wonder then that the city has been monikered Cyberabad. Behind the technological revolution in the city, and the state of Andhra Pradesh is one man - Chandrababu Naidu.
They also call him India’s cyber minister.

At 54, Naidu is one of the country’s youngest chief ministers. He represents a new breed of politicians in India, with new fangled ideas such as positing himself as the CEO of Andhra Pradesh Inc. His IBM Thinkpad has become synonymous with his persona. He’s managed to have the likes of Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates and former U.S. President Bill Clinton endorse Hyderabad as a sound investment destination.

However, Naidu’s reign over the south-eastern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh isn’t without its problems. While the state surges ahead in terms of IT revolution, trying to make Andhra Pradesh one big wireless network, the farmers whose livelihoods depend on paddy fields have often been ignored.

In the current Indian elections, Naidu’s fate may just depend on the “suicide villages.” It was a term coined for villages in Andhra Pradesh where farmers drank pesticide after crops failed following drought. India is in the midst of national elections, which conclude today, and some predictions indicate Naidu may lose.

Naidu came into office in 1995. His father-in-law, the late N. T. Rama Rao, was a movie star turned politician.

In power through the 1980’s into the early 1990’s, Rao’s style of politics was based more on his stardom and populist measures rather than sound economic policies.

As a result, Andhra Pradesh was nearly bankrupt when Naidu wrested power from his father-in-law, becoming the head of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founded by Rao.

Once in power, Naidu embarked Andhra Pradesh on several ambitious rural development schemes. The initiatives include Janmabhoomi - a grassroots level program encouraging his constituents to set up local committees and organizations such as a credit group committee (to provide low interest and short term loans), education and water committees.

After receiving training, these self-help groups function as a local administration network dealing with issues such as women and child welfare, population control, literacy and agriculture.

Naidu’s primary interest, however, was to convert his state into a technological superpower.
It used to be that Bangalore, in the adjoining state of Karnataka, was known as the Indian Silicon Valley. By attracting the likes of Bill Gates - Microsoft opened its first research centre outside of the United States in Hyderabad - Naidu has ensured that Hyderabad is a rival to that claim.

Vision 2020 is Naidu’s plan to make Andhra Pradesh an Asian Tiger by the year 2020. Obviously influenced by similar policies in Malaysia and Singapore, Vision 2020’s manifesto includes a detailed portion on information technology.

According to the PDF document available at www.aponline.gov.in “by 2020, Andhra Pradesh will have achieved one of the highest levels of IT literacy in the world.

“IT applications will have changed the day-to-day lives of people; IT will deliver services and information to the people’s doorsteps and be used in every aspect of their lives. The state will have a well-endowed information technology industry, spanning the areas of hardware, software and human resources.”

The technological invasion has already been established in Naidu’s own office.

The Andhra Pradesh secretariat, the apex administration body of the state government, has deployed a product called SmartGov. Developed by Tata Consultancy Services, one of India’s leading IT companies, SmartGov “automates the functions of the executive (government body) at all administrative levels.”

Naidu’s routine of getting up at 6:00 a.m. to log on to his laptop is legendary by now. He uses his Chief Minister’s Integrated Information System (CMIS) to get updates on everything from the water levels to daily crime reports and airline schedules. Naidu conducts videoconferences with cabinet ministers and the administrative officers of the 23 districts.

E-governance is another catchword in Andhra Pradesh. Take the e-seva citizen service. With 44 e-seva service centres, and 400 counters, the one-stop shop offers more than 60 services from paying electricity bills, licensing renewals to issuance of birth and death certificates.

The IT department in a government office used to be considered a punishment posting, says Praveen Prakash, director of the e-governance project at the Andhra Pradesh secretariat.

“But (chief minister’s) ideas of e-governance have made my job very interesting,” he says. “We looked at two models of e-governance - Australia and Singapore. And we’re trying to offer all government-to-consumer services in one place, in real time. We’re the first state in the country to so. It’s a challenging job.”

Similar paeans of Naidu’s vision can be heard from different officials. The former secretary of the IT department Ajay Sawhney talks about “the chief minister being the primary driver for the silent revolution.”

“We already had some projects underway before (Naidu) was elected in 1995,” says Sawhney. “But the pace picked up when he came in the picture. The e-seva counters have become as ubiquitous as McDonalds. In the villages, we’re implementing the Rural Services Delivery Points.

“Hyderabad’s strength is in our human resources. India accounts for a quarter of the IT professional in the US. Andhra Pradesh accounts for 25-30 per cent of the IT professionals there.”

Just so that the digital divide doesn’t alienate the rural population of Andhra Pradesh, initiatives to offer villagers low-cost computers that can double up as TVs and DVD players are being looked into. Prototypes are being tested, and plans are being drawn up to make Andhra Pradesh a connected state, say department officials.

However, for the rural half of the 75 million population state, information technology isn’t the immediate priority.

While various information technology projects have been given sops such as 25 per cent power discounts, investment subsidy, rebate in cost of land as well as expediting of infrastructure such as roads, little has been done for the common Joe on the street.

Andhra Pradesh, which is primarily a rice producing state, has faced droughts in the recent past. Already burdened by loans, poor farmers have committed suicides. As reported in a local news portal, 2,000 farmers from the town of Anantpur alone have killed themselves by swallowing pesticide since 1997.

Even in Hyderabad, the limited reach of information technology’s Midas touch is evident.
An autorickshaw driver who only gives his name as Ashok is all praise for the chief minister and his vision for Andhra Pradesh.

“Look at Hyderabad,” he says, driving through the newer, shinier parts of the city, dripping with affluence. “It’s like any other big city - Delhi, Bombay.”

His own house, however, is nothing more than one bedroom in a small shantytown neighbourhood adjacent to a rich suburb. Ashok, his wife who works as a seamstress, and two children live in the one room.

“This is how we live,” he says. “But we are poor people. I didn’t study beyond high school. My kids, they will go to a good university. They will learn computers. They will be rich.”

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