Thank you, Mr. Maran
What a lovely way to begin the day. A news report in today’s Deccan Herald rubs it in:
India has attracted a commitment of $19,920 billion (approximately Rs 80,000 crore) in FDI for the telecom and IT sectors in the last two years, official sources here said…..only a few of these commitments have come to Bangalore, and most of the investments are going to Chennai, the sources said.
I can’t help but refer to the report that Rajesh has drawn attention to in his post of earlier. It touches on every aspect that is responsible for this city’s deterioration – citizen apathy, “crumbling infrastructure with epileptic bursts of development”, “work productivity has seen an unprecedented decline”, civic sense, road rage, crime rates and lastly, ” a laidback work culture, which has ensured a tardy pace of development in most spheres, affecting the economy of Karnataka directly and otherwise.”
Its a scathing indictment on the current scenario and perhaps could be taken as a wake up call, if considered positively. Alas, with the powers that be, one does not know quite what to expect.
Its also Karnataka’s misfortune that there are no one championing it at the Centre the way Mr. Maran or Mr. T R Baalu and the others who hold ministerial berths do it for Tamil Nadu. This of course is as a direct result of politics but what will it take to see this in the not so near future, one wonders.
With plenty of handwringing from citizens and next to total apathy from the administration, its becoming increasingly apparent from the above news reports that the pre-eminent status that Bangalore enjoyed till recently is taking a steady beating.
We don’t have any champions in the center for sure. Even business people sent to RS like Malya, Chandrasekhar etc. have been useless.
Most of the LS members are a bunch of jokers. Some never even raise a single question related to the state on the floor of LS.
What we need is economic diversification. Reliance on IT alone is dangerous in the long term. We need to get automobile, manufacturing, garmets, food processing, light/heavty engineering, SSIs, etc. to the state. Yet we keep hearing IT mantra from our bureaucrats and politicians.
I am all for it, if it means clean air, less noise pollution and mostly traffic jams in peak hours only.
All the taxes earned by these IT just does not suffice our state politicians. I dont mind their kitty going dry and I for a change get good old bangalore back.
Thanks for your politics TN guys.
Software exports for the year 2005-06:
Karnataka – Rs37,000 crores
Tamil Nadu – Rs 14,000 crores
You want more FDI in Karnataka so you can make even more money.
IT/Telecom investments are the exclusive right of Karnataka.
Enough with the greediness, KA guys.
raviyavare…
nann email sikkta?
mohan that is very short sighted. there are fledgling industrial towns like davangere, hubli, hospete, etc that are in need of a boost.
I dont think we should any longer think in terms of competing with neighbours. We are one nation and people now move swiftly between cities and easily settle in a remote city without any trouble. Be it Hyderabad, Chennai or Bangalore, it is usually the same guy who gets the job. If there is no work available in Bangalore, a person who was here today could well be seen in chennai. We have to accept that Bangalore’s infrastructure is.. well.. And even if the MPs in the center had done nothing, had we had a competent state gov, life would have been much better. But not to digress from where I started, I dont think we should see neighbouring cities as competition but complementing
arun, why could’nt these neighboring cities be hubli, davangere, mysoor, mangloor, gulbarga?
GJ,TN,MH all are multi center states.
meanwhile, HDK one of the 4 CMs showing initiative.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/24795.html
Yes Tarle, it could be Mangalore or Hubli or Davangere… It is for the government to create infrastructure again. State gov that is. If there are good amenities, people are ready to go even to a desert. We all know about Dubai and Singapore don’t we..
Tarle sir,
All these towns have crumbling infrastructure and do we want to replicate the bangalore booth there also? None of the investors would go to a place which does not have proper infrastructure so these tier of cities are ruled out. Obviously the investment is still in india.
Does it mean that all the revenues earned only get invested in local areas – No. Dont we migrate for jobs across continents. Whats wrong in a hubli person working in chennai?
Why do we need to congest and overload existing places – am not saying chennai as example but India is a huge country and let there be all round development.
You are correct Tarle. Mohan, you are short sighted in your first comment. As you say in another comment we need all around development. What’s wrong with doing that in our home state?
Continuing Tarle’s point here, Gujarat has 4 cities with populations above a million and the growth is fairly distributed. Our one city and one industry (IT) growth plan is shortsighted. We should develop infrastructure in smaller cities across the state. Each region has its own strength and we should exploit it. Steel industry is taking roots in Bellary-Hospete-Koppal region. Food processing has a lot of potential across the state in towns that are well connected. Davanagere, Hubli, Bijapur, Belgaum etc. were once strong in cotton, weaving and textiles. Why not revive and encourage these industries? Mangalore-Udupi region has always been strong in banking and finance.
Smaller cities don’t have to go through maddening pace of growth and chaos that Bangalore went through if we focus on diversification and distribution across the entire state.
Town planning is getting serious attention now. For instance, Hubli-Dharwad City Corporation ranks among one of the most progressive local bodies in the entire nation. It is aiming for an ISO certification and has prepared a City Development Strategy with the help of international organization – Cities Alliance.
Other smaller cities have no option but to reform themselves. I don’t agree with all the things the current govt has done but it is doing more than any previous regime to address the overall growth of the state.
Gunda sir, Yes i am short sighted and self centred. Having seen this city go to dogs in the last 36 years and suffering personal agony had to say these words.
As long as we are worried only about karnataka, god bless India :-)
mohan,
That is exactly the point. 50 years into statehood is as good a time as any to address the crumbling, when exists, but more typically non-existent infrastructure in these cities. Our leaders have only talked about Bangalore and Singapore, while GJ, AP leaders talk about their whole states as Singapores.
BTW if people from KA do not worry about KA, then who will? And why do you think growth of KA is at the cost of India? All growth in KA is ultimately India’s growth only no?
Not saying only KA has to grow, only that KA ALSO has to grow. And the distributed, diversified models of GJ, MH and TN are as good as any reference points.
arun agree.
sorry ravi for flooding.
mohan.
increases in averages of KA WILL reflect on India’s averges but increases in India’s averages MAY NOT necessarily reflect in KA.
Tarle sir,
You sound very reasoning but,
a) My childs asthma is direct result of bangalore pollution
b) The cost of living hell is directly due to development – chidu would love to say its growth.
I am self centred where in my personal health, wealth is for more important before I can talk for bangalore, Karnataka or INDIA.
For any of the cities to come anywhere near singapore – just dreamz unlimited.
Hope you understand my selfish point :-)
mohan i cannot argue with that.
regarding, singapoora, i knew that would come. i am talking about neeru, nalli, nayi type of issues. there are entire villages in raichur, tumkur, kolar and even arsikere that have fluorosis from ground water.