The Hindu Business Line : Cyberabad or just hyperabad?

This subject saw an intense debate between the Executive Director of Apollo Hospitals, Ms Sangita Reddy, and the President of Agro Tech Foods, Mr Utpal Sen Gupta, leading to an animated discussion among the elite gathering at the Hyderabad round of Royal Challenge BT crossfire, 2004 on Friday. For Ms Reddy, Hyderabad is Cyberabad as the city of pearls has transformed into a knowledge society providing jobs to 80,000 information technology professionals and housing IT giants such as Microsoft and Oracle.

However, such figures did not cut ice with Mr Gupta who pointed out that IT professionals constituted a mere 6 per cent of the total number of employees in the city that has a history of over 400 years. For him, what happened in Hyderabad in the IT sector "is happening everywhere else".

To substantiate his comments, Mr Gupta said that Hyderabad neither stood first, nor second or third in the country in terms of IT exports to claim the nomenclature of Cyberabad. "I can understand if Bangalore takes the position of Cyberabad but not Hyderabad", he said.

So, is Cyberabad, the brainchild of former IT-savvy Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, a mere hyperabad?

Of course not, " Cyberabad is not hyperabad", Ms Reddy asserted.

"Don't throw Cyberabad out with the ex-Chief Minister. Little bit of hype actually helps. Is not the hype that brought the former US President, Mr Bill Clinton, to the city? The hype has been translated into reality with beautiful buildings housing IT industry," she said.

But what is the meaning of hype?

Referring to Oxford Concise Dictionary, Mr Gupta said that hype meant cheating, deceit by misleading publicity.

Ms Reddy, however, was not convinced with the dictionary meaning. " In today's accepted parlance, hype is a slight over presentation of a situation", she said.

Though Mr Sanjoy Narayan, Editor of Business Today, who moderated the event, concluded the debate, the discussion went on and on among the audience till late in the night over cocktails and dinner.